When Christie Tried To Bully Senator Lautenberg.....

[Laxman]

using Bill "Billy Baloney" Baroni and access to Port Authority records. Well it looks like the walls may be closing in. It's been quite a week and quite a day in Christie land as things appear to be heating up on the one year anniversary of the Bergen Record releasing the infamous "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" e-mail. This time it 's David Sirota in the IB Times:

Before Bridgegate, Chris Christie Used Port Authority As Political Weapon

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was under fire. It was 2012 and the agency had just hiked tolls on area bridges and tunnels. Inside a hearing room on Capitol Hill, the Port Authority's deputy chief, Bill Baroni, was absorbing withering criticism from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the late New Jersey Democrat.

Lautenberg carried a reputation as the political nemesis of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who had appointed Baroni to his perch. Baroni swiftly attacked the senator: How could Lautenberg justify his opposition to raising tolls when he had himself enjoyed free passage across area bridges and tunnels?

"Respectfully, Senator, you only started paying tolls recently," Baroni said, according to a transcript of the exchange. "In fact, I have a copy of your free E-ZPass," he continued, holding up a physical copy of the toll pass Lautenberg had received as a benefit from his tenure as a Port Authority commissioner. "You took 284 trips for free in the last 2 years you had a pass."

Within days, Christie himself disclosed further detailed information about Lautenberg’s private travel records. At a press conference, he alleged that the senator didn't "pay for parking at Port Authority facilities" and said Lautenberg went "through the tunnel to New York three or four times a week in 2005 and 2006."

A year later, the Christie administration's relationship with the Port Authority would burst into public view as the centerpiece of a scandal known as Bridgegate, in which the governor's staff allegedly conspired with the transportation overseer to close lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge, generating traffic jams as punishment for communities whose elected officials had not amply supported the governor.

Christie has repeatedly dismissed the episode as a rogue decision by his staff, maintaining that he was not consulted and would never have authorized such a stunt. But the exchange with Lautenberg and Christie's direct citation of his personal travel records underscore the degree to which his administration was already using the Port Authority as an instrument in his famously hard-nosed brand of politics.

At the time, the discussion of Lautenberg's travel history seemed like just another prop in the confrontational style of politics that dominates New Jersey. But the data that Baroni and Christie unleashed in assailing Lautenberg was not publicly available. Indeed, in a recent letter responding to an open records request, the Port Authority deemed those very same travel records off-limits to the public. Tim Feeney, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, confirmed to International Business Times that under New Jersey law, E-ZPass records can be obtained only with a civil court order or criminal subpoena.

Christie’s office rebuffed an open records request from IBTimes seeking the data about Lautenberg's E-ZPass usage that the governor had himself detailed at a 2012 press conference, asserting that it had no such records. Neither Baroni, Christie nor the Port Authority responded to questions about how they had been able to obtain such details.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey issued a subpoena to members of the state legislature seeking records related to Baroni’s testimony at a 2013 hearing on the Bridgegate scandal. At that hearing, Baroni disclosed that he possessed E-ZPass customer data showing the traffic histories of constituents of state lawmakers who were interrogating him.

Experts tell IBTimes that the disclosure of E-ZPass records appears to have violated state law protecting the privacy of drivers and also raises serious questions about the degree to which government agencies can keep tabs on the comings and goings of citizens.

Read the rest here: http://www.ibtimes.com/bridgegate-chris-christie-used-port-authority-political-weapon-1778062

[pscot]

1. New Jersey sounds like a strange and terrible place

Entertainment best viewed from a safe distance.

[Laxman]

2. It's Actually Quite An Amazing Place....

to live. We just happen to living under an evil regime right now like so many other places in the country. We're fighting back. Let me know if you ever want to visit. I guarantee you'll find it a interesting experience. Just don't come in January or February.

[Cha]

3. Good on you continually fighting back against the raging NJ machine, Laxman! thank you~

[brer cat]

6. Question for you Laxman.

One quote pulled from the article: "the confrontational style of politics that dominates New Jersey." Is that just the Cristie style or is it a description of politics in general?

[Laxman]

9. That's A Really Good Question....

politics in NJ have always been pretty rough around here-depending on where you're at. There are large parts of the state that are pretty rural and relatively quiet politically. When you get to the really high population areas competition is fierce. There's a lot of money floating around and two major media markets. So there's always been an "in your face" tone to the high profile races that really aren't much different that say NY or Philadelphia. It's also a very moderate to liberal state overall so there's always a lot of wheelin' & dealin' going on between the parties because there's not a big spread in ideology-at least when it comes to political power. (hence the Norcross-Christie alliance) so you get the appearance of a lot of deal making.

Christie, on the other hand, has just raised it to a different level. He's performance art. When you get past Christie the entertainer, you find that he isn't really a policy guy. His principals are whatever works for his benefit. He's such a caricature of the stereo-typical "Jersey guy" that he was made for T.V. and he plays it to the hilt. Luckily his act is starting to wear thin. The problem is that you really have to pay attention closely to see the depth of his depravity. From running for county freeholder to his days as U.S. Attorney to the governor's office, he's always been a bully who will do whatever it takes to get himself ahead. He's not really a tough guy, he just plays one on T.V. Our last two governors were just so bad he looked like a breath of fresh air when he was just the breeze blowing in from the direction of the refineries.

[CTyankee]

10. I often wonder at the difference between NJ politics and CT politics.

Both have bedroom communities for NYC, both were original colonies and you'd think that the two states come somewhat out of the same mold. But I see glaring differences that I can't quite sort out in my mind.

Help me out with your thoughts...

[Laxman]

11. There Are Actually A Lot Of Similarities....

one being that I hope Christie follows in John Rowland's footsteps. Small town politics is pretty much the same-except NJ has 565 municipalities. There's not a lot of difference between Ridgefield CT and Ridgefield, NJ, there are just so many more towns here. Even in the small cities, Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford or Watertown are a lot like Jersey City, Paterson or Elizabeth. NJ also has county government which is absent in CT so you have more offices in play. The magnitude of difference in population density and population in general between CT & NJ is one factor. NJ has more than twice the number of people as CT in just a slightly bigger package. It's a big deal and there's just a lot more going on because of it. There's also a lot more of the rats fighting to climb the ladder aspect to politics in NJ because of the competition. The stakes are a bit higher here, the competition more fierce, and let's face it, a bit of the sterotype being based at least in part in reality. Christie has also raised the visibility and people like to watch.

[CTyankee]

12. thanks, good analysis. Esp. the reference to Rowland.

Your reference to the absence of county government is of particular note to me. The Connecticut town in many ways is a real problem with respect to governance, yet it is a cherished notion to many nutmeggers' sense of identity. I live in New Haven but close to a beautiful little town, Woodbridge, that has the traditional Congregational Church anchoring a very bucolic town Green, with the prettiest IMO being that of Guilford. I remember taking a course in the role of CT's Greens as very special to the state's history. Today the New Haven Green is as vibrant a place as you can get in terms of political speech, performance of plays and venue of music or just where you can go and sit on a park bench and read a book. Whenever I am there I think of all the dust of Puritans bodies lying under the ground...it gives you perspective!

[ashling]

8. Or when the bridge is closed

[WillyT]

4. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[madashelltoo]

5. If Lautenberg bites Christie in the ass from the grave

I will literally wet myself laughing.

[brer cat]

7. I would love to see Christie

hoisted on that petard.