Friend or Foe, Christie Knew," says Asbury Park Press' editorial board. (APP.)
Friends and foes alike are increasingly dumbfounded that Governor Christie's lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher would have produced and published the 400 pages of interview notes that are painting such an ugly picture of how the Governor's office ran under Christy. The report's documents, in indisputable detail, a Nixon like operation keeping extensive lists of " local government friends and enemies - rewarding the former and punishing the latter."
Skeptics that doubted that Christie's office could have had anything to do with such an unwise operation, and could have engaged in such petty tactics are now having to admit this is exactly what was going on, on a daily basis, with the aid of war rooms, charts, and extensive coordination.
The release of these interviews points out not only the problems of the original investigation, but the flaws of a governor who apparently fostered a Nixonian atmosphere among his office staff. ... what is revealed is a governor’s staff operating in a reward-vengeance mode.
APP offers retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, and Hoboken Mayar Dawn Zimmer as the most conspicuous examples, but allege they are not the only ones.
Christina Renna, a liaison between the governor and local officials, said that Stepien, Christie’s former campaign manager and deputy chief of staff, adorned his office walls with maps and colored pushpins showing where the governor had held public events and those municipalities with friendly mayors. Staff members in the governor’s office color-coded files on the mayors of each town based on their receptivity to projects the governor wanted in their towns.
Renna also told attorneys that her staff would receive “mandatory directives” to brush off calls, and that that Stepien kept a “Top 100” list of the swing towns Christie wanted to win as he prepared for a re-election campaign. On and on the memos go, with tale after tale of an office wrapped up in a “who is with us/against us?” mentality.
Editors at APP say that even if, as unlikely as it seems, Christie "didn’t tell his people what to do, they knew what was expected of them."
And, while Christie made a campaign slogan out of the claim he was"
Christie used to trumpet the fact that he was a different kind of politician. What the people of New Jersey have learned is that not only is Christie the same as other wanna-be tough guy politicians, he emulates the worst of them with an enemies list worthy of Richard Nixon.
Another aspect of this case reminiscent of Richard Nixon's Watergate saga is the evolution of the media cycle. With each daily drip of revelations, newspapers, editorial writers and pundits, who started off skeptical of the allegations, are slowly, one-by-one, souring on Christie's increasingly implausible denials, and turning against him - and being angry about the betrayal.
It is one thing to be a petty, lying criminal thug. When one then lies about it after getting caught, and abuses the trust, and benefit of the doubt of major public figures who live by their credibility the consequences can be dramatic, very quickly.
Some old wag remarked about the poor judgement of those that would pick fights with newspapers editors, "don't pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel." It may have been Mark Twain. I'll try looking it up.
And, just as in Watergate, whatever culpability Christie may have had in the original crimes, his involvement in such a dubious and implausible cover-up is really starting to cheese off even some of those who originally supported him.
Could this be another case where the cover-up is more damaging than the original crime?
5:08 PM PT: Here's a link to the first "Guilty, Guilty, Guilty" cartoon after the AG was indicted. I was remembering what is apparently the second one, with the same words hovering over the White House.
Here's a link to the first Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty comic
5:40 PM PT: Please check out these other HoundDog articles from today. The Koch Net Worth reaches $100 Billion is one of the funniest and truest one I 've written in a long time, but got lost early this morning. If you can only read one, thats, the one I'd recommend.
Posting History for HoundDog April 17, 2014, Please throw this hard-working, lonely old hound dog a few bones, and a little encouragement, and drop by and say hello!
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'Friend or Foe, Christie knew, and emulated Nixon's enemies list, in punishments' says APP editorial
Friend or Foe, Christie Knew," says Asbury Park Press' editorial board. (APP.)
Friends and foes alike are ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
12 |
26 |
1 |
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Obama frustrated with states not expanding Medicaid out of "political spite"
Obama Is Frustrated With States That Chose Not To Expand Medicaid Out Of 'Political Spite', "for no other reason than political spite" against him," - a decision he says has "been hurtful to millions.
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
10 |
23 |
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Clinton trusted more than G.O.P. because liberal media covering Bridgegate not Benghazi - Fox News
Ellie Sandmeyer, of Media Matters, writes Fox Surprised Public Isn't Buying Its Efforts To Smear Clinton. Fox News is embarrassed today that it's ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
23 |
16 |
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'Who are the Koch brothers and what do they want?' ask Bernie Sanders
Sen. Bernie Sanders has such keen and brilliant insights that where ever he looks and speaks he elevates our perspectives as he does ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
20 |
33 |
1 |
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Christie, Bush, and Paul are top GOP 2016 picks, Hillary tops Biden and Warren, HRC tops CC by 8
Here's a case where I read Fox News so you don't have to. If the election were held today Hillary would top Christie by 8 points. But remember folks, our country has such a hard-core group of ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
25 |
17 |
1 |
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Ebola out in Guinea is a new strain, did not spread from previous outbreak, death toll rises to 120
The Ebola Virus in West Africa Is New Strain, Scientists Say, and the outbreak in Guinea that has killed more than ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
6 |
30 |
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Koch Brothers' net worth tops $100 billion!
David De Jong, of Bloomberg.com announces the news that the Koch Brothers Net Worth Tops $100 Billion as TV Warfare Escalates.
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
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(Load)
5:53 PM PT: MargaretPOA tells me dynamite has no gunpowder and is basically nitro-glycerin in clay. This blows up this metaphor and another great "kicker" ending goes up in smoke. I'v taken it out of the article but left it here so others can enjoy it even though there's apparently no truth to it at all.. Dang, I hate it when this happens.
This reminds me of the structure of dynamite. My understanding is that if you take a bunch of explosive gun powder in a pile and light it up, it will flash burn quickly with dramatic smoke and fire. Something about binding it up tightly in a constraining package like sticks of dynamite or pipe bombs concentrates the explosive force so the same amount of powder creates a much more damaging blast wave?