After Opposing What He'd Promoted, Tommy Again Supports High-Speed WI Rail
Gov. Amtrak is back, sort of. Remember him - - the guy who was so pro-Amtrak the railroad put his name on a locomotive?
That's the same Tommy Thompson who now says he's hopeful there will be an Amtrak connection between Milwaukee and Madison - - after toeing the Walker 'Kill The Train' line a couple of years ago and saying the full federal construction funding should be spent on highways.
Which was not possible, as he well knew, given that Tommy was a four-term Governor and a former Amtrak board chairman who pretended you could ignore the legal and program differences between highway funding and Amtrak construction stimulus dollars that were awarded specifically to Wisconsin for inclusion in the Midwest High-Speed Rail network.
Anyway - - it's nice to see Tommy again saying the right things about rail and Wisconsin and promoting good ideas about energy alternatives and smart policies in the Midwest.
Though his supporting Scott Walker as a potential presidential candidate makes little sense if Amtrak is what Tommy likes, since a President ('No-Train') Walker would likely kill its federal funding.
But the truth is that Tommy's effective time has passed, and the $810 million in Amtrak funding that had been secured by Gov. Jim Doyle through Pres. Obama to advance Wisconsin in the region is gone.
Though his supporting Scott Walker as a potential presidential candidate makes little sense if Amtrak is what Tommy likes, since a President ('No-Train') Walker would likely kill its federal funding.
But the truth is that Tommy's effective time has passed, and the $810 million in Amtrak funding that had been secured by Gov. Jim Doyle through Pres. Obama to advance Wisconsin in the region is gone.
Walker buried that opportunity to please the anti-government ideologues, to stick it to Obama and deny Doyle any legacy, and Tommy missed his chance to do the right thing when it counted.
4 comments:
I had no idea he was still alive.
My bad!
Anyone who stands next to Joe the Plumber is too stupid to have an opinion on anything as important as regional transportation. Tommy Thompson should apologize for the giant deficit he created, otherwise STFU.
Tommy Thompson was no fiscal conservative. For that he lost support among conservatives whom sat out the race against Tammy Baldwin,
the same Tammy Baldwin about to be in the minority party in the Senate.
(duck, incoming!)
Tommy couldn't see up or down the track as he was riding the HSR Ego Train at the time. No ability to see around the curve.
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