Thanks to commentor Smiling Mortician.
As Richard Nixon could’ve told Christie, that’s the weak point in every professional bully’s armor — if your only talent is pushing people around, even the lickspittles and remoras who prosper by your rise are unlikely to stay loyal when you’re threatened…
ETA: More on that Fort Lee project, from NYMag:
… The project is question is the redevelopment of 16-acre piece of Fort Lee land located at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. Sokolich divided the space, which sat vacant for years, into two parts: The eastern portion is now occupied by two new residential towers that should be finished later this year. The western half is to serve as the site of Hudson Lights, a $218 million mix of residential, commercial, and parking space that, as Kornacki notes, used its proximity to the George Washington Bridge access lanes as a major selling point to potential investors and tenants. Groundbreaking on Hudson Lights was delayed this summer because of financing issues. However, the project’s developers announced that they had finally secured financing on September 16 — three days after New York Port Authority official Pat Foye put a stop to the access lane closures by questioning their legality in an e-mail to his New Jersey counterparts…
Also, since this is a lazy Sunday afternoon, something’s been niggling me about Christie distancing himself from David Wildstein, the “political appointee at the Port Authority.. [who] was Christie’s “eyes and ears” at the huge agency”. As reported by Alex MacGillis in TNR:
… [D]uring his two hours at the podium yesterday, Christie pushed back against this perception by telling the world that Wildstein was no chum of his:
Well, let me just clear something up, OK, about my childhood friend David Wildstein. It is true that I met David in 1977 in high school. He’s a year older than me. David and I were not friends in high school. We were not even acquaintances in high school. I mean, I had a high school in Livingston, a three-year high school that had 1,800 students in a three-year high school in the late ’70s, early 1980. I knew who David Wildstein was. I met David on the Tom Kean for governor campaign in 1977. He was a youth volunteer, and so was I. Really, after that time, I completely lost touch with David. We didn’t travel in the same circles in high school. You know, I was the class president and athlete. I don’t know what David was doing during that period of time…We went 23 years without seeing each other. And in the years we did see each other, we passed in the hallways.
In other words: David Wildstein, are you kidding me? Different lunch table, dudes…
Now, Christie Christie was the catcher on his high school’s varsity baseball team. So, yeah, an ‘athlete’, but still. Maybe it’s just because most of what I know about baseball I learned from Japanese anime, but isn’t ‘catcher on the baseball team’ roughly equivalent to ‘drummer in the rock band’ — i.e., the comic relief character?
Keith P
The Christie line that really sticks out for me is after fielding some questions early about the bridge, he comes back with a “the fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it, that kind of gets me sauced.” Seems like me he was doubling down on the pressure to imply that the whole thing blowing up was going to ultimately lead to a permanent traffic jam.
Plantsmantx
He was getting elected to the local school board at the age of 16. One of your teen-aged schoolmates gets elected to the school board, and you don’t know what he was doing at that time? Please.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
No. Absolutely not. In fact it’s the exact opposite. Catcher is a leadership position that requires communication skills and is the one that requires the most analysis and thought. A disproportionate number of successful managers were catchers when they played.
Litlebritdiftrnt
There are droplets of fresh blood on my floor leading from the dog door to the middle of the living room. I have already established that it is neither myself nor my husband bleeding. Have checked the dogs and cats and it is none of them either. This leads to the conclusion that someone (either dog or cat) brought a bleeding corpse into the house and HID IT SOMEWHERE. Frankly, I would be happier if someone had handed me a note saying “there is a bomb in your house” because at least I would know what to do about that. As it is if I don’t find the corpse I am just going to have to wait for the inevitable smell to lead me to it.
dmsilev
And Christie had so little contact with the guy that later, out of the blue, Christie appointed him to a high-ranking post at the Port Authority.
Just because.
Jewish Steel
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Right. The catcher is the only player who looks* at the whole field during play.
*ETA: Well, has a view of the entire field. Whether he looks or not…
dmsilev
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
To be fully exhaustive of all possibilities, perhaps your husband brought in the bleeding corpse…
Omnes Omnibus
AL, you are going to get slaughtered for this.
bmoak
Christie’s baseball coach said that Wildstein was involved with the baseball team as a Sabremetrics stats geek/manager who provided good analysis on opposing teams.
RSR
No, catcher is the manager on the field–knows the ins and outs of the opposing batters, and how to pitch to them. The catcher gets that info from the team stats guy. Who, in this case, was Wildstein .
On most teams, those two people would be putting their heads together on a regular basis.
Keith P
I was envisioning “captain of the bowling team.” Along these lines.
Hal
Why do I find this story so fascinating? I know part of it is schadenfreude. I have never liked Christie and have been perplexed at the MSM and NJ voters willingness to give Christie a pass on everything.
5 million for a pseudo campaign ad in guise of a Jersey’s open for business campaign featuring his family, 20 million for a special election he fucking admitted was done to pad his numbers. Jesus, the guy flat out says; “sure, I did this to make myself look better” and people congratulate him for being direct and honest? Taking a helicopter and then a limo to your kids game?
Not to mention the bullying of his constituents. Hey Christie, did you ever answer the question from the mother who asked about public school funding after you were done yelling at her for daring to mention your kids go to private school?
kuvasz
@Omnes Omnibus:
You bet. Catchers on a baseball team are usually the toughest mother fuckers on the team.
RSR
I’d also like to suggest dropping the ‘ghazi’ suffix. It elevates the non-scandal of Benghazi.
