It remains to be seen how much "Game of Lanes," i.e., the apparently political-revenge-motivated closing of three lanes of the George Washington Bridge, exposes the inherent phoniness, vindictiveness and opportunism of media crush Chris Christie. (Mconvente has been doing a great job on keeping up with this.)
But news continues to flow across the Hudson (by "sets of tubes," if not the GW Bridge) that are keeping the story going. Here are a few developments:
1. Christie is "sauced.": "The fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it, that kind of gets me sauced," Christie said, referring to Ft. Lee, NJ. Politifact rated this statement "Pants on Fire:"*
Never mind that his claim makes it seem as if nearly 25 percent of the bridge’s 14 lanes in total are dedicated to a borough with a land area only 2.5 square miles in size, with approximately 35,000 residents. The facts are that the George Washington Bridge is physically in Fort Lee and there are local access lanes from the bridge. But none of the lanes are dedicated for use only in or by the borough. All motorists are able to use them as an entry point to the span.
2.
Steve Benen mocks Christie's attempted "aggressive" defense: Christie said: “Did the Fort Lee officials – law enforcement, political – lose his number? Could they not get it and find him somehow? How did this happen exactly?”
Well, Chris, according to the Ft. Lee Mayor,
“We called the contacts that we always called whenever there was an event. We did not depart from protocol that had been established for 20 years…. We called everybody that we were supposed to call.”
3.
Two aides to Christie resigned and records have been subpoenaed amid the release of facts about the lane closings.
4. On "Up" with Steve Kornacki, NJ State Assemblyman Wisniewski again debunked the "Traffic Study" excuse. He is proceeding with the State Assembly probe into the matter, which he calls a likely "abuse of power."
Obligatory mention in any Christie diary: Screw him for killing the Tunnel!
* I hesitate to cite Politifact (with its formerly "half-true" Obama statement suddenly becoming the "Lie of the Year.") But since this is Politifact --local (NJ) I'll give the benefit of the doubt.