Chancellor “Dr.” The Rev. Michael Farris of Patrick Henry Bible “College” in Purcellville, a major force within the Loudoun GOP machine, has offered another explanation for the far-right opposition to Metro that nearly sunk the project in last week’s cliff-hanging 5–4 vote by our unusually non-unanimous Board of Supervisors.
Metro made for some strange political problems for our normally very unanimous supervisors. Continue reading
After last week throwing still more disarray into the Loudoun Board of Supervisors’ Metro-to-Loudoun decision by demanding yet another deadline extension along with 21 new last-minute conditions (to be renegotiated with Fairfax County, the Federal government, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Washington area airports and transit authorities), Loudoun Supervisor Ken Reid (R-Leesburg) — never one to miss an opportunity to be quoted in the Washington Post — explains to Post reporter Caitlin Gibson that his conditions . . . aren’t really conditions:
After the release of the memo listing 21 items for opt-in consideration last week, Reid took a step back from the request for more time, clarifying in a statement that the list was “by no means an ultimatum of necessary conditions.”
Although he supports an extension of time to “work out certain particulars,” he said, if they are not resolved before the deadline, he does not think a “hard date” of Dec. 1 “is by any means necessary or desired to accomplish that.”
Glad to have that cleared up.
Metro Derangement Disorder, cont.:
Let’s just suppose Extremely Businesslike Company A did the following.
After lengthy negotiations over a project for which Company A agrees to contribute an impressive 9 percent of the total cost, during which time Company A makes repeated demands for concessions and reductions in the project cost as a condition for agreeing to contribute an impressive 9 percent of the total cost — including forcing the other partners to abandon portions of the project of great importance and direct benefit to them — the directors of Company A announce a few months later that maybe they didn’t mean to sign the deal after all. Continue reading
As noted yesterday, it’s already been entertaining, re the upcoming Metro-to-Loudoun decision, to see how the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors proposes to get out of this one, given the warring constituencies within the local GOP machine on the issue.
The simplest approach for a politician who is cornered, of course, is simply to lie. A hint of what we can expect a lot more of is being provided by Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) who has now suddenly developed a case of raging amnesia regarding his statement of support for the Metro project when he appeared, during the election campaign, at a candidate forum sponsored by the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce (a GOP faction that strongly favors Metro).
Higgins now claims he doesn’t remember ever saying he supported Metro during that event. Continue reading
Poor publicity-starved Loudoun Supervisor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) can always be counted on to make a beeline for the Washington Post reporter in the room, and today he was right there following the meeting of the state’s Transportation Secretary with the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce to discuss the Metro extension to Dulles and Loudoun.
By the way, it is apparently now the standard M.O. in Loudoun County that if you want to be a part of high-level discussions about transportation, you need to join the Chamber; this is the second time that the all-Republican cast of supervisors, since taking office in January, has decided that the fair and open way to have an important meeting in which state officials discuss Loudoun transportation issues is to do it at a Chamber meeting, where you either can pay to attend or be a member. This has nothing to do with all of the help that key Chamber people gave Chairman Scott York (R) in the way of organizing fundraisers, making campaign contributions, being his buddy on an official trip to Germany, etc etc etc.
Anyway, Ken explained to the Post this morning why he is (apparently) going to vote against Metro, offering yet another fine specimen of his keen logical mind at work:
Ken Reid, a Loudoun County supervisor from Leesburg, said he isn’t sure how the Loudoun board will vote on whether to support helping to pay for the second phase of the Silver Line.
He said the new rail line doesn’t relieve traffic congestion in the area because it is expected that there will be more people driving in the future.
Actually, this reasoning offers all sorts of cost-cutting possibilities. We assume Ken will also from now on oppose all road projects, since they too will fail to relieve traffic congestion — since there will be more people driving in the future. Likewise, hiring new teachers will not reduce overcrowding of classrooms since there are expected to be more students in the future; and hiring more deputies will not reduce crime as there are expected to be more criminals in the future.
realloudoun 