CHRIS CHRISTIE: More Than 907 Docs Released By The NJ Gen Assembly (It's All About 2016!)

#BRIDGEGATE

BREAKING NEWS!........"BRIDGEGATE" DOCS HAVE BEEN RELEASED!!

More than 907 "BRIDGEGATE" Documents have just been released to the Media by the NJ General Assembly...

Every Major News Organization is now perusing the Docs, looking for any evidence linking Gov CHRISTIE to this so-called Political Scandal.

I don't believe any State, nor Federal Laws were broken.

This is all related to 2016 Politics & everyone knows it.




ARTICLE: "Thousands Of Pages Of Chris Christie Bridge Scandal Documents Released"

The New Jersey Legislature today released thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents provided to a state Assembly committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Many of the documents were given to the panel by an attorney for David Wildstein, a former top official of the Port of New Jersey and New Jersey, and include the e-mails that emerged on Wednesday revealing a top aide to Gov. Chris Christie was directly tied to the traffic-clogging closure of local access lanes leading to the bridge in Fort Lee.

Democrats have sought for months to link the lane closures to the refusal of Fort Lee’s mayor, a Democrat, to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign.

The e-mails obtained by The Star-Ledger and other media outlets on Wednesday show Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, knew about the closures months in advance and sent an e-mail to Wildstein saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

Christie has vehemently denied any involvement and fired Kelly on Thursday. He also apologized for the incident at a news conference Thursday.

Wildstein, who recently resigned as director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority amid the controversy, refused to testify Thursday before the Assembly Transportation committee, which had subpoenaed him. He said he was exercising his right against self incrimination, but the committee voted to hold him in contempt.

Numerous documents that Wildstein’s attorney provided in response to the subpoena — many of them heavily redacted — flashed on a projection screen in the meeting room at the Statehouse in Trenton.

But Wildstein refused to answer a single question about the documents, declining even to confirm that he had worked at the Port Authority, or to clarify whether one document was an e-mail or not.


Sources: AP, CNN, NY Daily News, NJ.com, NorthJersey.com

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Woman Says Her Mother's Death Was Not Caused By "BRIDGEGATE" Scandal (Florence Genova)

#CHRISTIE

VILMA OLERI says "BRIDGEGATE" did Not cause the Death of her Mother Florence Genova, 91 as CNN Hosts proclaimed.

OLERI'S Mother was a Fort Lee, NJ resident & a CHRISTIE Supporter.


ARTICLE: "Woman Says Lane Closings Were Not To Blame For Her Mother’s Death"

The daughter of a 91-year-old woman from Fort Lee, N.J., who died on the day of a major traffic jam precipitated by top aides to Gov. Chris Christie said on Thursday that she did not believe the inability of an ambulance to reach her mother’s house was a factor in her death.

“I honestly believe it was just her time,” said Vilma Oleri, whose mother, Florence Genova, died on the morning of Sept. 9, the first day that the closing of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge set off the snarls.

A Fort Lee emergency official has said that the traffic jam prevented an ambulance from Englewood Hospital from reaching Ms. Genova’s home.

Ms. Oleri spoke inside her home in Closter, N.J. She said she had gone that morning to check on her mother, who lived alone in a two-story, red brick house on Harvard Place in the southern part of Fort Lee. Ms. Oleri said she called 911 after her mother went into the bathroom before breakfast and did not come out.
Related Coverage

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey greeted residents after leaving City Hall in Fort Lee on Thursday.
Christie Fires Aide in Bridge Scandal as U.S. Opens InquiryJAN. 9, 2014

Paul E. Favia, the emergency medical services coordinator in Fort Lee, complained in a letter to the mayor on Sept. 10 that the traffic problems caused “unnecessary delays for emergency services.”

Just before the call about Ms. Genova, Mr. Favia wrote that it took him seven minutes instead of the usual four minutes to arrive at the scene of a car crash where four people needed to be taken to the hospital.

“I, myself, was stuck in traffic on Fletcher Avenue and had to jump the curb and cut up West Street in order to avoid the standstill traffic,” he wrote.

It took a Fort Lee E.M.S. crew seven minutes to reach Ms. Genova, after they were detoured away from the traffic accident.

“The response time was only shortened by the fact that they were heading to the accident scene to assist when dispatched” to Ms. Genova, the letter says. Ms. Genova had gone into “cardiac arrest,” according to Mr. Favia’s letter.

Ms. Oleri said that Fort Lee emergency responders tried to revive her mother at her home, but that her mother showed no signs of life.

A neighbor said she watched the paramedics rush Ms. Genova onto a stretcher inside their waiting ambulance.

