CLT UPDATE
Friday, September 18, 2009
House Democrats again present citizens
The Beacon Hill Middle Finger Salute
The Massachusetts House voted Thursday
to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim U.S. senator to serve
until a special election winner is declared in January.
Supporters of the plan, mindful of strong opposition to it from
Republicans and many constituents, say they expect it to reach Patrick's
desk sometime next week, with Senate Republicans likely to slow the
bill's progress Friday and early next week....
The notion of appearing to alter their 2004 votes to take power from
Romney made many Democrats queasy, a contortion about which Republicans
taunted them during debate.
"You made the change. Stand up, take your medicine … What goes around,
comes around," said House Minority Whip George Peterson (R-Grafton).
State House News Service
Thursday, September 17, 2009
House passes interim bill to senate,
where vote is expected next week
The passage of the bill, by a 95-to-58 vote,
was a crucial step toward filling the seat left vacant by Kennedy’s death last
month and could carry major implications as Congress debates an overhaul of the
nation’s health care system....
The legislation now goes to the Senate, where top lawmakers believe they have
enough votes for it to pass, presuming some supporters do not get cold feet.
Republicans, however, vow to use parliamentary maneuvers to stall final passage
for as long as possible....
State Representative Paul Frost, a Republican from Auburn, accused legislative
leaders of making the change to “suit the whims of one political party.’’
“It is clear to me and, I think, to most people in Massachusetts that if [2006
Republican gubernatorial candidate] Kerry Healey had won that election and was
governor today, we would not be here,’’ Frost said.
Republicans are vowing to use the vote as a campaign issue as Democrats are
already feeling vulnerable over several Beacon Hill ethical scandals and a
controversial increase in the state’s sales tax.
Several mayors have lost recent preliminary elections, perhaps a signal that the
political atmosphere is sour for incumbents.
Several state lawmakers grew more nervous when former House speaker Thomas
Finneran predicted that Democrats would experience some fallout.
“Democrats are going to pay a price for this politically,’’ Finneran, who was at
the helm when the law was initially changed in 2004, said on his WRKO-AM morning
talk show.
The original legislation would have required the governor’s appointee, who would
serve until a Jan. 19 special election, to be of the same political party as the
person who previously held the office.
But late yesterday afternoon, House lawmakers struck that provision by an
89-to-68 vote, with concerns that such a requirement may be unconstitutional.
Democrats broke with House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and joined Republicans to
support the measure.
The Boston Globe
Friday, September 18, 2009
House backs an interim senator
If Senate support holds,
governor could make appointment next week
House Republicans launched a long-winded
debate on several amendments yesterday in a vain attempt to stall the bill, but
Democrats took the unusual parliamentary tactic of adjourning the session and
calling it back in order to push the measure further along.
“This is what the people of the commonwealth are disappointed in, and this is
what’s wrong with the system,” said Rep. Vincent DeMacedo (R-Plymouth) shortly
after the House adjourned.
Republicans have blasted the new succession measure - which was requested by the
late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy - as partisan, highhanded and hypocritical. Just
five years ago, the Democratic Legislature took appointment power away from
then-Gov. Mitt Romney. Kennedy requested that change in the event Sen. John
Kerry was elected president.
The Boston Herald
Friday, September 18, 2009
Successor bill advances in House
Dems, GOP battle over controversial measure
Senate Democrats on Friday agreed to a request
by Republicans to delay consideration of legislation rushed through the House on
Thursday allowing Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim U.S. senator....
The Senate meets next on Monday and senators said Thursday they expect the bill
to reach a vote by early to midweek.
Prior to the start of Friday's Senate session, Sen. Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester
Republican, said the vote was "close," adding, "If the vote were held today,
it'd be a slight majority in favor."
State House News Service
Friday, September 18, 2009
State Capitol Briefs
Senate delays action on interim senator bill
The House of Representatives did not conduct
three legislative days in the course of one actual day to address the
unemployment rate, which bounded over the 9 percent mark last month in data
released Thursday a few hours before debate began.
The People’s Chamber did utilize the unusual parliamentary tactic – compressing
three days into a few hours as a way of speeding along legislation – to deal
with the piece of legislation that has dominated the last three weeks. By
gaveling out and then back in, over Republican objections, the House
circumvented its own rules and cooked the instant sausage....
Meanwhile, with national eyes here, several House members mused aloud whether
the three legislative days they had just worked qualified them for three per
diem payments under the Legislature’s allowance system. Tip from the Roundup’s
Incumbency Preservation department: Bad call.
