Barbara Buono: Christie Running A 'Paramilitary Operation'
CATHERINE THOMPSON – JANUARY 8, 2014, 12:12 PM EST
New Jersey state Sen. Barbara Buono (D), who lost last year's gubernatorial election to Gov. Chris Christie (R), accused him Wednesday of running a "paramilitary operation."
Buono was referenced in documents obtained by TPM and other news outlets that connected one of Christie's closest aides to lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that gridlocked Fort Lee, N.J. A side effect of the closures was that it was difficult for children to get to school; the documents showed an individual corresponding with one of Christie's appointees to the authority that oversees the bridge, joking that the lane closures affected the "children of Buono voters."
“When I heard about it when it initially surfaced in September, I knew it was an act of political retribution,” Buono told the Daily Beast. “And to suggest that Christie wasn’t aware and didn’t direct it, I thought was ludicrous at the time.”
“This is a guy who runs a paramilitary operation,” she added. “His people don’t sneeze without checking with him first. But I think what really was the most damning [revelation] was the cavalier attitude that these folks had about subjecting children and the public to public safety hazards. These are terrible people, and the ringleader is Chris Christie.”
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/buono_christie_paramilitary_operation
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Christie Aides Couldn't Even Get N.J. Mayor's Nationality Right
IGOR BOBIC – JANUARY 8, 2014, 12:13 PM EST
Not only did Chris Christie aides bully the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey by closing lanes on the busy George Washington Bridge, he told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, they repeatedly called him by the wrong name -- "Serbia."
Documents obtained Wednesday by TPM directly implicate Christie aides in the bridge scandal, showing officials speaking about the closures with the agency that oversees the bridge weeks before they ocurred. "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," one wrote in an August email.
"It's fine. The mayor is an idiot, though," Christie's campaign manager Bill Stepien wrote in September, according to the Journal. "[Win] some, lose some."
"I had empty boxes ready to take to work today, just in case," wrote David Wildstein, one of Christie's appointees to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. "It will be a tough November for this little Serbian." Mayor Mark Sokolich, who is actually Croatian, decried the emails as "petty political insanity."
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/--100482
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