Christie has a Bernie Madoff Problem

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Monday October 03, 2011 · 6:22 AM PDT

2011/10/03 · 06:22

Having a business card that says "Wall Street Lobbyist" is bad enough. But Chris Christie's client at the time was an organization fronted by blatant predatory con man Bernie Madoff.

The way a lobbying organization often works is to use a sympathetic law firm as a front. Since upper management should only be either a law partner or an operations specialist, DC lobbyists find employment with them under the guise of the latter. The title "Vice President" is common.

In Chris Christie's case, he became a partner in the law firm of Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci of Cranford, New Jersey in 1987, specializing in securities law, appellate practice, election law, and government affairs. In this capacity, Christie registered as a lobbyist in 1998. Among his clients were GPU Energy for deregulation of New Jersey's electric and gas industry, Hackensack University Medical Center for state grants (seems Christie loves him some big guv'mint), and the University of Phoenix for a New Jersey higher education license.

But it turns out that his crowning achievement was lobbying on behalf of the Securities Industry Association in a successful effort to block securities fraud from being included under the state’s Consumer Fraud Act. And at the time, one Bernard Madoff was a Director and two-term Member of the Board of the organization.

Christie not only palled around with convicted economic predators - he lobbied for legalizing their fraudulent behavior. No wonder David Koch thinks Christie is his "kind of guy".

Why didn't this information come out during the last gubernatorial election in the state of New Jersey? The only reason is that Christie's opponent Jon Corzine was palling around with them himself, as evidenced by this photograph.

What could possibly turn a brazen bully like Christie into a shy, retiring wall-flower? Maybe it's the driving need to bury his Bernie Madoff connection about four more years into the murky past.

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Christie has a Bernie Madoff Problem

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