Showing posts with label sexist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexist. Show all posts

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Desperation in Bernie-Land

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Previous Related Posts:
Susan Sarandon Likes Trump Over Hillary
 Bernie Camp Blames Hillary for AZ Loss
Bernie Gives Hillary the Hand of Silence
Polls and Predictions for Hillary and Bernie on Super Tuesday
Hillary Landslide in South Carolina
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Bernie Sanders has won the last seven consecutive primaries and caucuses, including a big win in Wisconsin last week, and is expected to win the mostly-white Wyoming Caucus today. But the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, will probably beat him in the New York Primary of April 19th in spite of the fact that Bernie being born and raised there.

Of course his rabid followers believe Bernie can win big in New York and pull out wins from now until June, but the reality is he still lags behind in delegates, and even tying or barely beating Hillary will not help. So there is a looming sense of do-or-die for his campaign, especially for his highly-paid team of Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver who need the Bernie fans to keep sending money.

From RealClearPolitics
“With our victory tonight in Wisconsin, we have won seven out of the last eight caucuses and primaries, and we have won almost all of them with overwhelming, landslide numbers,” Sanders said during a victory speech so familiar to his Wyoming supporters that they shouted out lines along with the candidate.
. . . In an email to admirers, Sanders described what remained of April as “the most important three-week stretch of the campaign.”
“We’re going to win this election,” he vowed, “if we can keep our momentum going.”
. . . Clinton’s campaign team predicts that after April 26, when voters in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., participate and 631 delegates are divvied up, the nominating drama may be mathematically finished for Sanders.

Yet Bernie is his own worst enemy, sounding woefully unprepared for obvious questions in his interviews, such as the methodology of how to "break up the banks" which he mentions in every speech:

From Bernie's Interview with the New York Daily News Board:
Daily News: Well, it does depend on how you do it, I believe. And, I'm a little bit confused because just a few minutes ago you said the U.S. President would have authority to order...

Sanders: No, I did not say we would order. I did not say that we would order. The President is not a dictator.

Daily News: Okay. You would then leave it to JPMorgan Chase or the others to figure out how to break it, themselves up. I'm not quite...

Sanders: You would determine is that, if a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. And then you have the secretary of treasury and some people who know a lot about this, making that determination. If the determination is that Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan Chase is too big to fail, yes, they will be broken up.

Daily News: Okay. You saw, I guess, what happened with Metropolitan Life. There was an attempt to bring them under the financial regulatory scheme, and the court said no. And what does that presage for your program?

Sanders: It's something I have not studied, honestly, the legal implications of that.

Some of Sanders high-profile surrogates are not helping either. Actor Tim Robbins, long-time partner of Bernie supporter Susan Sarandon, introduced the candidate in Wisconsin by weirdly slamming both the island of Guam, which hasn't voted yet, and the state of South Carolina, an early Southern state who went for Hillary. This continues the Sanders pattern of looking at the Southern states who went mostly for Hillary Clinton as some type of "rigged" election that "stacked the deck" against them. Bernie and company don't seem to understand that for Dems in red states, the primary season is the one chance to make their voices heard to the national party. But forget that - Bernie must win! To hell with the Democratic Party base!

Via Washington Post
"After the Southern primaries," he said, "you had called the election" -- apparently referring to the media. "And who's fooling who? Winning South Carolina in the Democratic primary is about as significant as winning Guam. No Democrat is going to win in the general election. Why do these victories have so much significance?"
This is a not-uncommon argument among supporters of Sanders. Yes, Hillary Clinton is winning. But she's winning largely because she ran up big margins in Southern states. That, the argument goes, bodes poorly for the general, since those Southern states usually vote Republican.
This is a bad argument that borders on insulting.









Surrogate Nina Turner, a former state senator from Ohio and one-time Hillary supporter, made a bizarre reference to slavery while debating ex-Senator Barney Frank on the tv machine:

MSNBC's Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Transcript:
NINA TURNER: There may be many people standing that are part of the elected ministry in the establishment, standing on the side of Secretary Clinton. Some of those folks I have worked with, but the bottom line is this. There are millions of Americans in this country who believe that change needs to come, that the status quo cannot continue, that people are suffering in this country.

