A silly elephant does not mean a smart donkey.... BTW: I know, Minionetta is a Democrat - and all respect for his fate during WW-II. But that does not make him better from railway point of view. Whatever color the cat has: if it catches the mouse it's a good cat.
Well frankly I for one don't believe that his track record over the last few years, from the railway point of view is really his. Mr. Minetta is a well educated man, yet some of the things that he spouted during his tenure surprised me at first. Then I realized upon further though why they surprised me, I don't think that he didn't know better. I think that it was his way of trying to subtley let people know that what he was saying wasn't what he believed, but rather what he was ordered to say.
I don't believe for one minute that Mr. Minetta was as anti-Amtrak as he appeared to be. He wasn't making the decisions about Amtrak, they were coming from higher up, and I don't mean the President.
One reason that I fully believe this, was the rather early resignation of Tommy Thompson as Health and Human Services Secretary. I think that Tommy left the administration rather quickly for two major reasons. First, he really wanted to be the Transportation Sec and he was bitterly disapointed that he didn't get that job, but he took HHS I think because he believed in the President and because he hoped that he could still have some influence on Amtrak. The second reason was the way the White House is run, and it's decidedly anti-Amtrak stance. A stance that I know did not sit well with Tommy, who for a number of years prior to his appointment to HHS, was one of Amtrak's staunchest supporters. And he was offered HHS, rather than Sec Trans, because someone (or perhaps 2 people) in the White House wanted him silenced on the Amtrak issue. When he saw how bad things were and realized that he couldn't have any impact, and I'm sure that he tried to impact things, he left.
And my vote for the anti-Amtrakers goes to VP Chenney and/or presidential advisor Carl Rove. This decidedly anti-Amtrak stance from the White House is not coming from Bush, even though it will go down in the record books against him.
All of this is of course my personal opinion based upon my observations of the events and situations in DC.