For some reason, the bookers at ABC’s This Week” decided professional blowhard Chris Christie would be a worthwhile voice on voting and infrastructure today. The panel, which included Rahm Emanuel, first took on the GA Jim Crow law. This featured scintillating dialogue like this:
CHRISTIE: [President Biden] lied. He lied, Rahm, and he's going to have to live with it. EMANUEL: That is not. He has not. CHRISTIE: Yes, he is.
CHRISTIE: [President Biden] lied. He lied, Rahm, and he's going to have to live with it.
EMANUEL: That is not. He has not.
CHRISTIE: Yes, he is.
A regular Algonquin Round Table. I’m sure others here will go after Christie on the GA racist law.
But I am also fascinated and appalled by having Christie, the Tunnel Assassin and Bridge Clogger on to opine about “infrastructure,” at the same time serious people, not clowns, are finally trying to repair the damage Republicans including and especially him have done to our country.
Christie’s term as Governor was filled with lethal assaults on infrastructure. Yes, the most famous one is “Bridgegate,” but he did his lasting damage by singlehandedly killing the ARC railroad tunnel between New Jersey and New York in 2011, essentially turning down billions of federal money and as a result costing tens of thousands of jobs and untold sickness and death from 10 years of dirty air from millions of unnecessary cars commuting to NY. And a year later in 2012, Hurricane Sandy damaged the ancient existing tunnel, making it a time bomb for disruption of commuting and possible catastrophe.
So this guy goes on Stephanopolous today and, responding to whether Republican governors will welcome the infrastructure plan says:
Look, how many times have we said this on this program? If you're going to give governors, Republican, Democrat or independent, money from Washington that they don't have to get by raising taxes themselves? Amen, baby. (LAUGHTER) They're all going to say it, and I don't care whether you're talking about the most conservative Republican governor in America or the most moderate Republican governor.
Look, how many times have we said this on this program? If you're going to give governors, Republican, Democrat or independent, money from Washington that they don't have to get by raising taxes themselves? Amen, baby.
(LAUGHTER)
They're all going to say it, and I don't care whether you're talking about the most conservative Republican governor in America or the most moderate Republican governor.
Hilarious.
You didn’t say Amen in 2011, Governor Tunnel Assassin. You rejected the money even though the project already started. Why? Because you were making your bones as a potential Republican candidate for 2012 or 2016 and back then the cool thing for Republican governors to do was to kill rail projects. The Tunnel Assassin couldn’t be outdone by Walker in WI and Scott in FL. No. He had to kill the biggest, baddest infrastructure project yet.
I have repeatedly written about this unilateral sabotage, which has negatively impacted millions of lives, including mine. We saw the results of Christie’s folly again and again over the last 10 years.
2015: Christie's Railmaggeddon Grows Closer:
The delays, coming a week after the board of New Jersey Transit approved a major fare increase, created chaos during the morning rush and gave rise to another round of questions about Gov. Chris Christie’s decision five years ago to halt construction of a new rail tunnel.
2017 Tunnel Assassin Christie's Legacy: NJ/NY Commuter Chaos Today, Railmaggedon Tomorrow:
The utter chaos at Penn Station reduced service for the 600,000 people who normally commute from the busiest transit hub in the nation. As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer explained, it could have been avoided — a new tunnel under the Hudson would have made all the difference in the world.
The utter chaos at Penn Station reduced service for the 600,000 people who normally commute from the busiest transit hub in the nation.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer explained, it could have been avoided — a new tunnel under the Hudson would have made all the difference in the world.
(Emphasis added, though it deserves even more.)
I hope a new rail tunnel under the Hudson is part of the Infrastructure deal. (If not, Schumer and Gillibrand will hear from me.) But the nerve of this goniff going on TV and blabbing about how Republican governors just love federal infrastructure projects makes me livid.
After the Tunnel and the Bridge disasters, Christie should be defending DUI cases in some remote town by the ‘Shore. Not having a national TV platform for his lies and hypocrisy.
The cartoon above is by the great Driftglass. Visit him at the link and lobby for his reinstatement to Twitter.
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