And, Senator Bernie Sanders has a proven track record of having the good judgment and standing up for the least of these when it is not convenient. So, it is unfair. And, congress people like Keith Ellison. I would take his endorsement any day. And, he has endorsed senator Bernie Sanders and that is a big deal. There was a time in this country where the majority of folks thought slavery was OK too.

O`DONNELL: Barney, go ahead.

FRANK: That last comment just baffles me. It is going to take me about a
week to figure out what that was supposed to mean. But as far as Keith Ellison is concerned, I admire Keith. I just signed an e-mail for him. But, he is one of 45 members of the congressional black caucus and every other one is for Hillary Clinton.

So, you are talking about the establishment. No, I do not think John Lewis, one of the great moral leaders of my generation who is a strong Hillary Clinton supporter, is the establishment, not in a bad way – Or Luis Gutierrez who is led the fight for immigration. I understand, and
maybe this highlights in.



And things have gone downhill from there, with the Bernie camp desperately throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Hillary and hoping it will keep their momentum going, calling her "unqualified" and so "ambitious" that she is going to "destroy the party." Yeah, right. Women aren't allowed to be ambitious!















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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Bernie Gives Hillary the Hand of Silence

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Previous Related Posts:
Polls and Predictions for Hillary and Bernie on Super Tuesday
Hillary Landslide in South Carolina
With #CoinTossGate Bernie Bros Call Hillary Fraud
Clinton and Cruz win Iowa Caucus 2016

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CNN hosted another Dem Debate on Sunday night and it mostly went well for both candidates. At least their remarks weren't in the gutter like the GOP candidates in their last debate, thank God.

But Bernie is a grumpy guy and when Hillary dared to interrupt him, he waved his hand in her face and growled "Excuse me, I'm talking." That may not seem like much in an election season when the GOP candidates are yelling at each other incoherently every chance they get.

But here's the thing - no women needs to be put in her place this way, and Hillary has a right to defend herself even to Bernie. He has to be held accountable for his personality and mannerisms, since being a President is somewhat a cult of personality vote. If she as a woman had interrupted him that rudely while waving a finger towards him, pundits would be calling her a shrieking harpy. Oh wait, MSNBC pundits Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell called her voice "shrill" a few nights ago. Funny, they never talk about Bernie's nasel twang or the fact that he yells constantly!

From the New York Times
When he attacked Mrs. Clinton over what he called “the Wall Street bailout where some of your friends destroyed the economy,” she tried to cut him off.

“Excuse me, I’m talking,” he said.

After a brief dramatic pause, Mrs. Clinton said sharply, “If you’re going to talk, tell the whole story.”

“Let me tell my story and you tell yours,” Mr. Sanders shot back.


























Monday, December 28, 2015

Schlong and Short of It ~ Trump Plays Misogyny Card Against Hillary

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Donald Trump is a big, loud, hateful Misogynist. So what else is new?

When Hillary had to take a bathroom break during the latest Democratic debate, Trump made his disgust known:

From Washington Post:
"I know where she went -- it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it," Trump said, screwing up his face, as the crowd laughed and cheered. "No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it, it's disgusting."

Disgusting - because I guess men never go to the bathroom, right?

Bernie Sanders opined: “This is a guy who wants to be president of the United States. He must have a very unusual relationship with women.”

Unusual, indeed. He hates women.

Trump also said that Obama beating Hillary during the 2008 Primary was a case of her getting "Schlonged." Yes, "Schlonged." And he used it as a verb, which makes it rather a synonym for "F***ed."

TRUMP: Let me just tell you. I may win, I may not win. Hillary, that's not a president. That's not -- she's not taking us -- everything that's been involved in Hillary has been loss. You take a look, even a race to Obama, she was going to beat Obama. I don't know who would be worse. I don't know. How does it get worse? But she was going to beat -- she was favored to win and she got schlonged.



