Posted on 09/29/2015 11:58:04 AM PDT by longtermmemmory
It’s been exactly two years since the closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey caused a traffic apocalypse – and Governor Chris Christie still seems stuck in the jam it created.
After costing the jobs of multiple state functionaries, the ever-expanding scandal – inevitably nicknamed Bridgegate – claimed its biggest scalp so far on Tuesday, with the resignation of the CEO of United Airlines.
The United executive, Jeff Smisek, had nothing to do with the lane closures. Instead he was caught up in a federal investigation the scandal kicked off into the dealings of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that oversees the bridge and other river crossings and ports around the city.
There is not, as yet, any talk of criminal wrongdoing or charges against Smisek or two other United executives ousted on Tuesday. But investigators are focusing on conversations that the United team had with the chairman of the Port Authority board of commissioners, David Samson, a Christie appointee and friend who formerly served as counsel to Christie’s gubernatorial election campaign.
At the center of the investigation is a scene that plays like B-roll for a generic television treatment of politics, New Jersey style. There is an Italian restaurant, a political employee...
...
Christie’s argument for staying in the race is that his qualities as a candidate will overcome his temporary – now 20-month-long – slump in the polls. But the renewed focus on Samson could point to deeper problems with a Christie candidacy.
...
“Christie’s numbers nationally are really abysmal,” Woolley said. “I’m not sure they’re abysmal having anything to do with Bridgegate, but I think that this is one more weight that he’ll have to carry in this campaign in the next several months.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
This is the media protection by omission. Even the once vaunted FNC would have had something instead of the recent Christie fluff interviews.
This is not even on any of the financial channels.
This involves a United Airlines CEO who was just forced to resign, political favors at the port, a special “chairman’s flight”, Christie cronies.
Walker: smart.
Christie: stupid.
I don’t agree that the media is “protecting” Christie. It’s plain to everyone, GOP and Democrat, Right and Left, that Christie has zero chance on getting even through (or to) the early primaries, let along getting the nomination.
So why should anybody waste their breath?
A true leader steps up and takes the responsibility.
It’s the hug. He hugged Obama and the stigma still sticks. He’s done.
totally agree...its really getting annoying how people on this site bash the christie’s/fiorina’s and use left wing media outlets or, in this case, claim left wing media outlets are protecting them...
Christie was finished the day he hugged Barack on the beach.
The BEST THING that Christie could have done to stay out of jail, after being caught closing access to the bridge would have been to NOT run for President...but he chose differently.
WEll that and French kissing Obama on the beach a week before the 2012 elections. :-)
He had no involvement with the bridge, and has been clean since this faux story arose. It was an attempted “palinization”, and it didn’t work (in terms of NJ voters). He is a tax-cutting hero to many of us here in NJ, with all of the right enemies...
Christie’s PROBLEM is that NO ONE BELIEVES HIM, and virtually all of us believe one thing: Either he had something to do with the lane closures, or he is such a PATHETIC, OUT OF TOUCH governor that he ignored the SCREAMING from the locals when the lanes were closed.
Either way, NO ONE wants him anywhere near the White House, and his polling numbers show that. He really should concentrate on lawyering-up so that he can stay out of jail.
If there is a traffic tie-up in my area (near Route 280, 21, NJTP, 3) I don’t expect the governor to be called in. While the lying media calls them “bridge closures”, in fact it was entrance ramps from Fort Lee to the bridge that were an issue (not the bridge itself). This is a completely fabricated charge against Christie, and not one thing has ever linked him personally to it.
I don’t think he’s presidential material, but he’s probably the cleanest politician east of the Mississippi River. He’s a white Christian guy, so he’ll never get anywhere in the “new normal”; I contrast that with the kid-glove treatment received by his recent predecessor who came out of the closet in response to a blackmail attempt. The wife in that case shouted from the rooftops that she had been used as a political prop by the queer, but it didn’t fit the narrative that was pushed by the leftist media so she was basically ignored/silenced.
NJ is in its current state because low-information voters react to tabloid sensationalism; the ignorant white trash at my job, when I point at that not one shred of evidence connects Christie to this, just drone on “I don’t know; maybe he knew something...” - and that is all the media Master of the Lie needed to do. Plant the seeds of doubt, and the white trash just goes along with the herd...
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