Rosi EfthimUncategorized

Of course, they’re not calling it that. The Christie front office puts it like this:

Today, the Christie Administration announced the retention of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP to assist with the internal review announced by Governor Christie last week and to further cooperate with the U.S. Attorney inquiry. As part of the review process, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP will review best practices for office operations and information flow, and assist with document retention and production.

Yeah. That horse has already left the barn. We’re a little late in the game for determining “best practices” unless the Christie administration is willing to chase the idea that massive misuse of government power and resources for apparent gotcha politics, plus months of mockery and cover-up, are not “best practices”. But first they’d have to admit that’s what the now public (but still redacted) emails suggest they were doing.

But Christie’s still playing like the earnest outraged exec surrounded by lying pranksters. Like he wants to find out what happened as much as we do (even after months of displaying no curiosity about it whatsoever). The statement says Christie will conduct an internal review to uncover the facts surrounding the lane closures in Fort Lee. “Uncover the facts?” Looks to me like the administration has been busy covering up the facts since September. And no …

… as much as the language is couched in terms that suggest responsible governing and improvement, what’s really happening here is that the Christie administration, and the man himself, are going into deep self-protection mode and bringing in legal help that will may be more focused on protecting the Christie administration’s position than doing right by New Jerseyans.

Randy Mastro (bio) will head up the legal team. He was chief of staff and deputy mayor when Guiliani ran the city on the other side of the GWB. Guiliani is one of the few Republicans on record backing Christie through this scandal. Among prominent clients Mastro has represented is Home Depot. Ken Langone, the company’s billionaire co-founder, will host a private gathering for Christie on Sunday in Florida – Christie’s first test of scandal-era GOP loyalty. It was also Langone who convened a meeting of GOP bigs to sell Christie on a 2012 White House run (that convo included David Koch and Henry Kissinger).

Langone can pay for Mastro & co.’s services with the loose change in his couch. I haven’t seen anything that suggests these costs will be privately underwritten or donated. Looks like the taxpayers may get this bill, too. And I don’t think Mastro works cheap.