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Friday, March 30, 2007
Last November, the White House appointed Eric Keroack to head family planning programs within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Keroack had previously worked at Boston's A Woman's Concern [corrected], which promotes abstinence instead of birth control, so reproductive-rights groups were not too thrilled.
Apparently, the Massachusetts Office of Medicaid took some sort of action against Keroack, presumably related to his work at A Woman's Choice -- whatever the complaint, it has not been made public.
Yesterday, Keroack abruptly resigned, and HHS cited the Massachusetts action as the reason.
Undoubtedly, this will trigger some disclosures relating to A Woman's Concern's activities. Should be interesting to watch.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
New Hampshire rookie Congresswoman Carole Shea-Porter scored her first legislative triumph Tuesday, getting her first sponsored piece of legislation passed by a resounding 417-2: House Resolution 266, "Supporting the goals and ideals of Professional Social Work Month and World
Social Work Day." OK, it's not a world-changer, but it counts -- and yes, she was a social worker herself before swiftly and improbably becoming someone who sponsors bills on the floor of the US House of Representatives. And here's an impressive bit of trivia: both votes against her first bill were cast by declared candidates for President of the United States -- Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado. The text of the resolution is here, along with Shea-Porter's floor speech introducing it.
Now if someone forms a "The Secret" Believers for President Clinton group, can they both get the result they visualize? "The Secret" Believers for President Obama
Members: 180
I created this group
for all those that know "The Secret". I, as probably most of you, saw this on
"Oprah" recently. In a nutshell the program promotes the power of positive
visualization and the law of attraction. We all have heard about this concept in
some form over years, i.e motivational speakers, seminars, etc. However, this
truly seems to break down "The Secret". There is a website that you can do more
research on the concept and check out Oprah's website. I have seen the movie and
it has changed my life!! Everyday, my plan is to be grateful for many things and
visualize having everything that i want in life including My Newly elected
President Barack Obama!! I truly believe and visualize him as our President
right now!!! We all need to ASK for what we want everyday, BELIEVE everyday that
he is our next president, and that goal will be ACHIEVED and RECEIVED in 2008!!!
Believe me it works!!!
Just as my article comes out saying that none of the Mass. delegation has endorsed for President, Congressman Jim McGovern comes out to endorse Hillary. Add him to her list as of a 4:30 press conference this afternoon.
The new "Exhibit A" monthly publication from Lawyers Weekly names
Massachusetts's "10 Most Notorious Criminals" as its debut cover story.
It's striking which criminals become "notorious," or perhaps more
accurately, which victims. All of the victims are white, and the list
is dominated by those who harm women (Willie Horton, Richard Rosenthal,
Eddie O'Brien, James Kater), children (Louise Woodward, The Amiraults,
Paul Shanley), or both (Kenneth Seguin). The exceptions are Whitey
Bulger, who had many victims (allegedly), and failed shoe bomber
Richard Reid, who had none. The crimes were primarily suburban.
And when you start thinking of who's missing, you really have more of
the same. No surprise really, but I just thought I'd raise the issue,
as I've recently written about the reality and perception of violence
against women. Plus, let's face it, lists are fun. Here are a quick 20
I would nominate; if some don't ring a bell... well, that's why God
created Google. Please, add your suggestions!
Nathaniel Bar-Jonah
The "Big Dan's" rapists
Lizzie Borden
The Brinks Robbery Gang
Albert DeSalvo
John Geoghan
Kristen Gilbert
Charlie Jaynes
Christopher McCowen
Michael McDermott
Jesse Pomeroy
Charles Ponzi
James Porter
Katherine Ann Power
Jacques Robidoux
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
John Salvi
Gary Sampson
Michael Skakel
Charles Stuart
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
George W. has withdrawn the nomination of Sam Fox
for ambassador to Belgium, after John Kerry and others started griping.
Fox helped fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, so you can see why
Kerry might not be a big fan.
But Belgium's loss could be Mitt Romney's gain. Fox is a big-time,
big-league GOP donor with influence in Jewish donor circles, and he
donated a cool $100,000 to Romney's PAC last summer, as I mentioned in these two stories about the Romney candidacy.
That was before his nomination in December, which pretty much precluded
him from helping candidates. Now that Fox is returning to private
citizenry, it's a fair bet that he'll be back on the Mitt bandwagon.
Of course, Fox wouldn't be the only old Swift Boat hand on that wagon.
As I've mentioned more than once, the Swiftie's main funder, Bob Perry,
is on board. So is former Swift Boat counsel Benjamin Ginsberg.
Romney has not collected the whole Swift Boat set, however. Harold
Simmons is with McCain, and Boone Pickens is with Giuliani. Both were
multi-million-dollar Swift Boat funders.
But Romney has the backing of plenty of others who have been involved
in Republican shenanigans and monkey business. In fact, quite a crowd
of them will gather this Friday morning at a "Lawyers for Romney"
fundraiser, judging by the names on the host committee for the event.
Ginsberg, for example, can reminisce about stopping the 2000 Florida
recount -- he was chief counsel for Bush/Cheney '00 -- with J. Caleb Boggs III, who led the Florida recount team, and Judge David Norcross, who served as a recount "observer" in Palm Beach. Timothy Flanigan
was also on that litigation team; he later became deputy to then-White
House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez, where he helped draft the
"thumbs-up-for-torture" memos before his career crashed in the Jack
Abramoff scandal. (While previously counsel for Tyco International,
Flanigan oversaw a $2 million lobbying contract with Abramoff, $1.5
million of which Abramoff diverted to his other businesses, supposedly
without Flanigan noticing.) Flanigan can laugh about fun times in
Gonzalez's White House Counsel office with David Leitch,
whose email exchanges from that office about plans to fire all the US Attorneys has
recently been in the news, and Bradford Berenson, who went on to distinguish
himself as cable television's foremost defender of the torture memos. Berenson blamed it all on John Ashcroft's Justice Department, which he can joke about with Ashcroft's communications director at the time, Barbara Comstock -- who went on to provide legal defense for Abramoff-enswirled indictee,
Tom DeLay, and most recently (and unsuccessfully) Scooter Libby.