Mr. Favia wrote in his letter that after an ambulance with paramedics from Englewood Hospital could not get to Ms. Genova’s house, it met the Fort Lee ambulance on a street. The hospital paramedics tried again, but failed, to revive Ms. Genova. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“We believe she died in her home, but they couldn’t pronounce her until she got to the hospital,” said Ms. Oleri’s husband, Frank Oleri. “The traffic didn’t make any difference.”

Ms. Oleri said she had no idea until Wednesday that her mother’s death had become a source of controversy.

“We want to stay out of it,” Ms. Oleri said. “It’s not political.”

She said her mother married an immigrant from Italy and had lived in the same Fort Lee house for more than 50 years. Though her eyesight kept her from driving a car for most of the last half of her life, she insisted on keeping a car in her garage even after her husband died, because she believed it would deter burglars by signaling that a man lived there.

“She was a pip,” Mr. Oleri said.

Ms. Genova was so secretive about her age — it was one of the few details that became public when the traffic scandal gave her posthumous notoriety — that she never told her family. A decade ago, she fell and broke her hip. Ms. Oleri said her mother yanked an emergency responder’s ear to her lips and whispered her age.

“She never told me; she was like that,” Ms. Oleri said. “I sneaked a look on the paramedic’s clipboard.”

Neighbors said Ms. Genova liked to sit in her dining room with the window shade open. Occasionally, a home health aide would visit, and sit her in the sunshine on her front stoop.

“That’s how we knew she was O.K.; the blind would be up,” said Connie Ciongoli, Ms. Genova’s neighbor for more than 50 years. “We would check on her.”

Ms. Genova and her husband were married more than 50 years. She loved her son and daughter and three grandchildren, Ms. Oleri said, though in recent years her memory had began to fail her.

Because of that, she did not vote in the last election of a governor. But she did in the one before.

“She voted for Christie,” Ms. Oleri said.


Sources: AP, LinkedIn, NY Times

CHRIS CHRISTIE Fires Top Aide BRIDGET ANNE KELLY For Her Direct Involvement In "BRIDGEGATE"

#BRIDGETKELLY


POLITICAL SCANDALS 101: HOW TO FIRE SOMEONE SWIFTLY


When faced with a POLITICAL SCANDAL it is imperative Elected & Appointed Officials Terminate someone.

Especially those Individuals Responsible.

It's a fact that Someone has to be FIRED Swiftly!

Someone has to be the "Fall Guy or Fall Fall Girl"!

If Not.........

Then Constituents will view the SCANDAL as an act of IMPROPRIETY........ CRONYISM........or WEAKNESS.

And if Voters don't TRUST their POLITICIANS all is lost!

Prior to speaking at his "BRIDGEGATE" Press Conference, Gov CHRISTIE Terminated one of his Top Aides BRIDGET ANNE KELLY aka the "Fall Girl".

A "Fall Girl" who was deeply mired in this "BRIDGEGATE" Scandal of her own free will.

STUPID!

ARTICLE: "Gov. Christie apologizes For GWB Scandal/ Fires Bridget Anne Kelly"

Governor Christie has fired Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff who ordered the lane closure at the George Washington Bridge in September as political payback to the Fort Lee mayor who did not endorse the governor for re-election.

Christie also instructed his close advisor Bill Stepien to withdraw from pursuing state GOP chairmanship and his consultancy for the Republican Governor’s Association – the powerful group that Christie is leading in 2014.

At a packed news conference in Trenton where he announced the firing, Christie apologized “for my failure to understand the true nature of this problem sooner than I did.”

At a packed news conference in Trenton where he announced the firing, Christie apologized “for my failure to understand the true nature of this problem sooner than I did.”

He also said he had "no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or execution" and was stunned by the "abject stupidity that was shown." Nevertheless, he said, he was responsible for what happened.

He said it was “completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and the people we're are trusted to serve.”

He also said he had "no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or execution" and was stunned by the "abject stupidity that was shown."

Nevertheless, he said, he was responsible for what happened.

He said it was “completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and the people we're are trusted to serve.”

The governor said he has instructed his staff to cooperate with the General Assembly investigation, the Port Authority Inspector General Investigation and any law enforcement investigation.

“I have nothing to hide,” Christie said. “We have nothing to hide. My administration has nothing to hide.”

He said he plans to personally interview his staff to root out if others had knowledge of or were involved in the lane closures. He said that if anything else is discovered he will make it public.

Christie said he was "embarrassed and humiliated" by his staff, one day after emails and text messages revealed his administration may have closed highway lanes to exact political retribution.

He added he was firing Kelly, "because she lied to me."

Christie said he is going to Fort Lee later today to apologize to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and borough residents.

