Bogus Disability Claims & Bridget's Role in Bridge-Gate

Could e-mails doom Chris Christie's White House hopes?

While it's been painfully frigid across the Lower 48 the past few days, I'm not sure it gets much colder than the audacity of the 106 retired New York City policemen, firefighters and EMT's who were indicted in State Supreme Court yesterday on charges of  submitting bogus claims of severe psychiatric trauma as a result of having worked at Ground Zero on 9/11.  

The shocking details leveled by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance are all over the media and as someone who lived in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, this massive case of fraud is truly sickening. People using the horrific tragedy of 9/11 to collect between $30,000 - $50,000 in disability claims a year is bad enough; seeing these greedy idiots posting photos of themselves living it up on the tax payer's dime is even more insulting in these turbulent economic times.

My favorite is the photo of the guy holding up a huge sailfish while fishing off Costa Rica.

Unbelievable.

Speaking of warmer climates, things are about to get much hotter for perpetually straight-talkin' NJ Governor Chris Christie. After weeks of his overly-pious denials in the press, the smoking gun has finally surfaced directly linking top members of his own staff to the GW Bridge-Gate scandal.

After the former director of interstate capital projects for the NY-NJ Port Authority David Wildstein (Christie's high school classmate) was subpoenaed  in the wake of the scandal, he released a trove of internal e-mails sent between Port Authority officials and Christie's staff.

The e-mails released this morning show that Christie's deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly was actually gleeful the day after the lane closures snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge as she sent Wildstein an e-mail saying, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Apparently the idea of young children stuck in school buses for hours being made late for class because of intentionally-caused bridge traffic really turns Bridget on. Where do you find people like this?

We can only hope Bridget gets to know the inside of a jail cell for her role in this; but she's just one cog in a bigger wheel. And how brilliant is it that the top Christie aide who (supposedly) ordered the GW Bridge-Gate is named "Bridget"?

If you haven't already read the details of this ego-fueled misuse of power, check out my blog from December 11th; knowing how this gargantuan Garden State debacle unfolded will make Christie's soon to be heard excuses and denials all the more amusing.

EMS officials have publicly stated very specific examples of how emergency responses (including the search for a missing child) were delayed by the traffic snarl.

Also troubling are transcripts from text messages showing that Christie's campaign manager Bill Sepien and Bill Baroni, who resigned as the deputy executive director of the Port Authority in the wake of the scandal, both derisively referred to Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich as a "Serbian" - Sokolich is actually of Croatian descent.

The whole thing stinks and totally rips the cover of Christie's supposedly bipartisan image and demonstrates that allegations of his bully mentality are totally true.

Frankly his attempts to toss top aide Bridget Anne Kelly under the bus to cover up the fact that he ordered this retribution are pretty pathetic.

Anyone who believes a Christie aide like Kelly, A Mount St. Mary's University grad who only began her possibly short-lived political career in 2002 (and makes $114,000 a year) was the one who ordered a massive interstate entity like the Port Authority to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge - I've got a bridge to sell you.