Rachel Maddow believes Trump was confusing "Schlonged" which is Yiddish for "penis," with "Shellacked," meaning beaten:

MSNBC Transcript: Rachel Maddow:
“The Washington Post” reports today the only other time that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has been known in public to use the word, forgive me, schlonged, was in 2011 when he was talking about that same 2016 midterm election, that same midterm election in which President Obama very famously described it as having been shellacked and everybody talked about that midterm election using the word shellacking. Donald Trump in 2011 tried to talk about the 2010 shellacked midterms and instead he came out with the term schlonged.

. . . So, maybe this is like a malaprop.

A "malaprop" or "malapropism" means a mistake in word choice, referring to Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play "The Rivals" by Richard Sheridan, 1775. The character nearly always chooses the wrong word for what she means, which makes her quite humorous to audiences. But Maddow went on to say she didn't believe her own theory:

I told you this was a bad theory. I don`t actually believe this. I don`t actually believe he meant something else and it came out wrong but you know what, it`s Christmastime, and it`s sometimes nice to imagine a nicer world than the one in which we live, one where the Republican Party`s leading presidential candidates, at least their leading presidential candidate, one of them, says stuff like this and does stuff like this.


In fact, Trump has not admitted making any mistakes with that word, and his spokesperson Katrina Pearson played dumb about it on CNN Via Crooks and Liars:
LEMON: Do you think that was -- Katrina, was that off the cuff? Because schlonged usually means, you know, something else.

PIERSON: Well, I think he was meaning like schlonged to the ground, schlonged around, I mean, are we really talking about the definition of a word of Hillary Clinton?

WILSON: Oh, he did not, Katrina. Come on, don't even try that.

PIERSON: What is -- what is schlonged in, Rick? Why don't you tell me what schlong means.

Trump on Twitter:





Hillary's spokesperson tweeted:



Trump then accused Hillary and her camp of playing the "Woman are Degraded Card"



That statement caused Michaela Pereira of CNN to state this on air:

“Is it a card? She is a woman, it’s not really a card.”

But Trump can't stop, and decided to attack Bill Clinton next! Talk about holier than thou! How many times has Trump been divorced again???










Saturday, August 15, 2015

Erick Erickson - Misogynist Hypocrite Tells Haters to Back Off

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Previous Related Posts:
First GOP Primary Debate on Fox

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After Megyn Kelly of Fox News asked Donald Trump why he was so mean to women all the time, he spent the next few days on Twitter and in the media verbally slapping her around, even implying that she was hormonally challenged to dare ask him such a pointed question.

Up rode Erick Erickson, white GOP pundit on a white horse, to the rescue of the fair-white maiden in distress. He banished Trump from an event sponsored by his website, Red State, while allowing other Republican candidates to use the event to campaign against the Donald.

From The Atlantic
ATLANTA -- Donald Trump was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the RedState Gathering here, a convocation of the hard-core conservative activists who read the influential blog edited by Erick Erickson. But when Trump said on CNN late Friday that debate moderator and Fox News host Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,” Erickson, who is a Fox News contributor, announced he had disinvited Trump from the conference. “There are just real lines of decency a person running for President should not cross,” Erickson wrote.

Decency towards women would be nice, yes. But Erickson has a problem with women.

In 2012, when Michelle Obama, Lilly Ledbetter and Tammy Duckworth spoke at the Democratic National Convention, he labeled it the "Vagina Monologues." Last year he started calling Texas Rep. Wendy Davis "Abortion Barbie" during her run for Governor. He has also written that since humans are animals, and males in the animal kingdom are usually dominant, then it was right and proper for men to dominate women in our society. The little women should stay out of the workplace, while men remained the breadwinners. It didn't even seem to matter to Erickson that this unequal view has always been backwards, that women in every society often function as breadwinners (or breadmakers, or bread sellers), or that many human societies are matriarchal, or that many animals are even matriarchal, Erickson just wanted every woman to know he was superior and dominant.

