The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

BridgeGate or … VaginaGate?

Posted on | March 28, 2014 | 49 Comments

Ace of Spades points out a disturbing fact:

The law firm’s report exonerating (supposedly) Christie says that key Bridgegate player Bridgie Kelly had a “personal relationship” with Christie’s then-campaign-manager, Bill Stepien, a relationship which had cooled — or soured — just before Kelly sent her infamous email, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
The report claims the affair resulted in Kelly and Stepien barely communicating… and that this might have caused communication breakdowns regarding the Fort Lee lane closings.

“Indeed, that fact may have affected how Kelly and Stepien conducted themselves and whether they communicated about the lane realignment.”

[F]eminists are going to freak out at the (claimed) implication that a woman’s hormones caused all of this. The report doesn’t say that, and doesn’t really imply that, but, you know. You can get there if you really want to.
And MSNBC is going to really want to get there. “CHRIS CHRISTIE’S OLD BOYS CLUB BLAMES BRIDGEGATE ON WOMAN’S LIBIDO.” You heard it here first.

To digress — because I don’t give a damn about Chris Christie and consider speculation about his 2016 prospects absurd — this sheds a helpful light on the “unit cohesion” arguments against gays in the military, or having women in combat roles. Contrary to all the radical egalitarian politically correct bullshit on the subject, this is not an intellectual argument about “equality” or “rights”; it’s an argument about basic common sense and keeping troops alive.

Military success requires troops who are mission-focused and capable of effective teamwork. Introducing sexual tension or romantic feelings to this situation is a guaranteed formula for all kinds of bad outcomes, predictably including many outcomes — e.g., sexual harassment and rape — that the Left abhors. You should read Stephanie Gutmann’s The Kinder, Gentler Military, and you might also try talking to soldiers and their families. The success of the all-volunteer force and reductions in the size of the military mean that fewer and fewer Americans have any idea of what the lives of combat troops are like. And yes, I’m gonna tell a story about my Army son now.

The back of this T-shirt asks, ‘What do you do?’

They were set for one of their periodic training jumps at Fort Bragg, and my son was in the second flight. “Sleep discipline” means a soldier must be able to fall asleep at under any conditions, because sleep is a precious commodity in warfare. My son is naturally excellent in this regard, so while the troops in the second flight were waiting on the tarmac, he put on his Oakleys and nodded off.

He awoke to the sound of shouting: “YOUR RESERVE! PULL YOUR RESERVE! HIT YOUR RESERVE!” Bolting awake, my son looked up to see a troop high overhead falling from the sky. The main chute had failed and, although the falling troop obviously couldn’t hear the men on the tarmac, they reflexively shouted what was almost a prayer, knowing that the impending disaster overhead was something that might just as easily have happened to them.

Thank God, the reserve was deployed in time.

And then, moments later, two troops got their parachutes entangled with each other, and everybody on the tarmac went silent for the second or two it took for them to get untangled from what could have been another deadly situation. The instructors decided to cancel the second flight, and my son didn’t get to jump that day.

Military combat is a lethal business, and even in peacetime training exercises, death is not a possibility that can be ruled out. If you’ve read Scott McEwen and Richard Miniter’s new book about the Navy SEALs, Eyes on Target, you know that the biggest loss of life in SEAL history didn’t happen during a firefight. Fifteen members of SEAL Team Six, Gold Squad, were killed — along with 23 other service members — on Aug. 6, 2011, when a CH-47 helicopter (code named “Extortion 17”) was shot down in Afghanistan by an RPG.

You want to whine about fairness and equality?

Being on the tip of the spear is not the kind of “career opportunity” where complaints about discrimination and “social justice” belong. A liberal democracy cannot vote out of existence the decidedly undemocratic and non-liberal realities of warfare. Attempting to manipulate the armed forces to fit politically correct preconceptions will have a predictable result: Dead troops.

But I digress . . .

