Tag Archives: chris

Watch: What The Dick Cheney/Rand Paul Feud Tells Us About the GOP

by slodka_elkra Posted on June 24, 2014

Mother Jones

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Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn dropped by MSNBC’s Hardball to talk with Chris Matthews and the Huffington Post‘s Howard Fineman. The topic: the ongoing civil war within the GOP—and between Rand Paul and Dick Cheney—over the crisis in Iraq. It’s hardly the first time the two have been at odds: Paul accused Cheney of exploiting Iraq for Halliburton’s gain, and called him out on torture; Cheney fired back, saying Paul was “not familiar” with the facts.

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Watch: What The Dick Cheney/Rand Paul Feud Tells Us About the GOP

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Watch: Dick Cheney’s Utter Lack of Self-Awareness on Iraq

by AmberPkk Posted on June 19, 2014

Mother Jones

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Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn stopped by Hardball to talk with Chris Matthews and the Huffington Post‘s Howard Fineman about Dick and Liz Cheney’s op-ed criticizing President Obama’s response to the Iraq crisis. Also, read David on the seven talking points you need for discussing Iraq.

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Watch: Dick Cheney’s Utter Lack of Self-Awareness on Iraq

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Blood Moon!

by BryonWrench Posted on April 15, 2014

Mother Jones

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It turns out that timing is everything with the blood moon. We had a thin little haze of clouds passing across the sky here in Irvine, so I couldn’t get a very sharp image, but at 11:24 pm, the moon was still disappointingly moon-colored. By 12:03 am, however, it was satisfyingly florid. Enjoy.

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Blood Moon!

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Ugh: Cheney and Palin Call For Military Involvement in Ukraine

by turystycznypbs700 Posted on March 11, 2014

Mother Jones

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Washington bureau chief David Corn joined Chris Matthews and Huffington Post‘s Howard Fineman on Hardball to discuss the push by far-right conservatives like Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, and Ted Cruz for US military involvement in Ukraine.

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Ugh: Cheney and Palin Call For Military Involvement in Ukraine

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Corn on "Hardball": John Boehner Moves Forward With Clean Debt Ceiling Extension, Angers Tea Party

by 1LymSlagter473 Posted on February 13, 2014

Mother Jones

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Mother Jones DC Bureau Chief David Corn spoke with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews about John Boehner’s decision to move forward with a clean debt ceiling extension and the “inevitable clash between two wings within the Republican party.” Watch here:

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on "Hardball": John Boehner Moves Forward With Clean Debt Ceiling Extension, Angers Tea Party

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Getting to the Bottom of David Wildstein

by dfdedtcf Posted on February 6, 2014

Mother Jones

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What exactly was David Wildstein’s job at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey? His official title was Director of Interstate Capital Projects, which isn’t much help since building and managing interstate capital projects is pretty much all the Port Authority does. The position was invented in 2010 after Chris Christie became governor, and it was eliminated after Wildstein resigned following the Bridgegate revelations. It doesn’t appear to have much of an official job description. So what did Wildstein do? Here’s what Shawn Boburg of the Bergen County Record said about him in a 2012 profile:

Wildstein is playing a key behind-the-scenes role in Governor Christie’s effort to get more control over the Port Authority, the bi-state transportation agency that has come under increased scrutiny since raising bridge and tunnel tolls in September….Several executives said Wildstein has played a role in placing some of those recommended by the Christie administration in jobs and that he seems to serve as the administration’s eyes and ears within the byzantine agency.

….Eight current and past Port Authority colleagues agreed to speak about Wildstein, but insisted that their identities remain undisclosed because they feared retribution. They described Wildstein, one of 50 recommended for jobs by the Christie administration, as intimidating, hardworking, intelligent, private and fiercely loyal to the governor.

Some bristle that a senior executive post is occupied by someone with more experience with campaigns than with transportation issues. “He became the watcher of the entire agency,” one person said. “What he was watching for was strict adherence to the Christie agenda.”

Hmmm. Via Bob Somerby, here is what WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein said on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night:

This wasn’t a nothing job. This was a really important position where he was in charge of doling out billions of dollars for capital projects, much of that in New Jersey.

And what we know now is that David Wildstein was taking money and putting them into projects that solved other problems for Chris Christie, lots and lots of money….There was a project lifting up the Bayonne Bridge….There was also billions of dollars that went into the Pulaski skyway….Now, this seems like a mundane project, but the key thing about it is that it meant that Chris Christie didn’t have to spend New Jersey funds. So it solved a big budget headache.

