And In Christie Scandal News...

...some stories that made headlines today.

First, this one:

An attorney with close ties to Gov. Chris Christie's administration helped prepare an official who gave now-discredited testimony that lane closures at the George Washington Bridge were part of a traffic study, officials said.

Philip Kwon, a top attorney at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, spent parts of four to five days helping to prepare Bill Baroni, then the authority's deputy executive director and its top executive appointment by Mr. Christie, before he spoke to a New Jersey legislative committee on Nov. 25, a person familiar with the matter said.

An authority spokesman disputed that the preparations took five days and defended Mr. Kwon's work. 

"Meeting with a witness prior to testimony is a routine function of any lawyer and any attempt to assign ulterior motives to this general practice is unwarranted," the spokesman said.

...

 New Jersey Democrats have questioned why Mr. Baroni needed so much preparation before his committee testimony.

...

Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the co-chairwoman of the special committee investigating the scandal, said she would seek an explanation of Mr. Baroni's preparations. "What concerns me is why the Port Authority or any member of the Port Authority staff, if the allegation is true, would have to spend four or five days preparing somebody who told this story that is obviously incorrect," Ms. Weinberg said Sunday.

Mr. Kwon didn't respond to a request for comment. Mr. Baroni's attorney declined to comment.

And this one:

A member of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration who has been subpoenaed in an alleged political payback investigation has resigned.

Christina Genovese Renna left the governor's office Friday, the same day former Christie loyalist David Wildstein claimed to have evidence contradicting the governor's account of a lane closing operation, apparently to create traffic chaos as a political vendetta.

Renna reported to Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly, who apparently set the lane closings in motion with an email to Wildstein.

Renna confirmed her resignation to The Associated Press through a statement Sunday from her lawyer, Henry Klingeman.

In it, Renna says she has been considering leaving since after the November election, which Christie won decisively.

Renna is among 17 people close to Christie subpoenaed by a legislative panel.

And this:

On Monday, the first of what are most likely thousands of pages of documents subpoenaed by the State Legislature from prominent members of the Christie administration were to be turned over to investigators.

But lawyers for many of those subpoenaed have been granted extensions. Even after all the documents are compiled, investigators will have to analyze them, which could take weeks.

“This will not happen as quickly as people anticipate,” said State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat and a chairwoman of the joint legislative committee leading the investigation.

 It is the third legislative committee that has been formed to look into the political machinations behind the closing of several lanes at the George Washington Bridge in September. The resulting traffic jam has become the gravest challenge of Mr. Christie’s political career.

First Read puts it in perspective:

Forget 2016, Christie’s top goal now is saving his governorship:  After the last 72 hours of new developments in the scandals hitting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, the political story here is no longer about whether Christie can survive to be a top presidential contender in 2016. Rather, it’s about whether he’ll be able to hold on to his governorship. For starters, former Christie Port Authority aide David Wildstein is now saying -- through his lawyer -- that “evidence exists” that Christie had knowledge of the lane closings in Fort Lee, NJ. Given that Wildstein appears eager to cooperate with investigators and tell his own story, who else follows suit? Former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly? Anyone else? It’s looking like it will be every man and woman for him/herself. (Wildstein didn’t produce any evidence, but he’s clearly in survival mode for himself. And that has to have the Christie folks in a mini panic, because who else could break?)

The Boston Herald also says Christie is finished as a presidential candidate:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie can kiss his White House hopes goodbye as questions mount about what he knew about the Bridgegate scandal — a development that has pushed the one-time Republican frontrunner aside while opening doors for other candidates in 2016, political experts said.

“His chances are gone in a New Jersey minute,” said Boston University Professor Thomas Whalen. “I just don’t see him recovering. … This is a huge challenger who is out of the way.”

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., said Christie has gone from the frontrunner who was out-polling Hillary Clinton, to just another “Republican want to be.”

“This situation, so far, has been nothing short of devastating to Christie’s presidential ambitions,” Farnsworth said.

I'm thinking given the trajectory of this story and the Hoboken story over the last few days, Christie is worried more about impeachment and/or jail than 2016.

Oldie But Goodie: Chris Christie Will Get His

A Perdido Street School post from November 3, 2013:

Chris Christie Will Get His

Governor Chris Christie had another "Beat Up The Teachers" moment yesterday that has people in the education and progressive blogosphere upset.

