“The Transit Center fiasco wouldn’t have happened on my watch!”
Thus screams the headline on an Evan Glass mailer this week. (Glass is running to represent District 5 on the Montgomery Couty Council). That pronouncement is accompanied by a photo of Mr. Arrogant himself, arms crossed, peering down at us from on high.
What’s so wrong with this piece?
- Somehow, Glass manages to map his tenure as a CNN reporter (’cause he apparently has asked a politician or two a tough question or two during his life) to having the ability to predict and forestall problems with an extremely complex public engineering projects. Geez, Evan: I guess being a reporter really does make you better able to analyze the tensile strength of poured concrete than a bunch of engineers with advanced degrees. (Granted, the engineers failed in this project. I just don’t see how a TV reporter would be better positioned than them to stop the problems before they were obvious.)
- Glass forgets that the county council’s role is to legislate and appropriate. It is the executive who is responsible for implementing policy and projects. If the guy were running against Ike Leggett here, he might be in a somewhat better position to condemn how the project has turned out. I’m no fan of most of the council incumbents, but the failed transit center is not their fault and there was no way they could have intervened before engineering audits revealed the flaws. Maybe what Evan needs is a remedial course in government, so he can understand how it actually works.
- Glass has now declared war on (and made himself look like a jerk to) the council incumbents, many of whom will be returned to office. So, on an already dysfunctional council, where nearly everyone hates each other, Glass would assume office without a friend in the bunch. So much for any chance of his being effective.
- Glass is only arrogant, not stupid. He knows damn well that there would not have been a thing he could have done on council to prevent this mess. This means he is purposely lying to District 5 voters by making his ludicrous claim.
I had been positively inclined towards Evan Glass, even though he always seemed a mite too chamber-of-commerce friendly to me (just what we need on council, given the rest of the pave-the-county crowd!). With this mailer — which I deem the most obnoxious of the campaign season — Glass has gone beyond the pale. Arrogance is least favorite human trait: it provides no value to anyone (ultimately, not even the arrogant). If you think we don’t have enough arrogance in politics, vote for Evan Glass. I can no longer imagine any other reason to select him.
©2014 Keith Berner