Calming influence
Not to elevate Christie, but the catcher is often team captain and is an extension of the pitcher in terms of tactical baseball.
R-Jud
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
Yep, did that this morning. Followed my nose to discover a flayed, decaying pigeon behind a bookshelf. After disposing of the pigeon, we screwed the bookshelf to the wall.
On-Topic: I was born in NJ– in Kevin Smith country, to be precise– and most of my relatives hail from there. One of my aunts still living there, whom I love to bits, is a hippy-dippy crystal-fondling new-ager who writes things like “I pray the gentle wisdom of the earth guides you” in my birthday cards.
She has been BEYOND hilarious on Facebook recently, writing decidedly un-mellow things about how Chris Christie is a goddamn lying motherfucker and posting pictures of Mr Creosote. Another, older, aunt, who’s a right-winger (framed oil painting of Reagan in her living room) is wailing about how this will affect the party’s chances in 2016.
Bridgegate is entertaining me on so many levels.
raven
Catching is one of the most difficult positions to play both physically and mentally.
eta I didn’t even bother reading the comments because I knew what they would say.
IowaOldLady
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Oh god. One of my friends had a cat who used to bring mouse bodies in and shove them down between the couch cushions.
@Plantsmantx: I thought that whole “I was an athlete and he was invisible” line sounded like a flashback to high school and cool kids vs. the nobodies. It was offensive.
Keith G
Anne, I see TTP already covered it above, but you couldn’t be more lacking in your baseball knowledge.
On a well coached team, the catcher functions a bit like a quarterback (signal caller). A good catcher knows the strengths and weaknesses of his pitchers and has studied the scouting reports in order to have an idea about the abilities of the opposition lineup.
Talentless Hack
Tell that to Johnny Bench, who was probably the greatest catcher of all time. He was truly badass. He could barehand a fastball and beat the guy trying to steal second base by at least two strides. He could take an old-style catcher’s mitt and wear a hinge into it by brute force. He could hold seven (I think) baseballs in his non-gloved hand. AND he could hit.
And the drummer is the backbone of any rock band. The Beatles were nobody until they found the right one. Ditto for Rush. Led Zeppelin couldn’t continue without theirs. Def Leppard almost didn’t, and devised workarounds after he lost his arm.
Calming influence
I find it richly amusing that what was done in an apparent fit of bullying pique, without thinking of the consequences, ended up inconveniencing multiple Wall Street Journal editors, who them unleashed WSJ reporter Ted Mann with instructions to find out who exactly had fucked up their morning commute.
Bullying is a tell for a lack of self control. They all eventually end up fucking with someone they shouldn’t.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, well, I never claimed to be an expert!
There’s only sixteen catchers listed in the Hall of Fame. Heck, there’s nine umpires on that list…
(For the record, while I never followed baseball, I always had a soft spot for the drummers.)
Omnes Omnibus
@IowaOldLady:
Of course, it was offensive. Offensive is what Christie does. I always figured he would blow up at a 16 y/o waitress in a diner in Iowa or Wisconsin during primary season because his bacon was too crispy and that would be the thing that did him in. I’ll take this, if it does it.
raven
@Anne Laurie: Quit while you are ahead.
WaterGirl
@IowaOldLady: Yeah, but christie wants the cool kids to know he was one of them. The invisibles don’t matter, they never did.
russ
I wonder what Andrew Cuomo has to say about this. Has he called the Clinton’s?
Calming influence
Well, Anne, looks like you picked a bad day to fuck with catchers.
WaterGirl
@Calming influence: Is there a link for that? Sounds like it could be a satisfying read.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Plantsmantx:
Exactly. And yet he somehow plucked him out of obscurity however many years later and appointed him to a very important position, without “knowing what he was doing”. Christie is lying through his fucking teeth and he knows it.
raven
Do Former Catchers Really Make Great MLB Managers?
That means five of the past 11 World Series-winners have been led by guys who once donned what are known as the tools of ignorance.
“What’s that they say about ignorance and bliss again?
So while not every former big league catcher who’s gone on to become an MLB manager has been successful—let alone, World Series-winning successful—it seems likely that teams will continue to hand the reins to ex-backstops.
And judging by recent history, that’s not a bad idea.”
Violet
Fascinating article by Brian Murphy over at TPM on the billion dollar development project that was possibly put at risk by the timing of the lane closures. Worth a read.
Excerpt:
WereBear
It’s bassists who get no respect.
Ronnie P
Drummers aren’t so bad themselves.
raven
Really good book
So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer’s Life
Calming influence
@Anne Laurie:
I guess you can kiss drummers goodbye now, too!
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
God, 50 years old, governor of a huge state and until recently, a man with a good shot at winning the White House, in his mind I’m sure he was/is inevitable, and he’s bragging about his HS resume.
also, as a couple of people have pointed out, he has two versions of when he heard the news, “in my pajamas and robe”, and “after my work-out”. A very petty thing, but he’s still trying to construct an image for 2016.
TG Chicago
Thumbs down to the name “Bridgeghazi”. Using -ghazi as a suffix for a scandal implies that Benghazi was a scandal on par with Watergate. Given that Benghazi wasn’t even a scandal, that seems like a bad idea to me.
Calming influence
@WaterGirl: Yeah, it’s in the original 22 pages released. Here’s TPM: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wsj-bridge-scandal
Violet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Life is high school for Republicans.