While Christie's bullying of a female teacher is upsetting to me as well (as is the clear glee with which his wife watches the bullying from the side), I would note that Governor Christie has gotten some exposure courtesy of the Romney campaign this week that suggests Christie has some storm clouds ahead for him if he intends on running for president.

Mark Halperin and John Heilemann have released Double Down, a chronicle of the 2012 campaign, and the politician who takes the most damage from the book is our so-called man of the people, Chris Christie:

According to the authors, Romney and his team were shaken by what they discovered about Christie during “Project Goldfish,” as the hush-hush veep search process was known. His “disturbing” research file is littered with “garish controversies,” the authors write: a Justice Department investigation into his free-spending ways as U.S. attorney, his habit of steering government contracts to friends and political allies, a defamation lawsuit that emerged during a 1994 run for local office, a politically problematic lobbying career that included work on behalf of a financial firm that employed Bernie Madoff. And that’s not to mention the Romney team’s anxiety about the governor’s girth.

For Christie, who is coasting to reelection on Tuesday and already laying behind-the-scenes groundwork for a 2016 presidential bid, the book’s revelations are a Drudge-ready public relations nightmare that will send his advisers scrambling to explain awkward aspects of his record and his personal life just as he is stepping onto the national stage.

Chris Christie and Mary Pat can yuck it up all they want as Christie sticks it to teachers and beats up on women on the campaign trail.

When Christie runs for president in 2016, he is going to take to have to counter so many attacks from so many different angles it will make his head spin- the blueprint for the opposition research and media scrutiny was first set during the Corzine campaign, where Christie got a little scrutiny for his padding his expense accounts as U.S. attorney and for his business dealings.

But that scrutiny is going to be nothing compared to what Christie gets when he runs as president.

Politicians in general are dirty - New Jersey politicians even more so.

But Chris Christie - the man who worked for Bernie Madoff, the man who has a documented track record of making sure his friends and allies get lucrative government contracts, the man who intervened on behalf of his crooked brother in an SEC investigation to make sure his brother wasn't indicted along with 15 of his brother brokers - makes even the crooked Jersey politicians look clean compared to his own crookedness.

I, for one, am looking forward to a Christie presidential run and the scrutiny that career move will garner him.

Teachers around the country should welcome it as well.

Chris Christie will, to quote Christie's role model Ralph Kramden, "get his." 

Even I never thought Christie would be getting his three short months after that post.

But this does look like the face of a man "getting his," doesn't it?

After all the beating up on women and teachers, it's good to see Christie get a little payback.

Maybe he squirms out of BridgeGate, maybe he squirms out of the Hoboken mess - but the more scrutiny he gets, the more they'll dig up on him.

He's dirtier than even the average Jersey politician, so the more scrutiny he gets, the worse things become for him.

More Christie Corruption News

Another story to watch:

Gov. Chris Christie took nearly a year to implement a law he signed that would require close oversight of federal Hurricane Sandy recovery money, a report this morning said.

Christie signed the "Integrity Monitor Act" in March — a bill that would require independent monitors to oversee how the state government distributes billions in aid. The monitors would be assigned to all projects of $5 million or more.

But integrity monitors weren't put in place until January 2014, according to a report by MSNBC's Steve Kornacki. And, the report said, a company given a prominent role in the monitoring employs Christie's brother, Todd.

Todd Christie keeps showing up in some of these stories:

Gov. Chris Christie's brother was part of a group that bought properties near the Harrison PATH station before a $256 million renovation of the facility was publicly approved, according to a report on NorthJersey.com.

Todd Christie and his partners then renovated and flipped the lots for almost triple their purchase price after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey gave its OK to the project, the report said.

One of Todd Christie's partners in West Hudson Properties LLC owns Ferreira Construction, which has gotten "tens of millions of dollars" in work from state agencies since the governor took office in 2010, NorthJersey.com reported.

Port Authority chairman David Samson has also been linked to land around the PATH station. Sampson's law firm, Wolf & Samson, has a client that wants to build luxury apartments where a warehouse stands.

Commissioner David Steiner also voted for renovation, four months after he purchased the rights to build an apartment complex on land along the Passaic River, just blocks from the train station.

The renovated PATH station is slated to open in 2017. Chris Christie has been a major proponent of building up the Hudson County town.

These are the sorts of things that nobody would blink at if BridgeGate and the Hoboken extortion story weren't going on at the same time for Chris Christie.

