Finally, MSNBC comes to the rescue with, Let Me Start: Christie keeping some GOPers worried
PLAYING HARDBALL: As the investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closures continues, you can count on one thing: the top dog isn’t giving in that fast. Reports today reveal that the Christie administration has informed Senate Legislative Oversight Committee chairman Sen. Robert Gordon that no members of the governor’s office will appear before any legislative committees. Will this policy hurt the Christie administration’s defense? Or will it only hurt the investigation to be met with a wall of silence?
Meanwhile, new subpoenas were issued this week in the investigation, and the big question now is whether those members of Christie’s circle will comply, or plead the Fifth. This web is getting more and more tangled as the weeks drag on, and you can be sure that this will have a lasting effect on Christie’s legacy as New Jersey governor–and as a potential presidential candidate.
Programming note: Sen. Robert Gordon will join Hardball tonight at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC. .
This morning I wrote this:
This morning, I retracted last night's story, RETRACTED: Christie refuses to allow members of his office testify before legislative committee, I reported from the NJSpotlight which reported that Christie's office had told NJ Senate co-chair that it would not allow members of his office to testify. Although, that story is still being reported, no second source has emerged, even at this point, so I issued a retraction and apology this morning. No second source emerges for story about "Christie's office" refuses to let members testify.
Thanks also to agiftagain for finding three other sources for this while I was out to, and down in, the dump.
Two more sources
So now I retract my retraction this morning of the report of last night's NJSpotlight story because I couldn't find a second source this morning. Plus Senator Robert Gordon will be on Chris Matthews Hardball.
So now I can say I reported this story, before I retracted it, and then retracted it before I'm reporting it again, now. Sheesh! Sorry for being sorry about this before. This will teach me a valuable lesson about getting too far ahead of a breaking story.
I still can not figure out why this hasn't been the major headline all day, as it has such rings back to the Nixon Watergate scandal. Many here are too young to remember this was the mother of all the "gategate" scandals and terminology. For Christie's office to not allow his office staff to testify after promising previously to cooperate with the investigations seems to me to be bigger news than we've seen from today's few reports.
3:42 PM PT: Reverend Sharpton is replaying Governor Christie's claim that he would "cooperated with all appropriate inquiries." Sharpton asks former PA governor Ed Rendell, "does he not think the NJ legislature is an appropriate inquiry?"
And, also that he was going to release the findings of his internal investigation.
5:47 PM PT: Cotterperson found this cool back story about the two former reporters of NJ.com, who left to start NJSpotlight, John Mooney and Tom Johnson.
Columbia School of Journalism
6:21 PM PT: Rachel Maddow is breaking the news that all 18 of the recipients receiving the second round of subpoenas were asked for any and all documents related to Bill Boroni's false testimony about the "traffic study" to the legislative investigative committee, and she called it Boroni's attempt at a "cover-up".
Last week, Rachel, and many others here, reported that lawyer Phillip Kwon spent five days coaching Boroni before his testimony.
She also reported former governor Strichland's comments that Governor's Christies claims that he did not know of his staff activity and cover-up are totally unbelievable, and that Christie is either a liar, or incompetent.
This seems to leave out a third possibility that Christie is both a liar and incompetent. I'll have to check and see if we've already run a poll on this.
6:25 PM PT: Rachel also just mentioned the Governor's office's refusing to allow people to testify before the committee, made the same comment I made in agiftagain's post, that it is unclear whether they were talking just the hearing today or the entire committee's investigation.
The Governor's office needs to clarify this.