Bridget Kelly, the fired former Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. Christie (R-NJ) (who sent the “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email) is telling the New Jersey legislative panel she’ll be pleading the 5th and won’t be turning over any of the subpoenaed documents because of it violates her “privacy.”
With the help of friends on Twitter, I’ve found the title for the top new job in a politicians’ office for the social media age: ScapeTern. That’s an intern who’s kept around solely for the purpose of being fired when the boss does something really stupid or offensive on Twitter. Like here.
Usage: “It’s a mystery why Scott Brown still hasn’t hired a scapetern.”
Actually, I can think of so many cases of these people. But I’m sort of at loss at the moment. What are your favorite scapetern stories?
Following up on the weekend tirade, Team Christie ‘leaks’ a new ‘memo’. This time to the Daily Caller slamming The New York Times. The Times gave Christie some real grist for criticism. And this one isn’t as crazy as the other one. But leaked memos are not changing the fact that Christie is knee deep in quick and sinking.
News broke last yesterday evening that another Christie aide currently under subpoena has resigned.
So today was the deadline for more subpoenaed documents to be handed over to the New Jersey lawmakers investigating the Chris Christie bridge scandal. Many of the people and organizations that got subpoenas were granted delays, but those that weren’t apparently turned over at least some documents by this afternoon. None are expected to be released today, but hopefully we’ll be seeing some soon.
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) apparently doesn’t think much of the possibility of former American Idol star Clay Aiken running against her: “As we know he doesn’t always fare all that well. He was runner up.”
Thanks also to Ian Millhiser’s take on the two contests below:
Sahil Kapur reports that they’re afraid — very afraid — of immigration reform for one reason: “I think 2014 is a slam dunk to us otherwise and this would really piss off the base.”
The always-spot-on Bernard Avishai on Scarlett Johansson’s apologism form SodaStream: “How many of them had the ‘equal right’ to walk into a Jerusalem bank and open an account, let alone borrow the money to open a business to deliver SodaStream products to Israeli stores?”
A member of Chris Christie’s State Trooper security detail tried to drop Christie’s name to get out of a shoplifting arrest last month in Pennsylvania. It didn’t work. “We don’t do that,” said Tilden, PA. Chief of Police William McEllroy.
If Republicans need any more evidence to see why they need to get out of the way of or onto the immigration reform train before it’s too late, they need only look to that annual rite of sports-lovin’, corporate, Americany fest of Americaness, the Super Bowl (and, oh yeah, concussions), which conservatives now routinely end up protesting because of one commercial or another that either features people who don’t only speak English, aren’t white enough, boink the wrong people or are cheering for the future of America in a way that might somehow, someway redound as praise to something Barack Obama may have had something to do with. The latest example is conservative outrage over last night’s multicultural ad from Coca Cola, the well-known subversive force in American life.
In case you missed it over the weekend, a former employee of BridgeGate figure David Wildstein tries to make sense of Chris Christie’s weird email tirade over the weekend. And my explanation of why, whether he or the pundits realize it yet, Christie’s already toast for 2016.