By Bob Plain in
RIFuture.org
Give Don Carcieri, the unequivocal architect of the 38 Studios
deal, credit for at least two things.
One is that the former governor finally came forward and faced
the public. He should have done so four months ago, but we panned him when he
didn’t so we’ll recognize that he did. The other is that he did so with Tim White, the go-to guy when a politician needs to publicly apologize.
But that’s as much credit as he should get, if not more.
He hardly took ownership of the fiasco for which he is largely
responsible. He parsed himself as being one of 12 members of the EDC board who
decided to back Curt Schilling’s video game company with taxpayer dollars. In
reality, it was his idea to court Curt here with a giant loan guarantee. He
didn’t just vote for it, he dreamed up the idea.
But that wasn’t even Carcieri’s slimiest statement of the night.
That moment would be when he suggested the state default on the loan rather
than repay it. After all, he argued, it’s only a moral obligation bond.
“All I’m saying is this is not an absolute slam dunk obligation
for the state,” Carcieri told WPRI.
Bonds or otherwise, moral obligations matter when doing the
people’s business. And Carcieri’s ambivalence to this may well be one of the
reasons he failed so mightily as a public official and made such a bad gamble
with regards to 38 Studios.
Besides, the people just wanted an apology … I didn’t hear
anyone ask Don Carcieri for any advice on how to get ourselves out of the mess
he created for the state.