Oh, are the other Democratic candidates “piling on” poor little Hillary Clinton?
After the question-evading US senator from New York imploded during the most recent Dem “debate,” in which she gave the usual weasel-worded answers, her campaign called it “the politics of piling on,” trying to make it seem as if her pecker-equipped rivals were attacking a fragile female. What BS.
We’d put our money on Hillary surviving a Texas death match, since she is as ruthless and vicious a pol as has ever existed. So put away the doilies and brownies, Clintonistas, and try getting your war-supporting charge to give straight answers to straight questions.
My way or the iway
P+J are relieved to report that the state Department of Transportation’s practice of using substandard concrete doesn’t pose any risks for the new Iway bridge. That’s because you will never reach it.
The grand opening of the highly touted Iway was a catastrophe, even by the high standards of out-and-out failure set by the DOT. Traffic backed up to Maine and Delaware on opening day, we heard. We were also told that Dan Yorke, WPRO’s road expert, claimed the route came equipped with its own tarred-in potholes from the get-go.
A friend who got caught in the massive afternoon snarls on Monday suggests that the DOT geniuses might have postponed, even for a day, closing one lane of the highway for construction, to let all the first-timers whiz across. The enormous amount of hype before the opening guaranteed a huge turnout. If this had been done, we could get back to the DOT’s SOP with much less public and media attention.
But why think intelligently? After all, the DOT does have a reputation to uphold. So, no way on the Iway.
Easy ed’s half-full glass
P+J received a copy of a letter sent by our estimable friend, Scott Wolf, the executive director of Grow Smart RI, to Urinal editorial page columnist Fast Eddie Achorn.
Wolf chides Fast Eddie for his usual gloomy view of the Biggest Little, pointing to how “[Rhode Island was] recently ranked as having the 6th best healthcare system in the country (Providence Journal, June 17, 2007) and being the 8th ‘greenest’ state in the country from an environmental standpoint according to Forbes magazine. Our historic tax credit and the redevelopment it is producing is the envy of many of my colleagues in the national smart growth community. A recent (October 2007) report by Rhode Island Kids Count indicates that ‘Between 2004 and 2006 in Rhode Island, the percentage of children living below the poverty threshold significantly decreased from 21.5% to 15.1%.’ ”
Certainly Little Rhody is no Lake Woebegon, and P+J are often quick to point out the scars upon our cheeks, as the noted philosopher Gregg Allman might say. But P+J’s outlook remains optimistic, as does Wolf’s.
So we certainly back up Scott when he informs Achorn — who always sees Little Rhody’s glass as being only half-full — “I think your constant drumbeat of negativism is neither accurate nor always the most constructive way to rally support for reform . . . If our self-esteem goes down the tubes because of an unrelenting and unrealistic focus on the negative, and avoidance of any evidence of positive trends, so too will our state. I hope as you continue to press for fiscal and process reforms that you present a more balanced view of our accomplishments and failures. Negative self fulfilling prophecy is not what this state needs or deserves!”
Take heed, Eddie. When Scott talks, people listen.