CNN Wingnut Erickson Goes Full Misogynist over DNC
Erickson Labels Wendy Davis "Abortion Barbie
Talking to Neanderthals: Megyn Kelly vs. Erick Erickson

So Erickson doesn't mind using anti-women rhetoric when it suits him. He can out-Misogynist Trump any day. He's a big-mouthed Tea Party War-On-Women Evangelical Jerk. So riding up to "help" Kelly with Trump in an act of rank hypocrisy.

Even this week, his website called Hillary Clinton a "homely" woman who "slept her way to power." What a gent!



The Atlantic called Erickson out about his misogyny:

. . . Molly Ball: Critics note that you also have a history of nasty and misogynistic comments. Do you really have any standing to judge Trump?
Erickson: You know, I’ve said some pretty stupid shit in the past, and I’ve apologized for it. I didn’t deny that I ever said it, I didn’t claim that my Twitter account was hacked. I apologized, said I was wrong, and had to deal with it. Trump’s reaction is, “I said whatever, not wherever.” No, he didn’t. I listened to the tape twice. I played it for the audience; they got the full context of it.
 

Yes, what Trump said about Kelly was despicable. But Erickson was the wrong champion to try and right the wrong.







And now it has backfired on him with his own true followers on Red State, which is poetic justice indeed. Even a week after the debate and when his event with the GOP candidates was over, Erickson was still getting horrible vitriolic hate mail on his website, and it upset is wittle feelings.





He appealed to his haters to just back off, because hate is not the answer. But clearly he has attracted such haters for years, being a hater himself.

Erickson: Can We Recalibrate?
. . . this one
You disinvited Trump! We’ve disinvited you. we had planned on streaming the event. That won’t be happening in our household. Hopefully you will become a conservative organization with some balls one of these days.
That one had a verse of scripture underneath.
Then there is this one.
Guess what, dumb bass, the non Washington Republicans, like us, want no fucking part of the current Republican Party, like you. Leave the real conservatives alone, quick mailing shit, quit begging for help, and most of all, KEEP BASHING TRUMP. You are incredibly fucking stupid.
and this one
Trump is the man! Fuck Eric Ericson. hope he and all women in his life are raped, beaten and murdered by illegal spics! Go Trump!

. . . Conservatives have a real and legitimate reason to be pissed off at the GOP. Polling suggests conservatives hate the Republicans in Washington more than Democrats hate the Republicans in Washington. That anger has galvanized conservatives and pushed them toward Donald Trump. To his credit, he has capitalized on that anger.
But folks, this is anger at an unhealthy level. It is anger that has gone beyond the righteous anger of repeated betrayals from Washington. It is an anger that has become unhinged and is potentially uncontrollable. Anger at that level is more often destructive than constructive.

Ya think? Oh, boo hoo. Erickson has been rabble-rousing these same sad people for years, so he can dish it out but he can't take it. And he's surprised that they quote scripture to him? He has a scripture listed on his twitter, where he rants about "Abortion Barbie." His hate-filled screeds against Michelle Obama as a "Marxist Harpy Wife" are sprinkled among Sunday School stories of his kids. He prays for Democrats while rubbing their faces with his manure.

This is what happens when a pundit has been paid by both CNN and Fox to spew acid for years, even while bragging about what a good Christian he is. Total cognitive dissonance about his own point of view. He is as tone-deaf as Huckabee about the Duggar family incest.

And Trump? None of this is hurting him with possible voters - he is sailing along at the top of the polls. Sorry, Erick Son of Erick.






Wednesday, August 27, 2014

#NRA Portrays Gun Control Activist Shannon Watts as a Stepford Wife

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Previous Related Posts:
Open Carry Storms the Home Depot
The NRA's Scary Tone-Deaf Message
NRA Against the World
Gayle Trotter says Weak Women Need Assault Weapons
Newtown: Now is the Time for Gun Control

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The National Rifle Association is always proud when a woman straps on a gun and walks through Target or Home Depot, but they really despise women who want gun control. That's why in a recent article, the NRA is attacking Shannon Watts, the activist Mom who created "Moms Demand Action."

