"N.J. official quits amid bridge tiff" by Angela Delli Santi and Geoff Mulvihill | Associated Press, December 14, 2013
TRENTON, N.J. — Governor Chris Christie announced the resignation of a top appointee on Friday amid an escalating probe of whether traffic jams approaching a bridge into New York City were political retribution.
The Republican governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate said the lane closures at the heart of the brouhaha were not politically motivated.
If nothing else Christie is proved a liar.
The resignation of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey deputy executive director Bill Baroni comes a day after the Democratic National Committee tried to link the controversy to Christie, and a state lawmaker issued seven subpoenas to Baroni and other agency officials.
Christie, who is shuffling staff positions as he begins his second term, painted Baroni’s departure as expected.
The issue at play involves the George Washington Bridge, one of the world’s busiest. The town on the New Jersey side of the bridge is Fort Lee, whose Democratic mayor did not endorse Christie in his reelection campaign last month. On Sept. 9, two of the three local-access lanes from Fort Lee to the bridge’s upper level were closed without warning. Officials at the Port Authority said the closures were for a traffic pattern study.
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"‘Humiliated’ Chris Christie apologizes for scandal; Governor fires aide, drops adviser; meets with mayor hurt by road stunt" by Kate Zernike and Marc Santora | New York Times, January 10, 2014
TRENTON, N.J. — Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey tried Thursday to control the damage from revelations that his administration ordered the revenge-closings of traffic lanes at the George Washington Bridge, by firing a top aide, cutting ties with a longtime political adviser, and repeatedly apologizing in a nearly two-hour news conference.
Like me constantly apologizing for this being such a s***ty blog?
Sounding somber and appearing contrite, the normally garrulous Christie said he had had no advance knowledge of the lane closings and had been “humiliated” by the entire episode.
“I am a very sad person today,” the governor said. “I am heartbroken that someone I permitted to be in that circle of trust for the past five years betrayed that trust.”
Looks to me like some people taking the fall so he can save his presidential prospects.
Christie’s emotional news conference unfolded as the US attorney began an investigation and as — just down the hall — a former associate who was involved in the lane closings refused to answer questions posed by Democrats investigating the matter, saying he would tell his story only under immunity from prosecution.
Related:
"Former Port Authority chief David Weinstein, the man blamed for shutting down the GWB lanes, remains in hot water after he pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer questions before the Assembly's transportation committee."
I wonder why the Globe wouldn't put out the name, don't you?
The Democrats promised to release more documents Friday morning and issue more subpoenas of Christie aides. And the national news media that has so far bathed Christie in a distant, generally positive light descended on his doorstep here with a phalanx of television cameras and harsh speculation about whether the scandal would hurt his aspirations to be the Republican nominee for president in 2016.
In the late afternoon, Christie took a helicopter to Fort Lee, N.J. — the city affected by the lane closings — and apologized to the mayor. Some residents cheered him as he arrived, even after his motorcade briefly created yet another traffic jam.
How ironic.
During his news conference in Trenton, Christie said he had been “blindsided” by e-mails made public Wednesday that showed staff members — also his close friends — had punished the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee in September by closing entrance lanes to the bridge because he did not endorse the governor for reelection.
I'll bet he was.
Christie said he had not realized the gravity of the situation even after officials from the Port Authority, which runs the bridge, testified a month ago that the closings had delayed emergency responders and had been done abruptly, secretively, and against port protocols.
Someone in an ambulance died in the traffic jam, did you know that? So it's murder now.
His apologies were directed at the people of New Jersey and Fort Lee, and to reporters and Democratic legislators whom he had earlier dismissed as simply “obsessed” with finding out who closed the lanes and why.
Christie fired Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff who sent an e-mail approving the lane closings, calling her “stupid” and “deceitful.” Her deception, he said, led him to mislead the public.
Been reading a newspaper for so long I'm jaded to it.
He also asked his two-time campaign manager, Bill Stepien, to step down as a consultant to the Republican Governors Association and to withdraw his name from consideration to lead the state Republican Party.
Four weeks ago, he told reporters before publicly addressing the controversy, he gathered his top staff members and asked them if anyone had anything to do with the lane closings. He said he gave them one hour before he publicly denied his staff’s involvement.
“They all reported that there was no information other than what we already knew. I was being led to believe by folks around me that there was no basis to this,” he continued. “I was wrong.”
The governor at times took overall for responsibility for those who work for him, but argued that he had 65,000 employees and could not monitor them all.
It's called passing the buck.
Still, he displayed only occasional flashes of his usual pugnacity with reporters, lowering his voice to a whisper as he said he felt “sad” and “humiliated” by the crass, mocking tone of his employees’ e-mails.
“I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning, or its execution,” Christie said. “And I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. Regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover, this was handled in a callous and indifferent way.”
Didn't know what the hell was going on in your own administration? Not a good selling point to be president.
Democrats said the increasing number of resignations and dismissals — two other aides resigned in December — and the names of the governor’s staff members on the e-mails made them incredulous that the pettiness was, as the governor argued, “the exception and not the rule” of his administration.
“I find it hard to believe that Bridget Kelly on her own came up with the idea to divert traffic lanes in Fort Lee,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who has been leading the investigation.
“You have an administration that is very hands-on,” Wisniewski said. “It strains credibility to say that somebody in as high a position as a deputy chief of staff, somebody in as high a position as the governor’s principal spokesperson, somebody in as high a position as his campaign manager, all of whose names are in these e-mails, didn’t ever communicate this to the governor.”
For Christie, the scandal represents the gravest challenge to his career. It suggests either he was a failure of management skills or confirms what some critics have described as bully-like behavior.
“This is not the tone I have set over the last four years in this building,” he said. “I am who I am. But I am not a bully.”
All bullies say that.
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Also see: E-mails, texts tie Christie aides to bridge traffic jam
"One thing I am not clear on. Just exactly WHO was it that leaked these emails which will end Christie's Presidential aspirations? Was it the NSA, already hard at work selecting the next President of this nation?" -- whatreallyhappened
Christie Crossed Kean
Chris Christie’s traffic scandal: Grudge match on the bridge
Will Chris Christie be a slow fade?
At least he doesn't have to worry about Sandy anymore.
