christie playing word games with Amtrak gateway project ??

I am aware that the Moderators wish us to keep discussions of politics on a train-oriented Web site down to a minimum, but the Parent Post is overtly political in that it ascribes motives to a group of four state governors who have turned away Federal money for trains.

To the extent that politics affect trains, I am simply asking for people to consider that the Governors in questions turned back the money because they were maybe anti-train, or in Governor Christie’s case genuinely worried about the costs of the tunnel project, instead of being part of a concerted political-tactical effort to give the President a political black eye. I had also suggested that for all of his “tough Northeast-guy” talk, Governor Christie was at a somewhat different level in terms of advanced education and professional achievement than some of the other governors (being a high-level Federal prosecutor is not just some guy passing the bar exam and hanging out a shingle), and his decisions shouldn’t be lumped in with the other three.

With respect to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell boasting of a Republican strategy to block President Obama’s reelection, as a scholar of political science, would you consider that there is some nuance in this? First of all, being Minority Leader in the Senate is by tradition a highly partisan post whereas state governors are expected to

Discussion of politics is against the clearly stated terms of service of the Trains.com Forums. This is because political discussions tend to engender heated discussions and hard feelings. We’ve let this thread slide for some time because the topic being discussed directly relates to railroading, but even so, it seems like this one has gone off the rails. This thread will be locked.