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The O'Neill name and the Big Dig -- all in the family
The Boston Globe ^ | July 30, 2006 | Joan Vennochi

Posted on 07/30/2006 5:47:51 AM PDT by libstripper

WHAT WOULD Tip think?

House Speaker Thomas P. ``Tip" O'Neill Jr. goes down in political history as the Big Dig's big booster. The legendary Democrat from North Cambridge stoked it with federal dollars, spurred by his belief that it was a transportation necessity and an economic boost.

Today, Thomas P. O'Neill III, the late speaker's son, represents Bechtel Corp. -- the company that helped supervise the project from dream to reality to fiasco.

This summer, tons of concrete crashed down from a connector tunnel ceiling, killing a woman. Since then, everything about Boston's Big Dig, from design and construction to inspection and maintenance, is under review and assault. And so is Tip O'Neill's vision.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bifdig; tiponeill
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Ronaladus Magnus was so right to veto this monstrosity. I've mostly finished reading Howie Carr's, The Brothers Bulger: How they Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century, which is immediately available on Amazon.com. It's a compelling read that shows what a completely corrupt political cesspool Boston politics was at the very time the Big Dig was proposed and approved. Throwing billions of Federal dollars into that shark tank was guaranteed to produce the very fiasco the Big Dig has become. I have no sympathy for the Beaners in this.
1 posted on 07/30/2006 5:47:53 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: libstripper
I have no sympathy for the Beaners in this.

What does Carlos Mencia have to do with the Big Dig? : )

Tip O'Neill wasn't a "Beaner" -- he was a typical "Masshole."

2 posted on 07/30/2006 5:55:27 AM PDT by Freedom_no_exceptions (No actual, intended, or imminent victim = no crime. No exceptions.)
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To: libstripper
All politics is local.
All warming is global...
3 posted on 07/30/2006 6:00:01 AM PDT by FDNYRHEROES (Always bring a liberal to a gunfight)
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To: Freedom_no_exceptions

I have sympathy for him but not for those who created it, wallowed and wallow in it, and hope to continue using it to rip off everybody in the country with it. The Beaners and the mass. libs elected and re-elected at every possible opportunity the very criminals who were and are responsible for this monstrosity, like, for example, the Hero of Chappaquiddick, the "good" Bulger, Tip O'Neill, and Mikey the Tank Boy. Now the chickens are coming home to roost and it's entirely appropriate that the voters who created this mess be the ones to pay for it. You're trying to absolve those very voters of the responsibility for this fiasco that they so eminently deserve.


4 posted on 07/30/2006 6:07:28 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: libstripper

The Big Dig was never about transportation. It has always been about diverting government money to a socialist city and state government which otherwise couldn't support itself. The sad part of the whole affair is that the politicians who reaped the benefit of this fiasco will go scott free. In fact they will get all of the credit for the money distributed and none of the blame for their corruption.


5 posted on 07/30/2006 6:14:33 AM PDT by FreePaul
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To: Freedom_no_exceptions

Speaking of Carlos Mencia, I heard a him do a routine on XM Radio Comedy Channel yesterday and I was literally in tears. Is he that funny all the time? Is his show still on?


6 posted on 07/30/2006 6:23:57 AM PDT by Hildy
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To: libstripper

BTTT


7 posted on 07/30/2006 6:27:14 AM PDT by pointsal (Q)
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To: Freedom_no_exceptions
> Tip O'Neill wasn't a "Beaner" -- he was a typical "Masshole."

Not really. He was a typical politician, who brought home the pork for his constituents. In his case, Tip was an extremely powerful and influencial pol--second in those days only to President Reagan himself, not by virtue of his Massachusetts origin, but because of his skills in wheeling and dealing in Washington for 34 years.

Yes the incredibly flawed Big Dig is Tip's legacy, and the Globe is just now finding this out? The project's mismanagement and corruption was an open secret from day one...where was the Globe then? In Tip O'Neill's pocket is where. Groud was broken for the Big Dig in 1991. O'Neill died in 1994, knowing he'd not only brought home the pork, but the whole pig. He never knew what a monster it would become.

