Here’s the opening paragraph of a WaPo editorial today:
THERE THEY don’t go again: Metro’s board of directors, kowtowing to the provincial politics of its members from Virginia, has voted to put the brakes on a swift and logical selection of a general manager, even though someone already is doing the job impressively. Dan Tangherlini, the system’s interim general manager since February, has won high praise in short order for weeding out bad middle managers, lifting morale and responding to rider complaints.
Usually the Post editorial writers single out those doctrinaire, anti-tax, downstate Republicans in the House of Delegates for blame. But they couldn’t this time — none of them sit on the Metro board of directors. Instead, it takes a shot at Gerald E. Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County board chairman and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, which appoints the Virginia Metro board members (and, incidentally, a Democrat). The Virginians’ sin:
Last month the posturing worriers talked the board into a needless dawdle, launching a “national search” for a general manager, which could take up to three months.
The Washington Post might feel a tad differently if it were fronting the $4 billion in capital costs for the Rail-to-Dulles extension of the Metro as well as multi-millions of dollars yearly in operating subsidies.
