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OFF AND RUNNING: Tom Reilly (center) did himself no favors by attacking rival Chris Gabrieli (left) at the start of last week’s Democratic gubernatorial primary debate, which included Deval Patrick (right). |
By the end of last Thursday’s Democratic gubernatorial debate, it was Kaddish for Tom Reilly, at least according to everybody in the chin-strokerati (except the Boston Herald’s Howie “Bleep Conventional Wisdom” Carr). The overwhelming consensus was that soon-to-be-ex-attorney-general Reilly had executed the sort of on-screen meltdown that was formerly the exclusive province of Daffy Duck.
Television newscasts, talk radio, the blogosphere — you name it, Reilly’s flailing debate performance was being panned there. But the real action was at the Boston Globe, largely because Reilly’s meltdown started with that paper’s debate-day page-one story asking what Reilly knew, and when he knew it, about running-mate-for-a-day Marie St. Fleur (D-No Comment).
The Globe piece, written by veteran political reporter Frank Phillips, said the Reilly campaign had an extensive background report about St. Fleur’s various and sundry financial irregularities before the announcement of their peekaboo ballot alliance back in January. At the time, Reilly told reporters he had no specifics regarding St. Fleur’s fiscal fitness.
Cut to debate night: before Deval Patrick had even broken a sweat, Reilly went Chernobyl, accusing venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli of leaking the report through campaign supporter/bigfoot Cheryl Cronin, who Reilly said had been St. Fleur’s attorney earlier this year. And then it got even more interesting.
Why? Because while Gabrieli was issuing a full-throated denial, the Globe’s Phillips found himself in the awkward position of covering a story about the identity of a source that was, in fact, his source.
Paging Mr. Escher, paging Mr. MC Escher.
“I didn’t ask the candidate about the source,” Phillips said the next day, indicating that co-bylined Globe reporter Andrea Estes had asked the question. Beyond that, Phillips said, “If I grant confidentiality, I’m going to honor it, even if [the source] is lying.” (Big flashing footnote: Phillips in no way implied that Gabrieli was his source or that Gabrieli was lying.)
Meanwhile, Reilly’s debate performance was given the thumbs down by four Globe op-ed columnists on Friday, not to mention a Globe editorial that called it “drenched in desperation” and compared Reilly’s 9/11 grandstanding in the debate to Al “I’m in Charge Here” Haig after Ronald Reagan was shot. Ouch.
Regardless, in for a dime, in for a dollar. Saturday’s Globe headline said it all: REILLY RENEWS CRITICISM OF RIVAL; GABRIELI REPEATS ST. FLEUR DENIAL. The story itself featured several priceless moments:
1) Reilly watching “as fourth-graders at the Tobin School got a lesson in how to avoid fights, bullying, and conflict.” He’s lucky Gabrieli didn’t show up and ask him to sing “The Sharing Song.”
2) Reilly’s response to the Globe about what evidence he had that Gabrieli or his campaign was responsible for the leak: “It’s common sense.” Not exactly Oliver Wendell Holmes, eh? More like Katie Holmes, actually, but let’s not get technical about it.
3) Reilly’s “appearing to leave the door open to investigating the leak.” Yikes.
Anyway, Sunday turned out to be Don’t Forget to Twist Day at the Globe, which, for starters, endorsed former federal civil-rights chief/former corporate fixer Deval Patrick in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