State House News Service
Friday, September 18, 2009
Weekly Roundup: And on the Third Day...
After all these years, he’s still a punch line
- Mike Dukakis.
And here’s the new, improved laff-riot line - Sen. Mike Dukakis.
I tested out the fresh gag Wednesday afternoon in D.C., where I was broadcasting
my radio show. Pat Buchanan was sitting across the table from me, waiting to go
on the air. We started talking about the state’s Senate-succession law which was
changed at Ted Kennedy’s behest in 2004 and which before his death he demanded
be changed back again, now that there’s a Democrat governor.
“You know who they’re going to pick?” I said to Pat. “Mike Dukakis.”
He started laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall off the chair.
“Willie Horton!” he yelled.
“The tank!” I responded.
“Card-carrying member of the ACLU,” Pat bellowed....
What a year for the U.S. Senate. First Al Franken, now Mike Dukakis. Can someone
cue Peggy Lee - “Send in the Clowns”? Don’t bother, they’re here.
The Boston Herald
Friday, September 18, 2009
Mike Dukakis redux: Oh, the horror
By Howie Carr
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
What a surprise: The
Massachusetts House of Alleged Representatives yesterday voted to change
the law once again to benefit the Democrat Party and themselves; our own
House of Reprehensibles. I'm shocked, simply shocked.
The House Democrats rammed
it through with a parliamentary maneuver; calling three new "legislative
days" during one day's legislative debate to get the dirty deed done in
a single day.
Then, according to a State
House News Service account, talk turned to whether the pols can collect
their per diem pay for three legislative days, tripling their take for a
day's presence of naked and blatant hypocrisy and treachery.
Only in Massachusetts, The
People's Republic.
Have enough of us reached
critical mass yet? Has the time finally come when at last we
demand clean government and honest representation?
Remember in November, come
The Second American Revolution.
State House News Service
Thursday, September 17, 2009
House passes interim bill to senate,
where vote is expected next week
By Michael Norton and Jim O'Sullivan
The Massachusetts House voted Thursday to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to
name an interim U.S. senator to serve until a special election winner is
declared in January.
Supporters of the plan, mindful of strong opposition to it from
Republicans and many constituents, say they expect it to reach Patrick's
desk sometime next week, with Senate Republicans likely to slow the
bill's progress Friday and early next week.
Many House Democrats abandoned Speaker Robert DeLeo's push for the bill,
but it advanced over the first hurdle on a 97-58 vote, after the House
voted 89-68 to strip from the bill a provision requiring the appointee
to be a member of the same party as the previous officeholder - in this
case the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. The House passed the bill shortly
after 9 p.m. on a 95-58 vote, 42 Democrats breaking with leadership.
The bill could have broad national implications because Patrick would
likely appoint an interim senator who would give Democrats a
filibuster-proof majority, permitting freer passage of President Barack
Obama's agenda.
Earlier this week, Democratic leaders said they were uncertain whether
they could bundle together the votes to pass the bill.
DeLeo said he did not know whether the added U.S. Senate vote would play
a role in passage of national health care or climate change or energy
legislation, but said he wanted to make sure Massachusetts "gets their
fair share of any funds that are due them" and has its voice heard on
the major issues in Washington.
"That was the issue that really turned me into a proponent," DeLeo said,
without explaining why the argument of continuous representation didn't
win him over when House Democrats voted down the same proposal in 2004.
He added: "At the end of the day what concerns me greatly is that
Massachusetts has that vote."
Rep. Jeffrey Perry (R-Sandwich) said a potential critical vote on
national health care legislation had prompted the bill's advance. "It's
because of politics," Perry said. "It's because of phone calls. It's
because of Washington wanting something from Massachusetts."
The House deployed unusual parliamentary tactics to hasten the bill's
passage, rapidly adjourning and then reconvening at two separate points,
squeezing three "legislative days" into a 10-and-a-half-hour sprint.
House Election Laws Committee chair Rep. Michael Moran attributed the
rare procedures to the attention required by "issues of this magnitude."
House Minority Leader Brad Jones backed an interim appointee amendment
in 2004, but Democrats defeated it at the time, when Republican Gov.
Mitt Romney stood to make an appointment if Sen. John Kerry had been
successful in his presidential campaign.