What jumped out at me in the press conference was just how many times he repeated “I learned about it at 8:50 a.m.” or “I learned about it just before nine o’clock in the morning”. He repeated that time so many times in various ways…and for what? Why do we need to know the exact moment? We don’t. It’s a tell. Liars repeat stupid, useless details like that. Normal people would say something like, “I just found out about it yesterday morning.” The exact time is not relevant. Except to Chris Christie’s lie. It’s a tell.
Hill Dweller
We’re talking about high school baseball; not college and/or pro baseball. It’s a completely different world where the coach has far more control and usually calls the pitches. Furthermore, the better athletes/players usually play multiple positions. In fact, I’d bet most great catchers didn’t play catcher full time until they reached college/minors.
If Christie was a full-time catcher in high school, I bet he wasn’t very athletic, so they stuck him behind the plate.
muddy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Perhaps he was trying to distract by titillation. Pajamas! Sexy!
It was at 8:50, mind you as well. Not 9, or around 9, or first thing. 8:50.
raven
@Hill Dweller: And the coach calls the positions the defense and calls the cutoffs?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@muddy: And was it a plaid flannel onesie? People are saying this a Very Serious Question.
Smiling Mortician
Ooh! My very first front-page shout-out. My heart’s all a-flutter . . . I don’t have a speech prepared!
OK, now I’ll read the thread.
Scotius
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe he likes to work out in his pajamas and robe?
gogol's wife
@dmsilev:
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
I used to sound like Norman Bates pretending to be his own mother when I’d find things like this — “Oh, no, what have you done now, Spanky?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Hill Dweller:
He might not have been very mobile; I’ll give you that. Still the pitcher and catcher are the only players involved in every play on defense. You don’t put your worst guy there.
IM
So that is his line?
He wasn’t a high-school friend who I have known 40 years, but only a high school acquaintance who I have known for 30 years with intermittences?
That is not even banging the table.
raven
Christie as a hs catcher. So you can bag all the fat guy shit.
WaterGirl
@Calming influence: thanks for the link!
from the link:
slag
@TG Chicago:
Agreed. Besides which, it’s incredibly obnoxious and insensitive. People died. That’s a tragedy; not a scandal. And certainly not pun-worthy.
Aji
Completely O/T, and just in case anyone’s interested:
Just over two weeks ago, I mentioned that I was mourning the loss of one of our elders. For anyone who wants to know more, my warrior sister has written a beautiful tribute over at the GOS (he was a Kossack, too).
He deserves to have as many people as possible know what he brought to this life, and to our peoples.
WaterGirl
@muddy:
I could have gone my whole life without ever reading that in connection with christie. Thanks a lot!
JPL
@IM: Don’t forget that Christie was a star on the baseball team in high school and the other guy a statistician, aka nerd. Christie would never hang out with the nerds. He’s to big for that.
raven
He also recalled that David Wildstein was right there on the team with Christie:
Corner Stone
@raven:
In HS baseball? You bet your ass.
People here are acting like a HS catcher = an MLB catcher.
Bullshit.
In most HS rotations you have 1 guy who has three reliable pitches. You have, if you’re lucky, two others who have 2 reliable pitches. The others either have a decent fastball or a changeup they can reliably get across the plate.
The catcher is important but he’s not a fucking general in HS ball. Especially when Christie went to school.
SiubhanDuinne
@RSR:
Word. I was just about to make the identical comment for the identical reason.
The “-gate” suffix is tiresome, tedious, and lazy. It does, however, have the advantage of reminding everyone, however subliminally, of Watergate — the definitive Republican scandal. Genuine scandal, I might add.
Hill Dweller
@raven: @raven:
Yes, the coach usually does position players in HS, and college for that matter.
The catcher isn’t the only position that calls cutoffs. Nevertheless, calling cutoffs isn’t exactly high level strategic thinking. You learn to do it in little league.
Again, we’re talking about high school baseball. The best athletes/players aren’t going to be behind the plate full time.
Tokyokie
@Litlebritdiftrnt: I once came home to find the kitties in a group excited about something, and realize that one of them had chased a chipmunk into the house. I managed to separate the cats from the ground squirrel, chase the rodent into the bathroom, and force the chipmunk to run behind the toilet, and into the wastebasket I’d jammed on the other side. I then covered the wastebasket with a towel, went outside and set the chipmunk free, and did all this without suffering the slightest personal injury. I was pretty darn proud of my ingenuity and resourcefulness.
And about three days later, I found a chipmunk hindquarters under the kitchen table. Oh well.
gogol's wife
This is all fascinating. I love this story, and all the BJ commentary.
I know little about baseball, but it seems to me that drummer is probably the most important position in a rock band.
apocalipstick
@Hill Dweller: Dude, I get that you’re trying to crap on Christie, but at almost every level of baseball, the catcher is the guy who wants to be involved in every play. My dad was a state-champion miler and when he began playing softball after high school (small-ball fast-pitch softball, not that high-arc, tee-off-and-whack-it-into-the-next-county excuse for slow-pitch), he played center field for one year, then moved to catcher, because he could be involved in every play and manage the game. He caught for over 20 years, and could still run faster than me when he quit. Catchers ain’t slackers.
IM
And Bridgeghazi is funny.
elftx
We want a drummer that can’t keep time..
Said no band ever!
Tokyokie
@Anne Laurie: Even ones who spontaneously combust?
Omnes Omnibus
@Aji: Wonderful tribute. Thank you for linking to it.
Garbo
So if the billion dollar development was the issue, what were the Christie Crew staying to accomplish?
