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competing for dmroglory of thei nations. some will be airing here on msnbc so we figured as a way of wetting your appetite we would combine hockey with politics. who better than mike quigley of i wi illinois. he represents a chicago-based seat, a seat ram emanuel used to hold, and sits on the appropriations committee. more importantly, he is also the co-chairman of the congressional hockey caucus. y yes, there is a congressional hockey caucus. john kerry used to play in their games. anthony w anthony weiner, too, actually. recently congressman quigley was nice enough to take me out on the ice at the center in bro brooklyn's prospect park. i think i held my own but i'd better let you be the judge of it. here we go. now we're moving. i feel like i should have brought a helmet. >> you're not going to learn if you don't make mistakes. >> oh, boy. here we go. >> nice, smooth motion.
christie's name was no longer on that list and he wasn't fired. a clear link between the pressure to meddle in politics and the leak about the menendez investigation has never been established. christie has steadfastly maintained that politics had nothing to do with his actions. but it's an episode that veteran watchers of new jersey politics remember and that they are thinking about now as news of another investigation of menendez begins to emerge and it's an episode politics watchers are thinking back to as a story that received little attention just a few months ago suddenly getting a second look from the press and the public. this is the story of a man named bennett barland who for 16 years held the position of county prosecutor in new jersey, a quiet, almost bucolic swath of the western part of the state near the delaware river, one of the more republican counties in the state. it was big news in 2010 when he intighted the republican sheriff, deborah trout, and two of her deputy sheriffs.
this was not what those who had been covering christie in new jersey politics were used to. the rule with christie, it seemed, a leak like that would be quickly followed by more revelations, more damning details and soon some kind of action, subpoenas, arrests, indictments. menendez loudly and repeatedly denied he had done anything wrong. no further details came out for the rest of the campaign. that lack of any public follow-up combined with the strongly anti-republican tide of 2006 in new jersey's generally blue tint were more than enough to save menendez. the investigation hung over his head until it officially ended in 2011, menendez never had to gr grapple with questions about it after that brief eruption in the 2006 campaign. new jersey political circles, some quietly asked what had previously been an unthinkable question. had christie been trying to give a hand to the republican candidate? the son of tom cain senir.,
he said, look, i'm innocent. that was part that have same investigation, that operation. so now you have to question, well, how flawed was this whole attack on the political establishment, this perceived corrupt political establishment? and what haden says to me is, brian, you are now starting to look at -- if you go back to that, if you go back to everything, hunterdon county, from sandy money, from what happened at the bridge, from some of these other things coming out and you have to think is there some overarching conspiracy involved within the christie administration to play politics in a nefarious sense. we all know there's politics played. but in a very nefarious sense with the body politic of new jersey. >> and to pick up on that point, it really does go to the core -- when you look at something like hunterdon, when you look at the
documents that could be coming out in the next few days and weeks including from both david samson and bridget kelly. there is still a lot more to learn. when it comes out, we'll be combing through all of those pages, too. here to discuss this time line, what we know now, what questions it raises, where it all leads us, wnbc's brian thomson, nick, the editor and publisher of a weekly inside news report on new jersey politics, heather haddon, her paper pops up in that time line we just read, michael powell from "the new york times". and, heather, i'll start with you, reporting this story from the beginning, if you can take us back to that time to the closures themselves, to the days after the closures, the kind of interactions were you having with new jersey, the new york side of the port authority. what was that like? >> well, and also with the christie administration there was a lot of pushback about this story, characterizing it as ridiculous basically.
and i think that now, right, it feels like something that's much more part of the central nervous system, of christie and his political machine. >> and i wonder, paul, the christie image in new jersey that sort of brought him to power in new jersey was this law and order guy, this it guy who was anti-public corruption. he was the crusader against public corruption. and i ran a piece there. i've always been a little suspicious with the menendez investigation in 2006. but then the story of hunterdon county cuts to the image of the alfwags here of basically the governor's office coming in and killing the investigation to protect republican bastion, to protect republicans. >> it's very strange story because the republicans themselves were split on this and, you know, to me it's more of an argument for getting rid of the elective office of sheriff. they're in politics and they do all these things. by jersey standards, trout was nothing.
samson try to chair that. heather haddon, michael powell, wnbc's brian thompson, nick, the winter olympics are just days away. to get us in the mood, i strapped on my skates. actually they were rental skates. we'll talk about politics. i made a complete fool of myself for some reason we'll show you next. when you order the works you want everything. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. ♪ yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪ we are one, under the sun ♪ under the sun...