Passenger Trains > Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta resigns

Nesradio 780 WBBM in Chicago is reporting that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has tendered his resignation.

If this is true, Mr. Mineta will go down as a Cabinet Member who when given an assignment to nearly eliminate intercity rail passenger screwed it all up with a series of stunts that were supposed to have been for "calming nerves". Instead they became a complete chaotic representation for an individual who was at best ill prepared and ill equiped to handle a major task.

Good ridence!

I agree, but be careful....you never know what you'll get in his place, maybe better, maybe worse.

Yahoo news story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060623/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mineta_resigns

White House press secretary Tony Snow "credited Mineta with . . . injecting 'sound economic principles' into the nation's passenger rail system."

Tony Snow must have been reading from a DOT press release. He is too intelligent to make stupid statements like the one referenced above.

DanV Wrote:
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> Tony Snow must have been reading from a DOT press
> release. He is too intelligent to make stupid
> statements like the one referenced above.

You gotta wonder if his lips were moving.

4merroad4man Wrote:
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> I agree, but be careful....you never know what
> you'll get in his place, maybe better, maybe
> worse.

Maybe Joe Vranich will apply for the job and drive the final nail into Amtrak's coffin.

Mineta was only attempting to implement the wishes of his bosses. It's not like he personally cared that deeply about the issue. And, as it turns out, the Administration doesn't consider Amtrak that important an issue, either.

So, the trains continue to run....6 hours late, if you're on the "new, improved, schedule-lengthened Coast Starlight".

What's not to like?

Interesting, but who in their RIGHT (no pun intended) mind would want to take any Cabinet level job at this point?

Remember who really wanted Mineta's job in the beginning? It was passenger rail and transit-friendly former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson. He openly lobbied for the job but was asked to be head of Health and Human Services (formerly HUD). Cabinet officials have moved between jobs before. I, for one, will let my legislators know how I feel. NARP will get a note from me as well.

As for Vranich, he can kiss my you-know-what! If he were in charge at Disneyland, he'd replace the railroad with maglev.

David Gunn for Secretary of Transportation!

Regards,
Burlington John

This is good news...But who knows could be next.

Rod (I didn't know she was nude under that coat)Diridon?

burlingtonjohn Wrote:
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> David Gunn for Secretary of Transportation!
>
> Regards,
> Burlington John


Now John,

How dare you let out the dirty secret of the Presidents plan!

What a hoot! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow? Wouldn't the politics be active if Gunn became the boss of the BoD so to speak?

Well, we can always dream, or ah, can't we?

Later,
Engineer Richard
Lets Talk Trains

Norm did good for a Berkeley Democrat and a geezer.

"Biography Box for Norman Mineta
By The Associated Press
10:13 AM PDT, June 23, 2006
NAME: Norman Yoshio Mineta.
AGE: 74; born Nov. 12, 1931.
EDUCATION: B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1953.
CAREER: Transportation secretary, 2001-present; commerce secretary, 2000-2001; senior vice president, managing director of transportation systems and services, Lockheed Martin Corp., 1995-2000; Democratic member of Congress from San Jose, Calif., 1975-95; mayor of San Jose, 1971-74; San Jose City Council, 1967-71; owner of Mineta Insurance Agency; Army intelligence officer in Korea and Japan, 1953-1956.
As a child in 1942, he was sent with his family to an internment camp in Wyoming for Japanese-Americans.
FAMILY: Wife, Danealia, four sons: David and Stuart Mineta and stepchildren Robert and Mark Brantner.
QUOTE: "I am a Democrat, with both a small 'd' and a large one. ... There are no Democratic or Republican highways, no such thing as Republican or Democratic traffic congestion, no such thing as Republican or Democratic aviation and highway safety.""

I didn't like Mineta because he did almost nothing for canal barge passenger transportation. If we just ran long enough canals, it would solve our energy problems...

TB

A comment as who "would want to serve on the Cabinet" two years into a re-elected Administration.
Just about everybody. Whose party controls the White House and has a few million Dollars spread between their various bank accounts and stock portfolio.

Typically these people take these jobs at a paycut, which I'll call an "employment fee". Then as the transfer of power is about to take place between December and January 20th 2009 job offers will pour in with heavy bucks! Why, because of all the valuable contacts deeloped in two years!

You see power is about money and money is about power. As Mr. Trump once said and has repeated often "Cash is King".

That's all folks!

> White House and has a few million Dollars spread

The Congress was unable to come up with a way to pay GW for running the country. The deal they struck was to buy half his ranch, which was pretty worthless junk. Everybody got paid off, and things worked pretty smoothly. The Congress got an OK deal, because they drained the swamps and moved the Capitol to a high spot (hill) in the middle.

Yep, GW is George Washington :-)

TB

In my mind, Norm was pretty much worthless. On airline security, he would not allow allow ethnic profiling of passengers, so 70 year grandmothers would get randomly picked for a search while arab men in their 20's might get a pass. Norm also dragged his feet on implementing the guns in cockpit policy that had been passed by Congress and signed by his President.

Oddly enough although Norm was soundly bashed on this forum for implementing the President's evil Republican plan for AMTRAK, Mr. Minetta was in fact a DEMOCRAT! I guess he had gone over to the dark side after drinking that Republican koolaid. Republican or Democrat Secretary of Transportation, AMTRAK isn't going to get substantially more funding.

drew1946 Wrote:
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> Rod (I didn't know she was nude under that
> coat)Diridon?

Isn't Diridoni sponging off the public at something bearing Mineta's name?

Of course all Rod has ever done is sponge.