To scuttle the deal that would be the crown jewel for a Democrat mayor? To put the deal in jeopardy so Christie could swoop in a the last minute with a save and steal the glory? To scuttle deal and replace it with one that favored a developer on Christie’s inner circle?
The cops telling the folks stuck in traffic it was a decision by the mayor to close the toll booths makes me think it is more likely a “steal the deal” gambit. Little pissant Dem mayor can’t get this done, but BMOC can..?
Curiouser and curiouser….
scav
I saw the HS stuff as partly generic politicking. Populist appeal! HS smart — but not too smart! Not that other kind of smart, see oh, what’s his name again. Athletic! So, Proof again of not the wrong kind of smart but of the right kind of cool — not to mention just an athlete that’s put on a few pounds don’t we all bonding. The didn’t know the guy play seemed dim — too easy to dispute, unless he’s got something on everyone somehow connected to that HS at that time — seriously, in this post book of faces world?
Corner Stone
@gogol’s wife:
You bet. Ask someone else to keep time. Good luck.
raven
@Aji: Wow, what a great piece and a great man. I’m sure you have read Fighting Words on the Future of the Earth by Russell Means?
Aji
@Omnes Omnibus: She did a beautiful job, didn’t she?
And you’re welcome.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gogol’s wife: Do you sincerely miss those heavy metal bands you used to go and see on The Landing in the summer? playin’ Kiss covers, beautiful and stoned?
Cervantes
@IM: Is it wrong that I’m not smiling?
Anne Laurie
@SiubhanDuinne: Okay, you guys have convinced me (even though, like you, I am beyond tired of the ” – gate” designation for every two-bit political outrage.
apocalipstick
@gogol’s wife: Agreed. Guitar players are a dime a dozen, but a good drummer will have gigs forever.
“You know how you can tell it’s the drummer at the door? The knock speeds up.”
Corner Stone
@Garbo: IMO, it’s possible he wanted to muscle in and get his people the contracts. Control the jobs/contracts and wield enormous power through the state. Because once that project is online, all the taxes and funding can be used for more patronage contracts/jobs.
“Hey, nice access lanes Ft Lee has there. Maybe I yank them…maybe I don’t.”
gogol's wife
@Anne Laurie:
I was partial to “A Bridge Too Fat,” myself.
Aji
@raven: A lot of us are . . . conflicted, to say the least, about Russ. There’s a lot of history there for NDNs, not all of it good for us. Selling out to Ronnie Raygun, among other things.
There’s a public image that’s one of celebrity, and then there’s the rest.
gogol's wife
@Corner Stone:
Kornacki has me convinced that this is the crux of it, but how exactly it was to play out isn’t clear yet. That “Tollbridge magazine” article last night (I’m probably not getting the name right) seemed to indicate that they were contemplating getting rid of some access lanes.
Anne Laurie
@Tokyokie: Especially the ones who spontaneously combust!
raven
@Aji: Ah, damn. Well it was a nice piece included in a book called “Questioning technology.Technology, Tool, Toy or Tyrant”.
WaterGirl
@Aji:That was a lovely tribute. I never would have clicked the link if it weren’t for the last line of your comment:
I had no idea this man had ever existed; his was certainly a life to be honored.
WaterGirl
@Garbo:
Actually, as I recall from the email from the mayor, the wording was that the lane closures were the result of a decision the mayor had recently made.
To me, that does not say the mayor decided to close the lanes, but it does make me wonder if the mayor hadn’t pissed off the governor with a recent decision related to project, resulting in the decision by the governor to close the lanes.
IM
@Cervantes:
No. I don’t think it is that insensitive, though. There is Benghazi the incident were four american were killed and Benghazi the fake scandal. It is riffing of the later.
Corner Stone
@gogol’s wife: I’m really not sure at this point. But if there’s a “billion dollar development” going in minutes from the GWB to NYC?
If you’re the NJ Gov and DO NOT KNOW about it? What kind of clueless buffoon are you?!
raven
Sorry I was thinking of One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season about a coach who let the kids actually play.
gogol's wife
@Corner Stone:
And it’s much more convincing than the judicial appointment theory that Rachel Maddow was raising. I didn’t even understand that one. But big pieces of undeveloped land next to the GWB that are about to be developed? Wow.
Honus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I agree, but catcher’s equipment is called “the tools of ignorance”
Aji
@raven: Nah, don’t worry. Doesn’t mean that there’s not value in it for folks. I just . . . have multiple reasons to feel exasperation, shall we say. But he’s gone now, too, and he did some good work back in ’73 (among other times and places), and people should honor him for that.
Carter was a different sort – all for the people, absolutely no interest in the spotlight or public attention, all warrior through and through. In our household, he’s always been a hero, and we loved him.
Garbo
@gogol’s wife:
I think Corner Stone is right, although it isn’t beyond Christie to scuttle a big project as a fuck you to a political rival, i.e. the tunnel project. But you would think they would want to bring a billion dollar project to the state. But perhaps not if they can’t “profit” from it.
Violet
@scav: The “I was the class president and an athlete” stuff seemed petty to me. I wasn’t a fan of the class presidents in my schools–all a bunch of suck ups who wanted that office to put on their college applications. None of them did anything.
As for “I was an athlete”–the juxtaposition of the morbidly obese Christie and the word “athlete” makes my head spin. If he’d said, “I played baseball” then that would be different. Lots of people played sports in high school and aren’t exactly fit now. But he defined himself as an athlete. That word brings up a different image. And it highlights just how far down Christie has fallen if he truly was an athlete in high school.
hilts
Brit Hume offers a unique theory:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/brit-hume-old-fashioned-tough-guys-like-christie-cant-survive-in-todays-feminized-atmosphere/
jeffreyw
Bah, baseball, drummers… Thread needs a puppeh!
