The Boston Herald
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
A Boston Herald editorial
The speaker serves if the reps want him
It seems the alleged palace coup against House Speaker Tom Finneran is over before it ever started. Now there's a shocker.
No, it's not that the speaker is so all-powerful that his membership trembles in his wake. The dirty little secret is that Tom Finneran does what his members basically want him to do. He takes the heat so that they won't have to.
Are there disgruntled members? Sure. Why should this year and this speaker be any different from their predecessors? Members and voters have every right to be angry about a budget process that dragged on dangerously long and failed, until the governor stepped in, to deal with essential services adequately. They are right to be concerned about a session that was grossly underproductive, failing to deal with such critical public safety issues as sentencing guidelines. And they are right to be angry and embarrassed about the failure of the House to deal with Clean Elections.
But then an open and honest process on the latter issue in particular would have actually put legislators on record - and the sad fact is that many legislators enjoy having it both ways. A lot of incumbents don't like the law, but would be hard-pressed to vote to repeal it (which would be the honest thing to do) because that might anger their constituents (who likely voted for it).
As former Rep. Robert Jakubowicz wrote in Saturday's Herald, "All it would take to stop Finneran & Co. is for a group of 81 representatives to stand up ... and vote the speaker out of office."
As Rep. Dan Bosley (D-North Adams) well knows, the votes aren't there, although they may well be there for improvements in procedure, such as open meetings of conference committees with the Senate on the budget.
But as Finneran himself noted: "Prosperity's easy to handle. Scarcity is not."
That takes a grownup to deal with. And if he's an autocratic grownup, well, legislators can cope with that, too.
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Finneran has enjoyed support
from opponents in House votes
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley
Many self-styled House rebels have marched in lockstep with Speaker Thomas M. Finneran on votes ranging from ramming the budget through, to anointing him as "speaker for life," records show.
The dissidents - threatening a move to depose Finneran and push reform - have focused on reforming the "process," complaining they didn't have time to study the budget before voting on it Thanksgiving eve.
But two days before the budget vote, every single Democrat voted to suspend House rules so they could rush the budget through.
Similarly, 130 Democrats - all but one - rejected a GOP effort to allow members to make the budgetary changes many are now demanding.
The rebels' chosen leader - Rep. Daniel E. Bosley (D-North Adams) who wants to be speaker but says he won't challenge Finneran - voted to go along with leadership in both budget-related matters.
"Hypocritical sheep," said House Minority Leader Francis L. Marini (R-Hanson). "They're looking for an excuse to justify their lack of attention. They ought to be looking in the mirror."
Bosley defended his votes as decisions made in a broken process. An imperfect budget seemed better than a tardier one, he said. "Those were the choices that we were given," he said. "We should never get into that position in the first place."
Most House roll call votes throughout the year have been markedly lopsided in Finneran's favor.
Even the controversial vote to strip away regular funding for "clean elections" campaign finance reform wasn't close - 96 to 59.
Only in a few cases have the members bucked Finneran, including April debates over adult basic education and capital gains taxes.
And House members - including Bosley - kicked off the year by voting overwhelmingly, 111 to 39, to eliminate term limits on the speaker.
"It's a cheap and inaccurate shot to blame all this on Tom Finneran," said Rep. Jay R. Kaufman (D-Lexington), a vocal Finneran critic. "If the speaker has too much power, it's in part because it has been ceded."
Rep. Charles Murphy, one of Bosley's newly announced supporters, acknowledged a long track record of voting with Finneran.
A moderate Burlington Democrat, Murphy said he now regrets his vote in favor of "speaker for life," and said he's "fed up and tired."
But Murphy threw in the towel over challenging Finneran. "Are you going to get 81 votes to vacate the chair? No, you're not," he said.
Finneran declined comment through a spokesman.
While House dissidents are positioning Bosley as a reformer, the North Adams Democrat is a latecomer to the cause.
A converted supporter of "clean elections," Bosley vigorously opposed the law early on, then was a leading proponent of doubling lawmakers' office expenses to make the law more palatable - a perk lawmakers kept even after they killed the reform law.
A beneficiary of heavy contributions from lobbyists who appear before his Government Regulations Committee, Bosley also collects more "per diem" stipends than any other House member - $15,390 this year.
A longtime fan of junkets, Bosley has come under periodic fire for traveling on the special interest dime, including trips to Israel, France, and a visit to a racing conference in Florida.
Bosley said most of his traveling is through the Council of State Governments. "It makes me a better legislator," he said.
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The Boston Globe
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Finneran's foes yield on ouster, eye rule changes
By Rick Klein
Globe Staff
Restless House members have acknowledged they cannot gather the 81 votes needed to topple Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, and are instead planning to present demands for rules changes that would give more members a voice in policy making.
The list of demands is weeks away from being completed, but the members are likely to ask for a more open and participatory budget process, assurances that more bills will reach the House floor, and independence for committee leaders to make decisions on legislation. They will also ask the speaker to make sure that information is shared more freely with rank-and-file members.
