It is a source of great pride that Blair Lee, the longtime rabid Baltimore-basher from Montgomery County, has seen fit to bestow on me -- or at least my alter ego Baltimore Guy -- the title of "knucklehead" for blowing the whistle on that county's $4.6 billion plan to raid the state's coffers to widen Interstate 270. I thus join a long line of distinguished Baltimoreans who have been vilified by Lee. I am not worthy.

One can only imagine the schoolyard taunts Lee will dredge up if he reads the Monday Getting There column  explaining how Baltimore-area toll payers (and others from eastern Maryland) could end up stuck with much of the bill for a project that contributes nothing to prosperity outside the I-270 corridor.

It's distressing, however, to see Lee and other Montgomery County observers working themselves into a lather about Baltimore's Red Line. There has been little opposition voiced in Baltimore to the Washington region's Purple Line -- perhaps because our political leaders realize the two transit projects move forward most easily in tandem rather than seperately.