Saturday, March 24, 2007

rejected

it hasn't been a good week to be governor mitch daniels.

first came the ivytech humiliation. mitch wanted to hook his buddy carol d'amico up with a job as new president of ivytech, but five of his own appointees turned against him:

Though Daniels appointed nine of the 14 trustees on the Ivy Tech Community College board, he didn't get what he wanted when the board picked a new president earlier this week.

Five of his appointees joined Thursday with five holdovers to elect Anderson businessman Thomas J. Snyder as the new college president.

Daniels had preferred Carol D'Amico, the college's executive vice president, with whom he has long ties. In fact, Snyder had been told by aides to Daniels that he wasn't the governor's choice.

After D'Amico was snubbed by the selection committee in a process that outraged some trustees, aides and others close to the governor quietly but persistently campaigned behind the scenes for a do-over. They were snubbed, too.

and if that wasn't enough shame for the week, then today, the daniels administration turned the traditional friday-afternoon bad-news dump up to 11, actually waiting until saturday before announcing that the guv has decided to abandon his latest toll-road plans. that's right: plans for the "commerce connector" and illiana expressway are dead... at least for now. the legislature wasn't going to let him repeat his shenanigans from last year, when he leased off the indiana toll road before anyone could blink. this time, he was forced to hold public hearings to gauge opinion on his new proposed toll roads, and—surprise!—public opinion was overwhelmingly negative.

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