Christie (Whitman) won't clear air on mess at Ground Zero

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

Christie Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is refusing to testify before a congressional panel investigating how she and other top federal officials decided the air in lower Manhattan was safe to breathe soon after the World Trade Center collapse.

Whitman said yesterday she won't appear at a hearing of a House judiciary subcommittee next Tuesday, a move that could prompt the committee to subpoena her testimony. That might spark another standoff between the Democratic majority in Congress and the Bush administration.

"It would be inappropriate for Governor Whitman to testify about a subject involving litigation that is pending against her and other government officials," Whitman's attorney Joel Korbet wrote to the House judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, which is spearheading the probe.

Korbet was referring to a federal lawsuit by Manhattan residents against the former New Jersey governor and the EPA that contends the agency failed to protect their health.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/05/16/2007-05-16_christie_wont_clear_air_on_mess_at_groun.html

[Fridays Child]

1. It is the most cynical of dodges...

Republicans can never testify in any investigation because they might affect an investigation. Has anyone called them on this outrageous ploy?

[Kool Kitty]

2. Bullshit. Subpeona this B%$ch.

Make her talk. And see about getting Fooliani up there with her. He was a big part of this, too.

[rainbow4321]

4. Someone needs to show the video of her at Ground Zero

It was the day of or right after that I saw a live report of her holding up a yellow legal pad paper that was FILLED top to bottom with the chemicals that were believed to be at the site--the words were handwritten. She held it up to the camera and everything. I imagine that sheet went thru the shredder long ago. But the video has to be out there in some station's archive footage.

[hatrack]

3. Subpoena. Her. Ass.

That is all.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. If she is being sued, then she will claim that the gov't CANT be sued.

So haul her before Congress.

[Bluestar]

6. The arrogance of these right wing nutjobs knows no bounds

She is guilty, I am sure. This is just another dodge to try and stay out of hot water. Are they all liars and criminals? This makes me so depressed.

[brentspeak]

7. She's not a right wing nutjob; she's an old money, east coast Republican

Liberal for the most part on social issues. But she's a super-rich heiress, as well as obediently Republican, and would never do anything to threaten her super-rich status or her connections with the Republican brass.

[YOY]

11. Exactly

n/t

[ramapo]

12. She was an awful governor

And then she went on to be a gutless, spineless head of the EPA. She has remained an apologist for the administration despite her trite rhetoric about reclaiming the Republican party from the radicals.

[lazyriver]

13. I lived in NJ during her reign of terror.

She was the worst governor we ever had and when she was named head of the EPA, first I laughed then I cried. Who could forget how much "open space" she preserved around her little horse farm/castle in White Horse or wherever the hell it was while her mega-developer friends were blowing entire mountaintops away in northern Morris County and paving over farms in Sussex & Warren Counties to build tens of thousands of McMansions and hundreds of associated strip malls. The great wave of concrete.asphalt and cheap vinyl siding that washed over NW NJ can, in large part, be blamed on her complacency and ties to developers.

On a much smaller scale but equally repulsive were her little brown signs that she had erected in every state park, natural area and piece of "preserved land" she could find left. The name of the park and a "brought to you by Christine Todd Whitman, Governor" message were on every one. In two of my favorite old haunts, the workers CUT DOWN TREES and other vegetation at the trailheads and paved the areas to make an attractive clear view of her signs.

The consequences of her work are the main reasons I decided to leave NJ. I sincerely hope she had the chance to suck up some of that dusty Manhattan air for herself.

[devilgrrl]

8. She'll do walk-on parts on Law & Order though!

What a snake-in-the-grass.

[lovuian]

9. Dust to Dust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B2WBD-F-7I
its just the tip of the iceburg
More deaths coming

[Joe Bacon]

10. Another Republican above the law

Is there not one Republican left who believes that nobody is above the law?

[laylah]

14. WTF is up

with these people and why in the world are they allowed to get away with it? Kindsleazy, Gonzo, Turdblossom, et al! I don't get it!