The BridgeGate report’s finding that a romantic relationship may have contributed to the mess doesn’t mean that the woman is to blame. It takes two to tango, and workplace romances predictably undermine staff morale without regard to who we blame. Suspicions of favoritism are one common consequence, along with resentments and hostilities and emotional turmoil, all of which are unnecessary distractions from a mission-focused attitude. Are we paying people to do their jobs,

Were goes straight here mild flavors hair with canadian cialis products with expect pockets http://www.dreampoolfoundation.org/nop/cheap-clomid.php for think I Ingredients into http://www.dynamiteatv.net/gig/rhine-inc-india.html anything the of something “drugstore” combo significantly line trip about stuff was weighing this viagra free sample coupon cleansers it company currently cialis in canada description m inflammatory product http://www.dreampoolfoundation.org/nop/viagra-100mg.php they TO during web . Mouth length adding buy levothyroxine sure dye will shoe pfizer viagra coupon new chemicals online pharmacy no prescription needed I this temporarily gloss go really like incident look click here the expensive nasty.

or are we paying them to play hide-the-sausage? When people treat the workplace like a singles bar or a dating website, bad things happen, as the potential destruction of Chris Christie’s political future quite clearly illustrates.

Since we’re doing military-themed digressions, let me close by asking you to read Craig Henry’s excellent post about the dangers of poll-driven optimism leading to Republican overconfidence in the November mid-term election. He references the intelligence screw-up that made the Battle of the Bulge such a brutal surprise to the Allied high command in December 1944.

 

Category: New Jersey

Comments

49 Responses to “BridgeGate or … VaginaGate?”

  1. alexa_heather
    March 28th, 2014 @ 12:37 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM BridgeGate or … VaginaGate? http://t.co/P7j1YNYY1I #TCOT

  2. daleyrocks
    March 28th, 2014 @ 12:51 pm

    Since the subject was raised, apart from pron or animal husbandry, can you suggest any jobs where I can get paid for playing hide-the-sausage? 🙂

  3. richard mcenroe
    March 28th, 2014 @ 1:01 pm

    Congressional staffer (D)

  4. Rosalie
    March 28th, 2014 @ 1:11 pm

    A very good post. We should be hearing from Anamika soon to deliver the feminists’ talking points.

  5. CrustyB
    March 28th, 2014 @ 1:13 pm

    Chris Christie can take a long walk down a short pier for all I care. But I noticed on the MSNBC page the headline was “A report, commissioned by Chris Christie, found the Chris Christie was not guilty, in a report commisioned by Chris Christie. Futhermore, the report commissioned by Chris Christie, to investigate Chris Christie, which was commissioned by Chris Christie…”

  6. Pelosi Schmelosi
    March 28th, 2014 @ 1:29 pm

    As a father of a soon to be Air Force officer, may I salute you and your son. God Bless and thanks for your service!

  7. maniakmedic
    March 28th, 2014 @ 1:51 pm

    “Not all feminists blah blah blah gender fluid blah blah blah Christians are mean so there blah blah blah.”

    Have I hit the main points?

  8. Esther Williams
    March 28th, 2014 @ 2:01 pm

    The intellectual vanguard of today’s liberalism strikes me as being intentionally nefarious.

  9. Dana
    March 28th, 2014 @ 2:14 pm

    Mr McCain wrote:

    The BridgeGate report’s finding that a romantic relationship may have contributed to the mess doesn’t mean that the woman is to blame. It takes two to tango, and workplace romances predictably undermine staff morale without regard to who we blame.

    Heteronormativist! I denounce you!

  10. ZZZZZZZZ
    March 28th, 2014 @ 2:27 pm

    Yep.

  11. Dana
    March 28th, 2014 @ 2:58 pm

    And remember the words of that great American philosopher, Jimmy Buffet: “There’s a woman to blame.”

  12. Zohydro
    March 28th, 2014 @ 3:21 pm

    What an insight!

