Christie Blown Away By Hurricane Buzzkill
With a 23-cent per gallon gas tax going into effect this week, Christie was apparently looking to score some public relations points with the fourth anniversary of New Jersey's response to Hurricane Sandy:
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...Christie started...the fourth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy...in Hackensack (because)...“I think sometimes people don’t pay nearly as much attention to what happened up here. We need to continue to remember that those folks, just as much as folks at the Shore, had their lives turned upside down..."
He ran off a laundry list of the damage inflicted by the storm: 325,000 housing units affected, $5.9 billion in overall damage, 19,000 small businesses closed temporarily or permanently...71 percent of electric distribution in the state was cut off by the storm...The PSE&G substation in Hackensack was inundated by storm surge and then rebuilt and elevated to prevent damage from future storms...“We’ve gotten the job done in the rebuilding from Sandy,” he said.
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So far, so good. But the next stop on his Sandy anniversary tour WAS the shore:
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Chris Christie was met with protesters at Jimbo's Bar & Grill on the Seaside Heights boardwalk...during what was planned as a commemoration on the fourth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy...“I’ve got to shout at my governor to get something done,” George Kasimos, a member of a group called Stop FEMA, yelled at Christie. “I don’t even call you governor any more.”
...“There will always be critics,” Christie said. “And I am happy to take the criticism. Because when you take the criticism that means you’re actually in a position to do something. The people most of the time who are hurling the criticism are the people who have never accomplished anything in their lives worth noting..."
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The people who are hurling criticism at you in this case are also marking their fourth year of living in hotels or in damaged housing.
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Christie said..."These are complicated issues and they don’t lend themselves to explanations when people are yelling and screaming...” He also said...several contractors had been prosecuted on fraud charges (and) the state opened the rebuilding program to contractors who had not been pre-screened after hearing complaints that the process with the approved contractors had been going too slowly...And he put part of the blame for problems on the National Flood Insurance Program.
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Giving Sandy money to towns who weren't effected by the storm is what should have been "complicated." How much of the $945 million he's received from Obama is he still sitting on -- and perhaps skimming the accrued interest? Since diverting to the 2016 GOP presidential campaign is no longer viable, maybe he's planning use it to balance New Jersey's budget.
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He stepped away from the lectern for several minutes and spoke one-to-one with some residents, taking down their contact information...
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Happy Hurricane Sandy anniversary, Governor Soprano! And speaking of buzzkills:
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New York Post: Donald Trump initially offered the vice-presidential running-mate slot to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie but then withdrew it, sources said...
Trump had not made his choice among Christie, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Most of Trump’s advisers — including then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump’s two eldest sons...and GOP leaders pressured Trump to pick Pence...Christie contacted Trump and made his final, impassioned appeal on July 12.
“Trump had wanted Christie, but Bridgegate would have been the biggest national story,” a...Trump source said. “He’d lose the advantage of not being corrupt.” Trump agreed to name Pence the next day and broke the news to Christie, saying it would “tear my family apart if I gave you VP,” a source said...
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Of course, the Trump family reference shouldn't be news to you:
one of Trump's in-laws has had it in for Christie for sending his father to jail. That he had any kind of front-line involvement in Trump's campaign is therefore surprising, unless the in-law's ulterior motive was to drop him from the highest pinnacle possible. But it's funny that this should land in the papers at the same time he was trying to offset the gas tax by scoring public relations points with the anniversary of hurricane Sandy...