Governor Chris Christie’s office went on the offensive today, attacking The New York Times and David Wildstein, in an email to friends and allies, according to a report at Politico.
The email reads as follows:
5 Things You Should Know About The Bombshell That’s Not A Bombshell
1. New York Times Bombshell Not A Bombshell. A media firestorm was set off by sloppy reporting from the New York Times and their suggestion that there was actually “evidence” when it was a letter alleging that “evidence exists.” Forced to change the lead almost immediately, the Times was roundly criticized, and its editor was forced to issue this extraordinary statement to the Huffington Post:
Governor Chris Christie and Danny Shields in Highlands earlier this year. Shields, an owner of Windansea, is Sen. Jennifer Beck’s husband.
Governor Chris Christie sounded like a candidate for President of the United States during an address to a private luncheon of the Republican National Committee this afternoon in Boston, according to a report at Politico.
The meeting was closed to reporters at Christie’s insistence, Politico said, but the site obtained a recording from someone in attendance.
Christie’s theme: Republicans need to stop debating, focus on winning and he knows how to win.
“We are not a debating society,” Christie said. “We are a political operation that needs to win.”
“I’m in this business to win,” he said. “I don’t know why you’re in it…I think that we have some folks that believe that our job is to be college professors. Now college professors are fine, I guess. You know, college professors basically spout out ideas that nobody ever does anything about. For our ideas to matter, we have to win because, if we don’t win, we don’t govern. And if we don’t govern, all we do is shout into the wind. So I am going to do anything I need to do to win!”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is hoping rising gasoline prices can reignite his stalled presidential campaign.
Poltico’s Ginger Gibson (a former Star Ledger statehouse scribe) reports that Gingrich will deliver a speech on energy policy this afternoon to the California GOP state convention.
“It will be our outline for the country — how really big the gap is between the Obama approach to expensive energy and in essence forcing Americans to change their way of life built around what I think is a series of fantasies,” Gingrich told POLITICO in an interview Friday. “And an approach that says we’re going to be energy independent and we ought to have inexpensive energy.”
Politico produced a video of what they are calling Governor Chris Christie’s Top 10 quotes. (Hat tip InTheLobby)
It’s good, but I think they left the best one out. In my mind, Christie’s best YouTube moment was one of his first. The “Honest and Refreshing” video, made early in the term, where he turn the tables on Star Ledger Editorial page editor Tom Moran who was questioning the governor’s style or “tone.”
Senator Robert Menendez denies he is preventing Federal Magistrate Patty Shwartz’s appointment to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals because her boyfriend is the federal prosecutor who lead the corruption investigation into the senator during his 2006 campaign, according to a report at Politico.
Menendez said it wasn’t appropriate to debate a potential judges qualifications in the press, before he went on to malign Shwartz:
“It is incredibly disappointing and unfortunate that my real concerns over the suitability of Judge Shwartz to serve a lifetime appointment as circuit court judge have been spun as some petty political vendetta by some of her supporters,” Menendez said in a statement to POLITICO.
“I proceeded to ask her substantive legal questions and was not fully satisfied with her responses,” Menendez said. “In my opinion, Judge Shwartz did not adequately demonstrate the breadth of knowledge of constitutional law and pivotal Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United that we should expect from a United States Circuit Court judge.”
“In the interview with Judge Shwartz, in my opinion, she misapplied the application of strict scrutiny versus rational basis review to the questions at hand,” Menendez added. “She did not express substantive knowledge as to the scope of the rights of corporations under the Constitution or jurisprudence on the constitutional limits of Executive Branch powers.
Menendez lied to me personally and didn’t respond when I called him on it, in the months after Jon Corzine appointed him to the Senate. Thus my bias makes it difficult to believe anything he says. He’s just not trustworthy.
