Hey, babe, let's
take a walk on Wild(stein) side:
Quote:
...(D)ocuments corroborated by current and former Port Authority and Trenton staffers who requested anonymity...indicate that during his tenure at the Port Authority, Wildstein met at least twice with Christie and others in the governor's office, joined Christie at seven public events and had regular meetings with Christie's closest confidantes. On the day after a news report revealed that Wildstein was involved in the mysterious lane closures, his calendar had one 14-hour entry: Trenton.
Wildstein’s schedules – in entries verified by interviews — show almost monthly meetings with Bill Stepien, Christie’s top political aide at the statehouse and the manager of Christie’s two campaigns...Stepien and Wildstein had been friends since working together...in 2000. The calendars also show lunches and dinners with Christie’s top outside strategist, Mike DuHaime of Mercury Public Affairs...
“I don’t even remember in the last four years even having a meeting in my office with David Wildstein...I may have, but I don’t remember it,” Christie said at his...two-hour press conference...after the legislature released Bridgegate records including the now infamous email to Wildstein declaring “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” (And)...during a news conference at the statehouse...the governor said, “I could probably count on one hand the number of conversations I had with David Wildstein since he worked at the Port Authority.”
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However, Christie allowed him to be hired at the Port Authority minus a resume or a job description (“He is there in that job because he is well suited to the task of
playing a role in reforming the Port Authority in accordance with the governor’s goals,” said Christie’s (then) spokesman, Michael Drewniak) -- even though,
according to an email that went out to Christie's family and friends (and subsequently described as having been sent without Christie's final approval):
• As a 16-year-old kid, he sued over a local school board election.
• He was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior.
• He had a controversial tenure as Mayor of Livingston
• He was an anonymous blogger known as Wally Edge
• He had a strange habit of registering web addresses for other people's names without telling them
Quote:
NJ.com:...WNYC pieced together Wildstein's schedule and discovered monthly meetings with Bill Stepien, Christie's campaign manager; "repeated" meetings with Michele Brown, the governor's consigliere; and numerous lunches and dinners with Michael DuHaime, the governor's political strategist.
With little doubt, Wildstein was always at the cool kids' table - not to mention involved with pet Christie projects such as raising the Bayonne Bridge, the PATH station in Harrison, and, yes, soliciting an endorsement from Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich that never came...
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What? I can't agree with that -- it sounds more like Wildstein was merely Christie's plaything. Wildstein may have thought he meant more to Christie than that, but Christie was actually just passing him around among the members of his real inner circle. And what thanks does he get? He's reportedly talking to the Feds, but with or without immunity from prosecution? That depends on whether the Feds have decided they have enough on Christie that he and Bridget Kelly can take the fall for Bridgegate alone if they won't talk without immunity -- in which case David Wildstein would be spurned
twice over.
And you thought Jon and Richie had New Jersey's most dysfunctional relationship.