The mayor has said he does not want to meet with the governor, but Christie is traveling to Fort Lee anyway.

The Record and other media reported Wednesday that Kelly, one of Christie's deputy chiefs of staff, had sent an email to David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the Port Authority, saying "It's time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

While many believed the closures were retribution against Sokolich, a Democrat who did not join other members of his party in endorsing Christie, Christie said previously that his staff and campaign had no knowledge of what caused the days-long tragic jam in Fort Lee. He said he believed Bill Baroni, who he appointed as deputy executive director of the transportation agency, who said the traffic jams were caused by a traffic study.

Both Wildstein and Baroni have resigned.

Christie said he was “blindsided” by the news.

Christie said he first learned of the issue after he had finished his workout and was called by communications staff that the story had broken on The Record’s website: NorthJersey.com.

“This is not the tone I set over the last four years in this building,” Christie said.

After the documents revealed Christie's staff and campaign had knowledge of the lane closures and Kelly apparently ordered them, the governor cancelled a planned Superstorm Sandy recovery announcement Wednesday. Six hours later Christie released a statement saying he had been "misled" by a staff member and that "people will be held responsive for their actions."

Christie said he knew nothing about the lane closures until they were eventually reopened four days later.

“I first found out about it after it was over,” he said.

He said he isn’t a micro-manager and gives his subordinates — staff and cabinet — discretion to make decisions. Christie said he didn’t know his campaign was even trying to pursue Sokolich’s endorsement. “I didn’t see this as political retribution because I didn’t see him do anything to us,” Christie said of Sokolich.

Christie said has not spoken to Kelly since the e-mail came out and does not know why she ordered the lane closure. He said he spoke to Port Authority Chairman David Samson on Wednesday and was convinced he did not know about the lane closure scheme.

Christie also apologized for a flip remark he made at a previous news conference that he had arranged the traffic cones himself when asked about the closures.

“I would never have made that joke if I knew the facts that came out yesterday,” Christie.

Christie said Stepien, his campaign manager on his last year’s reelection, was asked to leave his organization at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Kelly was fired at 9 a.m. today, Christie said.

He said Stepien had told him earlier that he had no involvement in the lane closures.

“I lost confidence in his judgment,” Christie said.


Sources: AP, NorthJersey.com

CHRIS CHRISTIE: "How To Handle Political Scandals 101" (John Boehner Approves)

#CHRISTIE

HOW TO CORRECTLY HANDLE POLITICAL SCANDALS 101:

Today NJ Gov CHRIS CHRISTIE taught every Elected & Appointed Official in America how to CORRECTLY handle POLITICAL SCANDALS.

In fact his Press Conference was so polished & so Sincere, that House Speaker JOHN BOEHNER still views CHRISTIE as a "Viable GOP Presidential Contender for 2016".

WOW!










Sources: AP, Gov Christie's office, NJ.com, Roll Call, Youtube

CHRIS CHRISTIE PRESSER: He Apologizes, Takes Responsibility, Fires Key Staffer Bridget Kelley (GREAT DAMAGE CONTROL!)

#BRIDGEGATE


HOW TO CORRECTLY HANDLE POLITICAL SCANDALS 101:

GREAT DAMAGE CONTROL GOV CHRISTIE!

Today I was extremely Impressed with the way Gov CHRIS CHRISTIE handled his "BRIDGEGATE" Scandal during his Press Conference.

All eyes were on him as America listened intensely to his comments.

I have to be Fair & award KUDOS to CHRISTIE for how well he handled himself this morning on the National Stage.

He publicly APOLOGIZED.

He accepted Full RESPONSIBLITY.

He took Swift ACTION.

He is working to quickly regain the TRUST of his CONSTITUENTS.

He was Polite to REPORTERS & JOURNALISTS.

and......

He did NOT Protect His CLOSE FRIENDS!

These attributes demonstrate a great level of INTEGRITY & LEADERSHIP.

The OBAMA Administration should have done the same when faced with the IRS Targeting Scheme.

I'm just saying.








Sources: Gov Christie's office, NJ.com, Roll Call, Youtube

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Is "BRIDGEGATE" Christie's 2016 Waterloo?? (Not With Great Damage Control!)

#BRIDGEGATE


Is the GW "BRIDGEGATE" Scandal Gov CHRISTIE'S 2016 Waterloo??

Not if he uses great DAMAGE CONTROL & comes down really hard on the people Responsible.

Even if those people are his CLOSE Friends.

By the way does CHRIS CHRISTIE have any BLACK & LATINO People working in his Administration??

I'm NOT referring to the Office Cleaning Staff, I'm referring to Key Administration Personnel.

