Two different pots are simmering, heading toward a potential boil -- Governor Carcieri's plan to cut the budget, and the intensifying state of Operation Dollar Bill, the federal probe of the State House.
As I recently wrote, ongoing acrimony between the governor and the General Assembly could result in a prolonged stalemate on Smith Hill. Steve Peoples reports today:
"I’m reading about this in the newspaper. I don’t think that’s very good labor relations,” said J. Michael Downey, president of the largest state employees union, Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
“Workers shouldn’t be treated this way. Every time they turn around it’s, ‘I’m going to lose my job,’ or ‘I’m going to lose my benefits,’ ” Downey said. “We don’t really know what he’s going to do. We’re sitting here holding our breath until Oct. 15.”
Carcieri plans to release the details — where the staffing cuts would take place, what benefits he would target and what social services he would cut — at a news conference Oct. 15. In the meantime, he pledged to sit down with the General Assembly and labor leaders behind closed doors to discuss his plans.
But as fellow panelist Arlene Violet said during a taping this morning of WPRI-WNAC's Newsmakers, indictments growing out of Dollar Bill could also add to Carcieri's political capital.
Operation Clean Government's Chuck Barton was among the guests on the show. A lot of people would agree with his belief that a more competitive two-party system would enhance Rhode Island's body politic.
Yet local Republicans -- including Carcieri -- bear a chunk of the blame for the perennially anemic state of the party. The governor, after all, came into office with plans for growing Republican representation. But will anyone be surprised, even the with potential fallout from Dollar Bill, if the RI GOP maintains its also-ran status well into the future?