Chris Christie update: Yet another scandal?

[DonViejo]

Here's everything you need to know about the latest news in the Chris Christie scandal saga

ELIAS ISQUITH

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has kept a low profile since “Bridgegate” first broke, rarely making public appearances or engaging with the media. But despite the governor’s best attempt to keep his head down and let the whole scandal blow over, the weeks following the first revelation of coordinated “traffic problems in Fort Lee” have only revealed more questionable actions and decisions from Christie’s first term. This past weekend was no different.

Here’s the latest:

- Concerning Bridgegate, the Associated Press reported that Democrats in the New Jersey state Assembly and Senate have decided to “pool their resources” and create a “joint bipartisan committee with power to subpoena people and correspondence related to the lane closings and abuse of power allegations.”

- MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff released a detailed and in-depth report on one of Christie’s now-forgotten but most controversial (and, Resnikoff argues, consequential) moves as governor: The decision to scrap the massive Access to the Region’s Core project (ARC), an attempt to build a new rail tunnel from New Jersey to New York that was years in the making and, many believe, remains absolutely necessary. Resnikoff’s reporting raises questions about whether Christie’s stated justification for nixing the plan at the time — that it was running over-budget and would cost New Jersey taxpayers billions — could be supported by the facts. Did Christie kill the ARC out of concern for his state’s fiscal future, as he claims, or was it rather a showy attempt to please the nation’s right-wing political class by grandstanding about public finances while simultaneously sticking his thumb in the eye of liberals everywhere who support new approaches to transportation?

- An editorial from the Star-Ledger, meanwhile, raises another potentially disturbing question for Christie: Did he have a prosecutor fired, and a case dismissed, because it involved a political ally? The Star-Ledger editors remind readers of Ben Barlyn, a former Hunterdon County prosecutor who alleges he was canned as a result of his refusal to drop a case against Hunterdon County Sheriff Deborah Trout, a political partner of Christie’s. Barlyn is pushing the state Attorney General’s Office to release transcripts he claims will prove his case was worth pursuing, but the state is strongly contesting the necessity of such a move — and the current attorney general, a Christie appointee, is even going so far as to request Barlyn and his lawyer are given a gag order.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/27/chris_christie_update_yet_another_scandal/

[Merlot]

1. That really raised a red flag when he cancelled the ARC - political grandstanding or

keeping the revenue from the bridge intact? I think the ARC project cancellation is tied to the new development in Fort Lee as well as the bridge tolls. The ARC would have changed traffic patterns and revenue. I don't know a lot about the timing, but it seems like the ARC cancellation had more financial implications than political grandstanding. Financially it didn't make any sense to stop that project.

[Cha]

2. KICK!

[yellowcanine]

3. Meanwhile the Christie political machine is promoting a "business as usual" meme for 2016.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/christie-road-trip-is-sign-of-growing-confidence-in-possible-2016-presidential-bid/2014/01/27/3d6885de-877f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html

Whistling past the political graveyard?

According to the story, Christie's "inner circle" is talking about the "relatively weak developing pool of 2016 Republican presidential candidates" giving Christie time to bounce back from the GW bridge scandal. Sounds like they are brimming with confidence! One also has to wonder how this will play with Republican operatives working for the "relatively weak" candidates? And of course the Christie apologists forget that "political blood in the water" is going to bring out the political sharks and scavengers.