And......

Where was the Mainstream Media when the IRS was Targeting Innocent American Citizens for POLITICS??

I'm just saying.





ARTICLE: "It’s The Worst Example Of A Petty Political Vendetta’: Fort Lee, NJ, Mayor Sokolich On Retaliatory George Washington Bridge closings"

Emails exchanged between a Chris Christie staffer and appointee shows bridge lanes were shut as punishment for Sokolich not supporting the governor. ‘How low can you go … congratulations, you’ve just made New Jersey the brunt of every political joke for the next 25 years,’ the Fort Lee mayor added.

Bully-boy Gov. Chris Christie’s White House hopes hit a massive roadblock after emails implicated a top aide in a punitive George Washington Bridge traffic nightmare.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” read the damning Aug. 13 email made public Wednesday — the political payback to the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., for his refusal to endorse the GOP incumbent last year.

“Got it,” shot back the Garden State governor’s high school buddy, David Wildstein, to the message from Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff for legislative and intergovernmental affairs.

Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich, told the Daily News on Wednesday he was appalled by the orchestrated gridlock in September.

“How low can you go?” he asked. “This is insane. It’s the worst example of a petty political vendetta . . . I’m embarrassed. And congratulations, you’ve just made New Jersey the brunt of every political joke for the next 25 years — again.”

Comedian Jon Stewart was among the first to fulfill the prophecy. “Clearly, somebody is getting thrown under the bus here,” the Jersey-born funnyman said on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” “Fortunately for them, the bus isn’t moving. It’s stuck in terrible traffic.”

“Shame on you,” Sokolich said of the political plotters on CNN. He added he fears retribution and wants a criminal probe.

The mayor also had choice words for Wildstein, who had called him a “little Serbian” in an email. “Wildstein deserves an ass-kicking, okay? Sorry. There, I said it,” Sokolich (who is Croatian) said on MSNBC.

First responders were delayed in getting to emergencies, including a call about an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died at a local hospital.

Asked if he had heard from Christie, Sokolich told The News the governor needs to address the people his staff put in danger during four days of madness. “Don’t explain it to me, explain it to the families that were waiting two, three times longer than they had to for first responders to arrive when their loved ones were clutching their chests because they were having either heart attacks or tremendous heart pain,” he said.

“Explain it to the family who was missing a child that the police had to respond to, or explain it to the thousands of families who couldn’t get their kids to school on time on the first day and the ensuing days thereafter,” Sokolich railed.

Christie, who denied months ago that his staff was involved in creating the chaos, said he first learned of the emails on Wednesday.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable,” he said in a written statement. “I am outraged and deeply saddened that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.”

The governor said “people will be held responsible for their actions.”

He canceled his only scheduled appearance on Wednesday but he will hold a press conference at 11am on Thursday at his office.

A cache of newly released messages portrayed Wildstein, a $150,000-a-year Christie appointee at the Port Authority, as an eager participant with Kelly in the vehicular vengeance. The governor’s hand-picked choice as PA chairman — David Samson — was also tarred by the burgeoning “Bridgegate.”

“Shame on you,” Sokolich told CNN on Wednesday evening, adding he feared retribution. The Fort Lee mayor also has called for a criminal probe.

Christie critics were quick to unload on a governor more used to throwing political punches than taking them.

“The governor has denied from day one that he knew anything about this,” said New Jersey state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg. “Either the governor’s staff lied to him, or the governor was less than truthful with the people of New Jersey.”

State Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democrat who suffered a one-sided November defeat against Christie in the governor’s race, called for the immediate firing of anyone involved and a federal probe of the four-day lane closings on the world’s busiest bridge.

“It’s not at all surprising,” said Buono of the nasty behavior. “I know Chris Christie. Nothing happens in his administration without him knowing.”

New Jersey State Senator Ray Lesniak plans to request that federal prosecutors in New York and New Jersey investigate the scandal, according to WABC.

A request will also to be made to the Manhattan District Attorney for an inquiry into the scandal.

The emails reinforced Christie’s persona as a mean-spirited politician with a scorched-earth approach toward critics.

Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall, told Reuters that Christie’s 2016 White House aspirations have taken a big hit.

“The smoking gun is not quite in the governor’s hand, but these emails show that it is awfully close to it,” Hale said.

“Gov. Christie has spent an enormous amount of effort trying to get away from the narrative that he is a bully,” he said. “These emails destroy all of that effort in a single day.”

It was Sokolich’s decision to support fellow Democrat Buono that apparently set the bizarre lane-closing plans in motion.

A text message exchange between Christie appointees showed the callous chatters taking great delight in the gridlock — timed to coincide with the first day of school.

