Big Dig Tunnel Thrill Ride

[Sizzler]

Originally Posted by chopper

From today's Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...mbling_legacy/

How could anybody possibly blame the Dems for anything?

You're a prime candidate for terrorist aren't you.
You'll blindly swallow any doctrine as long as it is spewed forth by the Church of the Republicans.

Here's the unvarnished truth: There is no true (political) faith.

They're all pretty much whatever whoever is paying them wants them to be.

Democrats, Republicans, Independents, all are proof of the theory of evolution in that they only care about preserving their own careers/lives and passing on their accumulated wealth/power to the next generation. They will evolve their positions, their "understanding of the issue" to further their aims of self-preservation and passing on their "genes" (campaign funds).

In this particular instance, while there are a lot of people to legitimately point fingers at, including Democrats, it is pretty clearly the Republicans who messed up this time.

Yes, Democrats got the Federal Goverment to fund the project, but it took the Republican autocrats in charge of things at the 'payment and oversite' level to make this a murder scene. Sort of like FEMA. Yeah, it had problems under the Democrats, but it was under the Republican appointed leadership that showed just how important good management is.

Tax and spend, borrow and spend, at least the Democrats realize that we're not living in a fairytale world.

The public works project was spawned during the administration of Governor Michael S. Dukakis, a Democrat. The Bay State's congressional delegation kept it pumped with billions in federal dollars. A powerful Democrat -- the late, legendary House Speaker Thomas P. ``Tip" O'Neill Jr., who died in 1994 -- helped secure much of the funding. But, for 16 years, Republicans -- William F. Weld, Paul Cellucci, Jane M. Swift, and Romney -- ruled the executive branch and, for most of that time, the Turnpike Authority board, whose chairman oversees the Big Dig. Amorello is a Republican, as were his two predecessors, Andrew S. Natsios and James J. Kerasiotes. Cellucci reluctantly forced Kerasiotes to leave the job in 2000, after a federal audit charged that project managers concealed $1.4 billion in cost overruns. Actual Big Dig defects -- leaks, slurry wall deficiencies, and the ceiling collapse -- came to light while Romney was in office.

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, Romney called for merging the Turnpike Authority into the state Highway Department, a move he said would save money and consolidate control in the executive branch. State legislators thwarted his efforts. As governor, Romney also asked the state Supreme Judicial Court if he has the power to ``de-designate" Amorello for `mismanagement, neglect of duty, and/or fiscal irresponsibility." Under Massachusetts law, the Turnpike Authority operates as an independent entity.