An old joke goes, "when the law is against you, argue the facts, when the facts are against you, argue the law." I guess the modern update is, "when both are against you, shoot the messenger." (Update: barry s tells me the original punch line is "when both are against you, just argue.") I wonder if Karl Rove is now advising the Christie camp as this strategy sounds so familiar.
SFgate's lead this morning describes Governor Chris Christie's press secretary, Colin Reed, responding to "new bombshell allegations from Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer (D) aired on MSNBC Saturday morning by Steve Kornacki." Reed "blasted" the "the network as overtly "partisan." And, to make this worse, adding insult to injury, the folks at MSNBC were "gleeful" about it as well. Have they no shame?
Zimmer alleged in an interview with MSNBC's Steve Kornacki that the Christie administration held Sandy relief funds "hostage" as leverage for a development project she said top Christie Administration officials — Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie's commissioner of community affairs — pushed her to support. ...
Reed noted the bizarre ad produced and aired this week by MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, which attacked Christie over the burgeoning scandal involving lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in September.
O'Donnell said that he wrote the ad during Christie's mea culpa press conference last week, and suggested that future opponents could do the same for future attack ads against the presumptive presidential candidate.
Yesterday, (Saturday), Christie spokesman Colin Reed released this statement:
"MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him, even taking the unprecedented step of producing and airing a nearly three-minute attack ad against him this week. Governor Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get the help they need after Sandy, with the city already having been approved for nearly $70 million dollars in federal aid and is targeted to get even more when the Obama Administration approves the next rounds of funding. The Governor and Mayor Zimmer have had a productive relationship, with Mayor Zimmer even recently saying she’s ‘very glad’ he’s been our Governor. It’s very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television."
MSNBC spokesperson Lauren Skowronski responded "Our journalism speaks for itself."
Well, this is rich... Governor Christie's office is shocked, truly shocked to discover partisan politics going on in the media! And, "gleeful partisanship" at that - the worst kind, IMO - and in politics, no less. How discouraging. I'm a sad fellow this morning. Very sad.
We better get to the bottom of this right away. Let me be the first to call for an investigation. And, fellow Kossacks, let this be a warning to all of us to be vigilant in our own blogging - lest any gleeful partisanship should slip into our writing, accidentally, despite our best efforts. Think of how sad we will all be, if we discover partisan politics occurring right here at Daily Kos!
I guess the implication from Colin Reed, is we should follow Governor's Christie's lead and be sad, or perhaps, deadly serious in our partisan attacks. Unfortunately, Reed missed an opportunity to make a substantive contribution by not responding to a question about "whether Guadagno or Constable spoke with Zimmer about the project."
4:12 AM PT: Concerned about a relative dearth of Chris Christie stories here at DKos I submit this additional take from CNN as an update:
http://www.cnn.com/...
(CNN) -- Gov. Chris Christie's camp pushed back hard Saturday against allegations by a New Jersey mayor that administration officials threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy relief funding unless she supported a redevelopment plan favored by the governor. ...
But in a statement to CNN on Saturday, Christie spokesman Colin Reed blasted the report, saying, "It's very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political ax to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television."
"MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him," Reed said.