The Manzo Blog

THE PARTY IS OVER: DEMS FACE A DRUBBING AT THE POLLS WITH LONG-LASTING CONSEQUENCES

By Louis Manzo / October 29, 2014

An astonishing seventy percent of American’s are dissatisfied with the direction the country is headed in.

According to insiders from both major political party persuasions, along with a smattering of recent national polling, indications are that the Democratic Party stands ready to have their heads handed to them at the polls next Tuesday [November 4, 2014.] The only question that remains is how far down the ballot the blood from this massacre will flow? Can those Democrats running on the party line in local elections be spared the animus of ticked-off voters who are fed up with a party that they feel has stepped much too far to the left, and perhaps off a cliff? (more…)

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Jersey Journal/NJ.COM POLL: Public Agrees With Conclusions of Ruthless Ambition

By Louis Manzo October 13, 2014

In a recent poll of its readers [reported on October 3, 2014], the Jersey Journal and NJ.COM asked if the Bid Rig III Sting and arrests were politically motivated. The book   Ruthless Ambition: The Rise and Fall of Chris Christie presented overwhelming evidence and documentation to support the conclusion that they were. An astounding amount of those polled—87.5% [424 participants]—agreed with the same conclusions reached in the book: the prosecutions were politically motivated.

The newspaper and website poll was taken in conjunction with a news story covering the sentencing of Lavern Webb-Washington. She was the last of those charged in the sting to have her final day in court. Ron Zeitlinger, the deputy managing editor who reported on the poll, points out the contrast of how prosecutors managed the media for the day of the arrests compared to how they managed Webb-Washington’s sentencing. “No showy press conference with construction board filled with mug shots after LaVern Webb-Washington of Jersey City was sentenced to 18 months probation for misspending campaign cash,” noted Zeitlinger. (more…)

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U. S. Attorney Spokesperson on Bridgegate: Ignore Leaks of Our Intentions to Clear Christie

By Louis Manzo September 24, 2014

Governor Chris Christie gave the appearance of a cat who swallowed a canary as he chastised and taunted members of the legislative committee investigating him last Thursday [September 18, 2014]. “They’ve been irresponsible,” Christie charged. “These are people who are addicted to MSNBC and the front pages of your newspapers,” he further declared to a gallery full of media.

The Governor’s remarks mysteriously coincided with the song of another canary, this one chirping inside the offices of federal prosecutors in New Jersey, which later in the day let the cat out of the bag regarding information about the United States Attorney’s Office’s [USAO] supposedly surreptitious investigation of Bridgegate and other matters. The news that Christie would not be charged in the probe might be considered a sort of in-kind contribution to the Governor’s stealth presidential campaign from prosecutors in his former office. (more…)

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Now Drunk With Power, Texas D.A. Indicts Governor Rick Perry

By Louis Manzo, August 19, 2014

The specious indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry last week should send shivers down the spines of all American’s. It accentuates the point trumpeted in Ruthless Ambition: The Rise and Fall of Chris Christie—prosecutors on all levels need legitimate oversight, and our current system of Justice, especially at the federal level, is out of control, remaining an endangerment to the liberty of all Americans. (more…)

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Today’s Star-Ledger headline story [see link below], is based upon a lead WCBS Channel 2 news story [the news clip appears at the bottom of the Ledger’s news link]is rattling the cages of the Christie camp. The report discloses an effort by Christie brass in the Port Authority Police Department to silence cops trying to alleviate the hazardous conditions posed by the George Washington Bridge 4 day traffic jam created by Christie’s office last September.

Subsequent to the refusal of Fort Lee, NJ’s mayor to support Governor Christie’s 2013 reelection bid, Christie’s office ordered lane closures on the bridge in order to gridlock Fort Lee, which sits at the western mouth of the George Washington bridge and punish the Mayor of the town for his failure to endorse Christie’s 2013 reelection bid.

Ironically, Christie has spent more than $7M of taxpayer’s money to date on his own self-initiated investigation which cleared him of any involvement in the Bridgegate scandal. Apparently, Christie’s team of lawyer’s “very thorough investigation” managed to miss the inconvenient details reported in today’s news items.

Port Authority cops told to ‘shut up’ about GWB lane closures, memo says

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/09/port_authority_cops_told_to_shut_up_about_gwb_lane_closures_memo_says.html

 

 

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For Chris Christie, Scandals Die as Hard as Old Habits

By Louis Manzo, September 2, 2014

While some media outlets around the nation continue to shower Governor Chris Christie’s stealth presidential campaign tour with much fanfare, other serious media entities continue breaking news on the latest Chris Christie scandal that has begun to unravel. A scandal that involves the selection of Wall Street investment firms hired to manage the monies of the battered NJ public employees’ pension system.

Governor Christie has dusted off an old scheme that helped him fund his run for Governor while he was the once United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and he has even added a new twist to it. Christie then used his office as a chief prosecutor to twist the arms of prosecution targets for consenting to deferred prosecution agreements, whereby Christie got to pick a law firm to monitor the terms of the agreements. The agreements enabled the targets to escape prosecution. The law firms selected were chosen without a public bidding process and many were coincidentally substantial donors to Christie’s later run for Governor. The contracts for the law firms totaled hundreds of millions of dollars, including a $50M contract awarded to the law firm of his old boss, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. (more…)

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Now Drunk With Power, Texas D.A. Indicts Governor Rick Perry

By Louis Manzo, August 19, 2014

The specious indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry last week should send shivers down the spines of all Americans. It accentuates the point trumpeted in Ruthless Ambition: The Rise and Fall of Chris Christie—prosecutors on all levels need legitimate oversight, and our current system of Justice, especially at the federal level, is out of control, remaining an endangerment to the liberty of all Americans.

Perry’s predicament parallels that of so many of Governor Chris Christie’s victims highlighted throughout the book—victims of unhindered prosecutorial misconduct, typically, the result of a prosecutor’s political or personal agenda. (more…)

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Despite Christie Whirlwind National Spin Tour, Governor Keeps Pace with NJ Town Hall Schedule

The Star Ledger reported this week about Governor Christie’s campaign tour on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidates and other candidates in his role as Chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association. The stumping for candidates affords Christie the advantage of marketing his brand to national audiences that he needs to woo for his contemplated run at the GOP Presidential nomination in 2016. One of the states that Christie will visit is Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucus.

In Chapter Fourteen and Fifteen of Ruthless Ambition, readers are given a glimpse of what may be in store for these national audiences—a depiction of Christie’s other national stumping tours during his first term as Governor. Christie has been characterized by some in the media as the best politician able to spin an audience since Bill Clinton. (more…)

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