IN THE HALLS of diplomacy, there’s an old saw about ambassadors: they’re sent abroad to lie for their country. If so, then the Big Dig report prepared by Massachusetts inspector general Robert Cerasoli may demonstrate that Governor Paul Cellucci already has ample experience to serve his friend, the president, as America’s envoy to Ottawa.

The IG’s report lays out a disturbing array of facts suggesting that Cellucci knew, or should have known, about the $14 billion Big Dig price tag as early as 1994, when officials publicly estimated that the project would cost only $8 billion. By 1999, the estimate had risen to $12.5 billion. In February 2000, officials announced the most recent overrun of $1.4 billion — only then bringing the project total to $14 billion.

The report alleges that Big Dig contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff told Cellucci’s then-boss, former governor William Weld, of the estimated $6 billion overrun in 1994 — and implies that Cellucci, as the chairman of the Big Dig Oversight Task Force, “likely knew” about it as well. More pointedly, the report suggests that Cellucci knew — or should have known — the real cost of the Big Dig on December 3, 1999, when, in an effort to obtain $200 million dollars in bond financing, he briefed a group of Wall Street investors about the project and failed to warn them of the overrun. The report includes a hand-written memorandum that was faxed from the Turnpike Authority’s outside counsel, James Aloisi, to Big Dig officials the night before Cellucci’s presentation; it warned of “hard numbers — not worse case” cost overruns. Perhaps most damaging, a “confidential” timetable labeled “Budget Exposures and Offsets” appears to be a project timeline that lists political events right along with Big Dig project highlights; the events are also plotted against different amounts of budget exposure. At minimum, the document suggests that Big Dig officials, and presumably Cellucci, were calculating ways to lessen the political impact of the cost overruns as early as the table’s start date of May 1999 — nine months before they announced the latest overrun of $1.4 billion.

The governor’s defenders emphasize that the person making these allegations, Cerasoli, is a former Quincy state representative in the middle of a feud with Cellucci. And this point has merit. But it doesn’t change the fact that Cerasoli — a government hack with a minimal workload, as the governor’s defenders characterize him — has uncovered facts that warrant further investigation. Remember, even the bumbling Inspector Clouseau was always right in the end.

SO WILL this report derail Cellucci’s ambassadorial aspirations? Although some in the press have begun to re-examine the governor’s role in the Big Dig scandal (the Boston Herald’s Howie Carr called Cellucci’s “a flight risk if ever there was one” and the Boston Globe’s Eileen McNamara recently wrote that he needs “to answer some questions”), nobody expects it to interfere with the Senate confirmation process — if only because President George W. Bush, who officially nominated Cellucci for the post this past Monday, has put the nomination on the fast track. Bush wants Cellucci in place in time to attend the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City on April 20, 21, and 22. As it happens, three weeks is not enough time for the Senate to explore the allegations raised by Cerasoli’s report.

Cellucci’s haste in preparing to leave for Canada recalls the speed with which baby boomers departed for the Northland to evade service in the Vietnam War. Although Cellucci doesn’t have to worry about the draft board, federal authorities can still interfere with his plans — but they won’t have enough time to do so before Bush’s artificial deadline. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta has announced a federal inquiry to mirror the work of the state inspector general. In the meantime, the Securities and Exchange Commission is continuing its probe of Cellucci’s statements to bond purchasers in December 1999.

Even with these federal investigations hanging over his head, everything seems to be falling into place for Cellucci. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are unwilling to go to war with the popular president over him. Democrats on Capitol Hill who might be inclined to upset Bush’s apple cart are taking their lead from Massachusetts Democrats like Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, who want Cellucci out of the governor’s office. Members of the Bay State congressional delegation also know that the more Congress focuses on Big Dig woes, the worse it is for the federal gravy train.

Congressman Jim McGovern of Worcester sums up the predicament of Massachusetts Democrats. “I want to clear the air on this project,” he says. “I want everybody to believe that this is now under control. What I worry about is yet another bombshell on the Big Dig that could potentially have an impact on other Massachusetts transportation funding.”

The senator most likely to raise a ruckus over Cellucci is John McCain. As the chairman of the committee overseeing transportation, McCain has been one of the loudest critics of Big Dig outrages. He’s also no fan of Bush, and could conceivably use Cellucci to torment the president. But that won’t happen now, since McCain is currently consumed with Senate debate of his campaign-finance-reform bill.

In short, no one believes that the latest allegations against the governor will torpedo his chances of making it to Canada. Sure, most political observers aren’t convinced that Cellucci’s hands are completely clean of Big Dig dirt. But everyone’s sick of hearing about it: Big Dig fatigue has settled in. The fact that everyone wants to allow Cellucci to “move on” also suggests that the bar for scandal in post-Clinton America has been raised. Substitute the words “independent counsel” for “inspector general” and you’ll get a sense of why Cellucci’s plans have proceeded so smoothly. Few have the stamina to fight this battle right now. But these serious allegations, coupled with the high profile of Cellucci’s prospective post, cry out for someone — anyone — to pay attention.

THE TIMETABLE, the report’s most interesting piece of hard evidence, lists the 2000 presidential election and 2002 gubernatorial election alongside the opening of interstate highways 90 and 93. The most plausible reason for such a document’s existence is that bureaucrats used it to time public disclosures so as to not piss off the boss. It seems unlikely that they wouldn’t show such a document to the political leaders. Bureaucrats, after all, don’t have to face election — or help their friends get elected president. The obvious implication: those close to Cellucci — or the governor himself — used the document to determine when to reveal damning information about the Big Dig. One person familiar with the report called the timetable “a bold admission that the line between governing and campaigning were blurred.”

“I’m not in a position to be able to tell you who saw that document and who was involved,” says McGovern, who lobbied for the Department of Transportation inquiry and serves on the House Transportation Committee. “It’s troubling, but a lot about this project has been troubling.”

To be fair, a big part of the reason Cerasoli’s report hasn’t caused more of a stir is that even though it raises important questions, it doesn’t provide a smoking gun. For example, to say Cellucci “likely knew” that Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff told Weld the project would probably go $6 billion over budget isn’t the same as saying he “knew for sure.”

Still, the report also cites internal Big Dig documents from 1999 that analyze the consequences of disclosing the final $1.4 billion cost overrun — which wasn’t made public until February 2000. Among other factors, bureaucrats considered the shellacking they’d get from the press. “We will be exposed to brutal scrutiny — Eye Team, Spotlight Team, etc.,” one memo states. “We could become the central controversy of the next year in Massachusetts with our management under fire.” In that context, “likely knew” looks much more likely.