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts:
Oh FFS. Anyone who equates being masculine with being an asshole or a bully has severe problems.
Aji
@WaterGirl: Thank you!!! This was exactly why I wanted to post it here.
The names from 1973 known outside of Indian Country – Means, Banks, the Bellecourt brothers. Carter was the warrior heart and soul of the operation – of the movement – and yet, because he never sought the spotlight (indeed, shunned it), he’s not known outside of our peoples (or, sadly, even among them, when it comes to a lot of our young people) . And he did so much for so many, his entire life – still helping others to the end. He deserves to have his story told, to the entire world, IMO.
WaterGirl
@Violet: Check out raven’s link upthread to a photo of christie when he was a catcher. Christie looks young and fit, and I felt terribly sad when I looked at that photo.
gogol's wife
@Aji:
You know he had an obituary in the New York Times, right?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/us/carter-camp-american-indian-leader-dies-at-72.html
scav
@Violet: I didn’t mean to imply he was extremely successful in his politicking, and certainly less so with those likely to be found here. It’s just the odor I got coming off those comments — I personally heard a fair bit of boilerplate campaigning in between his kitten mews of how he was sad and betrayed.
gogol's wife
@jeffreyw:
What a face!
Aji
@gogol’s wife: Yeah; took ’em long enough. Even longer than WaPo, whose writer basically phoned it in. But Native media was already ahead of the curve, with some really fitting tributes.
Violet
@Aji: Lovely tribute. Thanks so much for linking it. The two photos of him holding the phone at different points in his life were amazing.
WereBear
@Aji: Thank you for sharing that. What an extraordinary person! And of course, he still is.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: Good god. They actually described Wounded Knee as “the last battle of the American Indian wars” in the obit. It was a battle in the way that My Lai was a battle.
brendancalling
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Nor is “drummer in the rock band” a good comparison. A rock band ain’t shit without a drummer, for starters. The drummer and the bass player hold the whole thing together.
The comic relief is the hippie playing percussion toys.
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet:
The day began like any other day. As usual, I was working out in my bathrobe, and at precisely 8:50 a.m (just a few minutes before 9 o’clock), having completed my bathrobe-clad workout, which is what I do, routinely, every morning, I reached, as I always do, for my copy of the morning edition of the Bergen Record, which I read every day after working out in my bathrobe. Little could I imagine, even in my wildest dreams, that the day ahead of me, which had started so normally, was about to become the most abnormal day of my life.
WaterGirl
@Violet: Second the comment on the two photos. Fascinating to see nearly identical photos taken so far apart.
Aji
@Violet: Wasn’t that? It just hit me right in the heart. And you’re very welcome.
@WereBear: You’re very welcome, too. He really was. And it’s a badge of honor that he called me “little sister.”
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, innit? There’s plenty in that “obit” that is questionable, but it’s clearly written by and for the dominant culture with no understanding of ours, much less of what it was like in that place at that time (or even now).
Smiling Mortician
@hilts: Brit Hume thinks Christie is muscular, now? Look, I’m not into fat-shaming, that’s not where I’m headed — and actually, it’s cool that he decided to lose weight — but “muscular” is not the right adjective for Chris Christie. Unless you’re counting the lump of muscle in his head.
Violet
@scav: Oh, yeah, he was definitely campaigning. Someone counted how many times he said “I” during the press conference, along with “I’m” and “me”. It’s pretty high. He’s all about selling himself and used the press conference, which he knew was nationally televised, to work on his 2016 campaign.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Honus: Yeah. You do have to be touched in the head to want to play catcher. Sure, you’re involved in every play but you also get hit by foul tips on a regular basis and are expected to let a baserunner plow you over to keep him from getting to the plate. Squatting that much is hell on your knees.
It’s not as much of a sign of being completely nuts as being the goalie in hockey, but it does take a special kind of willingness to absorb physical punishment.
WereBear
@brendancalling: More cowbell!
Another Holocene Human
Can anyone substantiate the claims that Christie had been complaining for some time that Fort Lee didn’t merit that many access lanes?
This comment earlier today made me remember that.
WaterGirl
@Violet:
Excellent article on that very topic: The ‘I’ in Christie’s Storm
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl:
Forgot to comment on the graphic that accompanies the article. I found it very compelling.
Violet
@Violet: Found it. Dana Milbank:
SiubhanDuinne
@Anne Laurie:
It’ll be better for you if you use it ironically.
SatanicPanic
@WereBear: Bassists are absolutely essential, except when they’re not. As a general rule, guitar players are by far the most replaceable band members.
kc
@Corner Stone:
The kind who couldn’t pick the Fort Lee mayor out of a line-up, doesn’t know what his top aides are up to, and only just knows that guy, Wildstein, enough to say “hi” to in passing.
EthylEster
AL wrote: but isn’t ‘catcher on the baseball team’ roughly equivalent to ‘drummer in the rock band’ — i.e., the comic relief character?
Hmm. Your ignorance is showing, my dear.
Stick to that unfunny cartoon strip.
SatanicPanic
@brendancalling:
I actually thought Mickey Finn was a key member of T-Rex.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Great!
raven
@efgoldman: I weighed 140 when I came home from over there.
Hobbes
The little I know about baseball comes mainly from Cross Game, but catcher seems like a fairly important position.
