For Gingrich's 'Elites,' Talking to Transit System's Board The elites" elite gathered on Wednesday, as it does each month. That would be the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which earns this lofty appellation because people who determine what happens each day to the elites must surely be deemed even more elite. And who are those elites, plural? Subway riders, of course. The Day Clyde Haberman offers his take on the news. It's hard to let go of that description of New York straphangers, provided a few weeks ago by Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and would-be president. This presidential campaign has produced more than its fair share of eyebrow-arching remarks from the candidates, whether they were about the wife's two Cadillacs or the emetic power of a John F. Kennedy speech half a century ago. But among some New Yorkers, heads continue to shake - with vigah, as J.F.K. used to say - over Mr. Gingrich's malice-aforethought observations about "elites" in Manhattan, defined by him as people who, among other things, "ride the subway." So on Wednesday we dropped by the authority board's monthly meeting to see what the elites and their elite had on their minds. We have to say that the board looked a little less elite than it used to, what with the loss of a longtime member, Nancy Shevell, who went off to devote more time to being Stella McCartney's new stepmother. To report that this session produced earth-shattering news would be to perpetrate a fraud. It was more an exercise in stagecraft, as these meetings often are, with members of the public invited to step to the microphone to say their piece. Speakers - some of whom are regulars, rising every month as faithfully as a new moon - are each allotted a couple of minutes, which they typically use to denounce the board as a pampered bunch of wastrels who have run into the ground a transit system that would run perfectly if only the authority did not exist. Board members have heard it all many, many times, and they absorb the blows with studied equanimity. For all anyone knows, they have taken lessons in how to sit there registering no emotions, yet looking as if they are hanging on every word. None of this is to suggest that they are indifferent to criticism, or to gainsay the genuine passions that course through speakers who have reason to feel aggrieved. On Wednesday, a contingent of subway station agents who lost their jobs in recent rounds of layoffs rose one by one to appeal for the restoration of their jobs. They were people like Lennette Silva, who began her remarks by saying, "You know me as laid-off Station Agent No. Some, like Ms. Silva, spoke humbly. Some screamed, apparently lacking faith in the microphone as an instrument of voice amplification, like a man who thundered, "Bring back our station agents! Bring back our guardians of the underground! A few invoked the language of the Occupy movement, describing themselves as belonging to the 99 percent and the board members as part of the 1 percent - "helping banks destroy the transit system," as one man put it. After 40 minutes, the speakers had run their course. To say the least, no former employees got their jobs back. Then the elites" elite took up its scheduled business, which was so absorbing that it needed less than 10 minutes to run through the agenda. Actually, there was some good news that might have been discussed. A transportation bill in the House of Representatives that would have ended a formula guaranteeing billions for mass transit - including about $1 billion each year for the New York authority - has mercifully been set aside. Also, the transportation authority's new "Fastrack" project seems to be proceeding O.K. This program takes large sections of entire subway lines out of commission for several nights in a row. It undoubtedly makes life inconvenient for some of Mr. Gingrich's elites who work the graveyard shift or who are simply out and about late at night. But it allows essential maintenance to be done over the course of many hours without interruption. New York's subway is a rarity, operating as it does 24/7. But any train system needs to pause now and then if it hopes to stay in decent shape and thus keep its elites happy.