trafficjamgate

[SeattleUte]

I listened to portions of Christie's press conference and was very impressed. If what he said is accurate, and no smoking gun (or even more tangible evidence) surfaces that he knew or approved of the reprehensible conduct of his staff, I think this will ultimately turn out to be a positive for him. There are screw-ups in any administration, and this is a rare instance of a leader quickly acknowledging the screw-up, canning those (apparently) responsible, and demonstrating a zero tolerance policy for such conduct going forward. Such an approach is very rare among Dems or Repubs, and he's going to benefit from this.

But again, it comes down to the accuracy of what Christie said today. If he's contradicted by the facts, his presidential aspirations are toast. If not, I think he's on his way up.

lol tell me religious folks here. Does death bed repentance count. The gillotine is poised above his neck and he's giving eloquent apologies! He acts like Tony Sprano till now he might get wacked. I'm not buying it. He's disqualified.

Somebody posted a comment in the Times that this was no less egregious than Watergate. I tend to agree. Both scandals involved cheating at politics, an effort to subvert fair play in our representative government. I don't know if a crime was committed in the Christie situation, but there should be a crime that covers the chief exectute creating massive days' long traffic jams for naked political revenge. In each situation someone could argue lack of proximate cause, but that is hardly the point. However, as a practical matter the specific infraction at issue adversely and materially affected many more ordinary American lives in the Christie scandal. Despicable, and the skind of attitude starts at the top.

[Jeff Lebowski]

lol tell me religious folks here. Does death bed repentance count. The gillotine is poised above his neck and he's giving eloquent apologies! He acts like Tony Sprano till now he might get wacked. I'm not buying it. He's disqualified.

Somebody posted a comment in the Times that this was no less egregious than Watergate. I tend to agree. Both scandals involved cheating at politics, an effort to subvert fair play in our representative government. I don't know if a crime was committed in the Christie situation, but there should be a crime that covers the chief exectute creating massive days' long traffic jams for naked political revenge. In each situation someone could argue lack of proximate cause, but that is hardly the point. However, as a practical matter the specific infraction at issue adversely and materially affected many more ordinary American lives in the Christie scandal. Despicable, and the skind of attitude starts at the top.

Whoa, dude. Did you really just lol at a PAC post?

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Don't lecture me, living in your one horse town with all those emptry freeways criss-crossing the blasted landscape.

If it hasn't taken you 3+ hours to go from Lewis/McCord to Lakewood you haven't really lived.

[PaloAltoCougar]

lol tell me religious folks here. Does death bed repentance count. The gillotine is poised above his neck and he's giving eloquent apologies! He acts like Tony Sprano till now he might get wacked. I'm not buying it. He's disqualified.

Somebody posted a comment in the Times that this was no less egregious than Watergate. I tend to agree. Both scandals involved cheating at politics, an effort to subvert fair play in our representative government. I don't know if a crime was committed in the Christie situation, but there should be a crime that covers the chief exectute creating massive days' long traffic jams for naked political revenge. In each situation someone could argue lack of proximate cause, but that is hardly the point. However, as a practical matter the specific infraction at issue adversely and materially affected many more ordinary American lives in the Christie scandal. Despicable, and the skind of attitude starts at the top.

I'm as surprised at your hair-trigger reaction here as I am at your apparent outsourcing of word processing to grapevine. Watergate? I can't wait for the Redford/Hoffman movie (perhaps John Goodman can beef up and play the villain) on this 21st Century version of the biggest political scandal of our lifetimes. But is it? Do we have evidence that Christie knew about his staff's scurrilous acts in advance, or that he learned about them subsequently and either dismissed them or tried to cover them up? I really don't know, but if the answer is no, this ain't Watergate or anything remotely close to it.

Let's wait until all the facts are out before we roll film. It comes down to a Watergate-era question: What did he know, and when did he know it? From the facts that are out thus far (or at least those of which I'm aware), he may emerge from this relatively unscathed. Certainly not true for a couple of his lieutenants, which is as it should be.

Whoa, dude. Did you really just lol at a PAC post?

I'm happy to receive an lol, even if I'm not aiming for one. If I can bring gladness into the heart of even one of my fellow men, I am fulfilled.

[SeattleUte]

I'm as surprised at your hair-trigger reaction here as I am at your apparent outsourcing of word processing to grapevine. Watergate? I can't wait for the Redford/Hoffman movie (perhaps John Goodman can beef up and play the villain) on this 21st Century version of the biggest political scandal of our lifetimes. But is it? Do we have evidence that Christie knew about his staff's scurrilous acts in advance, or that he learned about them subsequently and either dismissed them or tried to cover them up? I really don't know, but if the answer is no, this ain't Watergate or anything remotely close to it.

