http://www.courant.com/community/new-br ... 7787.story
This quote from Malloy says everything about the disconnect going on here:
Malloy called it a valuable part of the state's economic revival plan, and dismissed critics who say it's horrendously overpriced and unnecessary.
"They're wrong. This project is going to work," Malloy told reporters. "This system will be delivering people to work and to home in a timely fashion at a bargain price."
Malloy was flanked by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, but the rest of the state's Congressional delegation — usually eager to be on hand for such events — didn't appear.
The sky is pink because I said so!
That's great. So why is it then that none of the state's Congressional delegation besides Sen. Irrelevant made the trip to stand behind their funding votes with photographic evidence for posterity of them holding the golden shovel? You don't think any of them are a little concerned about that money shot being used against them in a 2012 negative campaign ad, do you?
As with every Courant busway article, get a load of the comments (well...except the gutter-dwellers who heap on New Britain as a worthless crackhead prison). There's exactly 1 busway fan, couple more who live next to it and say they would use it...and then every single other comment is violently against it for reasons that run the gamut across the whole political and IQ spectrum. I don't think I've ever seen a public works project with this immovable a bloc of opposition--80% is no exaggeration--where so few will even talk themselves a little bit into it on these very same inevitability grounds that the pols are going all-in on. This is a much bigger fissure public vs. political than you see on nearly any brick-and-mortar project. I think this is taking on more meaning than just a slab of overpriced pavement for half-empty buses and giving off a hint of "Occupy..." vibes as some rallying point illustrative of elected officials completely abdicating their responsibilities to constituents and chasing the lobbying money. Not that there'll ever be an "Occupy the Busway" or anything--there simply isn't a broad-enough cross section of society impacted--, but it seems to be striking that same nerve with a significant number of people.
Pols don't have to own up to their actions unless they and the people who fund them face a threat on
their own rich people's turf. They can ignore away until that day. But they will scuttle this project like it's got ebola if anyone starts facing a reelection threat with their vote for the project being a Top 3 liability. It's a little amusing, and borderline sad, that the state's whole non-Lieberhole Washington delegation apparently has that concern just enough in the back of their minds to bail on physically being within 500 miles of a pork ribbon-cutting ceremony they'd usually fight each other to attend and then promote in campaign literature. Do they really think people are not going to notice?