Chris Christie aides' emails suggest intentionally created traffic nightmare

[Gups]

My  understainding is that the spotlight is dimmer at the state level than the national. Presumably the Dems just didn't undertake the vetting that Romney's team did when considering the veep choice.

Are you arguing that Christie's opponent in the race for governor didn't scrutinize his record as well as someone who was merely looking at him as a potential running mate?  That's hard to believe.

I'm not arguing anything - how the hell shoudl I know? But this book certainly makes that assertion. The vetting process is described as extremely through, involving more than half a dozen staff members working full time for several months. In addition, of course, the potential candiates co-operate in the vetting process by providing responses to questionnaires etc.

The description of the veep vetting was republished in Time

http://swampland.time.com/2013/11/02/the-hunt-for-pufferfish/

It's too long to cut and paste but here's the bit I was referring to:


The list of questions Myers and her team had for Christie was extensive and troubling. More than once, Myers reported back that Trenton's response was, in effect, Why do we need to give you that piece of information? Myers told her team, We have to assume if they're not answering, it's because the answer is bad.

The vetters were stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record. There was a 2010 Department of Justice inspector general's investigation of Christie's spending patterns in his job prior to the governorship, which criticized him for being "the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government [travel expense] rate without adequate justification" and for offering "insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification" for stays at swank hotels like the Four Seasons. There was the fact that Christie worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Securities Industry Association at a time when Bernie Madoff was a senior SIA official—and sought an exemption from New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act. There was Christie's decision to steer hefty government contracts to donors and political allies like former Attorney General John Ashcroft, which sparked a congressional hearing. There was a defamation lawsuit brought against Christie arising out of his successful 1994 run to oust an incumbent in a local Garden State race. Then there was Todd Christie, the Governor's brother, who in 2008 agreed to a settlement of civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he acknowledged making "hundreds of trades in which customers had been systematically overcharged." (Todd also oversaw a family foundation whose activities and purpose raised eyebrows among the vetters.) And all that was on top of a litany of glaring matters that sparked concern on Myers' team: Christie's other lobbying clients, his investments overseas, the YouTube clips that helped make him a star but might call into doubt his presidential temperament, and the status of his health.

Ted Newton, managing Project Goldfish under Myers, had come into the vet liking Christie for his brashness and straight talk. Now, surveying the sum and substance of what the team was finding, Newton told his colleagues, If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him—he wouldn't be able to run for governor again. When you look below the surface, Newton said, it's not pretty.

[Eddie Teach]

Are you arguing that Christie's opponent in the race for governor didn't scrutinize his record as well as someone who was merely looking at him as a potential running mate?  That's hard to believe.

Perhaps he didn't look in the right places. If Hillary had known about Rev. Wright before Super Tuesday, she'd most likely be President now. And W's DUI came out the week before the election,  none of his primary opponents had both the knowledge and desire to use it.

[dps]

My  understainding is that the spotlight is dimmer at the state level than the national. Presumably the Dems just didn't undertake the vetting that Romney's team did when considering the veep choice.

Are you arguing that Christie's opponent in the race for governor didn't scrutinize his record as well as someone who was merely looking at him as a potential running mate?  That's hard to believe.

Heck, even if you're just running for the local dogcatcher's office, your opponent will dig into your past to find any potentially embarrassing incident, even if they can't find anything worse than the time you got in trouble in 3rd grade for chewing gum in class.

[grumbler]

Perhaps he didn't look in the right places. If Hillary had known about Rev. Wright before Super Tuesday, she'd most likely be President now. And W's DUI came out the week before the election,  none of his primary opponents had both the knowledge and desire to use it.

Looking at the evidence amassed by the Romney campaign, it's all quite public except for the bits about Christie's brother.  Now, none of it seems particularly damning, and I think the idea that it would have destroyed Christie to be hilarious, but it was there.  Probably his opponents didn't use it because complaining about stuff that petty would have made them look foolish.  In a beauty contest like the selection of a veep candidate, that stuff can count.  In an election, that stuff doesn't amount to anything.

[Admiral Yi]

Okay. Take the word bullying out of it. His love of a good fight and sort of brashness is what I've meant by him seeming from the outside (and from someone whose only reference is pop culture) quite New Jersey in style. It only travels well if you're okay with both the approach and the targets.

Disagree.  In both the linked videos he's not the instigator.  A person who declines to cower and whimper in the face of provocation is not showing "brashness" or "New Jersey style."

[Neil]

Then again, I'm sure this guy thought that he could also 'destroy' Obama for Romney, so what does he know?

[DontSayBanana]

Yeah, I don't think the scandal in and of itself has much going for it, to be honest (though you never know where these things go). What may be significant is if it changes the perception of Christie's narrative. If "spiteful bully" becomes something that sticks over the next few years (and it will have to be bolstered by other things), that'll play somewhat differently than "forceful personality but does what's right" or whatever.

Ultimately, I think if this leads anywhere significant it'll show in the "likability" rating rather than in the "serious corrupt malfeance has been exposed".

It's just gotten a hell of a lot worse for everybody involved: at least one patient died due to ambulance delay, thanks to the manufactured conditions.

[garbon]

Is the only person that 91 year old woman? Is cardiac arrest uncommon in someone that age?

[DGuller]

It's still a developing story, and I don't see how it can develop positively for Christie.  He's already on record mocking the suggestions that the closings were a political payback.  It's not inconceivable that he would be caught in a lie there on the aftermath, even without having any involvement in the official decision.  Who was behind the bogus "bad traffic study" explanation?  Was Christie still being misled when that explanation was floated to the public?

[DontSayBanana]

Is the only person that 91 year old woman? Is cardiac arrest uncommon in someone that age?

No, but nobody's blaming the situation for her heart attack.  Just the delay in treatment.  If it comes out that the delay was the major contributing factor in her death, that's good enough for criminal charges.

Of course, being good enough and something being done about it are two completely different beasts, since a 91 year old doesn't make a perfectly sympathetic victim.  Shame it wasn't a 21-year-old mugging victim.

Actually, you know what?  I'm out.  Your selective apathy is pissing me off.

[garbon]

Is the only person that 91 year old woman? Is cardiac arrest uncommon in someone that age?

No, but nobody's blaming the situation for her heart attack.  Just the delay in treatment.  If it comes out that the delay was the major contributing factor in her death, that's good enough for criminal charges.

Sounds like a pretty big if and a far cry from your: "at least one patient died due to ambulance delay"

[Berkut]

Why would anyone be trying to transport a critically ill patient from New Jersey to New York anyway?

[Admiral Yi]

Why would anyone be trying to transport a critically ill patient from New Jersey to New York anyway?

I *think* the issue was backups on the bridge ramps creating traffic jams in Ft. Lee.  But that's just speculation.

I'm a little surprised Ft. Lee has a white mayor.

[fhdz]

Why would anyone be trying to transport a critically ill patient from New Jersey to New York anyway?

Nurse Snooki just wasn't working out for her.

[DontSayBanana]

Why would anyone be trying to transport a critically ill patient from New Jersey to New York anyway?

Patient's choice, bed availability, specific specialists... there are actually quite a few reasons critically ill patients would be taken over the bridge- our local ambulance corps take critically ill patients into PA to go to Hahneman or Chester-Crozer all the time.