It's deja vu all over again.Nixon fires Haldeman&Erlichman and claims he had "no idea"about what they were doing!! Christie fires his #2 aide and says he was "shocked" about what she was doing!!The oprea is not over until the "fat women(man) sings.Good-bye fat man.

Whether Bridge Gate was the product of an effort to retaliate against Fort Lee Mayor Mike Sokolich, State Senator Loretta Weinberg, or both, while intriguing, is really not the key issue.

Setting aside the likelihood that Christie knew, and, as Michael Reiner observed @1, like Richard Nixon before him, is engaged in what will likely be a futile effort at damage control, what this scandal does is expose the gaping disparity between the marketed image created by the MSM when it seeks to sell the public on a prospective Presidential candidate and the ugly truth.

As Eric Boehlert points out, over the past four years, the Beltway MSM have depicted Christie as "authentic" and a "straight shooter."

That fawning coverage continued even over the past month as this scandal was simmering:

The real reason why Christie's denials are implausible can be found in the gap between that image and a governor whom Boehlert describes as both "vindictive" and "dishonest" --- a point that was more amply demonstrated by the following segment from All in with Chris Hayes than by Maddow's alternative motivation theory.

A civil class action has been filed by six Bergen County residents in a U.S. District Court in Newark, NJ. The lawsuit seeks damages for lost wages occasioned by the GWB lane closure.

The named defendants include Christie, his aides, his Port Authority appointees and state Sen. Bill Baroni.

If the case is not disposed of via a motion to dismiss, it would mean that Christie might have to produce documents and answer questions under oath at a deposition.

It should be noted that defendants in civil actions retain the right to invoke the 5th Amendment.

A belated thank you for the revelation of the 2011 Koch Brothers audio. It's clear Christie is the Plutocracy's man for 2016, as such the ultra-reactionary wingnut welfare class has taken to all manner of social media to defend Christie.

Money love the Petty Bully as such their paid pundit class will make sure conservatives do as well.

Exactly, Christie's narrative makes little sense. He's acting like he's a teenager who's been lied to by a friend so he's not gonna be their friend anymore or talk to them. That's not what this is about. It's so much bigger than his oft-proclaimed "hurt" feelings.

And as somebody mentioned--that a deputy chief of staff can send such a terse email and receive an even shorter response from Wildstein indicating in no uncertain terms that he understands exactly what she's telling him to set in motion seems to speak loudly and clearly of some weird, vindictive, retribution-as-normal culture. Unthinkable that it all started with Kelly.

Brad,
Christie said during his press conference that others had been cc'd on the Kelly e-mails. You need to find them. Why weren't they fired for not telling Christie?
Christie didn't say he fired Kelly because she blocked a bridge - he fired her for crossing him.
Very clever - his presser was a long warning to everyone else around him: I'm okay if you were involved with blocking the bridge, but I'm not okay with you crossing me.

And, he didn't say he was sad, humiliated, and upset his people blocked a bridge. He was sad, etc. that people crossed him.

Classic low self-esteem behavior.

Just heard Mike Smerconish bring up an interesting point. I guess there's a report that in December Christie had been in contact with Governor Cuomo complaining that the bridge investigation was being pursued too vigorously and requesting they back off, or something like that?

If that's true, that sure sounds like the opposite of not knowing anything about it until 5 minutes ago.

Doesn't anyone remember why they are teaching him a lesson over a minor piece of Jersey political thuggery with a traffic back up. Can anyone here spell Hudson River Tunnel. One of the first things Christie did upon taking office years ago was to cancel the badly needed Hudson River Tunnel already under construction. They may not be too bright on the other side of the Hudson but they do have long memories. When the opportunity presented itself everyone with an interest in the tunnel simply let Christie twist in the wind. The lesson has been taught but has it been learned?

Sam -

Wait. You're saying that Christie is the real victim here??

That is darling.

Take Bridgegate to the next level: every time Christie or NJGOPers want to do something BAD, activate against it and practically DARE them to snarl traffic in your neighborhood. I just sent an e-mail to my state senator (Addiego) when I learned she wouldn't override Christie's veto of humane swine-handling law that she voted for.

