Christy's Big Dig blind spot

Published Sep 25 2006, 07:28 PM by Adam Reilly

Will the new heads-up-their-asses spot make Christy Mihos competitive in the governor's race? Maybe. But it's worth noting that Mihos has some obliviousness of his own when it comes to the Big Dig.

A few weeks back, during a conversation I had with Mihos about his relationship with ex-Big Dig chief Jim Kerasiotes--to whom Christy once bequeathed his mother's olive recipe--I asked Mihos to assess Kerasiotes's performance in that role.

Christy's response? "Well, when he was head of the project, it was on time and on budget. That was the mantra, and it was a mantra that was fully adhered to by anyone and everyone in the Cellucci administration."

Here's the problem with this description: in April 2000--about a year and a half into Christy's tenure on the Mass. Pike board--then-Governor Paul Cellucci axed Kerasiotes for concealing $1.4 billion in Big Dig cost overruns from federal officials. An audit by the US Department of Transportation called Kerasiotes's cover-up "one of the most flagrant breaches of the integrity of the federal-state partnership in the history of the nearly 85-year-old federal-aid highway program."

When I pointed this out, Christy had this to say: "I guess 'on time and on budget' was not an operational statement."

Not the most impressive answer.

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