Asked how he reconciled support for an interim appointee in 2004 with
opposition to the bill before the House, Jones said, "The issue of
representation is an important one, but I think the issue of we're a
nation laws not men and we shouldn't change the rule midstream is an
equally and I would say more important principle of our democracy and I
think that should rule our day."
The notion of appearing to alter their 2004 votes to take power from
Romney made many Democrats queasy, a contortion about which Republicans
taunted them during debate.
"You made the change. Stand up, take your medicine … What goes around,
comes around," said House Minority Whip George Peterson (R-Grafton).
The bill that cleared the House gained momentum when Kennedy, in a
letter made public a week before his Aug. 25 death, urged Beacon Hill
leaders to change state law and allow an interim appointee. Legislative
leaders quickly scheduled a public hearing on the bill and voted it out
of committee late Wednesday night, sending it to the floor.
Bill supporters on Thursday said the legislation's passage was crucial
to serving Massachusetts constituents, giving the state an extra voice
and vote in the Senate, and making sure Massachusetts has a full say on
health care, appropriations and energy and climate change legislation.
Opponents said the bill represented a power play, orchestrated by
Democrats, to allow Patrick to bolster the Democratic ranks in the U.S.
Senate. They said the bill was inconsistent with efforts by Democrats in
2004 to block an interim appointee and strip appointment power from
Romney.
Rep. Robert Koczera (D-New Bedford), the sponsor of the original
appointee bill, said Thursday, "At the end of the process we'll have
power for the governor to make an interim appointment and in a matter of
a week or so we should have a second senator from Massachusetts."
After passing the bill, the House adopted a non-binding resolution
telling Patrick the Legislature did not want the appointee to be a
candidate in the Dec. 8 primaries and Jan. 19 special election to fill
the seat permanently. Constitutional questions raised by election laws
experts prompted the committee not to include that language in the bill
with the goal of averting a situation where the appointee may not be
seated due to a challenge to the law, Koczera and Moran said.
Moran (D-Brighton) called fears that an appointee would wield the
advantages of incumbency in a subsequent election "the single biggest
issue we had to deal with."
"Nobody wants to see the interim U.S. senator have a leg up on the
competition when running for the seat in a special election," Moran said
on the floor.
The vote to move the bill along came after 73 Democrats, joining 16
Republicans, dealt a defeat to DeLeo, adopting a proposal to strip from
the bill a requirement that the governor appoint an interim U.S. senator
from the same party as the previous person who held the seat.
Proponents of the amendment said requiring the governor to pick a
successor based on party affiliation would set up a constitutional
challenge to the law and would create a quandary if an unenrolled
senator ever won office. Opponents said choosing a senator of the same
party as the previous holder of the seat would ensure the will of the
voters was upheld.
The House debate grew emotional in the early evening when Rep. Matthew
Patrick, a Falmouth Democrat, took the podium and told colleagues they
should not trust Republican arguments against the bill. Patrick said
Republicans had accused President Barack Obama of lying.
That prompted Peterson to stand at his desk and seek recognition from
the chair. Once recognized, he demanded an example of any Massachusetts
House Republicans leveling allegations of lying against Obama. A heated
exchange on the rostrum between Jones and Patrick ensued. When Patrick
returned to the podium, he apologized.
Senators say the bill has enough support to clear the Upper Chamber,
despite resistance on the Democratic side, particularly noticeable among
the party's more centrist members.
Sen. James Timilty (D-Walpole) is against the change, preferring the
electorate to select every one of their congressional representatives.
Sen. Steven Panagiotakos (D-Lowell), who has struggled with whether to
support the bill, said he was nearing a decision.
"I'm getting there," Panagiotakos told reporters after the Senate
recessed.
Senate Republicans indicated late Thursday that they plan to slow
consideration of the bill.
"I think we'll try to make sure we go at a deliberate pace and not a
hurried pace and that there's ample opportunity for us to hear from
constituents and continue to have the kind of continued thoughtful
reflections that this deserves and not the hurried reflections that
others would have us put into it," Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) said
Thursday night, after objecting to a Senate attempt to consider the bill
immediately.
Senate rules require a proposal to be on the "notice" section of the
Senate calendar for one full session before members consider it. With
unanimous consent, the Senate can move a bill from the notice section
onto the calendar, but Tarr suggested Republicans would oppose such a
move.
"I would suggest that I don't anticipate any significant debate tomorrow
based on where we're at tonight," he said.