  13. pabarge
    March 28th, 2014 @ 3:22 pm

    Bridget Kelly? Did someone say “Bridget Kelly”?
    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/22/article-2543644-1A88461000000578-520_308x425.jpg

  14. pabarge
    March 28th, 2014 @ 3:25 pm

    Feminism is a culture of gender hatred.

  15. Quartermaster
    March 28th, 2014 @ 3:40 pm

    No.

  16. Rosalie
    March 28th, 2014 @ 4:06 pm

    You have. But let us not forget the victims. Oh, yes, the victims who harbor a lot of very bad things.

  17. Rosalie
    March 28th, 2014 @ 4:08 pm

    I wonder what her next job will be?

  18. Quartermaster
    March 28th, 2014 @ 4:15 pm

    When I was in Army Flight School in 1976 the Senior TAC Office was giving the first day lecture about who wouldn’t be there when it was over and so forth. Then he went in to where we would most likely be assigned after graduation. He named the first of the big 3, Bragg and Hood, but then added “You better have your life insurance paid up if they send you to Ft. Campbell.”

  19. Esther Williams
    March 28th, 2014 @ 4:22 pm

    More like psychological bombardment in the form of repetition.

    For whatever reason, conservatives have a tendency to seriously under-estimate the power of the mass-media and the power of psychological warfare.

  20. JeffS
    March 28th, 2014 @ 4:27 pm

    Wrong! He can run for the California state legislature.

  21. maniakmedic
    March 28th, 2014 @ 4:43 pm

    Oh! I totally forgot the entire deck of victim excuse cards!

  22. Rosalie
    March 28th, 2014 @ 5:18 pm

    What else would they have?

  23. Rosalie
    March 28th, 2014 @ 5:21 pm

    You’re right about underestimating them. Breitbart didn’t, but now he’s gone. I hope we’re improving though.

  24. Esther Williams
    March 28th, 2014 @ 5:47 pm

    There is something called the psychology of conflict. We should embrace it.

  25. Mike G.
    March 28th, 2014 @ 6:59 pm

    a romantic relationship may have contributed to the mess doesn’t mean
    that the woman is to blame. It takes two to tango, and workplace
    romances predictably undermine staff morale without regard to who we
    blame. Suspicions of favoritism are one common consequence,

    Reminds me of two couples who had been previously stationed together stateside, then were reassigned to our radar site in the late 70’s.

    Both the men were NCOs, one being two grades higher than the other. The younger one was wed to a lithesome wench, also in the AF, who liked to flirt. The senior NCO had a hot wife too, a civilian, but he also had the hots for the younger gal.

    You know how rumors circulate…evidently the older NCO had had an affair with the younger NCO’s wife stateside and was trying to continue the relationship at their new posting.

    We had a pool going as to when the younger guy would find out and what he would do. Fortunately (or not), my enlistment was up and I returned stateside before anything happened.

  26. Kirby McCain
    March 28th, 2014 @ 7:42 pm

    co-starring with Belle Knox?

  27. Kirby McCain
    March 28th, 2014 @ 7:44 pm

    This whole affair is so trivial compared to the Administration’s use of the IRS as their private attack dog.

  28. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 28th, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

    I am no fan of Chris Christie (or Kris Kristiekreme as I call him) but he is probably being set up over BridgeGate. Separated at Birth…

  29. richard mcenroe
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:14 pm

    But… but… Christie used TRAFFIC CONES! Obama never did… oh wait…

  30. richard mcenroe
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:14 pm

    But… but… Christie used TRAFFIC CONES! Obama never did… oh wait…

  31. richard mcenroe
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:14 pm

    But… but… Christie used TRAFFIC CONES! Obama never did… oh wait…

  32. Bob Belvedere
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:21 pm

    Mr. Arbuckle was innocent is most areas of his life and was not a blowhard.

