Some things never change. Read this and note how the tone back then was, "Hey John, what the hell are you doing criticizing us? You're going to wreck the project. Keep your mouth shut and say nothing." If only they had listened.
KERRY JEOPARDIZING ARTERY, WELD CHARGES
Author(s): Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
Date: January 13, 1996 Page: 1
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
Gov. William F. Weld launched a blistering attack at US Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday, saying Kerry has tried to hurt his Senate challenge by goading the US Transportation Department to probe the Weld administration's management of the Central Artery project. Weld's accusation, which was echoed in milder terms by downtown business leaders, came in response to a private Nov. 15 letter in which Kerry and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy told the US transportation secretary of their concerns about the financing and progress of the Big Dig work Weld called the letter "reprehensible" and said it could play into the hands of congressional critics of the $7.8 billion project.
"They are undermining the stability of the entire project. . . . I can't think of any reason for a United States senator from Massachusetts to do that except to stir up political trouble for the state administration here," Weld said. "If it was the senator from Alaska, I would understand."
Members of the Artery Business Committee, an organization of downtown businesses that support the mammoth project, were infuriated by the Kerry- Kennedy letter and worried about its potential impact in Congress, sources said.
The public reaction, voiced by committee president Richard Dimino, was more circumspect, although he said his group is "deeply concerned" about the potential politicization of the project.
"To the extent political choose to see the Artery/Tunnel project as kind of political football, it will not help the project," Dimino said. "We need full consensus of public officials to keep this project moving foward. We are concerned about any action that politicizes the project"
The letter, sent to US Transporation Secretary Federico Pena, sharply questions Weld's management of the Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project and cites "rumors" of cost increases and delays that, along with federal funding cutbacks, "justified considerable concern" about its future.
The letter, written on Kerry's office stationery, was sent just two weeks before Weld announced he would challenge the second-term Democrat. Shortly after it was received by Pena, federal highway officials, in a letter to the state transportation secretary, questioned the most recent estimate of the project's cost.
Kerry aides said the Democratic senator sent the letter to Pena to ask him to provide answers and facts with which they could rebut congressional critics of the Big Dig, the largest highway project in the country.
The aides said Kerry kept the letter secret in order that it not become politicizied.
Michael Meehan, Kerry's press secretary, called Weld's accusations "ludicrous" and chided the governor for waiting until "John Kerry was on a plane to Bosnia to see the troops to make such a charge," so that he could not directly rebut it.
"John Kerry and Senator Kennedy have spent a long, hard time to make sure the money is in place, and for the governor to charge that both of them were trying to sabotage the project is ludicrous."
Later this winter US Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the Big Dig's chief critic in Congress, is scheduled to hold a hearing on the project. Wolf is chairman of the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.
"What do you think a guy like Frank Wolf will do with this letter?" Weld said, citing the letter's reference to "rumors" of cost increases and delays. "This sentence is going to be exhibit A in the anti-Artery hearings."
Meehan said that even if Kerry had written directly to Weld with his concerns, the governor and his staff would have tried to politicize the issue.
"Regardless what the senator does to protect the Central Artery project, the governor and his campaign will say it is motivated by politics," Meehan said. The more things change..... There was someone trying to watch over this project, but the Repub Govs said, butt out.
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