In an article called "Not Watt She Seems," NRA has chosen to demean Watts by making her the caricature of a 50's retro paper-doll housewife surrounded by household objects such as a feather duster, an iron, and a spatula. In essence, the NRA is depicting women as Stepford Wives.

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From the Article in America's First Freedom Zmag
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG IS BANKROLLING “MOMS DEMAND ACTION,” WITH SHANNON WATTS AS HIS STAND-IN, STAY-AT-HOME MOM.
BUT A CLOSER LOOK REVEALS HER COVER STORY TO BE PAPER-THIN.
Ms. Watts was not an activist or involved in gun issues prior to the shootings at Sandy Hook on Dec. 14, 2012. The day after the tragedy, she started a Facebook page called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America....
. . . The registered address for her pr firm was a residence, so presumably she was running her pr firm out of her house. Her children were all well into school-age or older, so it’s likely that she had plenty of time to run her business during the day. Watts’ biography on Linkedin.com states that she ran the public relations firm until June 2012. Also, for the 20 months ending in June 2012, she was a consultant for the large public relations firm FleishmanHillard. Also, in May 2010, Watts and her husband opened the Watts Fine Art gallery in Zionsville, Ind. There’s nothing wrong with that, except “running a streetfront art gallery plus public relations business from my house” is not the impression conveyed by “stay-at-home mom.”

Shannon Watts, via Chicago Tribune
"The idea that I might be able to stay home and do something other than cook and clean seems beyond their grasp," Watts says. "They believe real moms wear dresses from the 1950s and use rotary telephones and iron — which, in my opinion, is what the dryer is for."
The image is an odd move for an organization so actively courting women to join their ranks.
"For them to denigrate women, who make up the majority of the electorate, seems incredibly short-sighted," Watts says.

Rebranding?

The NRA ultimately loses the argument by insisting that Watts has no right to be as accomplished as she is, since she calls herself a stay-at-home mother. That is insulting to all women throughout history, It seems as if Wayne La Pierre believes the old cliche of women being "just a housewife," as if women were ever "just" anything.

The ironic thing about the NRA's argument is that it portrays Watts as both an accomplished and effective activist, so they are admitting they have a Renaissance woman as an adversary. And now that they are throwing down the gauntlet, even bringing the ages of her children into their criticism, they deserve whatever despicable fate awaits them in the future.

Watts and @MomsDemand fought back in social media with the hashtag #MomsNotMaids and graphics making fun of the NRA's backward and sexist view of women.



















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Monday, June 30, 2014

Emotional Reactions to SCOTUS Hobby Lobby Verdict

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Previous Related Post:
SCOTUS Rules in Favor of Hobby Lobby on ACA Birth Control Mandate


The Supreme Court ruled in the Hobby Lobby case that Corporations are allowed to be called religious entities, and therefore are exempt from laws concerning birth control. The Right Wing is rejoicing, because they think this is the next step in overturning Roe v. Wade and making Abortion illegal. Somehow their small minds have morphed birth control into abortion, even if no eggs are ever fertilized. Somewhere Rick Santorum is popping bottles and waving a Bible in the air. The stupid injustice of this ruling burns our country.

If health care is for everyone thanks to ACA, and birth control is supposed to be free for all women, then why should it matter where you work or what your boss thinks about your private choices?

SCOTUS and Hobby Lobby should beware the wrath of women. There are more of us in this country than religious fanatics. People will boycott Hobby Lobby in the short term, but hopefully women will line up to vote in both 2014 and 2016 so that a Supreme change can happen in the future.

Other companies will use this ruling to cut costs by suddenly finding religion, which is a shame for all their female employees. The slippery slope is that these companies will keep trying to push the envelope further and further with their hope of a forced-pregnancy white-male-authoritarian all-Christian America.


From Think Progress
If you’re one of the estimated 14,000 individuals who work at Hobby Lobby or Conestoga Wood — the companies who represented the two plaintiffs in the case — then you’re most immediately affected by Monday’s decision. Your employers no longer have to cover several types of birth control that they’re opposed to.