Jamey
@Omnes Omnibus: And with good reason. If you don’t know about baseball, yet want to somehow tie Christie’s adult life to his teenage athletic accomplishments, you should probably pursue another subject, Anne.
Uncle Ebeneezer
That may be the perception of drummers for the public, but it sure isn’t the way most musicians feel. If you’re putting together a rock band, a good frontman/woman is the first priority but a solid drummer is probably the second. Doesn’t need to be showy (see Ringo) but they have to be decent or the band will sound terrible. Whereas, terrible or sloppy guitar/keys/bass can all be ok and even a stylistic choice (see punk and alot of indie music) but a drummer that is offbeat or speeds up/slows-down pretty much kills everything.
raven
Bolts makin a run.
Cervantes
@IM: There’s also Benghazi, the city in Libya — but who’s counting?
Villago Delenda Est
@hilts:
Brit Hume is a Villager jackass, and a Faux Noise favoite.
Utter fucking scum.
raven
Within 7, 3:53 to go.
shelly
The Kids In The Hall had a whole skit on that subject.
IM
@Cervantes:
O come on. As if they matter.
Next you will tell me there is a city called munich.
Bill Arnold
@gogol’s wife:
The thing is, they could have test-closed 1 lane of the three, and they would have probably gotten away with it. But they funneled everything into one lane that handled both E-ZPass and cash (if I’m reading the email correctly) which was guaranteed to cause a massive backup. The traffic engineering emails that were released suggest (though they don’t say) that closing down to one lane was an outlier option and kinda shouldn’t be done. So there was some serious heavy-handed messaging going on. Maybe it was all three, mucking with the mayor’s development project, message to the mayor about lack of endorsement, message to the state rep for the area about judges. (three strikes – is Christie known work in threes?)
Cervantes
@hilts: If I were Brit Hume’s son, I might have shot myself long before age 28.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s our newspaper of record, you see.
JPL
@hilts: I know macho and Chris Christie is not macho.
Cervantes
@Bill Arnold: Responded to your earlier comment.
Another Holocene Human
busted, didn’t read the OP before commenting. DAMMIT!
Daffodil's Mom
@Aji: Aji, Read it there but still haven’t figured out how to comment or I would have. I am terribly sorry for your — and all of our — loss. I’m old enough to remember him back in the day, and was delighted when he started commenting at GOS – as wisely and passionately as ever. He will be missed, but I do think there is great hope to be had in the next generation — it’s just that the whole world needs more people like Carter Camp.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Litlebritdiftrnt: I had a cat years ago who would bring wounded live animals, and let them loose. Let me tell you. Finding your cat squared off against a live rat in your bedroom closet… well, let’s just say it was a unique experience. One I hope never to repeat.
Emily68
@Corner Stone: Ringo once said that he considered himself a success as a drummer because the other three Beatles all stopped playing at the same time.
Aji
@Daffodil’s Mom: Thank you. Yes, “passionately” – that was Carter. LOL – he jumped to my defense numerous times there; I was lucky enough to be able to return the favor sometimes. He didn’t suffer fools or racists gladly (or at all), but he was one of those people who was 100% genuine – what you saw was exactly what you got.
Oh, and are you registered as a user at the GOS? You have to register there to be able to comment. If so, then you should drop a note at their help desk, letting ’em know you’re not getting the comment interface.
Another Holocene Human
@RSR: Ah, no. Ridicule is the most effective weapon against ideologue, against which facts strive in vain.
Hal
@Violet:
Anytime anyone mentions they were class President I think of Tracy Flick from Election. Not a flattering comparison.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human: For ridicule to work, the target has to be smart enough to know he is being ridiculed.
TG Chicago
@slag: Didn’t think of that, but I completely agree. I’ve seen “BENGHAZI!!!!111” used around here so frequently that I failed to consider that part. Thank you for reminding us that it’s not something to joke about.
Granted, the rightwing freakout is impossible not to mock, but we need to keep a clear line between the two things.
Another Holocene Human
@Corner Stone: That was my impression but since I didn’t make varsity I wasn’t sure. Over the years I played catcher, shortstop, 2nd & 3rd base and right outfield. Catchers and shortstops have to move quick. IMO, shortstop in junior leagues needs to have a better understanding of the game than catcher b/c your kind of MLB catcher plays don’t apply. Btw, right outfield is usually where you send a dumbass fuckoff. In third grade I was famously more interested in the dandelions than the ball, hehehe…
Bill Arnold
@Cervantes:
Oh that. Yeah, finally ran a free ocr tool (freeocr) over the pdfs and am trying to build an email timeline, just to get a feel for the challenges that might be involved in doing this sort of analysis (of scans of text) professionally. The story, it is feeling … more complicated.
The analysis of the disruption appears to be just that, an analysis that was requested (not sure when).
I don’t have a theory about Durando’s “Took a shot. He didn’t bite.” (If I had to guess or die, a 25% guess would be that there was a verbal discussion about reducing the planned level of disruption.)
Corner Stone
@Another Holocene Human: Actually, over the last 10 years the HS game has really changed. My best friend is a guy who played pro baseball and has been a JC coach, a College coach and for the last decade +/- a private hitting instructor for rich kids.
We both played ball under a coach who was a former TAMU player and was a freakin Nazi. He rode the back of a fantastic pitcher for two years to get into state playoffs. The kid had a dominating fastball and a wonky curve. At 17 he hit high 90’s from start to finish. Of course, the coach overused him and the kid blew out his rotator cuff and had surgery right after HS. Coach started him three nights in a row in one stretch.
