Christie. Over.

I just thought he was done yesterday morning.  By yesterday afternoon, he was crisped.

New details in the New Jersey traffic scandal that implicates people close to Governor Chris Christie show that the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge happened for political reasons, and on the same day, The Bergen Record has a new report saying that a 91-year-old woman died because of the traffic.

On four separate occasions, emergency responders were reportedly unable to respond to a situation due to the gridlock, and response time “doubled” in just two of those cases.

EMS coordinator Paul Favia made Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich aware of these concerns in a letter last September, which included the 91-year-old woman who they could not get to in time.

It also took EMS seven minutes to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. Although he did not say her death was directly caused by the delays, Favia noted that “paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en-route to the hospital instead of on the scene.”

Yeah, Christie was kept in the dark about a political vendetta.  It's not like the Cincinnatti IRS office, where Obama kept close track of every detail.

Jon Stewart still doesn't think so, but he might just be kidding around.  Hugh Hewitt thinks Christie can save himself, but I don't think there's a life preserver big enough to fit around the guy.

Say hello to Scott Walker of Wisconsin, gubernatorial-loving Republicans desiring a 2016 candidate without the negativity of Ted Cruz or Rand Paul.

Catch-up (not Ketchup)

-- Hat tip to Rep. Wu for the condiment theme.

If Srircha comes to Texas. Location MUST be settled by legislative cook-off. #txlege http://t.co/PYmzRsNRJQ
— Gene Wu (@GeneforTexas) January 8, 2014

-- I'll be reading the book about Roger Ailes, but I probably won't read Bob Gates' book.  I agree with others who say that Gates is providing an assist to Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations by throwing a brick at Joe Biden.

Gates wrote: “I found her smart, idealistic but pragmatic, tough-minded, indefatigable, funny, a very valuable colleague, and a superb representative of the United States all over the world.”

And at Gates’ farewell ceremony in 2011, he had high praise for Clinton, saying she’s become a cherished colleague and a good friend.

That makes his criticism of anybody else's decisions being influenced by politics thoroughly suspect.

-- Speaking of political machinations... Chris Christie is so over.

Then again, maybe this bridge thing is a Sopranos-style enhancement to his presidential aspirations.  Who can ever tell what the GOP values any more?

-- The dirty laundry about Florida Republican Congressman Bill Young, who died last October, is now being aired by his two families, and the stench is putrid.

Young had three children with his first wife, Marian, before divorcing her in 1985 to wed his 26-year-old secretary, Beverly, with whom he'd fathered a child while still married to Marian. (Young was 51 at the time.)

Young somehow kept the affair out of the papers (thanks in part to a quiescent media) and ensured Marian's silence with a lifetime alimony payment of $2,000 a month. He also rarely saw the kids he'd raised with Marian and stopped initiating contact in 1986. Young's first family, it seemed, had disappeared and few knew of its existence. But this all came to light at Young's funeral last fall, when Robert, one of his sons by way of Beverly, acknowledged his half-siblings at the end of his eulogy, admitting he didn't even know their surnames but later saying he "didn't think it was fair that they weren't being noticed."

This, my friends, barely begins to tell the story. Among the many eyebrow-raising details, few things come through more powerfully than what a horrible, horrible human being Bev Young is. My skin crawled to read her nasty comments about her husband's children. Terry Young, she said, is only speaking up now because he's "trying to get rid of his guilt for being a horrible son."

Of course he voted to impeach Bill Clinton over an extramarital blowjob.  Just when you think Republican family values can't sink any lower...

-- One last frozen toon before the thaw.