The Boston Globe
Friday, September 18, 2009
House backs an interim senator
If Senate support holds,
governor could make appointment next week
By Matt Viser
House lawmakers approved legislation last night that gives Governor
Deval Patrick the power to appoint a temporary successor to the late
Edward M. Kennedy in the US Senate, putting Massachusetts on track to
have a new senator in place by next week.
The passage of the bill, by a 95-to-58 vote, was a crucial step toward
filling the seat left vacant by Kennedy’s death last month and could
carry major implications as Congress debates an overhaul of the nation’s
health care system.
“This bill will give us full representation today, and the people of
Massachusetts will have their second voice in the US Senate,’’ said
state Representative Michael Moran, a Democrat from Boston and
cochairman of the Joint Committee on Election Laws. “My overriding
concern is making sure the people of Massachusetts are fully represented
in the US Congress.’’
The legislation now goes to the Senate, where top lawmakers believe they
have enough votes for it to pass, presuming some supporters do not get
cold feet. Republicans, however, vow to use parliamentary maneuvers to
stall final passage for as long as possible.
Senate President Therese Murray has scheduled formal sessions over the
next several days, a move that, under legislative protocol, means that
Republicans would probably exhaust their options for stalling by the
middle of next week. The Senate could then pass the bill and send it to
Patrick’s desk by Wednesday. He has vowed to sign it.
As attention turns to whom Patrick would appoint to the seat,
administration officials have been silent about potential candidates,
fearing it could influence the legislative debate, but are prepared to
name an interim senator shortly after legislation is approved.
Possible candidates are believed to include former governor Michael
Dukakis and former Democratic National Committee chairman Paul G. Kirk
Jr., who is chairman of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
Passage of the bill has been a major issue on Beacon Hill since
Kennedy’s death last month and has drawn sharp attention from Washington
Democrats, who have been aggressively pushing for Massachusetts to
temporarily fill the seat to give them more leeway in approving a
national health care plan.
Shortly before his death, Kennedy himself advocated the change in law.
Republicans, who account for a historically small minority in the
Legislature, have charged Democrats with hypocrisy, saying that the
Democrats rejected making precisely the same change to the law in 2004,
because they did not want Governor Mitt Romney to have a chance to
appoint a Republican to the Senate in the event that Senator John F.
Kerry won the presidency.
“There is only so much lipstick you can put on a pig,’’ said state
Representative Elizabeth Poirier, a North Attleborough Republican. “It’s
still a pig.’’
According to a Globe review of last night’s tally, 44 of the Democrats
who voted against the amendment in 2004 changed their votes this time
and voted for it.
State Representative Paul Frost, a Republican from Auburn, accused
legislative leaders of making the change to “suit the whims of one
political party.’’
“It is clear to me and, I think, to most people in Massachusetts that if
[2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] Kerry Healey had won that
election and was governor today, we would not be here,’’ Frost said.
Republicans are vowing to use the vote as a campaign issue as Democrats
are already feeling vulnerable over several Beacon Hill ethical scandals
and a controversial increase in the state’s sales tax.
Several mayors have lost recent preliminary elections, perhaps a signal
that the political atmosphere is sour for incumbents.
Several state lawmakers grew more nervous when former House speaker
Thomas Finneran predicted that Democrats would experience some fallout.
“Democrats are going to pay a price for this politically,’’ Finneran,
who was at the helm when the law was initially changed in 2004, said on
his WRKO-AM morning talk show.
The original legislation would have required the governor’s appointee,
who would serve until a Jan. 19 special election, to be of the same
political party as the person who previously held the office.
But late yesterday afternoon, House lawmakers struck that provision by
an 89-to-68 vote, with concerns that such a requirement may be
unconstitutional.
Democrats broke with House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and joined
Republicans to support the measure.
During yesterday’s debate, which lasted nearly eight hours, Democratic
state lawmakers argued that the state needed to fill the seat
immediately so that their counterparts in Washington would have the
votes to push through a health care bill that Kennedy would be proud of.
“Some people say this is political,’’ said state Representative Cory
Atkins, a Concord Democrat. “Of course it is political. This is the
largest domestic vote so far in this century. This vote will be as
important as the Social Security vote. This will be as important as the
civil rights vote.’’
Republicans attempted to slow debate down, with many rising to speak for
their full allotted time.
“We’re powerless to stop it, unless someone wants to steal the
legislation or something like that, which has happened in this building
before,’’ said House minority leader Brad Jones.
