Evidence suggesting that the Dulles Rail transit project is the tail that wags the airport dog can be found in the current controversy over who will be hired as the new chief executive of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The MWAA oversees two major airports near the nation’s capital, yet the top candidate for the job has never managed an airport, not even a rural two-runway outpost. Tiny Hagerstown Regional Airport, which shuttles passengers to the much larger Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, has higher standards than this. Phil Ridenour was Hagerstown’s fire chief before he was appointed airport director earlier this month. He has practical experience developing aviation policies and administering FAA grants. Nathaniel Ford, the leading candidate for the MWAA job, does not.

Yet Ford, a former train conductor, was singled out of a nationwide field of 100 applicants to manage a $1.9 billion budget and 1,400 airport employees because he does have experience managing transit projects. Currently the executive director of San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency, Ford also served as the former general manager of Atlanta’s MARTA system. His resume was good enough for seven of 13 MWAA Board members, who informally voted to hire Ford for $375,000 a year even though he failed to inform them he owed $75,000 in back taxes.