Yesterday, a law firm paid $1 million by NJ Governor Christie (in other words, paid $1 million by NJ taxpayers) released a report absolving Christie of any involvement in Bridgegate, the bizarre scheme to close Fort Lee's lanes to the George Washington Bridge. But you know what else the report found? Women make terrible decisions!
The report blames two people—Port Authority executive David Wildstein and deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly—for the lane closures. Since Christie has already slammed Wildstein as some random weirdo who went to the same high school, here was his chance to get back at Kelly. As The Wire put it, the report portrayed Kelly as "emotional, insecure, and perhaps lashing out after a bad breakup." Rachel Maddow didn't understand what that had to do with using the biggest bridge in the world for payback politics:
Though the lawyers who wrote the report did not interview her, they explain her conduct in unusually personal terms — she is out of the office attending to a family member who had been hospitalized; a brief relationship “had cooled” at the “behest” of the man, Mr. Christie’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien.
The report raises these details but does not explain how or why they would have prompted her to send the damning email. It simply concludes that “events in her personal life may have had some bearing on her subjective motivations and state of mind.”
Lis Smith, Mayor de Blasio's former spokesperson, and a Democratic consultant for the Democratic Governors Association said, "This report was meant to whitewash Governor Christie’s reputation as a bully, but it actually confirms that he does embrace a culture of intimidation and retaliation. He’s throwing every sexist slur at Kelly while needlessly and aggressively injecting details about her personal life. It’s a cynical attempt to distract from the real story."
Stepien's lawyer told the Daily News, "If I were a cynical person, I would think that’s a rather blatant attempt to deflect attention from more important matters... Since I’m not, I’ll say I can’t imagine the relevance. At least we know that the impulse to exalt anything remotely salacious, however irrelevant, is paramount."
As for Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer's claims that the city was stiffed on Hurricane Sandy funds because she didn't endorse Christie's project, the report declared, "Whatever subjective perceptions she may have do not match objective reality." The investigators never interviewed Zimmer, but used a body language expert to interpret her thoughts and found that Christie was innocent of all past, present and future ills.