But now everything Christie has done as governor is getting scrutiny.

Hard to see him remaining head of the Republican Governor's Association much longer because he is damaged goods and the drip drip drip of scandal news is solidifying the meme that he's a dirty pol.

From the cover of TIME as the future of the GOP just a couple of months ago to poster boy for scandal - that's Chris Christie's journey these past couple of months.

Chris Christie Has Three Scandals Dogging Him

The Newark Star-Ledger editorial board was brutal on Christie last night.

The DN editorial board is brutal on him this morning:

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never put Chris Christie together again if New Jersey’s governor fails to refute the accusation that he knew of the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were taking place.

In that event, Christie’s governorship is over and he should prepare to face a federal criminal probe as a private citizen. Resignation would be a must. Otherwise, impeachment would be a snap.

Christie stands on the brink of ruin thanks to David Wildstein, the high school pal who, as his Port Authority enforcer, ordered the closures that plunged Fort Lee into four days of gridlock.

Wildstein’s lawyer on Friday released a letter that paints Christie as one of the most bold-faced liars in modern political history. And Christie’s response, amounting to one great big dodge, did nothing to dispel the notion.

Attorney Alan Zegas stated that “evidence exists . . . tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference.”

Here are just some of Christie’s declarations at that marathon grilling:

“I had no knowledge of this — of the planning, the execution or anything about it — and that I first found out about it after it was over.”

And:

“I would never have come out here four or five weeks ago and made a joke about these lane closures if I had ever had an inkling that anyone on my staff would have been so stupid but to be involved and then so deceitful as to just — just to not disclose the information of their involvement to me when directly asked by their superior.”

And:

“I knew nothing about this. And until it started to be reported in the papers about the closure, but even then I was told this was a traffic study.”

Coupling unequivocal denials of that kind with sanctimonious claims of true-blue, on-the-merits governing, Christie has tried to ride out mounting evidence of thuggishness and cronyism at the heart of his administration.

Emerging facts suggest that Christie forces applied Port cash on projects that helped connected pals, while Hoboken’s mayor accused Christie’s Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno of threatening to withhold Hurricane Sandy funds unless the mayor acted on a politically connected development.

Arising out of complex transactions, the charges and denials swirl indefinitely. What Wildstein’s lawyer has said is different. He released his letter as part of an effort to have the Port Authority pay Wildstein’s legal bills, apparently on the ground that he was acting in his official capacity, on orders from above, when he closed the lanes.

Wildstein either has the evidence that Christie knew of the closures or he doesn’t. He can either “prove the inaccuracy of some” of Christie’s statements about Wildstein or he can’t. Wildstein must release the full file.

Meanwhile, it was laughable of the Christie administration to claim that the “lawyer confirms what the governor has said all along — he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened.”

Wildstein never alleged “prior knowledge.” He claims Christie was aware of the closures while they were in place. Resolution of that huge conflict will determine whether Christie forfeited his governorship as man whose ego, ambition and tough-guy image threw honesty off the bridge.

It really does come down to this - if Wildstein has documented proof to back up the claim that Christie made false statements about Wildstein at his press conference in January, that Christie knew about the lane closures as they were taking place, then he's finished.

It's hard to fathom how Christie could come out for a two hour press conference and lie about something like that while throwing Wildstein under a bus, full well knowing that Wildstein would now have the impetus to fight back against Christie.

But desperate people do desperate things, and if Christie felt desperate enough in early January, he just might have done that.

In any case, we'll know soon enough if Wildstein has the goods on Christie and, as Wildstein looks to make a deal for immunity, other actors in this melodrama make look to do the same - Baroni, Stephien, and/or Kelly may decide it is no longer in their interest to hold back some information they have if Wildstein is dumping his info on prosecutors.

Christie seems to be in tough straits here, but I'm not quite ready to put a fork in him and declare him done.

Still, as the GWB mess gets worse for him, he also has the Hoboken/Rockefeller Group scandal and the Sandy slush fund scandal growing as well.

Three full scandals dogging Chris Christie less than three months after he was re-elected by 22.5%, made head of the Republican Governor's Association and declared the early frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential race.

Now it's starting to look like he'll be lucky if he avoids prison.

How quickly things change.

Star-Ledger Says If Wildstein Allegation Is True, Christie Must Resign Or Be Impeached

Seems obvious at this point - if the Wildstein allegation that Christie knew about the lane closures is true, Christie is finished:

Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor.

