Irate Friends See Sexism in Report on Former Christie Aide

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Irate Friends See Sexism in Report on Former Christie Aide

By KATE ZERNIKE and DAVID W. CHENMARCH 27, 2014

She “seemed emotional.” She was “habitually concerned about how she was perceived by the governor.” A boyfriend had ended a relationship.

Bridget Anne Kelly has been the center of blame in the George Washington Bridge lane closing scandal since early January, when it was revealed that she sent an email calling for “some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

Gov. Chris Christie, seeking to stanch the damage the scandal had caused to his political fortunes, fired her as his deputy chief of staff after that, calling her “stupid.” But the report commissioned by Mr. Christie and released Thursday doubles down on a strategy of portraying Ms. Kelly as duplicitous, weeping frequently and dependent on men for approval and stability.

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“This report was meant to whitewash Governor Christie’s reputation as a bully, but it actually confirms that he does embrace a culture of intimidation and retaliation,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic consultant who worked for the man Mr. Christie defeated in 2009, Gov. Jon S. Corzine. “He’s throwing every sexist slur at Kelly while needlessly and aggressively injecting details about her personal life. It’s a cynical attempt to distract from the real story.”

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/nyregion/irate-friends-see-sexism-in-report-on-former-christie-aide.html?_r=0

[yellowcanine]

1. This "report" may be the final straw which brings down Christie.

You heard it here first.

[okaawhatever]

2. On top of the personal attacks, the report isn't factual. From later in the story:

"The report moves aggressively to consolidate blame on Ms. Kelly. In one passing example, the report asserts that she canceled meetings with Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City, who had declined to endorse Mr. Christie’s re-election. In fact, documents have established that those meetings were canceled not by Ms. Kelly but individually by the officials who had been scheduled to meet with the mayor."

.....as expected of anyone hired by Mr. Christie these days

[Beacool]

3. Big Boy hid behind his aide's skirts.

Of course it was sexist!!

You know us chicks, we can't control our emotions, particularly around that time of the month. That's why we can't have a woman president, she might nuke a country and start WWIII.

[Laxman]

4. A Similar Take By Joan Walsh......

today in Salon:

Christie’s creepy misogyny: Behold his despicable “blame Bridget” strategy

Gov. Chris Christie’s million-dollar taxpayer-funded self-exoneration in the Bridgegate scandal certainly found a bad guy — and it’s a gal.

Randy Mastro’s report put the blame squarely on two fired staffers, David Wildstein and deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly. But its treatment of Kelly was mind-blowingly mean, describing her as “emotional,” “erratic” and as a liar; confirming Trenton gossip that she was “personally involved” with chief of staff Bill Stepien, and that Stepien apparently dumped her; alleging that she asked an aide to delete an incriminating email when the investigation began, thus implicating her not only in the plot’s execution but its coverup.

It even recommended that Christie abolish the department Kelly headed and fold it into another office. Mastro stopped just short of suggesting the state torch Kelly’s office and salt the earth it once stood on. That may be what Christie plans to announce at his press conference this afternoon.

Christie’s lawyers’ treatment of Kelly was so shoddy that Stepien, formerly the governor’s former right-hand man, was forced to release a statement denouncing the report’s “gratuitous reference” to his “brief” relationship with Kelly as “a regrettable distraction.”

Blaming the woman goes back to Eve, so it shouldn’t be particularly surprising. But I still find this story bizarre: Why is Christie so determined not only to blame his former allies, but to shame them? He himself called Kelly “stupid” in his two-hour pity-party last January, while he depicted Wildstein as a high-school loser to his student-athlete-president demigod. Now his lawyers have used Stepien to smear Kelly – and that’s pissed off not only Stepien but Kelly’s friends, who took to the New York Times to denounce the report’s heaping dose of sexism in its depiction of Christie’s once fiercely loyal aide.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/christies_creepy_misogyny_behold_his_despicable_%E2%80%9Cblame_bridget%E2%80%9D_strategy/

I actually think its all part of an attempt to intimidate her to stay quiet. Hopefully it will have the opposite effect. Sing Bridget sing!