The debate began early yesterday afternoon, after the Democrats emerged
from a closed-door caucus.
DeLeo, emerging from the caucus, made his first public comments in
support of the change in law.
“At the end of the day, what concerns me greatly is that Massachusetts
has that vote,’’ DeLeo said. “I don’t want to see Massachusetts not
getting the representation they deserve.’’
He said the House and Senate both planned to approve resolutions saying
they did not want the appointee to run for the office in the special
election, or for the appointee to get involved in anyone’s campaign. The
House approved such a resolution late last night.
Andrea Estes and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to
this report.
The Boston Herald
Friday, September 18, 2009
Successor bill advances in House
Dems, GOP battle over controversial measure
By Hillary Chabot
A controversial bill allowing Gov. Deval Patrick to name a temporary
U.S. senator cleared its first major hurdle in the House last night
after bitter debate and legislative hijinks - but the measure is not
expected to become law until next week.
“I want a second voice in the U.S. Senate as quickly as possible, and we
seem to be getting there,” said Rep. Michael Moran (D-Boston), who
helped craft the legislation as co-chairman of the election laws
committee.
The House gave initial approval to the bill by a lopsided 97-58 vote,
but under threat of a Republican lawsuit, Democratic lawmakers stripped
the legislation of a key measure that would require the governor to
appoint someone from the same party as the senator who vacated the seat.
House Republicans launched a long-winded debate on several amendments
yesterday in a vain attempt to stall the bill, but Democrats took the
unusual parliamentary tactic of adjourning the session and calling it
back in order to push the measure further along.
“This is what the people of the commonwealth are disappointed in, and
this is what’s wrong with the system,” said Rep. Vincent DeMacedo
(R-Plymouth) shortly after the House adjourned.
Republicans have blasted the new succession measure - which was
requested by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy - as partisan, highhanded
and hypocritical. Just five years ago, the Democratic Legislature took
appointment power away from then-Gov. Mitt Romney. Kennedy requested
that change in the event Sen. John Kerry was elected president.
Under pressure from the Obama White House, Speaker Robert DeLeo
(D-Winthrop) and Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) have spent
wads of political capital to ensure lawmakers approve the bill.
The drama soon will move to the Senate, where Republicans have several
legislative tricks intended to stall the bill’s passage until at least
next week.
“We’re going to hold it up as long as we can,” said Senate Minority
Leader Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield).
Tisei said legislators can object to a vote on the bill if it isn’t
included on the formal calendar, and can table the measure three times.
While the stalling tactics might help Republicans extend their protest,
they can’t kill the bill if Democrats are behind it, said Beacon Hill
watchdog Pam Wilmot.
“Republicans have many options for delaying,” said Wilmot, “and the
Democrats have a lot of ways to stop them.”
State House News Service
Friday, September 18, 2009
State Capitol Briefs
Senate delays action on interim senator bill
Senate Democrats on Friday agreed to a request by Republicans to delay
consideration of legislation rushed through the House on Thursday
allowing Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim U.S. senator.
Democrats are pushing for an appointee to hold down the state's open
seat until a permanent successor to Sen. Edward Kennedy is elected Jan.
19, 2010. The House on Thursday, over the objections of Republicans,
agreed to suspend several of its procedural rules to fast-track the
bill, but Senate Democrats didn't take the same approach Friday,
acceding to a request by Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) to give senators
more time to review four Senate amendments filed prior to a 10 a.m.
Friday deadline.
The Senate meets next on Monday and senators said Thursday they expect
the bill to reach a vote by early to midweek.
Prior to the start of Friday's Senate session, Sen. Bruce Tarr, a
Gloucester Republican, said the vote was "close," adding, "If the vote
were held today, it'd be a slight majority in favor."
The Senate, unlike the House, has a rule allowing any senator to request
that a bill be "laid on the table." The request is not debatable and
under Senate rules once such a motion is made, the matter is
automatically laid over until the next Senate session. The Senate has on
occasion in the past adjourned and immediately reconvened in what
lawmakers call a new legislative day as a way of moving bills along over
objections from Republicans.
Senate President Therese Murray, who is backing Attorney General Martha
Coakley in what's shaping up as a four-way Democratic Senate primary, on
Friday opted not to take that approach.
State House News Service
Friday, September 18, 2009
Weekly Roundup: And on the Third Day...
