Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Mitt Romney: A Model Governor

Seriously, why bother being a Governor when you can tour the country while running for President and still get good press anyway. That Mitt, he always fixes things!

Much of the concrete ceiling in the Sumner Tunnel is crumbling and in danger of falling after years of neglect, Governor Mitt Romney warned yesterday, and drivers already frustrated by Big Dig tunnel closures will probably face more backups when the major airport-to-downtown route is repaired.

Except, well, he hasn't exactly "fixed" anything since the Salt Lake City Olympics - and that had much more to do with other factors than him alone. He did a fine job in Utah, but in Massachusetts? In the Bay State - no matter how many pieces of concrete he waives in front of TV cameras or hard cover hats he wears on his head - he's not exactly part of the solution.

Here's the impression the article gives me: Mitt Romney allows problems to develop so he can fix them later. That way he'll get a front page Boston Globe article out of it. Meanwhile, innocent women get two-ton slabs of concrete dropped on their heads. The fact that the Sumner Tunnel has loose concrete shouldn't be a surprise - neither was the Ted Williams tunnel for anyone grounded in reality. The warning signs were written on the wall, literally: loose bolts, loose concrete and hanging 2 ton pieces of concrete essentially held up by duck tape. There is nothing about the Big Dig the Massachusetts transportation infrastructure that inspires confidence.

Try as he may, Mitt Romney will never be President. He'll never be able to get by the Big Dig mess. He's trying like crazy now to solve that problem look like he's doing something, but a few months of action will never make up for the years of his administration's neglect. He's just running around a lot in hopes to fool the people, but people have been fooled enough and the Big Dig really is a laughing stock around the country. Mitt Romney did everything he could to make it a punch line - and now he has to own his Bay State jokes when they come back to bite him in the ass two years from now.

Mitt Romney had plenty of opportunities to be proactive on the Big Dig, but sadly opportunity alone can't save lives: only action can. It's hard to be on the action when you aren't even in Massachusetts. He's a model governor, all right: there's nothing real there other than his continuously puzzling moves that have amounted to a lot of sound and fury, but never really signifying much of anything.

7 comments:

William said...

Just as the Olympics was not his achievement alone, the Big Dig is not his fault alone. In fact, I would give very little of the blame to Romney. The Big Dig was a disaster long beofre he was governor, and there are multiple parties at fault for the tragedy that occured this summer.

Ryan said...

People are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Mitt Romney was far removed from being part of the solution.

If he wanted to take control of the project like he has done so recently, he could have done that long ago. There was a federal provision that allowed him at least a greater extent of control over the project than he let on; Mitt Romney just never used it.

Mitt Romney didn't do anything to solve the Big Dig and therefore deserves at least some part of the blame. He's no more responsible than probably a hundred other people, but that's no reason to let him go on it.

William said...

If Deval Patrick is elected governor, what do you expect he will do to fix the big dig?

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Matt Amorello's role, if he wasn't so busy revising the rules so he could line his pockets when he left, he might have done more to prevent the tragedy.

Ryan said...

I think he'll get a top-to-bottom independent review and, most importantly, demand the legislature in this state get on the ball too. Too many of the subordinates in this project were connected to old leadership, brought on through administrations of the past and present.

Matt Amorello deserved to be fired and thankfully was. He certainly didn't help the project and deserves a large part of the blame, though not all of it. Mitt Romney's attacks on him, however, were late and politically motivated (as opposed to civically).

Rachel Blake said...

Ryan, your lack of fair and balanced news has warped your fragile little mind. How can you call yourself a political science student and accuse Mitt Romney's attacks on Matt Amorello as politically motivated??? Mitt Romney was doing his job as the governor of our state and for no other reason. I can't stand the fact that because liberals, like yourself, don't agree with Romney's ideology you must look at it as if everything he does has an alterior political motive. Try looking at your party of democrats. Their big push right now is to get democrats in office and create a whirlwind of support for the big Clinton run in 2008 and for no other reason.
Matt Amorello was grossly underqualified for the position he was placed in and he failed to do anything remotely resembling work and instead bilked the taxpayers for hunders of thousands of dollars while acting like your typical massachusetts hack by giving family members jobs, and changing the amount of sick and vacation benefits he and several of his cronies would receive upon their departure. Not to mention he failed to pay the rent at the MTA, allocated all sorts of money for a fancy new office space and placed security cameras throughout the MTA for "security" better known as "see who comes in so we can stop shredding these documents that will fuck me". Two years ago Mitt Romney saw the rogue agency that is the MTA and tried to get rid of Matt Amorello then, but the legislature full of hypocrites, blowhards and ethically immoral uppity beacon hill moonbats, supported Matt Amorello. Perhaps if Mitt had gotten his way Milena Devalle might still be here, but that is just political motivation for you.

Ryan said...

I have one sentence which debunks your entire tirade:

I neither mentioned Matt Amorello nor sought to keep him on board.

You'll also note this isn't a news site, it's a progressive blog. When the Boston Globe offers me a contract, my reporting will cease to be progressive and become more balanced. That said, I've never lied on this blog or tried to distort the truth - it's all either facts or my opinion derived from those facts.

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