For the record - chris christie IS a bully and the Viceroy of Vendetta. Track record:

[calimary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/nyregion/accounts-of-petty-retribution-reinforce-christies-bullying-image.html?_r=0

Great quote in here:

“Every organization takes its cues from the leadership as to what’s acceptable and what’s not, and this governor, in his public appearances, has made thuggery acceptable,” said Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, the Democrat leading the hearings that have exposed the role of the governor’s aides in the lane closings. “For the governor to say, ‘I knew nothing about this’? He created the atmosphere in which this is acceptable.”

In case you're called upon to make the case that this is just one OF MANY examples of chris christie's thuggery. You'll undoubtedly come across apologists who desperately want to believe that this was a one-time-only "youthful indiscretion"-type thing. He did indeed lie during his press conference - that this is not the tone he's worked so hard to set in his administration over the past four years. BULLSHIT!!! It's his modus operendi. I'd bet it was so well-understood and ingrained within his inner circle, of which the hapless Bridget Anne Kelly and friends were members that they figured it was just standard operating procedure to "teach an adversary a lesson and show 'em who's boss."

[Cha]

1. Of course they do, calimary..

“Every organization takes its cues from the leadership as to what’s acceptable and what’s not, and this governor, in his public appearances, has made thuggery acceptable,” said Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, the Democrat leading the hearings that have exposed the role of the governor’s aides in the lane closings. “For the governor to say, ‘I knew nothing about this’? He created the atmosphere in which this is acceptable.”

Christy's talkathon was all bully-weasel and no empahthy but plenty of pity for himself.

I saw Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski on Rachel last night.. he seems quite capable. Like what a person should be like who is in public office.

Thanks for the article!

[warrior1]

2. Really believe he knew and ordered this

Which shows how stupid he is that he wouldn't get caught

[tulsakatz]

7. it's usually the ones at the top who believe they'll never get caught!

They think they have so much power no one will ever be able to pin it on them...

[Cha]

3. From your link.. Christy's claim "I am not a Bully".. left the door Wide Open..

"But the gesture would come to seem genteel compared with the fate suffered by others in disagreements with Mr. Christie: a former governor who was stripped of police security at public events; a Rutgers professor who lost state financing for cherished programs; a state senator whose candidate for a judgeship suddenly stalled; another senator who was disinvited from an event with the governor in his own district.

In almost every case, Mr. Christie waved off any suggestion that he had meted out retribution. But to many, the incidents have left that impression, and it has been just as powerful in scaring off others who might dare to cross him."

Christy the Liar.

[indepat]

4. 'murika has a long history of teaching others, especially the weak and small, a hard lesson

when not adhering to its wishes, so it is not surprising that a politician with his eye on the prize would teach an adversary a lesson and show 'em who's boss. Even the glorious and magnificently magnanimous gipper was all over Grenada like ugly on an ape and dealt harshly with the unruly in Central America.

[calimary]

5. Wow - been watching Chris Hayes. They quote this article (as I think Chris Matthews did, too)

and it goes WAAAAAAY beyond just what's in this article. A quote from one of the NJ Dems from whom Barbara Buono sought fundraising help - who told her he was literally afraid of getting on christie's bad side because "this guy likes to hurt people." BAM! And Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City (the one whose name was said, in the infamous emails, to be on the list next to Fort Lee's unfortunate target, Mayor Mark Sokolich), described all kinds of petty little slaps-in-the-face dealt to him after he said he voted for Barbara Buono. What a schmuck!!!! Looks like he's finally getting his. And I couldn't be happier! LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing an asshole bully brought down!

[tomp]

6. he's in trouble but not down yet. nt

[calimary]

8. Understood. Good to remember, tomp.

Let the drip-drip-drip begin. This is gonna dog him for the rest of his career, however long (or foreshortened) that may be.

Barbara Buono offered a prediction earlier this morning on MSNBC that christie would be leaving his term before its end and it wouldn't be to run for President. Well on the one hand, that's one person's opinion. And she certainly has an axe to grind. But she also planted a seed. And it's indicative that if she's saying it out loud, you better believe other people are thinking it. And as THAT invisible number grows, and eventually slops over into the more visible - as in, when you start hearing more of this, and it starts embedding in the public consciousness and becomes a plausibility, the more likely it is to become reality in some way. Remember, it wasn't even a full week ago when he was considered Superman. Mr. Invincible. He was on the fast track to the big show and considered The Most Likely To Succeed. It wasn't even a full week ago when nobody even dared speak aloud what Barbara Buono said live, on camera, this morning. No one would have even entertained the thought. Now it's an idea in the public arena which is open for consumption.

When I was in radio I saw this dynamic (if so-n-so is saying it, other people are thinking it) over and over. I once related a story from my own career - where ONE SINGLE COMMENT literally saved my job for the whole year. I worked at a big Top-40 station and was very much low staffer on the totem pole. All the stations were governed by the ratings service Arbitron - the ARB - and part of the ARB service was this additional metric known as the "ARB Talkback." Instead of writing down what station you listened to in the ARB diaries, you were free to write down a comment if you wanted. Those were compiled into a separate report. There came a comment about my entertaining morning news presentation and mentioned me by name. I was literally golden for the next several ratings cycles - at a time when there were management changes and heads were rolling down the hallway on a regular basis. I was safe. It was ONE comment. But it represented many multiples more of similar opinion. And that was by market size. In a big city, ONE comment could represent thousands, or tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. That's why they had request lines. Twenty requests throughout the day for the same song indicated that there were many more multiples who wanted to hear that same song, but they were either too busy, too lazy, or too unmotivated to call the station or they were more passive than active about these things, or they didn't think there was any point to calling in. It was REPRESENTATIVE.

So I always consider it very significant when some new talking point is put out there. Either it's something representing a lot of other people's same opinions, or it's being deliberately planted to manipulate public opinion. Why else do you have some of the big talk show syndicators hiring actors to call in to CONservative talk shows and say the lines they do? They want it to get out there and into the public mind. Manipulating perception. So the fact that Barbara Buono would put that out there has greater meaning. Just the same as some GOP Obama-haters recently were trying to drop the "I" word (impeachment) into conversation. They were trying to get that started, and hoping to see it take hold. So far it hasn't.

And maybe this won't, either. But the first step's been taken and the door has been opened to that kind of thinking.

And you get enough of that - and ...