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Jim O’Sullivan
The House of Representatives did not conduct three legislative days in
the course of one actual day to address the unemployment rate, which
bounded over the 9 percent mark last month in data released Thursday a
few hours before debate began.
The People’s Chamber did utilize the unusual parliamentary tactic –
compressing three days into a few hours as a way of speeding along
legislation – to deal with the piece of legislation that has dominated
the last three weeks. By gaveling out and then back in, over Republican
objections, the House circumvented its own rules and cooked the instant
sausage.
That the product in question, authorization for Gov. Deval Patrick to
appoint a successor to Sen. Edward Kennedy for the four months until the
state elects a new senator, will by definition add to the Bay State’s
Beltway clout was a point made painstakingly by Democrats. It’s all
about health care, constituent services, the idea that the flyovers
shouldn’t have greater senatorial presence than the Commonwealth, God
save it.
When you could hear them over the atrocious new audio system the House
installed, GOP members were equally fervent in their assertions that
Democrats were befouling the Republic by changing the law they had
altered just five years ago to suit their partisan whims. “You made the
change,” Minority Whip George Peterson told Democrats during the nearly
10 hours of debate. “Stand up, take your medicine.”
Terrific argument (even when the Republicans had to flip-flop to make
it), tough math when you’re trailing by 128 members.
Meanwhile, with national eyes here, several House members mused aloud
whether the three legislative days they had just worked qualified them
for three per diem payments under the Legislature’s allowance system.
Tip from the Roundup’s Incumbency Preservation department: Bad call.
It’s tighter in the Senate than the almost 40-vote spread in the House,
but the Kennedy bill gets done, in all likelihood next week, and Mr./Ms.
X goes to Washington.
Historians will be puzzled by the doubt that circulated around this
proposal, what with it being Ted Kennedy’s dying wish, President Barack
Obama’s stated desire, the governor’s explicit hope, and the hundreds of
millions of dollars in stimulus funding still waiting to be pumped into
the districts of state reps who harbored misgivings about the change, or
said they did.
In the House, two moments of real drama occurred Thursday. The first was
a Democratic revolt against DeLeo over the bill’s assurance that the
appointee hail from the same party as the seat’s previous occupant – in
this case, a Democrat. Close allies of the speaker broke ranks,
including Speaker Pro Tempore Thomas Petrolati, floor division leader
Garrett Bradley, Telecom chair Barry Finegold, Ways and Means vice-chair
Barbara L’Italien, and State Administration chair Steven Walsh. All of
these people hustled votes to elect DeLeo, and all were now voting
against him, extracting the party affiliation clause from the bill.
Whether there’s any retribution from DeLeo for these transgressions – a
floor leader and speaker pro tem voting off on a non-district issue? –
will inform watchers of DeLeo’s speakership as to how thoroughly he has
followed through on his promise to be a different kind of speaker.
Former Speaker DiMasi might have pancaked these individuals, an
effective leadership style that helped cement votes. If DeLeo lays off,
it will bear watching over the next few months whether it is better to
be Bob than Sal.
The second was a sort of spatial and partisan inversion of last week’s
“You lie!” shout from South Carolina GOP Congressman Joe Wilson at Obama
during the president’s congressional address on health care. Rep. Matt
Patrick, the Barnstable Democrat, took the podium and alleged GOP lies
and GOP accusations of lies. This provoked visceral outrage among the 16
House members in the chamber, part of a state Republican Party that
considers itself a band apart from the national movement.
Peterson jumped to his feet and dared Patrick to provide an instance
when any one of the 16 had called Obama a liar. Then followed a fierce
exchange on the rostrum, Patrick and Minority Leader Bradley Jones in
each other’s faces and DeLeo deputies nervously trying to prevent
combustion. Back at the podium, Patrick was lightly scolded by the chair
and apologized, but that one’s going to linger.
With much of the capitol’s attention on who gets the seat for half the
winter, outside the building even real people are paying attention to
who gets it for the longer haul. U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch retreated on
Tuesday, won’t make a go of it. Attorney General Martha Coakley has been
running in front. Boston Celtics co-owner and Bain Capital managing
director Stephen Pagliuca and his millions signed up Thursday, bringing
on top-flight consultants, two of whom will spend their off-hours
working against each other in the gubernatorial campaign. Alan Khazei,
co-founder of City Year, said this week he was in for sure. U.S. Rep.
Michael Capuano declared Friday, bluntly, calling his competitors
inexperienced and walking up to the line of likening Coakley’s political
experience to undistinguished service on the student council.
