An article by Michael Powell in today's paper "Fighting a Pipeline fur Feeling and Fearing Christie's influence" accuses the Governor of a patently rhetorical move. What follows is a list discussing Christie's "Retributive Justice (henceforth RJ)," which I will summarize and I hope someone will set up a link since I have passed the point in my life where I am good at learning new techie stuff. OH and Powell himself refers to a list of a 13 examples of the Christie's RJ collected by journalist Kata Zernike which I will go to once I have summarized the Powell article. I have attempted to use only my own words so that while the facts are from the Times article, the frame is mine.
Example of Retributive Justice include:
1. Three Prosecutors of Hunterdon County who indicted a Sheriff, a member of the Republican Party, and subjected a favored Christie fund raiser to a series of questions.
The governor controlled AG's office, took over the the Hunterdon offer, fired the prosecutors and threw out the indictments.
2. The South Jersey Gas Company's pipeline through the heart of the Pinelands. All four of Christie's predecessors as governor have publically deplored the pipeline and Edward Lloyd, a Pinelands commission member who is against the pipeline has been threatened with an Ethics investigation if he votes on the issue.
3.The Kate Zernike article, "Stories Add Up as Bully Image Trails Christie" is in the NYTimes on December 24, 2103. The RJ's include
the Rutgers political Scientist, Alan Rosenthal who was the tie breaker on a redistricting commission. When he opted for the Democrat's plan instead of the one Christie's people were pressuring him to vote for, Christie used his line item veto to cut $169,000 for two programs at Mr Rosenthal's institute at Rutgers. I will continue under the squiggle
4.Sean Kean a Republican state Senator told a reporter in 2010 that Christie should have declared a state of emergency sooner when a blizzard hit the state. Christie apparently had been at Disney World during the storm. not only did Christie hold a news conference in Kean's district which Kean was forbidden to attend, the next year Kean's district disappeared in the state redistricting plan.
There are other examples but this stand out for me and I wondered if I should mention it at the time but I thought someone would surely put it in a diary. Maybe someone has.
Now then this material was published in June of 2012, Fact; Christie has close ties to a
figure who runs halfway houses for parolees and other prisoners. Complaints had been made regarding the running of these institution. The governor vetoed requirements
to stiffen oversight. The Times had chronicled widespread violence, gang activity and escapes earlier in the year. According to the Times a close friend and political advisor to the Governor, William Palatucci is a senior vice president at the company that runs the halfway houses Community Education Centers. Continuing his campaign to protect the CEC, Christie demanded that existing contracts be exempt from oversight already approved by the legislature. That scandal appears to be ongoing, as a year later, Blue Jersey, reported that reform had not happened.
it seems that the New Jersey reporters for the New York Times have been fighting a battle to expose Christie's bad government. Christie has finally exposed himself.