Both companies object to covering emergency contraception, which they falsely claim is a type of abortion despite all scientific evidence to the contrary. Hobby Lobby’s owners also take issue with two forms of intrauterine devices (IUDs), long lasting forms of birth control inserted in the uterus, for the same unscientific reason. So the workers employed by those businesses won’t be able to use their insurance coverage for those types of birth control anymore. They’ll presumably be able to continue using their health plans for other methods, like hormonal birth control pills, that their bosses don’t have a problem with.

But even if you don’t work at Hobby Lobby or Conestoga Wood, there’s a chance that your birth control coverage may be put into question. More than 70 other companies also sued for the right to stop following Obamacare’s contraceptive provision. According to the National Women’s Law Center, 48 of those cases are still pending. Now that the Court has sided with Hobby Lobby, it will be much easier for some of those companies to win their suits and opt out of covering certain types of contraception.

On Hardball last night, the Attorney for Hobby Lobby's Green family wouldn't say if they are satisfied with Justice Alito's "remedy" of letting the government cover female employees with the types of objectionable birth control. Watch attorney Lori Windham waffle on the question at about 8:07:



Rachel Maddow talked about the so-called "narrow scope" of the ruling. Alito says that groups such as Jehovah Witnesses can't use it to limit blood transfusions, or vaccines, or mental health, etc. But some other corporations wish to object to ALL birth control, so in the future the ruling will probably allow almost any restriction by employers based on THEIR religious beliefs, regardless of the "burden" on the employees.


















































































SCOTUS Rules in Favor of Hobby Lobby on Birth Control Mandate

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The country sitting on pins and needles waiting for the Hobby Lobby case to be announced at the Supreme Court. Today is the last day of the session, and people are still reeling from the smackdown of Buffer Zones around abortion clinics.

Breaking - They've ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby - "closely held" corportations don't have to provide birth control if it is against their religion. Therefore, a corporation is now identical to a person with religious beliefs. Not to mention that this is a sexist verdict because it only applies to women, and puts their health care in jeopardy. Idiots!!!!!!











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Saturday, March 29, 2014

#Bridgegate News: Christie Talks, Bridget Strikes Back, Samson Quits, Wildstein Still an Outcast

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Chris Christie held a lengthy presser today, showing some of his old arrogance with the media, before flying off to Las Vegas to meet with Sheldon Adelson, one of Mitt Romney's top donors in 2012. Because yeah, somehow Christie thinks he can slough off this controversy and run for President in 2016 now that his own lawyers have attempted to clear him. Good luck with that.
At the same time, his crony at the Port Authority, David Samson, resigned his cushy job, possibly because he is under a Federal Investigation for all the sweetheart deals he got for clients of his private law firm. And maligned mother-of-four Bridget Kelly came out swinging through her attorney after the Bridgegate Report called her "too emotional" and referred to her private life as a cause of the George Washington Bridge Closure. Big day in New Jersey for sure!

Previous Related Posts:
Christie #Bridgegate Report: Time for Some Slut-Shaming in New Jersey
Christie's Well-Named Minion Bridget Kelly
Port Authority Under Scrutiny in #Bridgegate
Christie Faces Bad Karma for Dissing Wildstein
Monday Morning Joe Quarterbacking for Christie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late today in a Trenton conference room, Chris Christie re-entered the media arena. In his version of "Facing the Lions" the only things missing as he intimidated and taunted the members of the press corps were a chair and a whip. All the rest was on display as he poked and derided the Capitol reporters invited to ask him about his million-dollar defense report he used to day as both shield and weapon. Unfortunately he may not have gotten all that the taxpayers of New Jersey paid for.
~ Chris Matthews on Hardball

He said having David Wildstein at the Port Authority “was a mistake. Let’s leave it at that.” Wildstein is suspected of being a key player in the lane closures. He also denied again that he and Wildstein were friends from high school. Christie appointed Wildstein to the post, though, and the governor’s office praised Wildstein’s skills at the time he took the job.
. . . "What you get with me is what you get. I cannot shed who I am," Christie, a former prosecutor, says, explaining why he didn't question former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly before he fired her.
. . . It took just eight minutes for Christie to snap at a reporter and warned him to “cut the commentary.”
~ MyCentralJersey.com

