In Connecticut “shovel-ready” is drastically in need of clarification.

The stimulus package is intended to provide new money for projects, not replace existing funding. That creates another problem, local leaders said. Any project within 90 to 120 days of starting – the common definition of shovel-ready – would already be permitted and into the bid process.

”Most towns don’t do that until the funds are already in place,” Mark Oefinger, Groton Town Manager, said.

Or, as Richard Guggenheim, assistant director of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, said during an interview Thursday: “It’s the ultimate Catch-22 on steroids.”

Wait a minute.  That is not the spirit.  Any more remarks in that vein, and you don’t get anything.

And what about this guy?  Is he out of it, or what?

Oefinger, like others, expressed concern that the stimulus will not provide long-term benefits or jobs.

”I think it’s going to be dumping a lot of money down the rat hole and not have a lot to show for it,” he said.

Rat hole, eh?

Yes, rat hole.