"I do not particularly like Rendell and I did not vote for him. However, I don't believe that he is a rascist. He's a competent administrator and honest, at least to be a democrat."
Boy, have you been in the Philly media market too long!
Rendell is smart, and not the Pennsylvania hack Democrat of old. This much is true. But, his rep as a "competent administrator" is vastly overplayed. He is known for playing "hardball" with the philly municipal workers unions. Well, guess what, he did nothing spectacular, only reduced the bloated workers comp claims and hired competent police commissioners. Gee, any Republican would have done that - but would have gone further and actually reduced the number of people working for Philly city government (which he is always proud to point out that no city employees lost their jobs). Not to mention bring the workers comp costs in-line with the private sector, or even other governments, neither of which he did. He only reduced slightly an enormous mess that previous DEM administrations had allowed to get OUT OF CONTROL because they did not want to tick off the unions. And a good national economy really helped out municipal finanaces as well.
See how competent you think Rendell is when he wants to raise your taxes later this year. And guess where all that money will go? Philadelphia.
Not to say he will not do some common sense things (maybe), like privatize the state liquor stores. But he might even back down from that and cave to the unions.
Fast Eddie has gotten a free ride from the Philly media for too long. It may be the same with the state-wide media now, but I hope it is not the case.
http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=1999/11/1/232546See how competent you think Rendell is when he wants to raise your taxes later this year. I look at that as an idealogy thing. He believes in raising taxes; I don't. I just don't think that's the same thing as being incompetent. The unions in Philly are not easy to work with; I give him credit for what he did with them. I'm not sure any Republican could have done that.
Like I said, I do not like Rendell. I want him gone! But I cannot honestly pan him on all accounts. He is a competent administrator; he is also an amoral man.