Chris Christie’s Very Bad Week

The GAO says that Gov. Christie’s reasons for nixing the Hudson River tunnel project were, um, misstatements. So to speak.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, to be released this week, found that while Mr. Christie said that state transportation officials had revised cost estimates for the tunnel to at least $11 billion and potentially more than $14 billion, the range of estimates had in fact remained unchanged in the two years before he announced in 2010 that he was shutting down the project. And state transportation officials, the report says, had said the cost would be no more than $10 billion.

Mr. Christie also misstated New Jersey’s share of the costs: he said the state would pay 70 percent of the project; the report found that New Jersey was paying 14.4 percent. And while the governor said that an agreement with the federal government would require the state to pay all cost overruns, the report found that there was no final agreement, and that the federal government had made several offers to share those costs.

Canceling this much needed project made Christie a rock star on the Right, however, which of course is why he did it.

Charles Pierce:

Also, the Times piece has paragraphs that begin, delightfully…

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey exaggerated…

Mr. Christie also misstated…

There’s a word for this kind of thing. It’ll come to me eventually.

Steve Benen also points to a report from the Newark Star-Ledger that says Christie is cribbing his bills from the infamous ALEC. The Star-Ledger:

A Star-Ledger analysis of hundreds of documents shows that ALEC bills are surfacing in New Jersey, where Republican Gov. Chris Christie is trying to remake the state, frequently against the wishes of a Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Drawing on bills crafted by the council, on New Jersey legislation and dozens of e-mails by Christie staffers and others, The Star-Ledger found a pattern of similarities between ALEC’s proposals and several measures championed by the Christie administration. At least three bills, one executive order and one agency rule accomplish the same goals set out by ALEC using the same specific policies. In eight passages contained in those documents, New Jersey initiatives and ALEC proposals line up almost word for word. Two other Republican bills not pushed by the governor’s office are nearly identical to ALEC models.

The governor’s reaction?

Christie’s spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said there is no connection between the efforts spearheaded by Christie and ALEC.

“Our reforms have no basis in anyone’s model legislation,” Drewniak said. “The governor said to me, ‘Who’s ALEC?'”

There’s a word for this kind of thing. It’ll come to me eventually.

12 thoughts on “Chris Christie’s Very Bad Week

  1. Why is it in the same type of situations, Democrats lie and republicans misspeak?

    He lied. End of story.

  2. “The governor said to me, ‘Who’s ALEC?’”

    ‘We’ll never know, Governor Krispy Kreme. You ate him…’

    Well, in all fairness to the MSM, the word “LIED” isn’t very bi-partisany. Neither is, “mendacious,” I’m afraid.

    And I’m sure that the search is on for something Obama, a Democratic Governor, or Democratic Senator said, that can be twisted so that it can be construed as a ‘misstatement,’ or ‘exaggeration.’

    Remember what our great journalisitc fore-fathers had to say in other perilous times:
    ‘Now is the time, for all good men and women in the MSM, to equivocate!’

    ‘I’m sorry that I have but one reputation to give for my media employers!

    ‘DAMN the lying! Full propaganda ahead!’

    Truly, these are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls…

    • Ah, brings back memories.

      “This, ladies and gentlemen, gives you somewhat of a picture of the type of individuals who have been helping to shape our foreign policy. In my opinion the State Department, which is one of the most important government departments, is thoroughly infested with Communists.

      “I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.

      “One thing to remember in discussing the Communists in our government is that we are not dealing with spies who get 30 pieces of silver to steal the blueprints of a new weapon. We are dealing with a far more sinister type of activity because it permits the enemy to guide and shape our policy….” Sen. Joe McCarthy, 1950

      McCarthy never did reveal who was on his list.

  3. Can being picked to be Romney’s VP candidate be far behind?

    Proving yourself to be a self-serving liar dedicated to enriching the rich while screwing everyone else seems to be the path to success in the modern GOP, after all.

  4. biggerbox,
    I’m hoping for “Zombie-eye, grannie-starver’ Ryan myself.

    Having Mitt up on the stage at the Convention with Ryan, will look like the centerpiece for a December-May gay wedding cake.

  5. My favorite, is the number 80.
    80!!!

    You can hardly find 8 real Liberals in the House, let alone 80 Communists.

    West hasn’t just “Jumped the Shark,” here.

    He’s ‘Screwed the Shark in the @$$,’ and is doing a reach-around on an alligator.
    WHAT A LOON!!!

  6. Ya know, it sure would be easier for the media to report stuff if they didn’t excise certain words from the English language. But of course, calling a spade a spade would be double-plus-ungood and we can’t have that. What would become of Oceana the United States the Homeland if the motives of the Party were questioned?

  7. “There’s a word for this kind of thing. It’ll come to me eventually”

    Oh I’m sure there has to be an acceptable explanation, it’s not like republicant politicians do whatever it takes including lying to nix any project that would benefit the economy and thereby giving the President a boost!

  8. Yeesh, Allen West. He brings to mind Sunday-morning jaunts in the Wayback Machine with Sherman and Mister Peabody, that acerbic canine who was fond of saying, “Quiet, you.”

    And another great HuffPo headline was born for this story: COMMIE CON. Ooh, Allen’s going dressed as a Klingon!

  9. He still has a high approval rating. Goes to show people don’t harmonize their “gut instinct” (pardon me) about a politican with said politician’s actual actions or statements.

    Cognitive dissonance.

  10. Full disclosure..I’m wearing my Vietnamese Gallantry Cross as I post this message.

    Allen West is a Tea Bagger nut job who uses every device available to him to prey on weak minds. Really, what do Amorites have to do with anything in American politics?

    And West is just barking at the moon if he thinks the President is afraid of debating him. In real life West knows that in the pecking orderhierarchalhial structure that Obama as President is the one whose shoe’s latchet he is not worthy to unloose.

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