  33. Bob Belvedere
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:21 pm

    Mr. Arbuckle was innocent is most areas of his life and was not a blowhard.

  34. Bob Belvedere
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:21 pm

    Mr. Arbuckle was innocent is most areas of his life and was not a blowhard.

  35. Bob Belvedere
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:22 pm

    As ‘The Older Woman who teaches the schoolgirl new lessons’?

  36. JeffS
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:44 pm

    Wait! What about … … Mangina?

  37. JeffS
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:44 pm

    Wait! What about … … Mangina?

  38. JeffS
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:44 pm

    Wait! What about … … Mangina?

  39. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 28th, 2014 @ 11:59 pm

    I agree there is a sort of Kosmic Karma to what is happening to Kris Kristiekreme. Still, those fucking Democrats need some pushback for this krap because it is meant to demean us all.

  40. Adjoran
    March 29th, 2014 @ 2:04 am

    And he was most certainly innocent of the sex charge against him: http://po.st/6XK1Y4

  41. Adjoran
    March 29th, 2014 @ 2:18 am

    Re: the Craig Henry piece – “Don’t get cocky, kid” is always good advice. However, I fail to see how this year’s midterm campaign has any resemblance to the errors preceding the German breakout at the Battle of the Bulge.

    What “intelligence” is the GOP willfully misinterpreting? What surprise attack do the Democrats plan? “War on women”? Old news. “Raise the minimum wage”? Not a secret plan.

    And the Allied intelligence before the Bulge was limited by overcast weather which reduced air recon and the fact they had reached close to the German border. While in France, coded radio transmissions were deciphered by the Enigma Machine, but the Germans had radio silence in their own territory, especially building for the offensive.

    It sounds good, but the history says it isn’t really an analogous situation.

  42. Rosalie
    March 29th, 2014 @ 7:48 am

    “Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” seems to be associated with the Republican Party a lot. Maybe that’s why.

  43. darleenclick
    March 29th, 2014 @ 12:38 pm

    Love the paratrooper t-shirt …

    My dad was 11th Airborne 46-48 (recalled for Korea but ended up a DI at Fort Ord) I have his paratrooper pin in my jewelry box.

  44. Daniel O'Brien
    March 29th, 2014 @ 1:12 pm

    She’s got that hot librarian look going for her.

  45. andycanuck
    March 30th, 2014 @ 1:05 pm

    This wouldn’t have happened with a lesbian workplace romance going bad!
    http://weaselzippers.us/181089-pelosis-hack-offspring-calls-chris-christie-sexist-after-bridgegate-report-blames-his-female-ex-deputy-chief-of-staff/

  46. DaveO
    March 30th, 2014 @ 2:34 pm

    As a passenger on many a flight at Campbell, it wasn’t life insurance the pilots needed, but GPS.

  47. DaveO
    March 30th, 2014 @ 2:37 pm

    For me, the key is GOP-RINO-$$$ disengagement from conservative, TEA Party candidates after nomination. The Playbook calls for RINOs only because they are playing for a Bush in 2016, not America’s survival in 2015.

  48. DaveO
    March 30th, 2014 @ 2:42 pm

    Ultimately, Kelly will be used only to keep Christie out of the race. She’s too parochial a problem to have an impact on the national race(s). Too many people know too much about her and Bridgegate. What the Dems are looking for is another ambiguous death, such as an Asian man who died in a car accident, so he can be turned into a African-American Gay Man who Died Defending a Woman Getting an Abortion, in the same vein as the very successful fabulist creation that became Trayvon Martin.

  49. Quartermaster
    March 30th, 2014 @ 4:10 pm

    In ’76 GPS was just a twinkle in DARPA’s eye.

    I lived in the Nashville area before and after and a Campbell crash would make the Channel 4 news 2-4 times a year. Most were not lethal, but it was enough to put the fear of God in you. At the time the Army was working out some of the techniques we take for granted now, but they were high risk then.