March-April 2008 must be a historically important date

By yet another such indication, Major League Baseball Inc. insists that its blot upon the Extending the Legacy South Capitol Mall concept be completed in time for the opening of the 2008 season.

From Jacqueline Dupree:

MLB Says DC in Default on Lease Agreement
(7/21 11:41 AM) New from the Post: "Major League Baseball has declared the District government in default of the lease agreement for the new stadium, charging that the city has failed to meet several deadlines for turning over critical documents.In a letter to city officials Tuesday, Tom Ostertag, a lawyer for MLB, said the city had failed to meet 11 provisions called for in the construction administration agreement between the District and MLB." What does this mean? "Some city officials interpreted the default notice as a legal maneuver meant to establish firm deadlines in case the stadium project ever ends up disputed in the courts." Quoth incoming Nats president Stan Kasten: "We're doing all we can to build this team and to excite the fans again about life at RFK. And we're having trouble getting the simplest things done. We keep getting foot-dragging. . . . It does weight us down as we try to move forward. And we keep getting silly roadblocks that stop us." On the other side: "Mark H. Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, said lawyers for the city's attorney general's office are working on finalizing more documents to give MLB and that most of the baseball's concerns would be resolved today." UPDATE, 3:03 pm: Here's the official notice from MLB. UPDATE, 12:24 pm: Here's a nifty opinion piece by the Post's Steve Perlstein basically telling both sides to get a grip: "Less Hardball, More Humility." And here's the WashTimes story on the default.

Looks like that those D.C. City Coucilpersons that voted in favor of this planning blot may get to eat crow. And to think that the D.C. City Council had voted to reject this blot, only to reconvene towards midnight to re-vote in favor of this blot.

Is it any wonder that the Councilpersons who ultimately voted to approve this blot are not too favorable of requirements that such meetings be open to the public; perhaps they would be embarrassed to be seen making such decisions with such little open discussion.

Perhaps their arms were twisted because some rather influential person somewhere in this story who has this blot as his or her dream, but who has some sort of incurable disease and hence the project deadline is in order for this person to see his or her's dream while he or she is still alive? Someone who may not live to see 2009.

Who knows?