8 posted on 07/30/2006 6:38:12 AM PDT by cloud8
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To: cloud8

This is a true "legacy" to Tip O'Neill as he was corrupt as all Massachusetts politicians seem to be, was a big spender of other peoples' monies, talked out of both sides of his mouth, and became the dimorats main man. Typical of his genre', the big dig should be plowed under and the folks up there in Beantown got just what they didn't pay for...a hole in the ground they can't safely use! Time for a tea party again?


9 posted on 07/30/2006 6:55:36 AM PDT by geezerwheezer (get up boys, we're burnin' daylight!!!)
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To: libstripper
The last line of this piece reads "Ironic, isn't it, that the son's client stands to undermine the father's legacy?"

Umm, well, really sorry, but as much as Tip had an engaging personality, he and his ilk have always held the banner high for profligate spending and no accountability. Tip's legacy will remain the same.
10 posted on 07/30/2006 6:56:29 AM PDT by Zman
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To: libstripper
Yet, even in victory, ``Tip came to worry that the Artery would be known as Tip's Folly," Farrell wrote.

From the very start, when all the locals began referring to the Big Dig as "The Tip O'Neill Good-bye Kiss", everybody knew this was a fiasco.

11 posted on 07/30/2006 7:02:29 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: FreePaul

I am waiting till they announce somehow v.p. cheney and halliburton is somewhat involved or responsible because they are company partners I believe


12 posted on 07/30/2006 7:15:06 AM PDT by dubyawhoiluv
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To: Hildy
"Is he that funny all the time? Is his show still on?"

Maybe not ALL the time, but I LOL a lot watching him. Comedy Central airs a new show each week with frequent reruns.

13 posted on 07/30/2006 7:26:22 AM PDT by VRWCtaz (A challenge to Liberals: I will read any book you name - if you will do the same. (very few takers))
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To: libstripper
The legendary Democrat from North Cambridge stoked it with federal dollars, spurred by his belief that it was a transportation necessity and an economic boost.

Highways are a transportation necessity. Gold-plated highways are not.

By "economic boost," read "pool of graft for my union cronies and payoffs for 20 years of covering my fat, drunken, Irish a$$."

14 posted on 07/30/2006 7:55:28 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: libstripper

We ALL paid for the Big Dig.....BILLIONS AND BILLIONS.


15 posted on 07/30/2006 8:36:44 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kaboom"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: cloud8

Is it true that the tunnel had the SAME amount of lanes as the surface road it replaced?? If so, how STUPID.


16 posted on 07/30/2006 8:39:14 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kaboom"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: libstripper

Democrat Culture of Corruption.


17 posted on 07/30/2006 8:52:13 AM PDT by Doctor Raoul (New York Times? Get a rope!)
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To: Suzy Quzy

> Is it true that the tunnel had the SAME amount of lanes as the surface road it replaced?? If so, how STUPID.

I read the same thing (many years ago) and thought the same thing. There were some explanations on "WHY" it would be better below ground than above ground, but they were obviously blowing smoke. The greens there just wanted to turn the above ground concrete into a long park. A lot cheaper and certainly better would have been to build a second layer of lanes above the ground level ones like is sometimes done elsewhere (where there are space constraints). Not as much chance to steal with that, though.


18 posted on 07/30/2006 8:55:09 AM PDT by jim_trent
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To: jim_trent

Stupid, Stupid people in Massachusetts. And their HOUSING....they still are building houses with those outdoor accesses to basements...forget what they are called.....but 40 years behind the times....and OIL HEAT!!


19 posted on 07/30/2006 8:57:20 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kaboom"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: FreePaul
The Big Dig was never about transportation.

As the big dig was winding down, I began to see bumper stickers advocating completing a rail link between North Station and South Station. Obviously the contractors and unions saw this as the next construction boondoggle. I mean if they could talk us into the "Big Pig" they could talk us into anything.

20 posted on 07/30/2006 8:58:15 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (NYT Headline: 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of CBS: Fake But Accurate, Experts Say.')
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