“Is it wrong that I’m smiling?” texted an unidentified underling.

“No,” Wildstein wrote in response.

“I feel badly about the kids. I guess,” read another text.

“They are the children of Buono voters,” Wildstein coldly replied.

In an email to Kelly, Wildstein stressed that complaints from Sokolich would fall on deaf ears. The mayor said his dozens of complaint calls were ignored.

Eventually, Sokolich was told a traffic study was the reason for the closings. A Sept. 13 email said PA Chairman David Samson played a role in the bogus “traffic study.”

“The New York side gave Fort Lee back all three lanes this morning,” read the Wildstein email. “We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate.”

The chairman released his own statement insisting he was unaware of the vindictive lane closings.

“I am extremely upset and distressed over today’s disclosures,” said Samson. “To be clear, neither I nor anyone on the board had any knowledge of these lane closures” until a Sept. 13 email from PA Executive Director Patrick Foye. The Port Authority is conducting its own probe.

The agency placed cones blocking two of the three toll plazas from Fort Lee, resulting in hours-long delays that stretched into adjoining towns. The jam-packed streets wreaked havoc on local first responders — even delaying the search for a missing 4-year-old girl.

The emergency response time of Fort Lee’s three ambulances was tripled, and the gridlock forced the entire police department to direct traffic, said Borough Council member Jan Goldberg.

On Sept. 9, the first day of the traffic jam, an ambulance responded to a call for the unconscious elderly woman, Goldberg said. The typical two- to three-minute response time turned into seven minutes, and she was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. No one could say if the delay played any role in the woman’s death.

John Currie, chairman of the New Jersey state Democrats, said it was time for the Republican governor to stand up and come clean.

“I suggest the governor try a new approach when answering questions: honesty,” Currie said.

Wildstein resigned his position in December, as did Christie PA appointee Bill Baroni, as the scandal began to mushroom. Baroni, once a Jersey state senator, earned a $289,667 annual salary.


Source: NY Daily News, Youtube

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Can He Recover From His "BRIDGEGATE" Scandal Before 2016??

#BRIDGEGATE


CHRISTIE'S "BRIDGEGATE" SCANDAL:

Can CHRIS CHRISTIE recover from his GW Bridge Scandal??

Or has his chances for a U.S. Pres bid in 2016 been completely ruined??

Gov CHRISTIE claims he wasn't aware of any wrongdoing regarding this "BRIDGEGATE" situation just as Pres OBAMA claims he wasn't aware of the IRS Targeting Innocent Citizens.






ARTICLE: "Chris Christie Bridge Scandal Is 'Nixonian,' Hard To See How He Recovers: Opinion"

The Fort Lee traffic scandal, once dismissed by the governor as an exaggerated kerfuffle, has captivated the national blogosphere today.

Political pundits warn of two outcomes: First, the hardening of Gov. Chris Christie's reputation as a bully into indelible fact. And second, his presidential prospects in 2016, washed away in mere days.

Much of this depends on how Christie handles the fallout. After ducking the limelight today, he released a statement this evening saying he is "outraged" to learn that he was misled by a member of his staff, and that the culprits will be held responsible.

Is the governor being honest about his ignorance?

The real test will be whether he comes clean with all the evidence, without trying to invoke executive privilege to hide anything from the public.

In the meantime, the revelation that Christie's top officials paralyzed traffic in Fort Lee because its mayor failed to endorse him has breathed new life into what critics have long charged -- that Christie retaliates ruthlessly against those who dare to cross him.

At Slate, John Dickerson wonders, "Will Christie apologize?" Ultimately, that's what will determine the fate of his presidential campaign, he argues.

Ezra Klein at Wonkblog believes "Chris Christie's problem is that he's really, truly a bully" -- and a bully with power is a dangerous combination.

"It's hard to see how Christie recovers from this," says Jamelle Bouie, a columnist at the Daily Beast.

"Nixonian," a headline at Talking Points Memo cries.

Rachel Maddow told the Star-Ledger's Stephen Stirling that state reporters were right to keep the heat on Christie: "The national press owes the New Jersey papers a huge debt of gratitude."

And New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait seems to think it's all over for the golden governor, titling his piece, "Chris Christie 2016: A Bridge to Nowhere."

What do you think? Can Christie bounce back from Bridgegate?


Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, NJ.com, Rawstory, Youtube

Jenny Sanford's Book Reveals Emotional Abuse & Affairs

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Guide To Jenny Sanford's Revenge


Jenny Sanford puts her long list of grievances with her soon to be ex-husband, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, on full display in her new book.