David Wildstein, the man who ordered the George Washington Bridge lane closures, is now pointing the finger directly at Gov. Chris Christie, saying the governor knew about the lane closures in September.

Wildstein claims there is documentary proof that the governor has been lying.

If this proves to be true, then the governor must resign or be impeached. Because it will show that everything he said at his famous two-hour press conference was a lie.

And not just a typical political lie — this was like a Broadway show of lies, and would leave Christie so drained of credibility that he could not possibly govern effectively. He would owe it to the people of New Jersey to step aside. And if he should refuse, then the Legislature should open impeachment hearings.

So for now, set aside the other scandals. Forget about the charge of extortion in Hoboken. Forget about the growing evidence showing that Christie used Sandy aid as a political slush fund, leaving the real victims short.

The lane closures in Fort Lee not only caused people to miss meetings, and lose out on business deals. It delayed ambulance responses in Fort Lee, and so put people's lives at risk. It was an abuse of government authority that was almost too reckless to believe at first.

The order came from Wildstein, and was triggered by an email from the governor's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly. That much is not in dispute. And that alone is damning evidence that Christie's administration is dangerously out of control. But if the governor himself was involved, this moves to a new level.

Is Wildstein telling the truth? He faces a criminal investigation himself, so he has a powerful incentive to give prosecutors damning information they can use against a bigger fish. That would give him leverage to negotiate a good plea deal.

But Wildstein says he has documents that prove the governor was lying at his press conference, when Christie blamed the event on the "stupid" actions of his own staff. And certainly, Wildstein was in a position to know the roots of this conspiracy. A Christie acquaintance since high school, he was appointed to a senior position at the Port Authority, despite having no expertise in transit issues. He was the governor's eyes and ears at the authority.

Others who have been implicated in this scandal will probably come forward now as well, hoping to strike deals with prosecutors before their testimony becomes redundant. And all this will happen as the administration answers dozens of subpoenas, and grapples with both criminal and legislative investigations.

When you layer on top of this the criminal investigation in Hoboken, and a separate investigation of Sandy spending by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, it becomes difficult to see how Christie can function. It should be clear even to him now that he should step down as head of the Republican Governors Association.

This is a shocking development. Christie is now damaged goods. If Wildstein's disclosures are as powerful as he claims, the governor must go.

Mary Pat is not laughing tonight:

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer Doubles Down On Allegation Against Christie

The Christie administration pushed back again today over allegations made by Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer that two top Christie aides levied threats at Zimmer over a real estate development deal:

Gov. Chris Christie's office today once again fired back at claims leveled by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer that Hurricane Sandy relief money was held hostage by the governor, saying the city has received millions in aid and has not been denied any grant it has requested.

In a release, a spokesman for the governor slams Zimmer and MSNBC, which first aired Zimmer's claim, for conflating hazard mitigation funding with Sandy recovery money.  According to the governor's office, Hoboken already has received nearly $70 million in relief money.

"Hoboken has in no way trailed similarly situated communities in the receipt of rebuilding funds," the release from Christie's office said.

The Star-Ledger does note the following:

The release does not directly refute Zimmer's accusation, which is that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno told her in May that relief funds could be choked off if she failed to support a redevelopment project in her city that was championed by the governor.

Zimmer said Guadagno told her it's not right that the two things are connected, but they are. Zimmer went on to say that Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable made similar comments later in the month telling her Sandy Aid would flow if she supported the project.

A spokesman for the DCA yesterday declared the accusation "categorically false."

This is the second attempt by the governor to refute Zimmer's claims. In a statement released yesterday, spokesman Colin Reed lashed out at MSNBC.

Zimmer went on CNN to make the allegations against the two Christie officials again today:

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno said she was delivering a “direct message” from Gov. Chris Christie when she told Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer to approve a real estate project if she wanted more Hurricane Sandy aid for her city, the mayor said today.

In an appearance on CNN, Zimmer expanded on her allegations that members of the Christie administration told her in May to push through a Hoboken redevelopment project if the flood-prone city wanted help getting federal disaster aid.

“She said ... essentially you’ve got to move forward with the Rockefeller project, this project is really important to the governor,” Zimmer told CNN. “And she said that she had been with him on Friday night and this was a direct message from the governor.”

