Pirate's Cove

Here’s the headline of the article

Firing of Stepien deprives Christie of a key counselor

Like many of you, I’ve watched and been involved in politics for a long time. I’ve watched the media let their biases loose. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact time. Some say it was when Walter Cronkite declared the Vietnam War “unwinnable”. Some say during the Reagan years. There was definitely a huge turn during the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, which carried through the Bush years, and has continued to get worse during the Obama years, as most in the media are simply lapdogs. In the headline and the story, it almost appears as if the WP writers, Matea Gold and Robert Costa, are making a case that firing top aides and people in an administration is a Bad Idea, because …..drum roll…. Obama has not fired anyone over his scandals, which are considerably worse than “Bridgegate”.

The removal of Stepien, in particular, stunned some New Jersey political insiders, who said the strategist has provided important counsel to Christie on both politics and policy. (snip)

“Bill Stepien was more than just another adviser,” Kean said. “He was the key person who carried out what the governor wanted. He spoke with Christie’s authority, and anyone who has dealt with him knows that.”

There’s certainly some writing that adds context to the firings and Christie’s mental makeup, and might slightly contradict my theory that the article is meant to protect Obama

Christie’s abrupt dismissal of top aides was praised Wednesday by some Republicans, who said his decisiveness stood in contrast to President Obama’s handling of controversies such as the botched rollout of his health-care Web site and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny.

“This will be, at the end of the day, a political benefit to Chris Christie,” said GOP strategist Steve Schmidt. “This sends a very clear signal: If you screw up, you violate the public trust, there’s not going to be an exercise in wagon-circling — there’s going to be an exercise in accountability.”

Noticed these quotes are from Republicans, not Democrats. The Democrats quoted in the article talk about Christie as being vindictive and a bully, and creating an atmosphere of the same, where there is also a fear of retaliation.

Later in the article we are treated to the notion that Stepien was really, really knowledgeable of national politics, was an insider, had lots of experience, had connections, so this was a Big Loss. I still maintain this is more about protecting Obama and how no one has been fired, and not even really punished in any way, over all his scandals. Let’s look at those scandals (White House Dossier has a nice list and explanation)

• IRS targets Obama enemies/Conservative groups
• Benghazi, which is actually 3 scandals in 1
• Spying on the Associated Press
• Spying on James Rosen, his family, then simply dropping the charges
• Eric Holder perjury to Congress at least twice
• Fast and Furious – let’s not forget, at least 2 US federal agents have been killed, along with hundreds of Mexican citizens, plus the Mexicans wounded
• Sebelius violates the Hatch Act
• Holder’s refusal to prosecute the New Black Panthers
• Possible violations of the Constitution

The list goes on and on. Until the media gives a damn about these issues, which go beyond the typical dirty tricks in politics, which is what “Bridgegate” was (remember, this was New Jersey), I don’t care what happened.

Crossed at Right Wing News.