Christie at one point referred in the Friday press conference to his aides, who were fired or resigned, but he might be talking about himself when he said:
“People need to understand that if you participate in this kind of conduct, you will not be permitted to hold the public trust, and the authority that goes along with a senior position in this government that comes with it.”
~ NY Daily News



















Ahead of a trip out West laced with 2016 implications, Christie made a great, heave-ho attempt this week to push past the political nightmare known as “Bridgegate.” He is due to speak at a Republican Jewish Coalition event this weekend in Las Vegas, followed by Republican Governors Association fundraising retreat in Park City, Utah.
. . . The former federal prosecutor even reiterated, at some length, that he will decide whether or not to run for president independently of this whole unpleasant saga. Christie said he didn’t think the George Washington Bridge fiasco would weigh heavily on how voters consider “my candidacy, if there even is one.”
~ Politico

“There’s no baggage here because I didn’t do anything,” the Republican governor told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” when asked whether the scandal would hinder a presidential run.
Asked whether Bridget Kelly would back up the governor’s story under oath, Christie said: “I have no idea, but all I can tell you is it's the truth.”
Christie pledged that no emails or phone records or taped calls will emerge showing he knew about this, “because I didn’t.”
~ Fox News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lawyer for Bridget Anne Kelly fired back today against allegations that largely blamed her for the George Washington Bridge lane closings, blasting a $1 million report commissioned by Gov. Chris Christie’s office as containing “venomous, gratuitous, and inappropriate sexist remarks.”
Michael Critchley, Kelly’s lawyer, said in a statement, “The report's venomous, gratuitous, and inappropriate sexist remarks concerning Ms. Kelly have no place in what is alleged to be a professional and independent report.”
. . . Calling the report “a preemptive strike” meant to “isolate Ms. Kelly and impugn her credibility,” Critchley said, “Ms. Kelly is not a liar. She is a single mother of four children who was deeply devoted and committed to her job at the Office of the Governor. She worked tirelessly to pursue the goals of the Office during her tenure.”
~ NJ.com













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Governor Christie's Crooked Pals' Club Band



Gov. Chris Christie announced today that David Samson, whose chairmanship of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has come under fire in recent months, has resigned.
In a statement released today, Samson said: "Over the past months, I have shared with the Governor my desire to conclude my service to the PANYNJ. The timing is now right, and I am confident that the Governor will put new leadership in place to address the many challenges ahead."
Christie said that "in line with that belief, David tendered his resignation to me this afternoon effective immediately."
~ NJ.com

Asked why Mr. Samson was leaving, Mr. Christie cited his age. "He's tired," said the governor, who thanked Mr. Samson, an ally he has defended as the scandal unfolded.
Mr. Samson is the fifth Christie ally to depart the governor's circle since the scandal over lane closures escalated in January. Mr. Christie also fired his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and cut ties to his former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, whose roles in the closures are scrutinized in the report. David Wildstein, the Port Authority official who engineered the closures, and another top Christie appointee there, Bill Baroni, have also resigned.
. . . With Mr. Samson resigning, Mr. Christie turned to the Gibson Dunn report's call for changes at the Port Authority, and suggested he would even support dismantling its operations, a drastic step that would represent a sea change in New York and New Jersey government.
~ Wall Street Journal

Samson is also connected to the controversy that flared in the wake of the "bridgegate" scandal, involving distribution of hurricane Sandy relief funds. Dawn Zimmer, the mayor of the New Jersey city of Hoboken, alleged in January that the Christie administration leaned heavily on her to pave the way for a lucrative development project by the Rockefeller Group, which was represented by Wolf and Samson.
Samson is not accused of directly intervening in the affair. But Zimmer claimed other Christie officials quietly warned her that Hoboken would be starved of aid money unless she got behind the development project backed by Samson's law firm.
~ The Guardian