WTOP on Rail to Dulles Debacle: local leaders "should have seen this coming"

I've heard people attempting to make excuses for Frank Wolf on the Tysons Tunnel debacle. This, despite the fact that he's been a powerful Congressman for years (decades? centuries?), yet was totally caught off guard by the Federal Transit Administration's objections to the project as currently constituted? Now, WTOP's "Sprawl & Crawl Reporter," Adam Tuss, weighs in:

...you have to wonder if this project was dead before it even got off the ground. The FTA makes a number of strong arguments for why it has a problem with investing nearly $900 million in a project that may end up costing a lot more. It questions Metro's ability to run the extension, given the transit agency's less than stellar reputation recently.

In addition, to believe that local leaders had no idea this project was in serious trouble until a few weeks ago is naive. They should have seen this coming.

So, why didn't Frank Wolf see this coming? Was he too busy doing...well, whatever it is he does up on Capitol Hill? Perhaps if he had listened to his constituents, maybe attended meetings like this one, he wouldn't have been so surprised? But, then again, that would require Wolf to actually care what his constituents think, as opposed to what "Big Dig" Bechtel thinks. Priorities, priorities.