Rachel Maddow has a tendency to go over the top at times and even though I am on side on most policy issues ...I do wish she would cool out sometimes...but...here is a piece of real honest to goodness journalism that we all can do at our homes...This is possibly the real story of why Chris Christie took down the traffic in Fort Lee.
Rachel Maddow and her crack team of researchers didn't really buy the retribution for a Mayor who could barely remember anybody asking him for an endorsement from the Christie camp. Maddow as a lawyer knows how to build a case and apart from calling bad traffic "the destruction of Fort Lee" a few times, she lays out a compelling argument using Christie's own words...The Governor doesn't remember anyone asking him to call the Mayor of Fort Lee.He never met the Mayor ever,(maybe he was at the same function) let alone met the Mayor for one of those final give me your endorsement breakfasts. He didn't even make "the call" so the Mayor was not even a maybe in the eyes of his staff. No prep work. No feelers. Nothin' As Christie put it in his press conference: " they hadn't put the ball on the tee."....love it...
So Maddow asks..Why then would trusted advisers,very high up in the food chain, do this political hit? Well..its amazing...wait for it....the researchers looked at the date on the emal that started this...the one from Bridget Kelley that said "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" and then..well.. I can't believe they thought of it... they actually checked to see what else was going on around that time...Egads...journalism...on television...and guess what happened the day before that 7:30 AM email was sent? Governor Christie had a melt down about New Jersey Senate Democrats blocking his appointments to the State Supreme Court. The afternoon before the famous email was sent out Christie had pulled the request for reappointment of a pal of his because he knew the Senate Democrats were going to get all Zombie Apocalypse on her as they had done to a succession of nominations to fill a vacated State Supreme Court seat ...
You see, there is a very big back story to this and unless you have been following New Jersey politics you would not know that Christie in 2010 had done the unprecedented thing of pulling the renomination of an African American democratic judge.First time ever in New Jersey history. Never done before. Guy was respected , no scandals, middle of the road judge type...In New Jersey you get nominated and sit for seven years and then you have to get renominated again and confirmed again by the Senate but that's it...after that you are in till you are 70...jackpot.. The Senate Dems were so pissed at Christie that they have consistently refused to confirm anybody for that seat and then Christie's pal came up to that seven year mark and the dems refused to let her get by without grilling her hard in the Senate..Christie pulled her renomination and held a press conference calling the democrats "animals" and saying he won't let his pal go through the humiliating process of reconfirmation...He pulled his own nominee...a sitting seven year judge....he was so pissed...
And what does this have to do with Fort Lee? Well nothing to do with the Mayor of Fort Lee thats for sure...but guess whose Senate district Fort Lee is in....New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg...Now that makes sense..."those animals...we cant let them get away with this...we have to fuck them...you hear me.. fuck 'em...do whatever it takes to make that bitch's life hell..."
Or as Maddow put it:"Roughly 12 hours after Governor Christie blows up at the Senate Democrats and torpedoes the career of a Supreme Court justice who he likes because he says the Senate Democrats are animals ."the leader of those "animals" in the Senate sees her district get the order of destruction from Governor Christie's deputy chief of staff...
Here is the link to the whole story...
http://www.msnbc.com/...
2016 is here Watch this drip drip...and they haven't even started in on his days on Wall Street...and of course his wife has some Wall Street tales they say...
Oh and Republican Bob Gates former Defense Secretary under both Obama and Bush tried a two fer in his new book ...he tries to knee cap Uncle Joe Biden and heir apparent Hillary Clinton by calling them political hacks...hard to reframe either of them considering how long they have been around.. so the idea is to use that against them..ole pols...been around Washington too long...everything is politics to them...watch that be the early spin from the Republican National committee...
All in all though who really thinks any of it will make much of a difference. If a street organizer like Barack Obama who owed less to the big money folks than anyone in recent presidential politics could do little to stop the feeding at the trough then can anyone else lift their heads out of the swill, smack their lips and say: "I'm full"...doubt it..