Some representatives are also calling for a shake-up of Finneran's leadership team to include a greater diversity of voices, but it's unclear whether a significant number of members would sign on to that idea. Finneran's harshest critics may still push for a vote to remove the speaker from power, but such a bid appears increasingly unlikely to succeed.
"I don't think there are 81 votes to remove the speaker at this time, and that is really not the point right now," said state Representative Michael E. Festa, a Melrose Democrat. "We're going to come up with a real fundamental change in how we do business. The vast majority of members, right today, are not feeling good about themselves, and are not feeling good about how they're doing business."
Instead, dissidents are aiming to rally a majority of members behind a series of proposals that they would present to Finneran in January. They are hoping to capitalize on widespread anger over this year's closed-door budget process and extract promises from the speaker and his leaders that the House will be more participatory in the future.
"We're trying to open the place up," said state Representative Daniel E. Bosley, the North Adams Democrat who has emerged as the dissidents' leader. "There's a whole series of things that we can do. It's really up to us."
Bosley said he discussed some possible reforms with Finneran during a two-hour discussion Monday night. He said that he and Finneran had a cordial talk even though Bosley announced publicly earlier in the day that he wants to be the next House speaker - a move that's considered an unusual breach of political protocol.
Bosley, who is the House chairman of the Government Regulations Committee, insisted that he has no immediate desire to mount a campaign to replace Finneran.
"I'd like to be the next speaker, but I don't have a time frame," he said. "We're two old friends, but obviously it's uncomfortable."
Finneran did not return calls yesterday. He has previously dismissed reports of widespread unhappiness among House members as a case of ruffled feathers over this year's difficult budget cuts. The Mattapan Democrat, speaker since 1996, has often been criticized for an autocratic style.
Dissidents have been talking publicly about mounting a challenge to Finneran's leadership for several days, and they maintain that they have at least 60 Democratic members on board who will push for major changes. Members were stung by the budget cuts, which they were forced to vote on only 24 hours after they were made public, and a string of moves by Finneran that many in the House considered undemocratic.
But with deep divisions among Democrats on how to proceed, and with few of the 21 House Republicans interested in challenging Finneran, the chance of finding 81 members who would vote to unseat the speaker seemed slim.
The move to petition Finneran for procedural changes is likely to draw broader support, however. House minority leader Francis L. Marini of Hanson, who had vowed to stay out of the battle over Finneran's leadership, said he might join with Democrats who are committed to reform of the House process.
"You can never have too much democracy," he said. "I'm always in favor of more debate in the House. I'd like to see us living by the rules we've already adopted."
While calls for Finneran's ouster have cooled, Festa said that momentum to remove him could build if he brushes off the calls for reform, or if his commitment to change the process proves to be less than genuine.
"That is certainly one possible way of moving in the future, and that is not something that is being discounted," he said. "The question is, can we achieve the reinvigoration of the legislative process without a change in the leadership? It's likely that that's going to be very difficult. But the first reaction is not to go for the most draconian approach."
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The Boston Globe
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Can the speaker head off a House revolt?
By Scot Lehigh
Globe Staff
POWER HAS a momentum all its own, so if you were betting on who will occupy the House speaker's office a month or 13 months from now, you'd go with the man who currently holds the gavel: Thomas M. Finneran.
That said, the revolt that has erupted against Finneran's rule in the last few days is eye-catching because of the reluctant warrior leading it.
Dan Bosley isn't your typical Finneran critic. House chairman of the Committee on Government Regulations, Bosley is one of the best-liked and most able members of the body, someone respected by lawmakers of all ideological stripes.
After the talent exodus of the last few years, Bosley is perhaps the only one left in the House with the standing to take on Finneran. The North Adams Democrat is no Don Quixote; the fact that he's willing to lead a battle over rules reform and publicly mull a challenge to the speaker in 2003 is a mark of just how far the creeping discontent with Finneran has spread.
As for the speaker, he is a victim of hubris born of his own remarkable abilities. Finneran is as smart as he is articulate, as charming as he is tough. But with his emphasis on order, his insistence on micromanaging, and his desire to have his own way on almost every issue, the Mattapan Democrat has become an increasingly uneasy fit as speaker.
To function as a truly representative body, the House needs a good deal of input, debate, and compromise. Instead, as Finneran has made himself the most powerful legislative leader in modern memory, he has rendered his fellow representatives irrelevant rubber stamps.
Compounding the problem is that Finneran is one of those talented people seemingly threatened by others with similar qualities. His aversion to ability has led some of the best and brightest in the Legislature to bail out in frustration. In the past year and a half, William Nagle, once the majority Leader, Paul Haley, once the Ways and Means chairman, and Barbara Gardner, once the majority whip, have all left the House.
Consider the people who now hold the most important of those posts. As majority leader there's Sal DiMasi, who revels in his reputation as a roguish, wisecracking, arm-twisting insider.
