“I am surprised because I felt that the legislation which was voted on and approved yesterday by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate provided what the governor was looking for,” DeLeo told the News Service Thursday after posing for a photo with Aphasia Awareness Day participants at the State House.
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“You put that all together and I don’t think we can be criticized for not taking up something that wasn’t in the governor’s version, nor was it brought up to us until after the legislation was completed,” DeLeo said.
Uh, did you read the governors transportation plan? It’s completely different. Did you see the more progressive method of raising revenue? The inclusion of the Springfield rail line extension? The drastic difference in amounts of funding? The fact that it kicks the can down the road when the Western Mass polls come down in 2017? The Governor MORE than compromised in the Transportation bill, even INCLUDING the proposed amendments.
If you’re surprised you need to get your head examined Mr. Speaker.
Mr. DeLeo is just lying. Nothing more, nothing less.
Have we become so desensitized where lying isn’t such bad thing anymore? Shouldn’t lies be held against politicians? Shouldn’t he still be called out on it?
I meant “just” in the sense that his behavior isn’t complicated or complex.
It is transparent and dishonest. He’s lying. The kind of arrogant, sneering, in-your-face disrespect for Deval Patrick and those of us who support him that Mr. DeLeo hopes will appeal to his conservative “base”.
We all know full well that he’s been giving the middle finger to the Governor’s proposal since it was made. There has been essentially NO progress, and the Governor should simply veto it.
Mr. DeLeo is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party. He epitomizes the behavior of a segment of Massachusetts Democrats that motivates me to work on behalf of an emerging Progressive Party.
On that we can agree 🙂 !
Once we get IRV or Proportional Representation at the Statehouse you can count me in on the Progressive Party. Nationally it would make things a bit complicated, but be nice if we could work that out.
BTW the smiley faces on this site are freaking creepy 😛
Her hands are just as red, in this and on EBT.we voted these clowns and the cronies that fund them out in 2002 with clean elections, but Finneran violated his constitutional obligations and too many progressives refused to
Fight him. We cannot keep banging our heads against the wall defending a leadership that jettisons us at every turn. Time to primary, time to get ballot initiatives passed, and time to make enough noise that the cameras turn away from Whitey and the Hernandez and towards something that actually matters a whole lot for the future of our state.
The obstructionists to substantive change are the fear based legislative “leaders” on Beacon Hill. Crusty old thinkers working hard to maintain the dysfunctional status quo/power structure and wasting taxpayer money with their refusal to implement improved efficiency and progressive policies. Until power is de-centralized on Beacon Hill, I do not see a path to substantive change.
He’s laying down the party line, providing the narrative to his supporters and those who perhaps fear him, and constructing the pretend reality that will be used in the effort to overturn the Governor’s veto or perhaps even to facilitate walking away form the problem entirely.
That’s not “just” anything, nothing more nothing less. It’s far more than lying, however dishonest it may be.
And the progressives should be held accountable as well I take it? They supported the compromise.
I, too, am unsatisfied with this proposal, but when we say Springfield line are we talking commuter rail extension? That is a boondoggle pure and simple that will not achieve any of its goals. I do support additional funding so maybe Amtrak could boost service from 1 to maybe 4 or 5 trips a day, but we would need billions more than that to build a brand new line that actually doesn’t take 2.5+ hours to traverse.
That type of project is exactly the kind that causes us to lose credibility because it just turns into a prop for a ribbon cutting.
Now if we are talking about Springfield-New Haven, that has potential. But Massachusetts has been largely hands off a project that is only 10% in Mass even though it could actually have great return for Springfield.
but commuter rail and Amtrak share track all over the country. I doubt anybody is talking about acquiring 10s or 100s of miles of right of way and building on greenfields.
strongly implying tracks.
There is a train and I’ve ridden it, but the trip is 2.5 hours with only 3 stops between Boston & Springfield (and that includes Back Bay). The ride would be unbearable as a commuter rail absent insanely massive investment. The track geometry makes it too difficult short of that.
I could be wrong, but I thought that the Springfield item that the governor said wasn’t possible in the legislative plan was the replacement of the Interstate-91 viaduct (i.e. the part of I-91 that runs through downtown Springfield). Not rail.
The viaduct replacement has been estimated to cost $400-600m. It was built in 1969 and is in horrible shape, with chunks of concrete falling from it despite carrying 100,000 cars per day.