Debbie Holtz at Politicker NJ put together a nice timeline on the fortuitous "leaks" -- again -- from U.S. attorney Chris Christie's office this week that bumped his class-action scandal to lesser news holes.
On Monday, 11/19, a spokesman for former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft responds to the Star Ledger's questions about the no-bid federal monitoring deal. By Monday evening, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie provides comments to the Ledger.
Monday, 11/19, Star Ledger, Internet, 10:01pm: $52M-plus payday for Christie's old boss
Tuesday, 11/20, Star Ledger, Print Edition: 52M-plus payday for Christie's old boss
Sometime before 9:00 am on Tuesday, an exclusive leak to The Record reveals an ongoing search being conducted at both the office and home of state Senator Joseph Coniglio. The Record arrives at both locations with a reporter, photographers and videographer to capture live footage of the raid.
Tuesday, 11/20, The Record: Federal agents search Coniglio's home
Tuesday, The Record, Live Video Feed of the event on 11/20: Feds seize documents from Coniglio's home and office
1 comment:
What I've noticed is the Republicans strategize years in advance.
Christie is being marketed as the rock star of a major race. Most say gubernatorial ticket, but at the rate the GOP is going to prevent Corzine from paring down debt by using his recovery plan to shoot him down for a second term, I think Christie will shy away from that job. He's smart enough to know he's not competent to be governor. He's no money guy, except when he can act as schoolyard bully with someone else's.
U.S. Senate though -- he can blend in and fake it there. And the prestige and usefulness to them who brung him to the dance is better there.
Anyway, the media are deliberately building up Christie as the knight in shining armor who does no wrong, so they have their protagonist/antagonist story line to pitch that political agenda.
That PhotoShop of Corzine as a crook on Sunday is intended to tell their audience at a subliminal level that he is a villian, simply black/white no good. And that's what many people will take into the voting box and say, "Hmmm, well, I know he countered my idiot local officials who keep raising my property taxes by sending me a bigger rebate, and I know he solved the debt crisis (maybe), but ..... he's a baaad man."
On the other hand, when they see Christie's name in the booth, they'll remember all the hero stories about how he wiped out corruption -- only, he didn't wipe out corruption. Almost all of the convictions so far that have stuck were investigated under his predecessor, whose name we don't remember because U.S. attorneys are supposed to be professionals, not politicians. From what I see, he doesn't have the goods to match the hype on most of his big Democratic fish. So if Christie's high-profile cases peter out, as I expect at least some will, you can bet you won't hear much about that. He's getting the mileage, deliberately, from the investigation and arrests for just that reason.
This is all strategic to set the stage for the rock star to win a big election and then hold yet another office for which he is incompetent.
If you take the perfume off Christie, you can see he's stinkin' incompetent at everything he has done in his life.
As for the APP, it always has bothered me that they buried the news about a year ago that Christie sent an unprecedented letter to John Bennett telling him he was off the hook, and then never investigated why Christie did that. That was the APP's investigative work, back when they really did journalism there, and that was a kick in their butt. They say, "Give me more, sir. What's the next talking point on our agenda?" Don't you have to wonder why they let that go? Christie=white; Corzine/Lautenberg/Menendez=black.
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