CompuServe Messages

Paul, Hey, I was giving you (a liberal) credit for finally getting it right and now you say "NOT!" — hmmm, do you have a dog named Billy? Seriously, tho, there was not one Republican in any position of power that had anything to do with DIA. The former drug dealer attorney turned mayor of Denver (Federico Pena, now transportation secretary) pushed it through, along with help from Governor Roy Romer, (now former) Senators Tim Wirth and Gary Hart, and Congresscritter Pat Schroeder. The bottom line is that it's 3 years over due, $4B+ over budget, SEC and other investigations going on over the incompetence of Pena and current Denver mayor Wellington Webb (who appears to have granted construction contracts to relatives and cronies). Now, Continental Airlines is refusing to honor their contract for 20 gates, wants to cut it to 4, and, as of today, is refusing to pay their $3.5M gate fee — which the mayor is saying will have to be picked up by everyone else in increased gate fees, and that's in an airport that's already charging $40 extra per outbound ticket to help pay for the unbudgeted $4 billion in overruns. Then there's the cracking runways (the airport only opened 2 days ago), cracking marble floors, loading docks with canopies that are too low for tractor-trailers to back up under, and flight controllers who are saying the weather radars are less effective and less safe than those at Stapleton (the old airport). In general, DIA is an incredible example of 54 square miles of political incompetence. -sja