People may have already gone farther than me: we thought the Christie-packed Pinelands Commission would approve a pipeline to carry frack-gas to the coast - motion failed! All the commissioners know anything happens to people around them, point a finger at Trenton. Love the show and the dogged determination!

David @7 wrote:

Christie said during his press conference that others had been cc'd on the Kelly e-mails.

Many of the Emails were heavily redacted. It is unclear precisely why. What is clear is that we are not dealing with matters of national security and that the governmental bodies which have undertaken to investigate this should have access to original Emails that have not been redacted. That would include the identity of those who were cc'd, which could possibly include Christie.

Cover-up?

According to Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, during the week of December 12, 2013, Christie phoned Andrew Cuomo.

Well, pretty clearly an attempted cover-up, according to the details coming out of the document dump today (hundreds and hundreds of files released by the state legislature): "I am on my way to the office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."

And, it was a cover-up of something that the head of the NJ Port Authority believed to be both a federal and state crime:

Interesting, the first two videos did not load up neither here nor on the Salon site. Some more of Christie's work?:-)

I think that "Bully" is a good name for Christie but other than using the "F" word (I don't mean f**k), he is a mobster, or a DICtator.

Regardless of motive or his ability to insulate himself from the pre-meditation of this petty criminal act, it's impossible to explain away the callous inaction for four days while Fort Lee authorities (and their own Port Authority) were frantically trying to get any response from the Governor or his administration or appointees. That is as close to proving him unfit for office as it is proving intent to let this disaster play out.

What struck me most about the presser was Governor Christie's assertion that he determines the level of cooperation for pending investigations based upon his assessment of their merit. Last time I checked that was the purview of prosecutors and legislative committees and they are compelled to cooperate.

Now that we know personal e-mail accounts were being used to conduct government business and possible a criminal enterprise, shouldn't tghe personal e-mails of all involved parties be subpoenaed and copies obtained from their providers given the likelihood of their deletions like last week?

Brad: The Email ("I am on my way to the office to discuss. There can be no public discourse.") was submitted by Bill Baroni to Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, a Republican who was appointed by NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

Baroni, a Republican, had served as a NJ State Senator until he was appointed by Christie to serve as the Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority.

The Emails appended to the Molly Reden/Andy Kroll Mother Jones article reflect that it was Baroni who wrote, in relation to a text from Mayor Sokolich about the problem of getting kids to school, “is it wrong that I am smiling?”

Ironically, Boroni is a law professor who teaches "Professional Responsibility" (aka legal ethics) at Seton Hall University School of Law.

Foye is scheduled to testify on Monday before the NJ Assembly Transportation Committee pursuant to a subpoena.

Interesting piece from Peter Hart at FAIR in which he describes recent MSM Christie coverage as "a peculiar kind of reporting, which prioritizes image management over reality/"

Holy moly, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is looking more and more like the USA's answer to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Let's just hope no video surfaces of Governor Christie smoking crack.

Brad, check out today's (Sunday the 12th) UP with Steve K today. I think he has the REAL theory. It appears that there is a billion dollar development project ongoing at the foot of those "dedicated lanes" and totally dependent on the stability of them. It kind of looks like Christi's peeps were not doing payback, so much as trying to muscle in on a piece of the action by showing they have power over that access. Sort of a horse-head-in-the-bed Jersey style.

To me, this sounds more like Christi's, and indeed New Jersey's style. Heh

Regarding the cancellation announce of the Hudson Bridge-Tunnel, it was done on the same day when Bret Schundler was testifying under oath. He had proof that CC had lied and his testimony was buried by the announcement of the cancellation. There is no way that was a coincidence and I was always surprised this was never reported.

I've been surprised to see people continue to point the the non-endorsement as the catalyst here, while Maddow's explanation seems much more likely and also explains Christie's apparent sincere surprise at the non-endorsement narrative. This is just the beginning, but thankfully it's the end of Christie's Presidential hopes. Anyone called "A political hero" by Murdoch and Koch's would be a disaster for average Americans.