'Onorato two-step' on tunnel?

Our news partners from across the state at the Inquirer paid Pittsburgh a visit for a story this weekend tackling the controversial T extension and whether the budget-busting project will hurt Dan Onorato in his governor campaign. Onorato tries to say that the project was too far along to kill by the time he became County Exec in '03, but Tom Corbett's campaign points out that he seems to take credit for everything good that's happened in the 'burgh since the '70s.

"He can't have it both ways," said Kevin Harley, spokesman for Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett, the state attorney general. "He takes credit for things that have been taking place in Allegheny County for the past 30 years. But when things go poorly while he is in office, it's everybody else's fault. It's the Dan Onorato two-step."

The locals interviewed by the Inky's Tom Infeld didn't seem to be too worked up over it, though, and we here at ER think this quote to end the piece is unmistakably Pittsburgh-ian.

Robert Singleton, 43, a construction worker from East Liberty standing on a street corner in Squirrel Hill, said Pittsburghers like big things.

"It's good for our city, a small market trying to be up there with the big time," he said. "A half-billion dollars? You've got to spend it on something."

The most worked-up Pittsburgher of all Onorato himelf, who called the KDKA Radio Morning News today to complain about the article, and particularly Roddey's role as critic in the story -- Roddey was a major player in getting the tunnel financed, Onorato said, lobbying Congress and Pa's then two Republican senators (Santorum and Specter) to secure funding.

Full story, definitely worth a read, is here.