The Star-Ledger reports that Republicans have opened several fronts in their attempts to discredit Zimmer and her allegations:

Republicans appeared to be fighting back on several fronts to defend Christie's reputation. In addition to disputing the Hoboken mayor's recollection of her conversation with Guadagno, Christie's office sent the press a detailed memo disputing Zimmer's allegation that her city did not get its fair share of Hurricane Sandy aid.

Meanwhile, some Republicans called for a Democratic state assemblyman to recuse himself as head of one of the investigative committees looking into the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal because they said he is biased against Christie.

In her CNN interview, Zimmer defended herself against Republicans who questioned why she waited until Christie was facing a crisis to publicly accuse his administration of trying to strong arm her over Sandy funding.

But Zimmer has a pretty good rationale for why she waited until now to go public with her allegations:

In her CNN interview, Zimmer defended herself against Republicans who questioned why she waited until Christie was facing a crisis to publicly accuse his administration of trying to strong arm her over Sandy funding.

In the 16-minute interview on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley,” Zimmer said she initially thought she would hurt Hoboken’s chances for additional Sandy funding if she went public with her conversation with Guadagno or a similar conversation she had last year with Richard Constable, Christie’s current commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs.

“I was really concerned that if I came forward, (and) no one believed me, that we would really be cut out of the Sandy funding. But as I watched the coverage with Bridgegate, you do see parallels and I just felt I had an obligation to come forward,” Zimmer said.

The problem for Christie here is that, post-BridgeGate, these allegations are totally believable.

It remains to be seen if their pushback, including sending attack dog Rudy Giuliani after Zimmer, will work.

I'm betting Zimmer has more credibility than any of Christie's henchmen, but we'll just have to see.

BridgeGate, Hoboken Shakedown All Part Of The Same Thuggish Chris Christie Pattern

Tom Moran in the Star-Ledger:

What hurts Christie, and makes Zimmer’s charge credible, is that this is such a clear echo of Bridgegate. His people swaggering across the state, using public resources to strong-arm local officials into submission.

And in both cases, innocent citizens were the fodder. The people stuck in Fort Lee traffic didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did the flood victims in Hoboken, which was 80 percent submerged after Sandy.

"It’s exactly the same pattern," says Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), the first to ring alarms over Bridgegate. "The governor at his press conference on Bridgegate said he wanted to know what he did wrong to make his people lie to him. The question should be ‘What did I do wrong to make all the people around me think it’s okay to behave like this?’

The Bridgegate inquiry is led by Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), who says he will now expand it to include Hoboken-gate. His committee has broad authority to follow allegations of official misconduct wherever they find them.

"We could issue subpoenas on this tomorrow if we wanted to," he says.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is also investigating Bridgegate, so it’s hard to imagine that he won’t cast his gaze toward Hoboken now, as well.

As bad as all this is for the governor, it will probably get worse soon. Because now that his crew’s thuggish behavior has been exposed in Bridgegate, others who have been bullied are going to be emboldened.

The Bergen Record went back to Christie's first political career - as president of the student government at the University of Delaware - and found embryonic forms of the cronyism and backroom dealing that has characterized his adult political career:

Christie was repeatedly praised in the student newspaper.

And when his party put together a slate for the spring elections, party secretary Mary Pat Foster, Christie’s future wife, was picked as the candidate to succeed him. She faced no opposition, which was interpreted as recognition of his party’s success.

“We’re not having an election, we’re having a coronation,” Christie told the student newspaper.

But Abbott, the campus Republican club leader who had warned about Christie “cronyism,” said he saw the victory as an ominous sign. Christie’s push to put allies in seats on key committees had muffled debate, discouraged participation and caused as many as five student leaders to quit, said Abbott, now a lawyer in Delaware.

He said he felt Christie’s approach helped depress turnout.

“We tried to come up with some ideas … but nothing seemed to go from the bottom up,” Abbott said.

In other words, their input was not valued. Christie and his crew called the shots, a style he took to Trenton with great success more than a quarter century later — at least until now.

This political style - thuggery, cronyism, and backroom dealing - has been the recipe for success for Christie up until now.

Now it is becoming his undoing.

As many have noted, including Moran in the Star-Ledger, the fear Christie inspired is dissipating and people are going to come out of the woodwork to tell stories about Christie thuggery, bullying and cronyism.

This is going to get a lot worse for Christie.

Barring some unforeseen event on the horizon that changes the trajectory of these scandals, Chris Christie can put his presidential ambitions away for good.

