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Keller @ Large: Mihos Fought The Big Dig When Others Told Him To Shut Up

BOSTON (CBS) -- How is the driving where you are today?

Roads are a bit of a mess? The local bridge looks like it's ready to collapse?

Traffic snarled by repair work that should have been done a decade ago?

Chances are your crummy roads would be even worse if not for the courage of Christy Mihos, the former political candidate and Mass Turnpike Authority board member who passed away this week.

Many of you will recall that it was Christy and fellow board member Jordan Levy who blew the whistle on the multi-billion-dollar cost overruns, political deception, and faulty construction of the Big Dig starting back in the late 1990s, when any serious criticism of the project was heresy to the local establishment.

When Mihos and Levy began publicly exposing the mismanagement, they were villified by the Big Dig's enablers, threatened by its hacks, and fired outright by Governor Swift in a final desperate effort to cover up the mess.

Both were later reinstated by the SJC. And the accurate whistleblowing of Mihos and Levy led to heightened scrutiny and justified outrage when the project's grotesque design flaws and construction failures became evident.

Who knows what further pillaging of the public dollar and dangerous incompetence might have occurred if not for their intervention?

That was Christy's finest hour.

He met trouble the rest of his life. But he leaves an inspiring legacy in one way – the model of a citizen who spoke the truth when the power structure was telling him to shut up.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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