Showing posts with label shoot the messenger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoot the messenger. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Christie Strikes Back at MSNBC Hoboken Story ~ #Floodgate Update

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Previous Related Posts
Hoboken Mayor Throws Christie Down on UP with Steve Kornacki MSNBC
GOP Spin on Christie - Bad Bromance and Benghazi
Christie Tries to Deflect and Dissemble on #BridgeGate
Christie's Well-Named Minion, Bridget Kelly
Christie Bridge-Splains But Holes Remain
Chris Christie and the #BridgeGate #BridgeGhazi #BridgeNado

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Governor Chris Christie isn't having a good weekend. Today he flew to Florida to talk to possible donors for his Presidential campaign but it all hit the fan anyway when MSNBC's Steve Kornacki interviewed the Mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, who came forward with a brand-spankin' new scandal to dump on the Christie administration. Looking and sounding almost like a frightened refugee in her own state, Zimmer described a pattern of manipulation and extortion played out by everyone from Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno to David Samson, Christie's mentor and head of the Port Authority. Now we have even more players involved, and a widening net that will probably include future subpoenas as both federal and state officials seek answers. Christie is livid and blaming MSNBC for all his woes in a hissy fit of "shoot the messenger." Make popcorn and stay tuned.

From New York Daily News
A pair of bully-boy Gov. Chris Christie’s top lieutenants delivered a “Sopranos”-style shakedown message to the mayor of Hoboken, MSNBC reported Saturday.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer, in an exclusive interview with the cable channel, said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno told her that Hurricane Sandy relief funds for Hoboken were tied to the approval of a city redevelopment plan.
In true Jersey fashion, the conversation occurred last May 13 in the parking lot of a Hoboken ShopRite, according to Zimmer.
Guadagno “pulled me aside ... And she said, ‘I know it’s not right, I know these things should not be connected, but they are. And if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it,’” Zimmer said in a Saturday interview.

Hoboken Damage from Hurricane Sandy





In a nearly 1,600-word statement issued while Christie was in Florida on a fundraising trip, spokesman Colin Reed went after multiple MSNBC hosts for reporting on the so-called “Bridgegate” scandal that has plagued the governor’s administration for weeks.
~ MSNBC

Excerpt via Huffington Post
"MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him, even taking the unprecedented step of producing and airing a nearly three-minute attack ad against him this week.
Governor Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get the help they need after Sandy, with the city already having been approved for nearly $70 million dollars in federal aid and is targeted to get even more when the Obama Administration approves the next rounds of funding. The Governor and Mayor Zimmer have had a productive relationship, with Mayor Zimmer even recently saying she’s ‘very glad’ he’s been our Governor. It’s very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television."

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The lane closings were an abuse of power. These new revelations suggest a pattern of behavior by the highest-ranking members of this administration that is deeply offensive to the people of New Jersey. If true, they could be illegal. There is no place in public service for actions like this or for the people who are responsible.
~ Steve Sweeney, President of State Senate on UP with Steve Kornackie

It’s just another example of the pattern of bullying and intimidation and retribution that takes place if you don’t do what Chris Christie wants. My understanding was that 80 percent of Hoboken was underwater, that they desperately needed those recovery funds.
~ Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

This one is beyond ugly. Because in the end, Zimmer did get shorted. Hoboken got $342,000, a pittance for a town that was 80 percent under water after the October 2012 storm. She had requested $127 million.
This is a credible charge. Zimmer is describing the same kind of thuggish behavior from the Christie administration that we saw during Bridgegate.
But this one cuts deeper. Leaving people stranded in horrid traffic for four days is bad enough. But denying aid to victims of Sandy as a means of leverage against an elected official is simply revolting. And surely illegal.
~ Tom Moran, New Jersey Star-Ledger

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Colin Powell Speaks Truth, GOP Shoots the Messenger


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Transcript: Meet the Press, January 13, 2013
I think what the Republican Party needs to do now is take a very hard look at itself and understand that the country has changed. The country is changing demographically. And if the Republican Party does not change along with that demographic, they’re going to be in trouble. And so, when we see that in one more generation, the minorities of America, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans will be the majority of the country, you can’t go around saying we don’t want to have a solid immigration policy. We’re going to dismiss the 47 percent. We are going to make it hard for these minorities to vote as they did in the last election. What did that produce? The court struck most of that down and most importantly, it caused people to turn out and stand in line because these Republicans were trying to keep us from voting.

There’s also a dark-- a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the Party. What I do mean by that? I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities. How can I evidence that? When I see a former governor say that the president is shuckin’ and jivin’, that’s a racial era slave term. When I see another former governor after the president’s first debate where he didn’t do very well, says that the president was lazy. He didn’t say he was slow, he was tired, he didn’t do well, he said he was lazy. Now, it may not mean anything to most Americans but to those of us who are African-Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there’s a third word that goes along with it Birther, the whole Birther Movement. Why do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the Party?

I think the Party has to take a look at itself. It has to take a look at its responsibilities for health care. It has to take a look at immigration. It has to take a look at those less fortunate than us. The Party has gathered unto itself a reputation that it is the party of the rich. It is the party of lower taxes. But there are a lot of people who are lower down the food chain, the economic chain, who are also paying lots of taxes relative to their income and they need help. We need more education work being done in this country. We need a solid immigration policy. We have to look at climate change. There are a lot of things that the American people are expecting and the Republican Party, as they get ready for the next election, really has to focus on some of these issues and not ignore them.

