When there is still snow on the ground past St. Patrick’s Day, thoughts turn longingly to the beach. Say, the Jersey Shore. Which in turn brings to mind the extreme yet comically ham-handed efforts of Governor Chris Christie’s administration to keep secret the process that led to the controversial selection exactly one year ago of…
governor. christie is described over and over as being emotional with these meetings trying to get to the bottom of what happened. the document tackles another scandal, that dawn zimmer was denied hurricane sandy relief funds. during a town hall meeting, she says a commissioner pressured her to go forward. this disputes the claims. photos show her smiling and yawning. the report concludes a person does not normally yawn when being threatened, coerced or spoken to improperly. top republicans are touting their credentials this weekend. many meeting with casino billionaire, sheldon adelson. he fund ld more than 90 million into the 2012 cycle. he can play a large role in helping to fund the candidate. jeb bush has top rating. he spent yesterday challenging the school system to raise expectations for students. rand paul is busy advancing his ground game.
new round of cold air for next week. now to politics and chris christie who had his first town hall meeting since the bridge scandal broke. he answer unscripted questions about hurricane sandy relief funds and made it clear anyone asking a question should stay on task and off the scandal. an early warning he referred to as rule number four. i want to remind all of you of something. with the possible exception of some of the media who is here to cover this today, all of us are from new jersey. and so you know what that means. what that means is if you give it, you are getting it right back. the event falls on a day when several new developments in the bridgegate story occurred in just 24 hours. 2,000 pages of documents were relesioned that raise more questions about who knew what. joining us now is a man who knows a thing or two about new jersey politics.
since apologizing for the lane closures. this could be a chance for him to take open questions from the public. the governor s event is at a vfw post on the jersey shore. he ll tell residents about his plan to bring more hurricane sandy relief funds to the state. christie s aides have been trying to refocus the start of his second term on storm recovery and local development, not the bridge controversies. the washington post reports today s event is more downbeat and formal. they shelved some introductory videos and potential use of catchy banners wall the mind-set of setting a more serious and unpolitical tone. let s think about the tone. let me bring in a contributor to thegrio.com and a republican strategist, john feary. what is your goal when you have a political event like this and bottom line for those who have been following the bridge controversy, is the idea here politically you hold the event but that issue doesn t or barely comes up? i think this is actually a nonpolitic
relief to belleville. in a fair world that money would have gone to actual victims of hurricane sandy, there s no question that the administration can t meet every sandy need because it doesn t have enough federal aid to do so. season the that all the more reason not to use what emergency we do have as a political slush fund. instead of simply telling sandy hurricane victims that the world is not fair why won t the governor help ensure that it is. the handling of what is supposed to be your single accomplishment as governor, that is not a good thing. the sandy funding issue appears to be the focus of the federal prosecutor s investigation in new jersey. the spreading criticism now of