Many New Jersey Parents Say No To Longer School Day

Governor Chris Christie, in between shutting down the traffic to the George Washington Bridge and extorting real estate development projects in Hoboken, decided he would add extra time and days to schools.

The Star-Ledger reports many parents around the state aren't so into that idea:

As they waited outside the Orange Avenue School one day last week for the dismissal bell to ring, a few dozen Cranford parents debated the merits of Gov. Chris Christie’s call for New Jersey students to spend more time in school.

"They’re in class enough," Scott Laniewski said.

"And the little ones need time to play," added Michelle Howlett, a former special education teacher. "They need downtime."

Standing near a swing set a few yards away, Barry O’Donovan disagreed. "I think they should have a longer year. They don’t go to school enough," he said. "And they’ll learn more."

The discussions are happening at schools and playgrounds around the state, as parents, educators and students discuss the benefits and drawbacks of more school time. Some parents welcome the idea, while others complain that summer vacation is too short already. Jersey’s July temperatures are too hot for school, said some. Others said the kids need time to relax.

"By the end of the day she’s tired," Marisol Quintero of Elizabeth said about her daughter in kindergarten.

...

Charles Sampson, superintendent of the Freehold Regional High School District, said Christie’s proposal will result in local districts taking a close look at how they use their time. But he said the first step is to understand the goal.

"What are we looking to improve? If it is to improve academic achievement on standardized tests, that is a more specific conversation than providing extended opportunities for children," he said. "You’re going to have very different reactions across the state, at the local level, and across households."

The goal is control and compliance- to socialize children to expect to be at work for 10+ hours a day, 50 weeks a year when they grow up, working whatever drudge jobs are still left in 15+ years and not complain or rebel against the system.

This jive about making children "competitive" in an increasingly globalized economy is horse bleep.

The economy is increasingly competitive because multi-national corporations use every piece of leverage they have to exploit workers, tax breaks, etc. to make as much money as they can.

The problem is not that children are not growing up knowing enough to do the work companies need them to do.

The problem is the companies don't actually want to pay people (except for the braintrust at the company, of course) and they'll do anything to outsource, automate, exploit or otherwise cut their labor costs.

That is not something that is going to be solved by adding time and days to school - unless by "solve" you mean socializing children to grow up expecting to be exploited and screwed in their work lives.

BridgeGate, Hoboken/Sandy Relief Funds Scandal May Cost Chris Christie His Chairmanship Of The GOP Governor's Association

The scandals are starting to mount for Chris Christie and they're taking their toll.

He might have survived BridgeGate, especially after he proved to be so adept at his press conference explaining away the particulars of the scandal and how he had nothing to do with the closure of traffic lanes to the GWB in Fort Lee.

But now that Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer has accused the Christie administration of shaking her down over a real estate project, withholding Sandy relief funds from her city unless she gave the governor what he wanted on the development, he has to battle a scandal war on two fronts.

This weekend, we already have ample evidence that the war is not going so well:

It was supposed to be Gov. Chris Christie’s comeback tour:

A weekend trip to Florida, where he would show the world he could still drum up top-dollar checks for Republican candidates across the country even as his administration faces a swirl of scandals, subpoenas and allegations of abuse of power.

But instead of highlighting his fundraising chops, Christie, in his new role as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, spent the day besieged by new claims of political retribution — and shuttling quietly around the Sunshine State as far as possible from the public eye.

There were stops at a Tuscan-style country club in Orlando (he took a back entrance) and a seaside mansion in Palm Beach owned by one of the richest businessmen in the state (the RGA refused to give a time or address.)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a fellow Republican, declined to hold any public events with New Jersey’s celebrity governor, a rarity in the middle of a re-election campaign.

"If this continues, he clearly can’t perform the functions of the chair, which is to go in and put the spotlight on GOP gubernatorial candidates on the ballot in November," said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "If he’s going to go into a state to help … but then he becomes the issue and generates negative headlines, then he can’t serve as RGA chair, it’s obvious."

I think that's right - Christie has to put the Hoboken allegations behind him very, very soon or he's going to be out of the Republican Governor's Association chair gig.

I'm not sure how he puts it behind him - the Legislature is going to look into these allegations too, just as they're already investigating BridgeGate, which means more subpoenas, more news stories, more headlines that are going to keep Chris Christie's name tied to scandal.

I suppose another superstorm or something like that (God forbid!) could give him the opportunity to put these scandals off the front pages and out of people's minds.

