Paul Krugman notes Chris Christie’s top supporter is the same guy who tried to intimidate Pope Francis out of talking about the rich:
So it was with today’s Times report on the internal recommendations Chris Christie has been getting within the GOP. Quoted at some length was a guy named Ken Langone:
The billionaire Kenneth G. Langone, Mr. Christie’s most devoted fund-raiser and loudest cheerleader, got in touch with him in recent days. Mr. Langone said he told the governor that he must be smarter about those who surround him.
“I conveyed the importance of the decisions he makes about the people around him and their qualification and their competence, including common sense,” said Mr. Langone, who called the politically motivated closure of lanes onto the George Washington Bridge “beyond the pale.”
“It upset the hell out of me,” he said.
Ah, yes — that Ken Langone, who recently tried to bully … the Pope:
Billionaire Home Depot founder Ken Langone has a warning for Pope Francis.
A major Republican donor, Langone told CNBC in a story published online Monday that wealthy people such as himself might stop giving to charity if the Pope continues to make statements criticizing capitalism and income inequality.
Langone said he was worried the Pope’s comments about an “exclusionary” “culture of prosperity” that may make some of the rich “incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.”
Yep. Stop criticizing the rich or we’ll take it out on the poor. Nothing at all like punishing the residents of Fort Lee — and, apparently, in what may be a much worse story, Hoboken — because you’re annoyed at their mayor.
Our corporate (1%) media has become so unethical (see: The Mika, Joe & Chris Christie Show) that it accepts the use of political “juice” (influence) as SOP. Afghanistan is the most corrupt country on earth. A place where everyone must get bribed before anything gets done. Political juice, influence peddling, and bribery are all the same thing. Our corporate media calls it bipartisanship. I’ll wash your hands if you’ll wash mine. Christie is seen as bipartisan because he gets things done. He gets things done by employing a facilitator, David Sampson, to use political influence and the threat of retribution (enemies and hit lists) to keep both Democratic and Republican politicians in line. Sampson’s law firm (Wolff & Sampson) gets rich in the bargin and “Big Steve” Adubato gets to keep wielding his very large political club.