Grapevine: 'Duckgate' in New Jersey

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Grapevine: 'Duckgate' in New Jersey

Pedestrians slapped with citations for not yielding to cop dressed as Donald Duck

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine…

Who You Calling Stupid?

An expert on the subject -- says that ObamaCare passed thanks to two things -- a lack of transparency and the stupidity of the American voter.

No, that did not come from a critic of the health care overhaul.

It came from one of its designers.

Jonathan Gruber is one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act.

Just after the botched rollout began, he made it clear -- if people knew what was really in the law, it would not have passed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GRUBER, PROFESSOR, MIT: If you had a law which said healthy people are going to pay in -- it made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get for the thing to pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So that comment from thirteen months ago. Political advocacy group American Commitment unearthed that video -- quote -- "Gruber again let slip that ObamaCare rests on a mountain of lies, deceit, and contempt for the American people."

Name That Candidate

A candidate for sheriff in Montana may have lost his election because those voting for him did not include his first name.

Newspaper reports in Missoula say Gavin Roselles launched a write-in campaign to un-seat the incumbent sheriff in Powell County, after he was laid off from his deputy job.

He lost by just 90 votes and the elections' administrator tells the newspaper, judges threw out 238 write-in votes.

She says many, many of them only included Roselles' last name.

And a directive from the state says both names are necessary, citing the Supreme Court and other challenges.

Roselles, however, says voter intent is clear.

He says he is weighing his options on that race in Montana.

Duckgate

And finally, there are more traffic problems in Fort Lee, New Jersey -- home to the infamous "bridgegate" traffic jam.

Dozens of pedestrians were slapped with citations for not yielding to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

That so-called pedestrian was a cop dressed as Donald Duck.

Police say no one can argue they did not see the six-foot-four bird.

But at least one tells a local TV station the huge duck kept stepping in and out of the road and she thought it was a crazy person and was afraid to stop.

The citation comes with a $230 fine in New Jersey.