Chris Christie Officials Messed With Bridge Traffic Despite Being Warned About Congestion Problems

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- New documents reveal that a high-ranking official in the administration of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) knew that Fort Lee, N.J., had issues with traffic congestion around the George Washington Bridge, long before he authorized a seemingly unnecessary study that closed down lanes to the bridge and made traffic even worse.

Fort Lee is an essential access point to New York City, serving as the gateway to the George Washington Bridge, which is the busiest bridge in the United States. In November 2010, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich (D) wrote to Bill Baroni, deputy director of the Port Authority of New York and Jersey, and complained of traffic problems in the borough. The letter was obtained by The Record in a public records request.

"On approximately 20 occasions in the last forty days, our Borough has been completely gridlocked," wrote Sokolich to Baroni, who was Christie's top official at the Port Authority. "Traveling from the south to the north end of our Borough takes upwards of one hour. Our safety vehicles are unable to traverse our own thoroughfares to attend to emergencies which place our residents in harms way."

Despite these concerns, on Sept. 9, 2013, Sokolich woke up to find that two of the three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge had been closed, causing dangerous traffic jams in the borough on the first day of school. Neither he nor Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye -- who was appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) -- were given any advance warning.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/26/chris-christie-bridge_n_4504079.html

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The Bully™ will never be nominee.

[zbdent]

1. Of course, since the Repugs believe that the high official is to be aware of the goings-on

of all those beneath him ...

IMPEACH OBAMA!

(Not, of course, the guy who normally - read: if he was a Dem - would be responsible)

Then again, nobody blamed Bush43 when all that intel was pushed aside on the terrorists before 9/11/2001, because they were to find more dirt on a Dem who was having an affair, or who photo-copied his butt in the VP's offices ...

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Rec. Interesting that Baroni and Wildstein are "lawyering-up".

That would imply they anticipate a criminal indictment.

No?

[mitty14u2]

3. New Jersey Bridge Scandal Suddenly Gets Worse For Chris Christie

Last week I mentioned the peculiar story of David Wildstein, an executive at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who closed down several lanes of the George Washington Bridge last October in apparent retaliation against the mayor of Fort Lee for not supporting Chris Christie's reelection campaign. It all seemed pretty sleazy, but I also figured it was "vanishingly unlikely" that Christie himself had anything to do with this. It was embarrassing for him, but that was all.

Today, that may have changed:


Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, former executives at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, have sought outside counsel amid an investigation into why traffic lanes leading to the nation's busiest bridge were closed, the documents showed.

....Mr. Wildstein recently hired Alan L. Zegas, a criminal lawyer from Chatham, N.J., to represent him, according to an email sent from Mr. Zegas to the state Legislature Tuesday....Mr. Baroni retained Michael Himmel, of Lowenstein Sandler LLP. Mr. Himmel works at the firm's New York City and Roseland, N.J. offices, and specializes in white collar crime, according to his biography.

Read Mark Kleiman for more on just why this is such bad news for Christie. This scandal is starting to look like it has more legs than I thought.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/12/new-jersey-bridge-scandal-suddenly-gets-worse-chris-christie

Chris Christy is now on the Big Stage, being a Bully in New Jersey fits but not for long, seeing through his load mouth bully pulpit tactics is a lot harder when the concert hall is full from all over the country, I don’t think his handlers can fool all the onlookers either, he is not as smart as he thinks he is, the Koch Bros Tea Party are also after his hide

[loudsue]

4. My guess is the Jeb Bush (Bush family mafia) team is behind it. The bush family

needs to have one of theirs at the top of the cartel in Washington to effectively suck billions out of world economies, and to crash banks again, so they can bail them out (which has been REALLY profitable for the bush family empire for generations) . Someone in the republican party is trying to crash Christy, ahead of the election.

Just a guess.

[Archae]

7. Doesn't need the Bush brats.

Christie has a record of petty political stunts and vendettas.

[malaise]

5. No wonder the goons now have criminal lawyers

Delish!!! Bet it all leads right back to Bigga!

[riqster]

6. It's the cover-up that kills ya.

[eggplant]

10. +1.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Don't anger Mr. Potato Head. You won't like him when he's angry.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Oh the possibilities and speculation

hope they get to the bottom of it

was it a traffic ticket /seat belt sting?

[pa28]

11. Oh I think he will be the nominee.

Republican brains tick differently than Democrats. When they see him yelling at a union teacher or closing bridge lanes to punish Democratic voters they wet themselves with excitement.

Compare this to the time Rand Paul's supporters curb stomped a demonstrator and Paul pointedly refused to condemn them. His poll numbers shot up as a result.

"Traffic Gate" is not a disqualifier for Christie, it's a resume item.