But otherwise, I think he's in a lot of trouble - there's blood in the water and the sharks are circling and chomping at him.

Chris Christie Has A Very Bad Saturday

The Times covers Governor Chris Christie's very bad day:

ORLANDO — A swing through Florida proved no sunny retreat for Gov. Chris Christie on Saturday, as well-organized protesters hounded him outside a Republican fund-raiser here, a powerful ally in the New Jersey State House rebuked the governor’s office and new allegations emerged that his administration tried to intimidate a New Jersey elected official.

Mr. Christie’s trip, which was supposed to showcase his political resilience after the rockiest period of his governorship, was overshadowed by claims from the mayor of Hoboken, N.J., Dawn Zimmer, a Democrat.

In a television interview on Saturday, she said that two high-ranking aides to Mr. Christie had threatened to withhold money for Hurricane Sandy recovery to her hard-hit city if she did not support a real estate development that the governor wanted built in her jurisdiction.

...

 

Soon after the interview aired, Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat, the president of the New Jersey Senate and a key ally of Mr. Christie’s, issued an unexpected rebuke to the governor’s office.

Calling the allegations “extremely disturbing” and promising an investigation, Mr. Sweeney said that Ms. Zimmer’s experience, combined with the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge, “suggest a pattern of behavior by the highest ranking members of this administration that is deeply offensive to the people of New Jersey.” 

Mr. Christie was treated to a partisan assault in Florida, where Democrats waved placards calling him a “bully,” telling him to “go home” and, in a reference to the gridlock on the George Washington Bridge, declaring that their own “traffic is bad enough.”

Mr. Christie shunned public appearances in Florida, where he is raising money for Gov. Rick Scott, a fellow Republican.

Instead, the New Jersey governor was whisked into an event at the Spanish-style Country Club of Orlando in a caravan of S.U.V.’s. They arrived an hour behind schedule.

Not exactly a glorious start to Christie's national GOP fundraising career.

This is only going to get worse for Christie.

If Zimmer, once an ally of his, felt safe enough to go public with her allegations and now Sweeney is ready to stick the shiv in his "key ally," then Chris Christie's got some real trouble on his hands.

There will be more and more allegations to come because Christie is a dirty guy with a dirty past and the only thing that kept that stuff from the news cycle was the fear people had that Christie would retaliate against them if they went public.

It seems that fear is now dissipating.

A bully without his fear doesn't have much left in his tool shed to use against those he's bullied - and Chris Christie is fast looking like a bully with an empty tool shed.

Christie Administration Withheld Sandy Relief Funds From Hoboken In Retaliation Over Real Estate Project

From Steve Kornacki at MSNBC:

Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.

The mayor, Dawn Zimmer, hasn’t approved the project, but she did request $127 million in hurricane relief for her city of Hoboken – 80% of which was underwater after Sandy hit in October 2012. What she got was $142,000 to defray the cost of a single back-up generator plus an additional $200,000 in recovery grants.

In an exclusive interview, Zimmer broke her silence and named Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie’s community affairs commissioner, as the two officials who delivered messages on behalf of a governor she had long supported.

“It’s not fair for the governor to hold Sandy funds hostage for the city of Hoboken” because he wants support for one private developer, she said Saturday on UP w/ Steve Kornacki.

Constable and Christie – through spokespersons – deny Zimmer’s claims.

As the allegations of retribution mount against Christie and his administration, more and more politicians are going to feel safe enough to go public with their stories.

This Hoboken story is particularly outrageous.

80% of Hoboken was flooded by Sandy, the city requested $127 million in hurricane relief, Christie gave them $342,000.

Christie can try and defend that all he wants.

The pictures from Hoboken during Sandy showed just how devastated that city was.

Christie said he would help.

The city asked for $127 million to provide for a better flood defense among other hurricane relief actions.

Christie gave $342,000.

All because, it seems, Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer didn't give him and his cronies what they wanted on their re-development deal.

Outrageous - yet par for the course with Christie.

Not Good

 From the Hoboken Facebook page:

The plaza by Hoboken Terminal is already flooding, and much more is expected. Please take this storm extremely seriously. If you are in a ground floor unit, please evacuate to higher ground (photo by Carter Craft).

Hoboken is prone to flooding, but if that's what it looks like this early in the storm process, before any rain has fallen, before the serious storm surge has started - whew!

Look out.