Three stories from the top of the NYTimes.com homepage right now:
G.O.P. Advice: Christie, Pick a Better Team
By MICHAEL BARBARO, JONATHAN MARTIN and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Republicans are offering advice, sobering in its candor, for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey after the Fort Lee scandal. Above, Mr. Christie in Florida on Saturday.
BUSINESS DAY »
COMMON SENSE
Dangers of Giving In to Impulse for Revenge
The New Jersey traffic jam scandal offers lessons on seeking retaliation for perceived slights.
How long has this lane-closure thing been front-page news?
Steve, you could have also gone with the HBD angle. Christie is half-Irish and half-Sicialian and he's accused of bullying someone and the plotting revenge against him.
ReplyDeleteGood one, but I'm going senile and can't remember my joke about the half Irish and half Italian person who never forgets ... something or other ...
ReplyDeleteHalf Italian, half Polish, I thought: made himself an offer he couldn't understand?
ReplyDeleteLooks like the link's been taken down: I think you have an occult supporter at the NYT, which I don't find all that crazy. Brooks and Yglesias read you.
Haha. Steve thinks the Federal Reserve, the IRS probe, and illegal immigration are more important than closing 3 lanes of traffic on a NYC bridge. For a few days.
ReplyDeleteWhat a provincial!
Considering his mass, I'd say Christie is three-quarters Celt and three-quarters Italian. If he must be drawn-and-quartered, remember to bring extra horses, and poles for the remains.
ReplyDeleteYou know who else from Jersey is 3/4 Italian? The songwriting team of Springsteen and van Zandt. Sorry to disappoint any readers in the Netherlands.
The lesson of watergate is petty stuff is politically worse than big stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf you're gonna mess with people, do it on the scale of NSA.
Closing a bridge sounds so petty.
Springsteen's name sounds pretty funny with authentic Saxon pronounciation
ReplyDeleteHow long has this lane-closure thing been front-page news?
ReplyDeleteIt will go on for as long as it takes to elect Hillary.
Christie's error was in the timing. Had he closed the bridge a couple of years earlier, he would have been a hero for preventing the suicide of that Rutgers violinist.
ReplyDeleteYou know-- the one who confused the news media into siding with a white guy against two non-whites during another obsessive news cycle.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHaha. Steve thinks the Federal Reserve, the IRS probe, and illegal immigration are more important than closing 3 lanes of traffic on a NYC bridge. For a few days.
What a provincial!
1/18/14, 4:46 PM"
Hey, mister! People starved on that bridge and probably had to pee while sitting in traffic! Important people were inconvenienced! Parents had to spend more time than planned with the children they really did not want!
Pure, total, and unnecessary chaos!
What was the joke about Pat Buchanan's German/Irish ancestry?
ReplyDelete>If you're gonna mess with people, do it on the scale of NSA.
ReplyDeleteClosing a bridge sounds so petty.<
Christie Soprano isn't in charge of the NSA - yet.
Can't the GOP find a normal, non-weird, non-predatory Anglo-Saxon to draft? All it throws up is people like Rubio, Romney, Soprano.
We need a regular person. Are there any left?
I nominate Steve.
It will go on for as long as it takes to elect Hillary.
ReplyDeleteExactly. It's so blatant. And I don't even care for Christie. But it's obvious what the media is doing.
I have to dissent slightly from the Sailerdoxy here.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter to me that there are a lot of issues that are a lot more important. It doesn't matter to me that Obama's abuse of power is worse. (Mainly because the President has a lot more power to abuse than a state Governor.)
What matters to me is that what power Krispy Christie does have, he abused. Give him the power of the Presidency, and he'll be no less abusive than the current occupant of the WH.
What matters to me is that what power Krispy Christie does have, he abused. Give him the power of the Presidency, and he'll be no less abusive than the current occupant of the WH.
ReplyDeleteIt's Jersey though. He should get a pass because it's Jersey.
Christie favors the DREAM act, just gave illegals in-state tuition to Rutgers, and is OK with government IDs for them. Elect him President and he'll be just as bad on immigration as that other guy on the straight talk express.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a real Jersey scandal, follow the Tony Mack (Mayor of Trenton) one going on right now. Much more fun!
Gots me a chance to tell an old "NY bridge story"--happened some 40 or so years ago.