"Staying True" is filled with nasty accounts of the Governor that paint him as insensitive, uncaring, selfish, out of touch and cheap. She offers new details of her husband’s affair in the book out Friday and is unflinching in her criticism of the governor.

To capture all the dirt Sanford dishes on her husband, POLITICO has created a guide to the book, cutting it down into three sections: her marriage, the affair and the fallout.

The Marriage

After getting over her husband’s unwillingness to include a pledge to be faithful in their wedding vows, Jenny writes that as newlyweds living in New York — where she was an investment banker and Mark started a real estate company — the two were “deeply in love and had a world of possibilities in front of us both.”

But not long after they moved to South Carolina, Jenny grew frustrated by what she found to be thoughtless, and sometimes strange, behavior.

When the newlyweds first visited the Sanford family home for a holiday, “Mark explained, I would be sleeping with his sister while he slept across the hall with his brothers,” Jenny writes, describing the room as having “bunk beds, trundles, desks and even surfboards hanging from the ceiling.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she told her husband.

“I’ve always slept with my brothers, and I don’t see why that has to change now that we’re married,” he responded.

Soon thereafter, Jenny’s grandfather died, but Mark refused to fly to the funeral in Chicago. “He explained that he had hardly known my grandfather,” she writes. “Having met him a handful of times, he didn’t think he needed to be at the funeral.”

Jenny also quickly noticed that Mark was prone to being “cheap,” once drawing her a picture instead of giving her a gift and on another occasion returning a necklace he purchased for her birthday after seeing her wear it out.

“That’s what I spent all that money on?” he said upon seeing the necklace on his wife. “I hope you kept the box!”

“Knowing Mark’s extremely frugal habits, I knew not to expect much from Mark for birthdays or for Christmas, even if I felt it was surely nice to be remembered every now and again,” Jenny writes about her husband before he was elected to Congress. “Once in office, however, his habits deteriorated, and he even forgot my birthday once. Thereafter, I nudged the scheduler to remind him.”

Jenny was her husband’s campaign manager for both his first congressional run and his first run for governor, and she says there is only one reason she was picked for the job: She could do it for free.

Mark first told her of his decision to run for Congress while she was still lying in the hospital bed after giving birth to one of their four sons.

Mark said he chose her for the job because she was “free.”

“Free? I think my plate is pretty full right now,” she responded.

“You can do this with the babies at home,” he told her. “The only way this will even possibly work is if we keep our expenses incredibly low, and that’s why I really need you. You are free.”

The relationship further unraveled once Mark was a member of Congress and frequently away from his family, she says in the book. The strain, Jenny writes, was enough to make her first think of divorce after the two aired their frustrations with the marriage.

“His job demanded that he be calculating and sometimes manipulative. I was growing more vulnerable, and he was forming a hardened shell,” she writes. “For his part, Mark complained that I didn’t understand the stress he was under. We didn’t say it in so many words, but it was clear that while both of us were rarely alone, in our own distinct ways, we were lonely. What we did say led to tears — mine — and to soul-searching about whether we should even stay married.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The two were not able to reconcile those differences during his time in Congress.

During one confrontation toward the end of his third term, Jenny told him that she thought “he was incredibly self-absorbed and disconnected from reality and from me.”

“The more he succeeded politically, the more time he spent living in that persona, and none of it served our marriage well,” she writes. “It seemed to me that Mark had become the empty-eyed politician he used to abhor.”

The Affair

Jenny writes that she first suspected her husband was seeing another woman when he did not immediately return from a trip to Ireland in November 2008 with some of his contacts at the Republican Governors Association, for which he was serving as chairman.

She called the governor’s office and found out he was in New York, but his staff was not sure why he was there.

“I didn’t know either but would soon come to know that this trip was a rendezvous with his mistress,” she writes.

When she later found a racy e-mail exchange between the governor and his Argentine mistress, television reporter Maria Belen Chapur, she confronted him.

“Jenny, I’m sorry. I’ll end it,” he said.

The governor at first denied that he was in love with his mistress, but the way he defended the Argentine woman when Jenny attacked her signaled otherwise.

“He touted her wealth, bristled when I asked questions and defended her when I referred to her plainly as ‘whore.’ ‘She is not a whore!’ he protested. He seemed to be oblivious to his ability to pierce my heart,” she writes.

The governor was soon asking his wife for permission to visit his mistress.

“Mark was unrelenting, in time escalating pressure to get me to condone his foreign adventure,” she writes.

“He wanted my permission to go, but I was never going to grant it.”

He only stopped requesting to see the other woman when Jenny threatened to kick him out of the house and run off with their children.

When the governor declared that he was leaving town to “get his head right,” his wife made him promise that he was not going to see the other woman.

“I will not see her,” he told Jenny.