Anyway, in the olden days of yore when Christie was a catcher the odds are incredibly high that he didn’t do shit but what the coach told him to do.
HS Baseball coaches are tyrants, by and large. Just like HS Football coaches.
Kropadope
@Smiling Mortician: I think he was using “muscular” as a metaphor for his personality.
Smiling Mortician
@Kropadope: Yeah, but I’m still gonna disagree with the descriptor. “Muscular” implies discipline as well as strength. Not really seeing either in Christie.
Kropadope
@Smiling Mortician: I get the sense that Brit Hume’s vaunted “muscular” masculinity is less about discipline and more about Neanderthals swinging their big clubs around.
TG Chicago
Just saw that the post title changed. Thank you, Anne!
Cervantes
@TG Chicago: But not the URL.
Kropadope
@Cervantes: What’s it to you? Who you think you are, the Duke of URL?
Cervantes
@Bill Arnold:
Not yet sure about this story in particular but, in general, reality is more complicated than the versions we get from the carnival-barkers in the media.
Anyhow, you might be interested in this December 17 article by Peter Samuel in Tollroads News: “Poorly executed toll lane reallocation trial at Geo Washington Bridge escalates – two top execs of PANYNJ are out in political furore.”
Pogonip
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Yup, just follow your nose.
When I was a kid, my dad had a rabbit dog who felt her true purpose in life was to end the scourge of moles. To this end, she did not bay as a rabbit dog should; she spent their outings chasing moles in deadly silence. Our yard looked like Bugs Bunny had been furrowing through it after taking the wrong turn at Albuquoique; Lady could dig as fast as the moles could tunnel. Finally my dad concluded that being a rabbit dog was just not in Lady’s stars and gave her to a guy who had a houseful of kids and a yardful of moles. Everyone except the moles lived happily ever after; including my dad and his new rabbit dog, Joe, whose bellowing enthusiasm at scent of a bunny could easily have been mistaken for a tornado drill.
cleek
never let it be said that liberals aren’t afraid of Christie.
an entire week of wall-to-wall Christie belies that notion.
Bill Arnold
@Cervantes:
Interesting article; good to see I wasn’t misreading the emails (at least not badly).
I do not find Peter’s theory about Weinstein playing traffic engineer at all convincing; the push-back from the real traffic engineers about the effects of narrowing from 3 lanes to one mixed ezpass/cash lane would have been technically convincing.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Garbo: I think it was more than just a political thing. There are some exchanges last night on twitter that took me to a darker place.
Josh Marshall at TPM linked to a <a href="
“>tweet from Ryan Lizza that shows Bridget Kelly was the person commenting that she felt sorry for the kids. Sort of. In the ensuing twitter convo Lizza says he really wants to know is what does it mean to “pull a <a href="
“>Faps?” Sarah Chase replies, “This?”
FAPS is Foreign Auto Preparation Services, a business located at the Jersey Port Authority that receives and prepares luxury imported cars. In May 2012, after being in negotiations for a year, they were suddenly notified that they needed to come up with $2.4 million dollars in the next 8 days or be evicted. Googling Foreign Auto Preparation Services, I found that they are still in business at their PA address, so they appear to have found financing for the $2.4 mil. Just as the Ft. Lee redevelopment project found financing after the bridge shutdown. I sure would like to know who the financing is through, and if it is the same entity for both FAPS and the Ft. Lee project.
BTW I checked the FEC.gov website and the brothers who run FAPS, August and Gary LoBue, have made some hefty donations to New Jersey democrats in the last 10 years. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 figures.
Corner Stone
@cleek: It’s enjoyable to let the air out of him a bit. I find the ending of a bully, spit on his own petard, to be much fun.
And it also redounds to the idea that, IMO, this gives wide berth to the Bachmann-Nutso wing of the R party to see this as a truly wide open contest.
Anyone running will be tarred as an “establishment” Republican. There will be much bloodletting, IMO.
Some may fear Christie. I’m anticipating the ride.
Corner Stone
@Bill Arnold: Yes, I found the tone of, “Hey, why all those lanes, anyway?”
To be very incredulous.
joel hanes
@Aji:
Carter.
Would a donation in his honor to First Nations Development Institute be fitting?
Cervantes
@Bill Arnold:
He had a follow-up article three days later (December 20), from which:
Anyway, I agree that your reading of those e-mail messages makes sense.
mophene
@cleek:
Yes Lord, I fear The Christie. The similarities between him and Kwame Kilpatrick are downright frightening.
Aji
@joel hanes: You know what I think he’d like best of all? A donation to the Indigenous Environmental Network. he worked with them in his later years. Carter was a tireless opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, tar sands development in Canada and the U.S., and tracking, and he manned the blockades even after notified his prognosis was terminal last year. He always admired the work IEN did to save the environment, and I think if you were able to ask him, that would be the tribute he would choose.
Corner Stone
@gogol’s wife:
I thought TRMS theory was at least as plausible as any other avenue at the time. Because, to me, none of this seemed like it could fit into a box that real people could read about and say, “Oh. He fucked that guy for XYZ. Ok then.”
But billions of dollars in jobs/patronage/power? That makes all kinds of sense.
You’re going to torch a schmuck for not endorsing you? Say what now?
But. You’re going to break a schmuck to get in charge of the action? Yes. Yes, that makes a sense every Joe 6-P can nod wisely about. It takes 20 seconds or less to explain.
“The Gov closed the lanes to make sure that mayor knew who was boss. And he didn’t give one shit who got hurt in the middle of it.”