For the Republicans, it’s Canton selectman Bob Burr and state Sen. Scott
Brown, who will look on with glee each time the Dems jump ugly with each
other.
Why anyone would want to go to Washington, where they vote on things
like war and peace, and leave Massachusetts remains a mystery. It’s
going to stay fun and probably get better around here, and not just with
the seven-plus hour hearing on Patrick’s education proposals Thursday,
concurrent with the interim debate, and the hearings on drug crime and
stalking bills, which went almost entirely below the radar. DeLeo on
Friday unfurled the remainder of his fall agenda, thus far largely
confined to the succession bill, and it’s casinos. DeLeo, a longtime
slots-at-the-tracks guy, became the newest and most prominent backer of
full-blown resort casinos, meaning the House will likely vote on track
slots and gambling palaces.
Friday fallout for the 100 remaining reps who voted against casinos last
year, many of whom voted against executive privilege for the Senate
appointment five years ago and then changed their votes Thursday: You’re
going to be asked to change your vote again, maybe as soon as this fall.
The optics around Thursday’s 97-58 House initial approval vote if not
the essence of the plan were unpleasant enough that the discomfort with
public perception, a fact of life these days on Beacon Hill, only
worsened. “The people of Massachusetts, I think, will revolt over this
thing if it takes place,” state Sen. Jack Hart, an ally of Senate
President Therese Murray, said Wednesday.
“Democrats are going to pay a price for this politically,” said former
speaker and current talk-show host Thomas Finneran, who knows a little
about that.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The U.S. Senate looks like it’ll get a second member
from Massachusetts.
The Boston Herald
Friday, Sepember 18, 2009
Mike Dukakis redux: Oh, the horror
By Howie Carr
After all these years, he’s still a punch line - Mike Dukakis.
And here’s the new, improved laff-riot line - Sen. Mike Dukakis.
I tested out the fresh gag Wednesday afternoon in D.C., where I was
broadcasting my radio show. Pat Buchanan was sitting across the table
from me, waiting to go on the air. We started talking about the state’s
Senate-succession law which was changed at Ted Kennedy’s behest in 2004
and which before his death he demanded be changed back again, now that
there’s a Democrat governor.
“You know who they’re going to pick?” I said to Pat. “Mike Dukakis.”
He started laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall off the
chair. “Willie Horton!” he yelled.
“The tank!” I responded.
“Card-carrying member of the ACLU,” Pat bellowed.
What’s the old saying, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as
farce. Welcome to the farce. You can’t make this stuff up. Not even a
Globe columnist could.
It’s Back to the Future time. “Into the Wayback Machine, Peabody.” For
those of you who aren’t familiar with the man, the legend, the
Massachusetts miracle, how lucky you are. Think Jane Swift, with
eyebrows.
So many disasters, so little space. How about the two sheriffs he
appointed who ended up in federal prison for corruption? How about his
crooked education adviser, Gerry Indelicato, to whom he handed the
presidency of Bridgewater State?
Remember “good jobs at good wages”? Massachusetts - a “national model?”
And “nationwide searches.” His lead-pipe guarantee not to raise taxes?
Mike Dukakis invented Jim Aloisi. When Billy Bulger said “Jump,” Pee Wee
Dukakis asked, “How high?” Or, as the judge described the way Whitey’s
brother pushed Gov. Dukakis around as he was running for president in
1988: “How can he stand up to the Russians when he can’t stand up to a
corrupt midget?”
Willie Horton wasn’t the only one who got a weekend furlough from Mike
Dukakis. Stevie Flemmi’s brother, Jimmy the Bear, extended his 48 hours
to three years. Then there was North End killer Vinnie Federico. In
1989, he said he needed to get out of MCI-Shirley to attend to “family
business.”
He went to Medford and got himself inducted into the Mafia - the
Patriarca crime family.
The Duke will fit in perfectly in Obama’s Washington. This is the guy
whose welfare department gave phony Social Security numbers to illegal
aliens so they could go on the dole. Dukakis’ Medicaid program paid for
a sex-change operation for a guy from New Hampshire, then gave him an
all-expenses-paid vacation to Montreal for post-op therapy.
I’m not making this up. The DOC paid for hair transplants for a
gangster.
What a year for the U.S. Senate. First Al Franken, now Mike Dukakis. Can
someone cue Peggy Lee - “Send in the Clowns”? Don’t bother, they’re
here.
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