….Now, as you mentioned, the top of the segment, I learned and some other reporters learned this week, that this position had been eliminated. Which sort of goes to, was it key? Was it important? Or was it something that was created so that David Wildstein could carry out Chris Christie’s will at this authority? Which is, let’s not forget, a bi-state authority, New York and New Jersey. It runs the airports. It runs the bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey. That’s its function.

The Christie take on this is that the Port Authority was a mess and badly needed better oversight, which Wildstein provided. Everyone else’s take is that Christie wanted more personal control over which projects were and weren’t approved, and Wildstein was his inside guy, the enforcer who made sure that Christie loyalists were installed in key positions and Christie priorities were taken care of.

And I guess that job is no longer necessary. That’s either because Wildstein did a bang-up job and the Port Authority no longer needs extra oversight, or because Bridgegate made it politically impossible to keep a Christie enforcer on the Port Authority payroll. I guess you can make up your own mind about which seems more likely.

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Getting to the Bottom of David Wildstein

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There’s One Group of Voters Who Likes Chris Christie More Than Ever

by KristinaRosenba Posted on February 5, 2014

Mother Jones

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Jonathan Bernstein notes today that Chris Christie’s poll numbers have actually risen among one particular group of voters: tea partiers. It’s a small sample from a single poll, so you don’t want to take this to the bank until we get confirmation. And yet:

If true (and again: see caveats above), it’s a fascinating finding, confirming that for at least some non-trivial group of Republicans, all a politician has to do to win their favor is to get attacked by anyone outside of the conservative bubble.

Which is, to put it bluntly, pathetic.

But it does suggest — at least a little — the appeal of a Sarah Palin or a Herman Cain….Or, for that matter, the continuing appeal of Newt Gingrich to some conservatives despite his frequent and major deviations on public policy over the years. If the core credential for being a Real Conservative is to be attacked (by liberals? by the “neutral” news media? by prosecutors?), then demagogues, charlatans and the inept have a real advantage over responsible, competent politicians. Which really is a problem for the Republican Party, but beyond that, is an even more important problem, I would think, for actual ideological conservatives — that is, people who care about public policy and ideology, as opposed to being purely concerned with tribal allegiances.

Partisans are always susceptible to circling the wagons when one of their own is attacked. But conservatives have turned victimization into a high art over the past few years—led, as Bernstein points out, by the high priestess of grievance and victimization herself, Sarah Palin. When reports surface that make you look bad, just spin them as desperate attacks against real American values by East Coast elitists and you’re golden. After all, if the lamestream media says you did something bad, then you must actually be doing something very, very good, amirite?

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There’s One Group of Voters Who Likes Chris Christie More Than Ever

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How the Christie and McDonnell Scandals Hurt the GOP, but Help the Tea Party

by JohnnieOlvera Posted on January 23, 2014

Mother Jones

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Mother Jones DC Bureau Chief David Corn joined Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball to discuss the Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell scandals, how the Tea Party benefits when the public loses faith in government, and what happens to the Republic Party when it loses its rising stars.

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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How the Christie and McDonnell Scandals Hurt the GOP, but Help the Tea Party

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New Christie Bridge Scandal Email: Cops Forced to Direct Traffic Instead of Responding to Emergencies

by Ivan Nutter Posted on January 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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More MoJo coverage of Chris Christie’s bridge scandal


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Chris Christie’s Not in the Clear Yet. These Text Messages Show Why.


Here Are the Chris Christie Emails Everyone Is Talking About


9 Times Chris Christie Denied Using a Bridge for Political Revenge


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5 Unanswered Questions About Chris Christie’s Bridge Scandal


New Bridge Scandal Emails: Port Authority Official Said Christie Team’s Lane Closure “Violates Federal Law”

The massive, four-day September traffic jam orchestrated by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s deputy chief of staff as an act of political retribution caused police in Fort Lee, New Jersey to spend their time directing traffic instead of responding to local emergencies, according to an email released on Friday by state investigators probing the scandal.

On September 9, the first day of the traffic problems, Robert Durando, the Port Authority’s general manager of the George Washington Bridge, wrote to Cedrick Fulton, the Port Authority’s director of tunnels, bridges and terminals: “Traffic conditions required Ft Lee police to remain out on corners, managing traffic instead of attending to public safety issues.”

