USDOT's Pathetic Response to Senator Hatch
I figured that U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters would have to respond in some way to Senator Hatch's May 10 letter about the continuing Traffic.com monopoly, but the actual response (delivered for Ms. Peters by Acting USDOT General Counsel Rosalind Knapp) was "underwhelming" to say the least.
The rationale that Ms. Knapp cited for the USDOT's continuing support of the Traffic.com monopoly in the face of new language added by Hatch in SAFETEA-LU designed to break it is based upon pure fiction. Nowhere in Section 5508 does it come anywhere close to "requiring" that USDOT fulfill the original contract and thus continue the monopoly and -- even if it did, and it doesn't -- two-thirds of the agreements signed since the passage of SAFETEA-LU are for cities that were never even mentioned in the original contract anyway. Ms. Knapp's response is pure b.s.
A key Hatch staffer indicated to me a strong willingness to continue working with Senator Hatch to push this matter. To quote him: "We'll be happy to follow up, but we need enough to nail them." That, of course, is right in line with my own thinking. I had almost thought that such integrity and willingness to pursue the truth wherever it leads (especially to a corrupt Republican Administration by a conservative Republican Senator) was long gone in our federal government, but I'm very happy to know that it is (apparently) not.
I'll come right out and say what I alluded to in my previous posting: it's clear from her obfuscation in responding to two different very blunt inquiries from Hatch that current USDOT Secretary Peters is and has been pushing Traffic.com's monopoly. Either she's doing that as a favor to her former boss and mentor Mr. Mineta, or she too has a hidden financial interest in the company.
Time will tell, but she makes it four very senior officials in the Bush Administration (two Cabinet Secretaries, one Deputy Secretary, and a Deputy Assistant to President Bush) who are directly involved in this scandal.
JW
The rationale that Ms. Knapp cited for the USDOT's continuing support of the Traffic.com monopoly in the face of new language added by Hatch in SAFETEA-LU designed to break it is based upon pure fiction. Nowhere in Section 5508 does it come anywhere close to "requiring" that USDOT fulfill the original contract and thus continue the monopoly and -- even if it did, and it doesn't -- two-thirds of the agreements signed since the passage of SAFETEA-LU are for cities that were never even mentioned in the original contract anyway. Ms. Knapp's response is pure b.s.
A key Hatch staffer indicated to me a strong willingness to continue working with Senator Hatch to push this matter. To quote him: "We'll be happy to follow up, but we need enough to nail them." That, of course, is right in line with my own thinking. I had almost thought that such integrity and willingness to pursue the truth wherever it leads (especially to a corrupt Republican Administration by a conservative Republican Senator) was long gone in our federal government, but I'm very happy to know that it is (apparently) not.
I'll come right out and say what I alluded to in my previous posting: it's clear from her obfuscation in responding to two different very blunt inquiries from Hatch that current USDOT Secretary Peters is and has been pushing Traffic.com's monopoly. Either she's doing that as a favor to her former boss and mentor Mr. Mineta, or she too has a hidden financial interest in the company.
Time will tell, but she makes it four very senior officials in the Bush Administration (two Cabinet Secretaries, one Deputy Secretary, and a Deputy Assistant to President Bush) who are directly involved in this scandal.
JW
posted by Jerry Werner | 4:54 PM
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