These are stories that didn't garner national attention before the Bridgegate scandal, but it should now, especially since Haley Barbour is making the TV rounds defending Chris Christie at every turn.. The incestuous relationship between lobbyists and politicians was on full display when Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour secured a lucrative post-Sandy waste removal contract for Ashbritt, the company he lobbies for -- while simultaneously being a major backer, defender and TV apologist for Gov. Chris Christie.
There were many questions surrounding the piggyback contract for AshBritt at the time. Just a few little problems, like AshBritt charging much more money than local contractors, and so on. Barbour immediately came out and defended Christie's hiring his firm.
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour today defended the state of New Jersey’s hiring of the Florida debris cleanup firm he recommended to Gov. Chris Christie.
Barbour, a partner in the lobbying firm that represents AshBritt’s Washington interests, played a key role in bringing the company to New Jersey through a contract bid years earlier in Connecticut.
“What I told Chris about New Jersey, I had learned because the AshBritt guys called me and said we have a contract we have won in Connecticut. It’s an existing contract, they didn’t win it for Sandy,” Barbour said during an interview at a hotel where the nation’s governors are meeting this weekend, blocks from the White House.
You may have forgotten, but Haley Barbour was a very powerful man in the GOP and he took Christie under his wing in 2009.
As chairman of the Republican Governors Association when Christie was running for governor in 2009, Barbour directed $7.5 million in spending on the campaign. Christie has said he wouldn’t be governor without Barbour and they remain close friends.
Barbour should be disqualified from all no-bid business iN new jersey, but that never happened. After Haley tried to quell the criticisms, the Star-Ledger Editorial Board lashed out at him.
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is a partner in a lobbying firm that works for AshBritt, the giant Florida debris-removal company. He’s also a big backer of Gov. Chris Christie. After Hurricane Sandy, Barbour played matchmaker. Christie quickly hired AshBritt to help clear New Jersey’s storm-ravaged coastline.Barbour might think that qualifies him to shoot down the criticism of Christie’s AshBritt deal. On the contrary: It renders his critique uniquely ridiculous.
Barbour is a key Christie fundraiser and has ties with AshBritt. Is he in a position to declare New Jersey’s AshBritt contract “a non-issue”?
This whole deal stank to the high heavens and everyone knew it. Duncan called it the Big Grift and I concur. But moving foward into 2014, Barbour is now grifting the media because he's on TV defending Christie, all the while having a huge financial stake in his continued success. How much money would Barbour rake in if Christie won the White House? Just recently Haley Barbour shrugged off the claims by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer as being made by a "lady mayor."
Barbour was responding to allegations from Hoboken, N.J. Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who accused Christie aides of threatening to withhold Hurricane Sandy relief aid from the city unless the mayor approved a real estate project favored by Christie.
Barbour, a mentor of Christie's, was asked in an interview with CNN if the accusation hinted at the type of culture within the Christie administration.
"No, I'll tell you what it gives me concern about, that the news media is willing to leap at any farfetched story with the basis in fact is unbelievable," Barbour said in an interview with CNN on Monday. "This is a lady mayor who asked for $127 million of hazard mitigation money from the governor to give that to her from the federal money. When the state was only receiving in its entirety $300 million."
Zimmer's accusation was "absurd," Barbour continued.
How does he know her claims were absurd? Because he's paid to say that.
CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS should ban Haley Barbour for coming on and discussing Gov. Chris Christie's Bridgegate scandal.