ReplyDeleteComing south on the Verazzano Bridge, I chose a lane sign-marked "THIS LANE MANNED" and pulled up to the toll booth.
As I handed some cash to a very attractive (and extremely buxom)
blonde, I smart-alecked "Am I in the right place? The sign said that this lane is manned." I thought my hilarity might be appreciated but I was in for a surprise.
Looking at me with the slightest of smiles, she replied, "Mister,--THIS lane get manned every single evening and most mornings, too!"
I was momentarily nonplussed, didn't know what to make of her reply; but, in reaching for my change, read her name-tag (so prominently and beautifully displayed): "LANE."
I sent it in to READERS DIGEST's "Life In These United States" humor column and got a reply to the effect that they thought it an extremely good story but not publishable in their family-oriented magazine.
Pat Buchanan? Maybe. Of course, you did hear about the Chinese/German restaurant--half an hour later, you're power hungry.
ReplyDeleteChinese/Cuban restaurants are an actual thing in NYC. One used to serve the best bistec empanizado (chicken fried steak) I ever had.
In NY/NJ this has been going on for months, but only national news since mid Dec!
ReplyDeleteSince Sep., but I couldn't figure out why because it's dog-bites-man.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Benghazi payback.
Now we learn that Christie was controlling Sandy money. The whole thing is shocking.
"How long has this lane-closure thing been front-page news?"
ReplyDeleteThis story has had about the same duration and prominence as, several years ago, were given to the story about an obscure Republican Congressman who had written a slightly risqué letter to a former page. The former page was old enough to vote when he received the letter and the Republican Congressman had already resigned by the time the story broke but, uh, there was an election coming up, so CNN hammered the story in airport departure lounges across the country 24 by 7.
Imagine: a politician taking revenge on a fellow politician in a way that hurts the latter’s constituents. What would they call that in Chicago? “Brushing your teeth in the morning.”
This all makes perfect sense to me:
ReplyDeleteObama's IRS discriminated against thousands of his political adversaries for months or years, in an abuse of power at the national level in every sense; no big deal, media gives it minimum coverage and happily moves on at the first opportunity.
Christie's (name state or local institution here, I can't be bothered to find out) discriminated against one of his political adversaries for days or weeks, in an abuse of power at the neighborhood level in every sense; huge deal, media gives it blanket coverage, and more attention in one day than Obama's national IRS scandal got in six months.
I'm not seeing the problem here, Steve, sounds like the white guy is getting what he deserves.
Considering his mass, I'd say Christie is three-quarters Celt and three-quarters Italian.
ReplyDeleteAhahaha! That was a belly-laugh, right there.
"What was the joke about Pat Buchanan's German/Irish ancestry?
ReplyDeleteHe's a drunk Nazi. No joke."
You must have isteve confused with Gawker. You'd be a hero over there with a worthless comment like that.
"David said...
ReplyDeleteCan't the GOP find a normal, non-weird, non-predatory Anglo-Saxon to draft?"
Nobody who wants that job is normal. You have to have something seriously wrong with you to want it bad enough to actualy do what it takes to get it.
It's pretty annoying to here FoxNews and others on the Right downplay this story. He shut down the busiest highway in the country for a weak! It's a miracle that people didn't die. Plus, it was the week of 9/11. If Christie knew about this he should be in jail.
ReplyDeleteHow is this worse than the administration closing down the WW2 memorials to old vets, many of whom will never be able to return, and opening areas to allow a rally for illegal aliens?
ReplyDelete"Exactly. It's so blatant. And I don't even care for Christie. But it's obvious what the media is doing."
ReplyDelete+1
"Obama's IRS [committed crimes] against thousands of his political adversaries for months or years, in an abuse of power at the national level in every sense; no big deal, media gives it minimum coverage and happily moves on at the first opportunity."
ReplyDeleteWhy did the media move on? Have you already forgotten? Less than 48 hours later, we got: Snowden. You know, that guy who moved to Russia, was a wanted man walking around openly during the daytime, and landed a well-paying job within weeks, despite not speaking three words of Russian. Isn't it obvious that Snowden is on the payroll of Osama's Regime and was sent out to divert attention from Osama's IRS crimes? Duh? And alls y'alls bought it, hook line sinker.