Everybody wants to talk about who’s going to be the candidate. You better think first about what’s the party they’re actually going to represent. If it’s just going to represent the far right-wing of the political spectrum, I think the Party is in difficulty.

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Pow! Right in the kisser!
Yesterday a day of infamy for the Republican Party. General Colin Powell told the vivid nasty truth. He blasted his party, especially its leaders, for engaging in what he called flagrant race baiting. . . . The indictment has now been made by this country's most celebrated African American Republican.
~ Chris Matthews on Hardball

My question after that interview, which was really incendiary and a line in the sand, is when will a Republican Party admit they have a problem? Because every time something like this happens, there is a doubling down, there is a deep defense, there is an attack on the messenger.
~ Alex Wagner on Hardball

(Powell) went directly to the most common liberal meme these days in defending a radical left president: Republicans are racist. It’s a bully tactic that has become all the rage these days – Republicans don’t oppose Obama on policy, and they don’t have a good rationale for standing against liberalism. It’s just that they secretly hate black people.
. . . Powell labels it racist because it serves his political ends.
Is the word “lazy” racist? If so, half the media hates white folks, because presidents going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower have routinely been labeled lazy.
As for the birthers, nobody in the mainstream of the Republican Party has ever given credibility to them. Only in Colin Powell’s opportunistic mind is the GOP linked with birtherism.
~ Ben Shapiro on Breitbart

The idea that the Republican Party’s problem is that the party is inherently racist, or led by racists, or has a core of racists in it, is just patently absurd.
~ Conservative Talk Show Host, Laura Ingraham

If Republicans Have a ‘Deep Vein’ of Intolerance in Them, You Couldn’t Prove It By His Career
~ Brit Hume on Fox News

. . . he’s really quite the schmuck. I’m just being honest with you. He’s an egomaniac. He was a terrible secretary of state. But I would ask Mr. Powell this question: Ronald Reagan plucked you from obscurity, specifically [former Secretary of Defense Caspar] ‘Cap’ Weinberger did, Mr. Powell. What do you think ‘Cap’ Weinberger would think of what’s happening to the United States Navy, in general the United States Armed Forces, Mr. Powell? ‘Cap’ Weinberger, who was behind the 600-ship navy, that is just now going to be under 300? What do you think about that, Mr. Powell?
Ronald Reagan would be repulsed by Obama, by his conduct in the Oval Office, by the way he campaigns, by the way he lies, by his philosophy, by his policies, by what he’s done to this nation and the private sector, Mr. Powell. So why did you endorse Barack Obama, Mr. Powell?
. . . I think nobody gives a damn what you think.
. . . You know what you are? You’re a partisan hack. Get out of my party.
~ Radio Host Mark Levin, via Daily Caller

I disagree with General Powell’s assessment of the Republican Party today. The Republican Party is the party that [has] placed two Hispanics in the U.S. Senate, and we have an African-American senator in the United States Senate.
~ Senator Marco Rubio of Florida

I mean, you've got Colin Powell on TV yesterday saying Republicans did not use to be this way. The GOP looks down on blacks, minorities. Look at the Senate. The only black senator is a Republican. The only two Hispanic senators are Republicans, but here's Colin Powell saying Republicans look down on minorities. And they're racists, and they're using code, dog whistle language now. The titular head of the Republican Party. The Republican that everybody in the media says we all should emulate, Colin Powell, that's what he went on TV to say yesterday.
~ Rush Limbaugh

How can a serious interviewer let a comment like that, so sweeping and so egregious, slip by?
It is a serious and deeply wrongheaded comment. Gregory could have pressed Powell in any number of ways. Didn’t some Democrats accuse Obama of being lazy (on MSNBC, no less) ? Who else is a racist in the GOP? Is there anyone in the U.S. Senate? Wasn’t it an ex- governor (Sarah Palin) who holds no office whom he quoted? Does he think everything MSNBC hosts say is reflective of the Democratic Party? Is a single ex-governor the best he can do?
Was the George W. Bush administration intolerant? Are House Republicans intolerant? Has he ever met Sen.Tim Scott (R-S.C.)? Are the 48 percent of Americans who voted for Mitt Romney intolerant?
I suspect Gregory let it slide with no hint of disagreement because he saw nothing objectionable to labeling the GOP (or “some parts” — which ones?) as racist. It is such an accepted part of the liberal media group think that it doesn’t even merit notice, it seems. It is interesting, isn’t it, that Hagel, who has an entire record of utterances, gets a pass, yet Powell is ready to indict the entire GOP on the basis of such scrawny evidence?
~ Jennifer Rubin on Washington Post

The Republican Party is not listening to General Colin Powell, or anyone else who deviates from the party line. Instead, their response to him is a doubling-down of their viciousness against opponents and to frantically restructure the way they communicate their toxic message to their base. From their "conservative" media echo chamber, including first and foremost Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham to actual Republican officeholders like Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), etc., etc., the message is the same: Powell is a tool of the "Democrat Party." He has, they tell themselves, once again played the race card, and in doing so, he betrayed them just one time too many.
This is a classic example of "shoot the messenger."
It is also the beginning of the end of the Republican Party. It is in its death throes now; and it is sad to witness the demise of this once great party.
~ Herbert Dyer, Jr. on AllVoices


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