This is from the web site of The National Association of Railroad Passengers Hotline news last Friday
"Things are likely to become clearer within just a few days as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Railroads Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Current Amtrak Governance Issues” on Tuesday, November 15 at 10 AM. The hearing was scheduled shortly after Gunn’s termination from Amtrak and David Laney is scheduled to testify. The hearing will likely deal with the legality of firing Gunn (which full T&I Committee Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN) has questioned), Amtrak Chairman David Laney’s previous statements of support for Gunn before the same Subcommittee, and vacancies on the Amtrak Board of Directors which will grow when the recess appointments of Enrique Sosa and Floyd Hall expire next month. Tuesday’s hearing will be in room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
NARP asks that members contact C-SPAN (cable and satellite channel carrying federal-level government and public affairs programming) to request that they broadcast the hearing on either of their two main channels. This would allow all Amtrak advocates nationwide to view the hearing and the vigorous debate that is likely to result. Please e-mail C-SPAN at events@c-span.org. Remember: this is the Railroads Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Amtrak hearing on Tuesday, November 15 at 10 AM. "
I have heard that Gunn has also been asked to appear.
If c-span does not cover this on cable or via audio stream on the c-span site check www.house.gov/transportation and clink on the link for live feed.
Oberstar is a pretty good guy, and an old fashioned public servant. He’s not my congressman, but I wish he was. He’s been around for a long time, and represents the Duluth area. There may be hope for Gunn yet, if he still wants the job.
It should be interesting to watch. My boss has a tv in the lower level with cable. I think i will find a project to work on down there tomorrow morning.
i fired off an email to C-Span. Hopefully we can get enough of us to get them to listen.
Jay…Thanks for the C-SPAN info…I have e-mailed them requesting broadcasting the hearings. That could be one very interesting case…!! Wow, wouldn’t that be great to have Mr. Gunn there to testify…
Lots of hearings are broadcast…Guess it’s too much to expect this one will be.
Now for the update. It seems that both Randy Kelly, the then St Paul Mayor, and Mr Gunn, have met with similar fates. Both seemed to be on the wrong side of Mr Bush, but for opposite reasons.
You see, Mr Kelly, a democrat, was soundly defeated in his re-election bid last week. The media points to his open endorsement of Mr Bush in 2004, where he was seen shaking hands and hugging the president.
Chris Coleman, another democrat, was elected by a 63% to 37% margin. The people of St Paul sent a real message to Mr Kelly and Mr Bush. I don’t live in the city, so this wasn’t my election, but the results are quite telling.
Ask the ex-Govenor of Virginia about his…some Republicans up for re-election were openly saying they did not want the Presidents endorsement for fear it would drive voters away which is what pundits were saying happened in Virginia. Quite a shock considering how unified the party has been over the last decade.
Hey Vic, it’ll be fun to see if Lotus and Future modal can rebut this.[swg]
By the way, the republican candidates had been removed from the election during the primary. Only the top 2 finishers moved on to the general, both democrats. City level offices aren’t like national or even state.
If the folks of St Paul voted their mayor out of office soley for the fact that he endorsed Bush back in 2004, then those folks are dumber than you guys. I would expect that there are other issues out there that affected that election. Hmmm, Democrat mind-sets dominating an election in a heavily Democratic city. That’s a shock. Kind of like all those polls that show Bush’s popularity is falling, it turns out only 35% of the respondents were Republican, while the rest were Democrats and “independents” i.e. people who vote Democrat but are too ashamed to admit it. Since over 50% of the nation has identified themselves as Republican, one would think those pollsters would want a sample base that reflects the nation’s political makeup, unless of course they are really engaged in push polling…
Hey vsmith, not suprise you talk to the furniture. BC bud will have that affect on you.
back to the topic matter…
I for one am glad Gunn is gone, he was not a team player, and his vision for Amtrak was nothing short of blind. The current modus operandi for Amtrak is a dead-ender, frankly always has been and always would be, and Gunn’s penchant for continuing down that same path makes him a dead-ender as well. It isn’t just Amtrak that needs change, it is the whole concept of rail passenger. We need someone who will drag the rail passenger communitiy kicking and screaming out of the 1930’s logistics the rule the roost today, and start them down the path of fitting rail passenger concepts into the modern transportation network.
It shouldn’t matter if you are pro-passenger rail or not, it should be patently obvious to everyone that Amtrak’s LD operations need to be separated from the NEC operations, because that is the only way we can get some real transparant accountability for the two different divisions. Gunn opposed this move, which begs the indictment that he knows one or both of those divisions are engaged in some shady accounting.