I ACTUALLY warned readers to be prepared to see the Governor address a lot of small issues with the Federal Stimulus money that should have been done nearly 20 years ago. It is clear the Governor’s plan is to “divide & conquer” with his assertions about the JGO being the problem and not him followed with a volley of issues being addressed and finally completed. First the Governor gets the Kanat Tabla Road fixed which he should have done six years ago if he really cared and now he is gaslighting the restoration of a pavilion at Sugar Dock when he should be restoring the entire dock with “Olympic standard Diving Platforms & Spring Boards” as the main reason adults were at the pavilion on Sugar Dock was to watch their children diving — DUH! The pavilion is really nothing but a “water-hole for beer drinkers to congregate while watching the children dive” so fixing the pavilion but not fully restoring the Dock is really “deflected the real challenge of rehabilitating the entire Dock for our youth & economy” — it’s horrific!
The Governor had Federal money on two different previous occasions after the typhoons to fix the Kanat Tabla Road and Sugar Dock but it wasn’t election season. I sure hope readers can see like I can what he’s doing. But this guy is sooooo crafty saving these projects FOR election season like he has done in the past when it came to giving retirees their cost-of-living increase that only came during election season. These projects the Governor is finally addressing now and in the near future can collectively represent a large ROYALLY FOOLED voting bloc in his favor, as for sure he will fool some as we already see opinion letters thanking and supporting him for ONLY getting the road project done. So sad. But in reality “Its toooooo little coming toooooo late” and the Governor is not fooling anyone who can really see through and pass his poli-tricking and gaslighting. The Governor is smart but I’m a smarter Political Scientist who can see what he is doing as I don’t have a veil of HIS LOYALTY blinding me.
The Governor is pulling out all the stops that have a potential to hurt his chances for being re-elected which includes setting up the Senate to acquit him. Then we have the Lt. Governor who is also running that actually doubles the odds FOR the Governor regardless because I’m sure even if the Governor is impeached and Arnold wins you can be sure Arnold will absolve him of any crimes and even give him a job. The people who live on the Kanat Tabla Road and those who utilize the Sugar Dock Pavilion should not be FOOLED by the recent revelations. The Governor is certainly not fooling the rest of us with his poli-tricking deflection of the Sugar Dock issue to be only about the Pavilion and his gaslighting of the Kanat Tabla Road that is being used for HIS accomplishments. It surly looks like this Governor SAVED these issues FOR his personal intentions of getting re-elected but it’s really too little too late! It’s also too little too late for the Lt. Governor who turned a blind-eye and stayed silent until it was too little too late after the JGO already had all the proof. “BOTH need to GO” with their Poli-tricks, for TRUE!
The funny thing for me because he didn’t fool me is that he is not through as there is still hundreds of millions yet to be spent and WE need a lot of things done. So, I hope readers can now see WHY the Governor didn’t want the Legislature to budget the Stimulus Money that would have resulted in the Legislature and Representatives getting all the credit for fixing the Kanat Tabla Road and a Pavilion, not the Dock which is critical to our Economic future as a launching point for a Ferry & Commerce to Tinian. Our economy is in critical need of everything we can muster as fixing the dock, which is INFRASTRUCTURE, we can begin a search for a Ferry to Tinian which is far more important to the CNMI, especially Tinian, than building a pavilion for LOYALTY Voters to drink beer — so SAD! The Stimulus Money was all about a “power-grab” and now we are seeing the real reason WHY the Governor wanted that money FOR his personal intentions of being viewed as the Governor who fixed things but the only thing, he is really trying to fix are the obstacles to him being re-elected and getting voters who benefited from the new road and pavilion being turned into Torres’ supporters with a blind-eye to ALL the crimes he has committed. I pray this won’t happen. Our Governor is really a good political strategist but his problem has always been that he mostly works for HIS personal intentions, not us — for TRUE! There will be more projects like the Hospital Expansion BY the Governor FOR him to get all the credit for something the Legislature would have budgeted so don’t be FOOLED!
I’m sure most voters who really know the whole story about this Governor and his Lt. are already saying “its toooo little toooo late Governor & Lt” we’re voting Democrat all the way!
To be continued. One people One Direction.
The writer is an Economist, Political Scientist, retired teacher, former CNMI Board of Education Member, James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays & Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
Ambrose M. Bennett