“I shiver when I think that while I was cleaning up after a delicious family meal with the boys and their cousins, he was e-mailing his ‘soulmate’ with visions of her tan lines,” she writes.

The Fall-out

When the governor finally landed back in the United States to intense media attention after disappearing for several days to see his mistress, he called Jenny to ask, “How are you doing?”

“How am I?” she responded. “How do you think I am?”

“Jenny, be gentle with me,” the governor said.

“Gentle?” she shot back. “Do you know what kind of a storm you are returning to? And where do we stand?”

Sanford told his wife that he had ended the affair and that he had met with a reporter at the Atlanta airport upon his arrival and “told her of my love of adventure travel and so on.”

Jenny doubted that her husband’s story would hold, and when national scrutiny heightened and the governor decided to hold a press conference, she advised him to “be honest and get it over with.”

“Whatever you do, don’t talk about your heart,” she said.

The governor, of course, did not follow his wife’s advice, holding an emotional tear-filled press conference in which he confessed his love for his “soulmate.”

After the press conference, he called Jenny to ask: “How’d I do?”

“Are you kidding me? You cried for her and said little of me or the boys,” she responded.

Of the exchange, she writes: “I guess he’d forgotten I was not the one to praise his performance.”






Jenny Sanford: Husband Asked For Affair Advice


In a new memoir "Staying True", South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford writes that Gov. Mark Sanford sought her advice about his romance and how to deal with the media after she discovered his extramarital relationship with an Argentine woman.

Jenny Sanford, who managed political campaigns for her husband during their 20-year marriage, writes in "Staying True" that the governor used her as a sounding board, wondering aloud whether he should follow his heart to Argentina and if he would live a life of regret if he didn't.

"Clearly those are thoughts I wish he had kept to himself," Jenny Sanford writes in the book to be released on Friday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the 214-page book, published by Ballantine Books, on Tuesday.

In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, airing Friday on "20/20, " she says that from the beginning, her marriage was a "leap of faith" because he refused to include a vow of fidelity in their marriage ceremony.

"With the benefit of the knowledge I have about Mark now, I could point to this moment as a clear sign of things to come," she writes. But at the time, she found his honesty "brave and sweet" and thought he just had cold feet.

What ended it all

Jenny Sanford tells Walters that the final blow to the marriage was the publication of racy e-mails between her husband and his Argentine mistress, Maria Belen Chapur, whom Sanford called his "soul mate." The e-mails were published last year by The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.

One e-mail from the governor to Chapur read: "I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light — but hey, that would be going into sexual details."

Jenny Sanford said that her children saw the e-mails and were devastated. "It just ripped me up, to see them reading these e-mails, to see them have to grow up so fast," she says.

Mark Sanford, once considered a possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate, disappeared for five days last summer.

He returned to reveal at a tearful Statehouse news conference he was not hiking the Appalachian Trail, as he told his staff, but in Argentina seeing his mistress.

The revelations he made then, and during a subsequent interview with the AP, derailed his political career and ultimately unraveled his marriage.

Affairs with multiple women

In the book, Jenny Sanford, a Georgetown-educated, former Wall Street vice president, traces the story of the Sanfords from the time the couple met in the 1980s to the trying events of the last year. The book includes eight pages of photographs of the Sanfords' wedding and family and of Mark Sanford's political career, which included three terms in Congress and two as governor.

Jenny Sanford discovered the affair in January 2009 after coming across a letter her husband had written to his mistress. She writes in her book she was "gut-punched all over again" when she found out the governor had dalliances with still other women, some of which she learned about from his interview with the AP when he said he had "crossed lines" with a handful of other women.

The book also gives a sense of the rumor mill that exploded in South Carolina in the wake of the governor's admissions. Jenny Sanford writes that, before the AP interview, the governor called her to say "he had more explaining to do" because another woman had suggested to a media outlet she had an affair with him.

She writes her husband told her at the time the relationship was "nothing much" and nothing she needed to know about earlier.

Jenny Sanford wrote her husband had admitted only one affair until that point and now "ever businesslike, he wanted to know what I thought he should reveal in the interview." She does not say what advice, if any, she gave the governor.

"Here he was again asking for my advice instead of first considering how the news might make me feel," she wrote.

It's unclear from the book the identity of that woman. The AP never reported on an extramarital relationship between the governor and any woman other than Chapur.

Sanford's office had no comment on Tuesday.

Governor refused to sign contract

Jenny Sanford also reveals in the book that following the revelation of the affair, she had her attorney draw up a contract under which she would not reveal the affair if her husband would stop seeing his mistress. She writes that the governor refused.

