Clintons v. Christie: Equals in Thuggery?
By Michael Tomasky
A Hillary ‘Hit List’? Sounds a lot like the way Christie plays ball. Except there’s no evidence at all that Clinton did anything to anyone.
Let’s say Chris Christie survives the bridge scandal and does go on to become the 2016 GOP nominee. It’s looking less likely, but let’s just say it for the sake of this column. And let’s say he does end up facing Hillary Clinton. A clash of titans. A death-match of icons. And most of all, given what we’ve just learned about Christie and what we’ve known about the Clintons for 20 years, a squaring off of two of the most ruthless political machines of our time. Right?
That’s what a lot of political journalists are going to write and a lot of hosts are going to scream on TV. And maybe it’s a just harmless way to get people not to change the channel. But let’s take a look at these mighty, terrible machines. We’ll see some important differences.
It turns out, according to a new book excerpted in Politico, that two Clinton aides kept an enemies list, comprised of the pols whom the Clintons had helped over the years who then went off and endorsed Barack Obama. The Clintons seethed, plotting their revenge. They, you see, will stop at nothing. You know the story, you’ve been hearing it for two decades.
There is a small problem, however, which is that the Politico excerpt, overheated as it is in certain passages, can’t muster a single allegation that the Clintons ever did anything with this list beyond read it. Actually, it doesn’t even assert that. So this whole list business may have been limited to aides. In any case nowhere does the excerpt allege that the Clintons ever tried to do political harm to anyone who crossed them.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/15/clintons-v-christie-equals-in-thuggery.html
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Not only were NJ officials subjected to reprisals, these officials weren't even members of his own party and were under no obligation to endorse him.
So far we have found out that:
1. One of the top members of his staff and friends at the Port Authority of NY/NJ ordered the closing of three lanes to the GWB to exact payback on the mayor of Fort Lee.
2. Newly elected Jersey City mayor had every single meeting with Christie administration staffers canceled after he did not endorse Christie.
3. Christie and the mayor of Hoboken had a meeting. He promised aid to Hoboken. Hoboken had been devastated by Sandy, the mayor asked for $100M in relief funds. When the mayor refused to endorse him in his reelection bid, the city received only $300K (1% of the requested amount).
This is the information we have at the moment. Who knows what else will come out? Christie is also under a federal probe, unrelated to the GWB investigation.
The Clinton campaign kept a list of Democrats who supported or didn't support the candidate. These lists are quite common. Was anyone affected by this list? Did they go after anyone who didn't support them? I think that the answer is no.
She attended the Senate prayer breakfast meetings when she was a senator. She was never a member of the Family.
