Big Boss' Big Week

Monday morning Clever Sister heard this on NPR: "Christie 'Heartbroken' Circle Of Trust' Was Violated." What really caught her attention was Steve Innskeep's lede—

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave an epic press conference yesterday. It went on for almost two hours, almost as long as the traffic jams that prompted him to meet with the press in the first place.

"... almost as long"? When this was four days, of emergency vehicles unable to pass, children unable to get to school?

Media and pundits just can't quit him, as Steve M. has been following. And it's not only Republican operatives eager to pretend Christie is "a moderate."

This would explain the infatuation, as Chris Hedges puts it—

Christie is the caricature of a Third World despot. He has a vicious temper, a propensity to bully and belittle those weaker than himself, an insatiable thirst for revenge against real or perceived enemies, and little respect for the law and, as recent events have made clear, for the truth. He is gripped by a bottomless hedonism that includes a demand for private jets, huge entourages, exclusive hotels and lavish meals. Wall Street and the security and surveillance apparatus want a real son of a bitch in power, someone with the moral compass of Al Capone, in order to ruthlessly silence and crush those of us who are working to overthrow the corporate state. They have had enough of what they perceive to be Barack Obama's softness. Christie fits the profile and he is drooling for the opportunity.
...

Wall Street was unable to mask Mitt Romney's cloying sense of entitlement and elitism, along with his Mr. Rogers blandness. But Wall Street sees in the profane, union-busting New Jersey governor the perfect Trojan horse for unfettered corporate power. Christie, eyeing a bid for the presidency in the 2016 election, has been promised massive financial backing by the Koch brothers; hedge fund titans such as Stanley Druckenmiller, Kenneth C. Griffin, Daniel S. Loeb, Paul E. Singer, Paul Tudor Jones II and David Tepper; financiers such as Charles Schwab and Stephen A. Schwarzman; real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman; former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso; former AIG head Maurice "Hank" Greenberg; former Morgan Stanley CEO John J. Mack; former GE Chairman Jack Welch; and Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone. David Koch has called Christie "a true political hero" and said he is "inspired by this man." Rupert Murdoch, whose ethics seem to align with Christie's, is similarly besotted with the governor.

Christie is pitched to the public, as was George W. Bush, as a regular guy, someone who speaks bluntly and candidly, someone you would want to have a beer with. But this is public relations crap. He is and has long been a hatchet man for corporate firms and big banks. He began his career as a corporate lobbyist in Trenton, N.J., working for clients such as the Securities Industry Association. He has done their bidding ever since. His wife, Mary Pat Christie, is a bond trader who has worked at JPMorgan Chase, Fleet Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald and is currently a managing director at Angelo Gordon, an investment firm in New York.
...

Christie's large public entourage always includes a videographer who captures the governor’s frequent public humiliation of those—public school teachers are his favorite targets for ridicule—who have the audacity to question his judgment. These exchanges are immediately edited and uploaded to YouTube. There are now more than 600.

And so on.

David E. posts some of the teacher-bullying videos.

More from Steve M. about possible motives for punishing Ft. Lee; on the 13th

... I'd like to see a lot more attention paid to the theory of Bridgegate outlined by Steve Kornacki on MSNBC over the weekend: that it was an attempt to put a scare into Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich as he struggled to finalize funding for part of a billion-dollar development in his town under the George Washington Bridge -- a development for which an easy commute to Manhattan via the bridge is a principal selling point. Watch the segment, read the follow-up at Talking Points Memo, and see if it doesn't make sense. (Yes, I think it makes more sense than the Rachel Maddow theory that the traffic tie-up targeted the majority leader of the state senate, a Fort Lee resident, because of a dispute over judicial appointments: why would the emails on this subject say nasty things about he "little Serbian" -- Mayor Sokolich is of Croatian descent -- if he weren't the target?)

There's plenty to be investigated, and Steve M. added this yesterday—

On MSNBC this morning, Steve Kornacki reported on allegations by Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer that the Christie administration withheld Sandy relief fund for her city -- 80% of which was flooded by the hurricane -- because the city was reluctant to approve a redevelopment project in a form that helped Christie allies...
...

Kornacki's previous -- and, to me, highly persuasive -- scoop was the linking of the Fort Lee lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to another redevelopment project, in Fort Lee, which was struggling to get funding at the time of the closures, and which was premised in part on the selling point that Fort Lee offers easy access to New York City through the very bridge lanes that were closed.

As an Italian-American, I sometimes think it's simple-minded to compare every shady Italian guy to Vito Corleone or Tony Soprano. In this case, though, I give my blessing. The Christie mob clearly feels it has total control over New Jersey redevelopment -- you don't do it in a way that crosses the Christie mob's interests. You recognize that the Christie mob makes your redevelopment possible, and when the Christie mob asks for something in return, you owe. And woe to you if you don't pay up -- whether it's an endorsement for Christie's reelection or preferential treatment for Christie's pals.

In another context, TBogg says about the newest Southern congressional candidate/rape expert—

So let us extend our heartfelt congratulations to the GOP on another fine recruiting season. Dick Black looks like he is a keeper and even though he will cause conservatives excruciating pain and shame and embarrassment as he is thrust into the national media limelight over and over again, they should keep in mind that it will all be over soon and they should probably just lie back and enjoy it in the meantime.

If only because their body politic lacks the ability to shut these kind of things down.

A good one. But there's not so much to laugh at when our entire body politic lacks the ability to shut down all kinds of things in need of shutting down.

Of the Christie story, at best the mockery of him on national TV by his idol may be a bit wounding

.