Hattip to tweet from Ryan Lizza:
Robert Durando is the general manager of the George Washington Bridge. In this email he spoke of implementing "diversions that further congested the borough":
Several commenters noted the word "test" was in quotations. He knew this was bogus.
Durando is a coward. In several reports people said they weren't notified till the last minute and did not receive answers to inquiries about the "new traffic pattern", such as if it was permanent or whether the township was notified.
And then there was this exchange:
Assemblyman Wisniewski pressed Mr. Durando, the bridge director, to explain why he had not sought to reverse Mr. Wildstein’s order, even after residents and local police officials described the operation as “a monumental failure.” Mr. Durando said he did not want to violate the chain of command.
“Your testimony tells me that there is a culture of fear at the Port Authority,” Mr. Wisniewski said. “Is there a culture of fear?”
Mr. Durando sat silently.
“I think your answer speaks for itself,” Mr. Wisniewski said finally.
I hate these people the more I learn about them.
Mon Jan 13, 2014 at 5:00 AM PT: As the original tweet suggests, there is some confusion over context. I read the email to mean it was "intentional" for the study; others see it as explaining the extra pain as an unintended consequence. Its open to interpretation, but after hearing about these characters and knowing the purpose of this whole exercise was to "cause traffic problems", I'm inclined not to give him the benefit of the doubt.