Oh, ok. Got it.
Bill Arnold
@Cervantes:
Ouch. (Especially in light of the message exchange requesting traffic problems in Fort Lee). What are peoples’ odds on how much damage this scandal ends up doing to CC?
Corner Stone
@kc:
Gerald Wulderschutz? Nah, never heard of him. I mean, he may be somebody I’ve known for 30 years and created a patronage job for paying six figures that didn’t exist before, but the name…doesn’t strike a chord with me.
Cervantes
@Bill Arnold:
Yes, I thought you might find that article helpful as you build your time-line.
Bush was “re-elected” in 2004, so what do I know?
cthulhu
Maybe someone can answer this question who watched the marathon press conference or knows the answer otherwise…
Seems to me that there are two questions you ask of someone you have just discovered has lied to you in a major way: Why did you lie to me? And what else have you lied to me about?
Now I could see that the occasional person might walk out of a personal relationship without trying to get answers to these questions (“You lied to me! I’m done with you. Get out!”) but it would seem moronic not to try to debrief the liar in professional/business circumstances. Was Christie asked about this? What was his response, if so?
There’s just so much about his behavior that suggests that he was not in the dark about this at all.
Death Panel Truck
@cleek: So you believe the liberal media myth, do you?
Sourmash
@Talentless Hack: Grateful Dead AND the Allman bros need two!
mapaghimagsik
@raven:
gogiggs
@Talentless Hack: One of these things is not like the others.
ottercliff
I heard he was the backstop.
Cervantes
@cthulhu:
Judge for yourself (from the January 9 press conference):
cleek
@Death Panel Truck:
humor me… tell us why you would say such a thing.
Cervantes
@cleek: Probably because when you referred to “liberals” and “an entire week of wall-to-wall Christie,” Death Panel Truck thought you were referring to the media at large.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Bill Arnold:
I think that pretty much kills Christie in the GOP primaries, unless the rest of the candidates are outright nutters. People compare Christie to Romney – establishment and not liked by the base, but Romney had no scandals like this.
Cervantes
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
How do you compare a week of traffic jams to what Bain & Co. did?
cleek
@Bill Arnold:
based on what we know right now?
-10 health points, which will be regained by this time next year. utterly insignificant.
tybee
the threads about carter camp bring back an early college memory.
spring quarter in 1973, dee brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee had just come out that spring in paperback (which meant that i could afford to buy it – the hardback was too expensive for a poor college student).
the AIM takeover had just been announced on the news the day before.
i was reading the book just before a class and a professor (unfamiliar with the book) walked by and commented that the author must have stayed up all night writing that book as the “incident” had just been announced.
just one of those memories that sticks out….
Paul in KY
@Talentless Hack: Travis Barker is the backbone of Blink-182.
Paul in KY
@Pogonip: He was the bane of Moledor!
J R in WV
@jeffreyw:
Wow! I’d take that guy home! What a cute puppeh, looks like he could run in circles for hours!
cat
@brendancalling:
Unless you are The Doors ofc.
MCA1
@Hill Dweller: This. I’m all down with everyone’s defense of catchers from AL’s (admittedly) ignorant dismissal, but very few high school catchers are calling pitches – they’re relaying signals from the bench, or they’re guessing what the pitcher wants to throw until they guess right. That may have changed from 20 years ago when I was playing high school/Legion ball, as the sophistication of the game has trickled down immensely in that time. But in the early ’80’s, I’m pretty confident in saying that the catcher was likely to be the guy on the team who was slow but had a decent arm and wasn’t afraid of blocking a ball with his equipment. Oftentimes, it was the hockey goalie if he played baseball, too. The best athletes on most high school baseball teams were the shortstop and the center fielder, and they doubled as pitchers.
Also, Wildstein was not providing any sabermetric information to his team circa 1980, as such information didn’t exist. There was no video scouting of opposing teams, there was no pitch charting, no one kept pitch counts or valued walks much, etc. etc. in those days. The guy probably kept the team batting averages and basic counting stats for hitters as well as pitchers’ ERA, BB’s and K’s, and sat on the bench with the scorebook during the game.
For Christie to say he basically didn’t even know the guy is still ridiculous – of course you’d know the waterboy – but to suggest they were probably in close coordination is a big stretch. Again, high school ball, early ’80’s. Recall that The Bad News Bears was set about 5 years before Christie graduated high school.
cthulhu
@Cervantes:
That’s interesting right there.
Sadly unasked follow-up question: Did you encourage her to be truthful and forthcoming in her testimony to the Committee?
Jebediah, RBG
@Corner Stone:
Saw a Rolling Stones doc last year in which they said they followed Keith, not Charlie. But they didn’t have too much luck with that.
Rex Everything
Are you kidding me, AL? Drummers make or break a band. OK, Keith Moon’s or John Bonham’s antics were funny, I guess. But both of them absolutely MADE their bands (and those bands didn’t consist of slouches either). And the point generalizes.
Cervantes
@cthulhu: So I’m wondering if you’d apply the word “moronic” to this aspect of what he did.
Paul in KY
@cat: Doors had a hell of a drummer.
cthulhu
@Cervantes: Well, I never took Christie to be a moron. But if your asking whether I think this explanation holds water, he was a US Attorney albeit not the most ethical of one. I would imagine he would know what he could do and could not do under the circumstances. I think it is another example of the vast divergence between Christie’s previous image and the one tossed about these days (take charge, hands on vs remote executive, leave everything up to others). Quite the personality switch.