Here is the clip from today's show. Update
I was watching Up with Steve Karnacki. He, like Rachel Maddow, along with local New Jersey reporters, have been doing real investigative reporting on the whole Christie bridge debacle. Steve comes up with a new and interesting take on why the vendetta against the mayor of Fort Lee. Follow me below the orange florish as this gets even more interesting.
What came out of this morning's Up program is money and contracts. Big, money and big government contracts. The video is not up on his program's site yet but here's the link to the show.
There is a huge billion dollar development deal in Fort Lee that the mayor has been working on for several years. Believe it or not, there is a big chunk of vacant land right by the the bridge and very close to the water front. I think it's about 18 acres and one can only imagine the developers that have wanted this prime location. This land was involved in a scandal/bribery conviction years ago (the developers went to prison, a previous mayor reported the bribe and wore a wire). Unbelievably, this land has sat vacant all this time.
Finally, the current mayor has managed to put together a deal to develop this land. And here's where it gets interesting - it involves a three lane local entrance to the George Washington Bridge that connects this land with direct access.
The three lanes that were closed in September were these exact lanes that would lead to this project. The gist of the report on Up was Christie was questioning the need for these lanes, was there a need for all of them or any of them. Who would get the contracts? One can only imagine how many ways there are to either move this project along or screw it up. This reason makes more sense than simply messing with a Democratic mayor over a cross party endorsement. We are talking really money here. Remember how Christie stopped the train tunnel to Manhattan, a project that was shovel ready.
9:33 AM PT: