Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Anything happen the last few days?

--Deval Patrick told the Washington Post he's the victim of hazing, apparently unaware that some people in Boston read the WaPo. Patrick also told the Post that he needs to do more governing by photo op, apparently unaware that this is the sort of thing that sounds really bad when you say it out loud. The Post article gave Patrick's new spokesperson, Joe Landolfi, his first opportunity to clean up after the boss's mistakes. You sure you want this job, Joe?

--Mitt Romney managed to offend Florida's Cuban-Americans, who he has been desperately trying to court, by attributing a signature Fidel Castro catch-phrase to the free-Cuba movement. D'oh! Actually, Romney made the gaffe earlier in the month, on March 9th, and hasn't taken any heat for it at all. Nobody even reported it until the Miami Herald, in its Monday March 19 edition. (David Wedge, apparently trying to prove my colleague Adam Reilly's point, did not cite the Miami paper as his obvious source for his story the very next day.)

--Oh, and the senate president is taking a hike, most likely to set up a political consulting and lobbying shop, which is what he's been wanting to do for some time. My sense from sources has been that he wanted to finish out this year, but the distraction of the stories about various job offers (which he didn't want) made him speed up the timetable. Once Trav makes the announcement, keep an eye on which friends of Trav announce their own retirements to join the new firm.

--The presumed senate president-in-waiting is Therese Murray. None of the recent articles about her impending ascension have mentioned that she is currently under investigation by the Inspector General, for the tourism-marketing scandal I wrote about in the Phoenix.