Investigators of every stripe dream about getting smoking gun documents like the ones multiple media outlets, including TPM, obtained today. They not only show aides and appointees of Chris Christie conspiring to punish the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., a Democrat who did not endorse Christie’s reelection bid in 2013, but they capture a tone and mentality that, well, you might find in the works of David Chase or David Simon. Jonathan Chait calls it an “almost comical venality bordering on outright sociopathy.”
Whenever there’s a scandal, everybody reaches for ‘Nixonian’ and the 20 shelves of psychobabble written on what that term means. It’s almost as hackneyed as attaching a “-gate” to every scandal name. So let me start by saying I’m not saying Christie is “Nixonian” or Nixonian in the big sense. But there is a narrow sense in which this is highly, highly redolent of a big part of the Watergate scandal that brought Nixon down.
NJ Senate Majority Leader says criminal charges possible in bridge scandal.
If you haven’t been paying close attention to the Chris Christie bridge scandal that’s been simmering these past few months, we’ve published a really clear, simple timeline to help you catch up in light of today’s revelations.
Need to catch up? Behold, here’s the official, epic, Christie-Bridge-opalooza timeline.
Chris Christie says he was “misled by a member of my staff” in the bridge scandal.
EMS responses in at least four medical emergencies were delayed by the George Washington Bridge closure, including one where a 91-one-year old woman later died.
Okay, the word’s out. As just revealed in this story in the Toronto Star, the TPM delegation to Toronto arrives tomorrow to bestow the Golden Duke award to Mayor Rob Ford. As you know, Ford won a Golden Duke in an unprecedented 4 categories in the 2013 Golden Dukes Awards. As you probably also know, Mayor Ford smoked crack on video and also bragged about cunnilingus in a mayoral news conference, which probably makes the fact about the awards wins go without saying.
It was a crazy day today, with the Christie news busting out mid-morning and then a few lesser stories (that would have been big ones any other day) coming as the day went on. My role in the Christie story was largely limited to keeping up on the topline developments (of which there were many) and trying to put it into perspective for readers. But I went back just now and reread our original piece on the emails release – revised after initial publication with additional quotes and details. There’s no question Bridget Anne Kelly’s quote (“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”) is the one that rips the story open and is the appropriate headline for every publication keeping readers current on the story.
As noted last night, our TPM delegation to Toronto will be aloft shortly. And the first major hurdle of the trip has been cleared. We had to wonder. How will the TSA react to our team’s attempt to board an international flight carrying three cast aluminum statuettes of Duke Cunningham? I’m happy to report it came off without a hitch.