Jenny Sanford moved out of the Governor's Mansion last summer and now lives with the couple's four sons at the family beach house on Sullivans Island.

She filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery in December and a final hearing is scheduled for later this month.

The outside dust jacket of the book makes no mention of the affair, or even that the author is the first lady of South Carolina.

The cover has just the title and her name and a picture of Sanford sitting on the beach in a rose blouse and blue jeans. The back of the dust jacket contains an excerpt from the book that includes what the author calls the simple truth she has come to learn.

"What matters most is how you live your life, not what you have to show for it," she writes.


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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Amazon.com, Google Maps

Melodee Hanes & Max Baucus: Another Lurid D.C. "Love Story"

(NY Daily News) Montana Sen. Max Baucus nominated own mistress, Melodee Hanes, as U.S. attorney



Sen. Max Baucus was having an extramarital affair with a woman he nominated to be U.S. attorney in Montana, the senator's spokesman admitted Friday night.

The Montana Democrat nominated Melodee Hanes, who was Baucus' state office director, and three others to the post in March, spokesman Tyler Matsdorf said. The two began having an affair in the summer of 2008, Matsdorf said.

He said the senator was separated from his wife when he gave Hanes' name to the White House. Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and his wife have since split.

"Sen. Baucus is currently in a mature and happy relationship with Melodee Hanes. They are both divorced, and in no way was their relationship the cause of their respective divorces," said Matsdorf.

Hanes later removed her name from nomination and took a job in the Justice Department.




(MSNBC) Aide: Baucus nominated girlfriend for Fed Post


Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was already involved with his girlfriend and former staffer when he recommended her earlier this year to become the next U.S. attorney for Montana, a spokesman said.

The Montana Democrat and his former state office director Melodee Hanes began their relationship in the summer of 2008, after Baucus separated from his wife, Ty Matsdorf told The Associated Press late Friday.

Baucus nominated Hanes for the U.S. attorney post in Montana in March. But she later withdrew, saying she had been presented with other opportunities she couldn't pass up.

The Senate leader who's been a major proponent of Democratic health care legislation had submitted six names to a third-party reviewer, who whittled those to Hanes and two others. Matsdorf said the senator sent the three names to the White House with no ranking.

"Senator Baucus recommended each of the three candidates based solely on qualifications, and merit, knowing whichever one the White House selected would serve Montana well," Matsdorf said.

The spokesman said Baucus and Hanes decided during the nomination process that she should withdraw her name because the couple wanted to live together in Washington, which they later did.

Reason for disclosure?

Matsdorf declined to say why the senator was just now disclosing the circumstances surrounding the nomination, which was first reported in Roll Call, an online publication that covers Washington politics.

Baucus and his ex-wife Wanda announced last April that they planned to divorce after 25 years of marriage. In a joint statement, they said they have "parted ways amicably and with mutual respect."

Before the April announcement, Baucus said the couple had some "differences" in the marriage, which was his second.

Hanes started working for Baucus in 2002 and was his state director before leaving his office earlier this year for a position in the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Mel is supremely qualified and she got to her current position based solely on her merit," Matsdorf said.

President Barack Obama eventually nominated Helena attorney Michael Cotter for U.S. attorney, who supervises prosecutors of all federal crimes committed in Montana and the state's seven Indian reservations. Cotter is awaiting confirmation.

Baucus was elected to the Montana House in 1973 and to the U.S. House in 1974 and 1976. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 at age 36, and is up for re-election in 2014.

The senator has played increasingly visible roles in Congress, sometimes willing to buck his Democratic Party on certain issues. He seems to take the position that the state that sent him to the Senate for five terms is fundamentally conservative and its voters want someone willing to base votes on more than party lines.

At the center of health reform effort

Most recently Baucus has been at the center of an effort to move sweeping health care legislation through the Senate with a bill aimed at meeting Obama's goal of overhauling the nation's health care system to cover 48 million uninsured Americans.

Just on Friday, Baucus went against his party and backed a Republican effort to eliminate a long-term care insurance program to help seniors and the disabled. Republicans argued that the new plan would be a drain on the federal budget.

The Democrat has also been in the middle of other congressional battles: He played a key role in 2003 legislation adding a prescription-drug benefit to the Medicare program and enactment of President George W. Bush's tax cuts in 2001.

Baucus also has secured millions in federal funding for highways and billions in disaster aid for drought-plagued farmers and ranchers.




(Billing Gazette) County Prosecutor joins Baucus bid


Deputy County Attorney Melodee Hanes will be leaving her job to work for Sen. Max Baucus' re-election campaign.



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Sources: NY Daily News, MSNBC, Billing Gazette, Daily World Buzz, Google Maps