The email is more evidence of the public safety consequences of September’s traffic jams. On Wednesday, a Fort Lee borough councilman told Mother Jones that the traffic slowed the police search for a missing 4-year-old child. NorthJersey.com reported that the traffic doubled EMS response times in two emergencies on September 9. In a third instance, emergency responders “took nearly an hour to arrive at a building where a person was experiencing chest pains.”

Members of Christie’s inner circle appear to have considered the potential public safety ramifications of the traffic jam while it was ongoing. In one exchange released on Wednesday, Port Authority official David Wildstein, a Christie appointee, waved away complaints from the Fort Lee mayor that school buses filled with children were stuck in traffic. “Bottom line is he didn’t say safety,” Wildstein wrote.

Durando’s message was part of an email thread, “Angry Patron,” describing locals’ reactions to the traffic problems. In a separate email, Lisa Herrera, an employee of the Port Authority tunnels, bridges and terminals division, said she received a complaint from a woman whose husband arrived 40 minutes late for his first day of work at a job he landed after being unemployed for a year. The women accused the Port Authority of “playing God with people’s jobs,” Herrera wrote.

A New Jersey legislative panel investigating the bridge scandal released these emails Friday as part of a collection of hundreds of private emails and text messages related to September’s lane closures. Read those documents here.

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New Christie Bridge Scandal Email: Cops Forced to Direct Traffic Instead of Responding to Emergencies

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New Bridge Scandal Emails: Port Authority Official Said Christie Team’s Lane Closure "Violates Federal Law"

by DarellUXTK Posted on January 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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More MoJo coverage of Chris Christie’s bridge scandal


Chris Christie’s Bridge Scandal, Explained


Chris Christie: I Am “Heartbroken” and “Embarrassed” About Bridge Scandalâ&#128;&#148;But Not Guilty


Christie Administration’s Bridge Lane Closure Slowed Search for Missing 4-Year-Old, Says Official


Chris Christie’s Not in the Clear Yet. These Text Messages Show Why.


Here Are the Chris Christie Emails Everyone Is Talking About


9 Times Chris Christie Denied Using a Bridge for Political Revenge


VIDEO: David Corn on What Chris Christie’s Bridge Scandal Means for 2016


5 Unanswered Questions About Chris Christie’s Bridge Scandal


New Bridge Scandal Emails: Port Authority Official Said Christie Team’s Lane Closure “Violates Federal Law”

In a September 13 email released Friday by the New Jersey Assembly panel probing Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s George Washington Bridge scandal, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye wrote that the decision to shut down access lanes to the bridge violated state and federal laws.

“I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates Federal Law and the laws of both States,” Foye noted, explaining his decision to reopen those lanes to traffic. “I am appalled by the lack of process, failure to inform our customers and Fort Lee and most of all by the dangers created to the public.”

Foye sent his email after four days of heavy traffic jams caused by the closures to nearly a dozen officials at the Port Authority, including chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee.

Private messages released on Wednesday strongly suggested that a top aide to Christie orchestrated the lane closures as an act of political revenge. Samson’s role in the scandal remains unclear.

Screenshot from new emails released as part of an investigation into politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge

On Thursday, Christie expressed confidence that Samson played no part in causing the Fort Lee traffic disaster, saying, “I am convinced that he had absolutely no knowledge of this, that this was executed at the operational level and never brought to the attention of the Port Authority board of commissioners.” Yet when Foye ordered the lanes reopened on September 13, David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the Port Authority official wrote to a Christie staffer, “We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate.”

Another email released on Friday shows an effort to keep the story from going public. On the night of September 13, Foye received an email from Bill Baroni, a Port Authority official appointed by Christie (who resigned in December as the scandal was unfolding). It read, “I am on my way to the office to discuss. There can be no public discourse.”

And another email released on Friday indicates that the Christie crew was worried about Foye. On September 18, Samson wrote Scott Rechler, the vice chair of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners,* that he strongly suspected Foye of “stirring up trouble” by speaking anonymously to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the Fort Lee traffic debacle. He went on: “This is yet another example of a story—we’ve seen it before—where Foye distances himself from an issue in the press and rides in on a white horse to save the day In this case, he’s playing in traffic, made a big mistake.”

These emails were released as part of a collection of hundreds of emails and text messages that journalists and investigators are now scrutinizing. Read them here.

Correction: An earlier version of this article failed to note Rechler’s position in the Port Authority. He is the vice chair of its Board of Commissioners.

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New Bridge Scandal Emails: Port Authority Official Said Christie Team’s Lane Closure "Violates Federal Law"

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