Let's wait until all the facts are out before we roll film. It comes down to a Watergate-era question: What did he know, and when did he know it? From the facts that are out thus far (or at least those of which I'm aware), he may emerge from this relatively unscathed. Certainly not true for a couple of his lieutenants, which is as it should be.




I'm happy to receive an lol, even if I'm not aiming for one. If I can bring gladness into the heart of even one of my fellow men, I am fulfilled.

I'm remembering, sixteen years old I was and hearing William Cohen's eloquent defense of Nixon, "The question is, what did the President know and when did he know it?" I agree, let's get to the bottom of this. Dig deep. And cudos to the NY Times for digging this up so far.

[SeattleUte]

Whoa, dude. Did you really just lol at a PAC post?

Apparentlhy, if yo're going to be iconoclast enough to lol PAC yor wp better be impeccable.

[Topper]

Apparentlhy, if yo're going to be iconoclast enough to lol PAC yor wp better be impeccable.

A traffic jam?

We have gone soft. Gone are the good ole days of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun and Chris Matthews.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Apparentlhy, if yo're going to be iconoclast enough to lol PAC yor wp better be impeccable.

FTR, creekster is one of my favorite people. You're ranked, too.

[venkman]

The difference is that those American folks that died in Benghazi signed up for that. They knew of the possibility that they might have to die for their country.

No they did not. They signed up knowing of the potential danger, but they also signed up believing their government had their back and would not simply abandon them in time of need.

[smokymountainrain]

No they did not. They signed up knowing of the potential danger, but they also signed up believing their government had their back and would not simply abandon them in time of need.

[Omaha 680]

There are several horses in my town. And my commute here is worse than it was back home, unfortunately. Not worse than when I drove up to LA, but definitely worse than when I stayed in OC.

Some locals here will point out with pride that SLC was built under divine inspiration, citing wide streets as an example of some sort of civic soothsaying. Why couldn't Utah receive some divine inspiration when laying out its freeway system, or lack thereof? It takes me a minimum of 12-15 minutes every day to get to the freeway from my house. If you have weather or construction delays, it can take 30 minutes.

Utah needs more freeways.

Comparing Utah to Southern California and saying it needs more freeways is like comparing anywhere else in the country to NYC and saying they need more trains. Both are extreme cases and no one will ever match the freeway system in Southern California or the mass transit in NYC, ever. I will agree with others that Utah hasn't had the best planning. But it isn't so much lack of planning as it is waiting a bit too long to push to implement. The corridors have been preserved, but building/rebuilding freeways is extremely expensive. The push for the Olympics got the ball rolling and there have been some great additions in Utah County with Pioner Crossing, SR-92, and Mountain View Corridor. There is still much to do to catch to the population growth on the Wasatch Front though.

[venkman]

Ha. Funny. Wrong, but funny.

[imanihonjin]

lol tell me religious folks here. Does death bed repentance count. The gillotine is poised above his neck and he's giving eloquent apologies! He acts like Tony Sprano till now he might get wacked. I'm not buying it. He's disqualified.

Somebody posted a comment in the Times that this was no less egregious than Watergate. I tend to agree. Both scandals involved cheating at politics, an effort to subvert fair play in our representative government. I don't know if a crime was committed in the Christie situation, but there should be a crime that covers the chief exectute creating massive days' long traffic jams for naked political revenge. In each situation someone could argue lack of proximate cause, but that is hardly the point. However, as a practical matter the specific infraction at issue adversely and materially affected many more ordinary American lives in the Christie scandal. Despicable, and the skind of attitude starts at the top.

So then you would agree that Obama is responsible for the IRS scandals too then, right? How about Benghazi, Fast and Furious, DOJs snooping on reporters, etc? This kind of attitude starts from the top, right?

[All-American]

So then you would agree that Obama is responsible for the IRS scandals too then, right? How about Benghazi, Fast and Furious, DOJs snooping on reporters, etc? This kind of attitude starts from the top, right?

Yes. Which means Christie has a real problem in his hands.

[byu71]

So then you would agree that Obama is responsible for the IRS scandals too then, right? How about Benghazi, Fast and Furious, DOJs snooping on reporters, etc? This kind of attitude starts from the top, right?

I enjoy watching or listening to some of MSNBC. Listening to them this morning they were proposing that Christie just didn't want to know what was going on so he would have plausible deniability. They weren't patting him on the back for doing this but indicating such action from a leader is about as bad as knowing in the first place.

I swear these are the same people who idolize President Obama.