Too little, too late

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 and 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 Kannat 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 an Olympic-standard diving platforms and spring boards, as the main reason adults were at the pavilion on Sugar Dock was to watch their children diving. The pavilion is really nothing but a waterhole for beer drinkers to congregate while watching the children dive so fixing the pavilion but not fully restoring the dock really deflected the real challenge of rehabilitating the entire Dock for our youth and economy.

The governor had federal money on two previous occasions after the typhoons to fix the Kannat 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 so 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. But in reality it’s too little coming too late and the governor is not fooling anyone who can really see through his poli-tricking and gaslighting.

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 lieutenant 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 Kannat 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 Kannat Tabla Road that is being used for his accomplishments. It surely 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 lieutenant governor who turned a blind eye and stayed silent until it was too little too late after the JGO already had all the proof.

The governor is not through yet 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 Kannat Tabla Road and a pavilion but not the dock, which is critical to our economic future as a launching point for a ferry and commerce on 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.

Our governor is really a good political strategist but his problem has always been that he mostly works for his personal intentions, not us. 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!

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman III, Saipan