For Ways and Means, Finneran tapped the robotic John Rogers, the least impressive legislative budgeteer in either chamber in at least two decades.
While undistinguished loyalists fill top posts, other members have been left in the dark and out of influence. It's their long-simmering frustration that has finally broken into the open.
So here are two key questions: Does Finneran understand the real cause of the resentment? And if so, is he still flexible enough to mend his ways?
Bosley said yesterday that his decision on whether to challenge Finneran for the speaker's job in 2003 will depend on how the House operates next year.
"We will see what happens with opening up the process," he said. "It is important for him to understand that this is very serious and that there are a lot of members who feel frustrated."
Queried by reporters Monday while he volunteered for the Salvation Army, Finneran claimed that what minor discontent exists is over painful but unavoidable cuts in the state budget.
He's wrong there. To the degree that the budget is an issue, what members are upset about is being given less than 12 hours' notice before they were required to debate a final spending plan that came in five months late.
"It is not about the budget," stresses state Representative Charles Murphy, Democrat of Burlington, a moderate one wouldn't normally see bucking leadership. "It is about having a say and affecting public policy.... I don't feel that right now we get that opportunity."
That's a message being heard from more and more legislators.
To keep that movement from reaching critical mass, Finneran will have to cede enough power to make the House a place where members once again matter. Otherwise he may just wind up with an explosion on his hands.
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Bosley's failed 'coup' bloodless and brainless
by Howie Carr
Rep. Dan Bosley wants you to think of him as the knight in shining armor riding in on a white horse to the rescue of Reform.
Yeah, sure, his pathetic little insurrection against Speaker Tom Finneran is pretty much finished. The Taliban put up a stiffer fight than the "dissidents." And now Mullah Bosley is waddling off to his cave, denying that he ever had any plans to take on his close personal friend, the Speaker.
Funny thing about coups - they tend to be more successful if you don't announce your plans to the papers until after you've surrounded the presidential palace with tanks. But let's give Dan Bosley credit where credit is due. The solon who would take down Terrible Tommy Finneran is the holder of a new world's record.
Most money grabbed in per diems in a single year: $15,390.
See, the Boz is from North Adams. That means he gets daily expenses for his commute. Until this year, Bosley got $45 a day every day he came to "work." This year the reps doubled their own "per diems" on a voice vote - Boz admits he was for it.
Who wouldn't be?
Look at it this way. So far this year, the "reformer" has been paid $15,390 to drive to work.
How much have you been paid to get to your job?
The old king of per diems was Rep. Peter Larkin of Pittsfield. But he's been in a slump - with 12 days left in the year, Larkin's only put in for $11,250 in per diems.
But Bosley has filed for his $90 171 times - for a total of $15,390. That puts him in the Guinness Book of World Records.
"Well, sure," he says, "because it's the first year of the new per diems. You know, I have the longest commute in the state."
It's a nice job, being a state rep from Berkshire County. Not only do you get $90 a day for driving to work, you also get over $46,000 in base pay, and Bosley collects another $7,500 as a committee chairman.
And he pays next to no federal income taxes on that 54 large - any rep in a state legislature who lives more than 50 miles from the state capital gets a write-off of more than $135 a day for each day the legislative body is "in session."
Bosley: "Well, I pay some federal income taxes."
How much?
"I don't know. I have someone who does my taxes."
This Bosley, he's not a terrible person, but he's lost touch with people who don't get paid $90 a day for driving to work.
For instance, he says he's not a big fan of Clean Elections, the big goo-goo issue of the decade, which was passed by the voters in 1998.
"I said we should do Clean Elections because the voters wanted it."
But the voters also wanted an income tax cut, and they voted for that in 2000. But somehow it's OK to thumb your nose at that same electorate that wants Clean Elections if they want an income-tax cut.
"Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds," he says.
If Tom Finneran is so evil, how did Bosley vote on repealing the term-limit rule that would have gotten rid of the Speaker? He voted to get rid of term limits, which means he voted to make Mistah Speakah the speaker-for-life.
How does Bosley stand on changing the state constitution to ban prisoners from voting? He's against it. Somewhere, Willie Horton is cheering.
How does Bosley stand on letting cops stop you for the sole reason that you're not wearing a seat belt? He's for it.
Another thing about Finneran. If he's so mean and vindictive, when he got rid of his majority leader, how come Finneran handed the bum a lifetime sinecure as a court clerk. He deep-sixed his Ways and Means chairman - but the ousted rep's brother kept his hack job at Massport.
The speaker's Christmas party is tonight. I don't think Bosley will be going. I've invited Bosley to be on my show this evening, but please, Dan, don't drive into the city on my account. I don't want to be responsible for yet another $90 raid on the Treasury.
Howie Carr's radio show can be heard every weekday afternoon on WRKO-AM 680, WHYN-AM 560, WGAN-AM 560, WXTK-FM 95.1 or online at www.howiecarr.org.
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