Mitt Romney presided over 'Big Dig' agencies that allowed fatal collapse

[NewYorkerfromMass]

O.K. Just to prove I can commit fair time to questioning our GOP rivals, here's some dirt on Mitt:

The 'Big Dig' timeline with comments:

April 1987 -- Congress approves initial federal funding. (Secured by the Dukakis administration thank you very much Michael)

September 1991 -- Construction begins... (under GOP administration of William Weld)

July 1997 Paul Cellucci takes over governorship from Weld (note, when Weld left office, there were 15,000 fewer state employees than 10 years earlier. So smaller gov't is better, right?)

August 1998 -- Cost estimate jumps to $10.8 billion -- adjusted for inflation from original estimate given in 1982 dollars of $2.6 billion. Cost would eventually rise to $14.6 billion.

April 1999 -- Former Big Dig Chief James Kerasiotes agrees to step down after a federal report criticizes officials for failing to disclose major cost overruns in a timely manner.

APril 2001 -- Jane Swift takes over goevrnorship on appointment of Cellucci to ambassordship by Bush.

January 2003-- Mitt Romney sworn in as 70th Governor of Massachusetts

2003 -- Several important openings occur, including the Interstate 90 connector and the northbound and most of the southbound lanes of the new Interstate 93 tunnels in downtown Boston.

September 2004 -- Leak sends water pouring into Interstate 93 tunnel, causing massive traffic backups and highlighting problem with smaller leaks in tunnels.

May 2005 -- Big Dig investigators checking construction work in the project's Interstate 93 tunnel find a total of 169 defective panels, most requiring minor patching. (seems Mitt's administration failed at this juncture to head off the later problem)

May 4, 2006 -- Six men who worked for the Big Dig's largest concrete supplier are arrested on charges they falsified records to hide the inferior quality of concrete delivered to the project. (again no action from Romney)

July 10, 2006 -- A woman is crushed to death by falling concrete in connector tunnel leading to Ted Williams Tunnel, sparking criminal investigation.

Timeline link here: http://cbs4boston.com/local/local_story_192234418.html but I added/edited a bit.

So the lesson is, don't trust the GOP to deliver competent government serivce, of which Mitt Romney is a culpable part.

Eat it up Mitt lovers.

[rinsd]

1. Yes Mitt Dirt! I love it (nt)

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. there'll be more. nt

[MannyGoldstein]

3. A Republican Governor of MA Has Little Control - EXCEPT Over The Big Dig

It saddens me when I see the Big Dig pointed to by Righties as an example of how Liberals screw things up. We had 16 years of Rethug governors - given that the Legislature was overwhelmingly Dem, practically the only power the Governors had was to appoint the board of the committee which oversaw the Mass Turnpike and the Big Dig. The committee, of course, was stacked with Rethugs.

The only thing that the Rethugs had influence over here, they royally fucked up. Well done, Willard et al!

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. He was too busy out of state building his resume for the WH run.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. Yep: He wanted to "get as far away from that tar baby" (as possible)

http://www.boston.com/news/traffic/bigdig/articles/2006/07/30/romney_touts_his_big_dig_efforts?mode=PF

and remember the little storm over that comment:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-31-romney-remark_x.htm