Romney’s Big Dig problem

Back in October, I wrote about Mitt Romney’s problem with the Big Dig:

Today [the Boston Globe] attack[s] his record on the Big Dig and his management skills in general.

There are two significant issues here. First, the investigation may damage his 2008 chances. After all, who wants to vote for a candidate for President who is under federal investigation?

Well, it appears that this issue is still live. Last night on Boston TV, a station ran this:

Now, let’s step back a little. Here’s the framing that damages Romney. If Romney were the CEO of a company that lied in a bond filing to the SEC, he would be in big trouble. Sarbanes-Oxley made that a federal felony. Now, that doesn’t apply to governments. But a lot of things don’t apply to governments and politicians.

Imagine this statement coming in a Democratic attack ad, "If Mitt Romney ran a company like he ran the state of Massachusetts, he would be a felon."

Now, it looks like Romney’s Secretary of Transportation might just get indicted for fraud. Add this to the Democratic ad, "One of Romney’s deputies was indicted for fraud for lying to investors and taxpayers. He claimed that he was doing safety investigations. He wasn’t and xx people died."

This is going to make all those, mostly specious, questions that Ted Kennedy and O’Brien raised around about his business practices live again. And it might give room for a populist attack on Romney for being wealthy and surrounded by wealthy people.

Is it going to help that one of Romney’s signatures issues is repealing BCRA? Does a zillionaire whose staff defrauded investors and taxpayers really want to run on repealing public corruption laws?