A fun crowd! "Breakfast refreshments will be served," the invite says.
And it's just in time for the close of the first quarter fundraising
report.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Washington Post's "Sleuth" Mary Ann Akers catches John Kerry and his staff "obsessively checking his Amazon ratings" for the new book on the environment by Senator & Mrs. Kerry. BTW, it was #25 when I checked. Now, Akers would have a real scoop if she could trace those five-star reviews back to a senate.gov address....
As if I haven't provoked enough criticism on this topic (such as here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here), I will be on Jim Braude's NECN show tonight at 7:00pm to discuss Deval Patrick's civic engagement outreach.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Seth Gitell -- former Phoenix scribe and Menino press secretary -- knows his local politics. But he really knows his food. So his feature in the new April Boston magazine looks like a must-read: "Pancakes, Bacon, and a Side of Influence: A Memorandum on the Protocols of Power Breakfasting in the Power Breakfast Capital of the World." I haven't read it yet, but I look forward to sitting down at a Gitell.com-approved eatery and digesting it.
I wasn't able to attend the "Town Meeting" Saturday, and I haven't had a chance to poke around the new web site much, but here are some quick initial thoughts on the Gov's Civic Engagement launch. --This is a kick in Speaker Sal DiMasi's crotch, whether intended that way or not (and I suspect it is). Patrick is framing "civic engagement" as me-against-them: join me in my battle against the intransigent, special-interest-beholden legislature. If you want to lower your property taxes, help me ram these corporate taxes down DiMasi's gullet, etc. Patrick is free to do that, but Saturday's event ensured a very cold meeting with DiMasi and new senate president Therese Murray this afternoon. --I'm not so sure that a guy who recently announced, rather controversially, that he had to scale back his schedule should be embarking on an eight-city string of appearances, paid for by his campaign committee, for purposes extraneous to governing. From a purely public-perception standpoint, if Deval has a few hours to duck away from state business tomorrow, shouldn't he be spending it with his aililng wife rather than at a rally in Worcester? --I don't think we can complain about Patrick running all this through his campaign committee (as my esteemed former colleague Dan Kennedy and others have done). If there's one lesson that Patrick's been hit on the head with, it's to use his own funds, rather than the state's, for anything that might be anywhere close to questionable. (Would Herald readers think that fancy web design is like a nice set of drapes? If I was Deval, I wouldn't risk it.) --Another crotch being kicked here is that of Frank Phillips, political reporter for the Globe. (Phillips is standing in here for the local media at large, as I used DiMasi as a stand-in for the legislators.) The Town Meetings and the web site -- not to mention the sit-down chat Patrick had with select bloggers Saturday -- are just more ways of going around the media who he won't engage with. Again, Patrick can feel free to do it, but don't think local journalists aren't noticing.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Normal political junkies, upon hearing news of Marty Meehan's departure from Congress, wondered: Who will run for his seat? True, hardcore political junkies wondered: Who will hire his staffers? Our first winner is Presidential candidate Chris Dodd, who has hired Meehan's press secretary, Bryan DeAngelis, as his New Hampshire press secretary. DeAngelis is a veteran of the John Kerry Presidential and Tom Reilly gubernatorial campaigns. DeAngelis can now stop fielding questions about what Meehan is planning to do with his $5 million campaign stash, and start fielding calls about what Dodd's first-quarter fundraising total will be.
Mitt Romney has announced his New Hampshire campaign campus chairs:
Adam Bungert, University of New Hampshire
Ralph M. Crossen, New England College
Katie Dangel, Southern New Hampshire University
Robyn Dangora, Saint Anselm College
Christopher DuPoy, New Hampshire Technical Institute
Anthony Estevez, Daniel Webster College
Taylor Frazao, Franklin Pierce College
Emily O'Neil, University of New Hampshire
Sean Smith, Dartmouth College
To me, a curious bit of apparent conventional wisdom in the recent punditry on Elizabeth Edwards has been the assumption that John Edwards's campaign was having trouble gaining traction, getting run over by the twin supernovas Hillary and Barack. I heard a lot of this on radio and TV particularly the last 24 hours or so. I can't say I'm the most plugged-in guy in the world, but my sense has been quite the opposite: Edwards has made tremendous strides on the ground in the early states, particularly Iowa, while his rivals have been splitting their time on the job in Washington, and raising money in NYC, Calif, etc. A couple of new polls support my perception. First is new polling data from ARC, taken just before the cancer announcement. Check out the recent movement among likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa: Jan. 07 Feb. 07 Mar. 07 Clinton 35% 31% 34% Edwards 18% 27% 33% Obama 14% 23% 16% With the rest of the field at one or two percent. To a large extent, Edwards seems to have scooped up all the Vilsack supporters after the homestate Governor quit the race. (Reports out of Iowa today say that Vilsack will soon endorse Clinton.) The shift in New Hampshire likely voters is less dramatic but still significant: Jan. 07 Feb. 07 Mar. 07
Clinton 39% 38% 37%
Edwards 13% 19% 20%
Obama 19% 20% 23%
And again, the rest at 1 or 2. Also released today is IowaPolitics.com's latest survey of the state's Democratic county chairs -- an incredibly important group. Only four have already committed to a candidate: three to Edwards and one to Wes Clark. And look at who they are considering supporting (they were allowed to select multiple candidates): John Edwards -- 71%
Barack
Obama -- 69%
Bill Richardson -- 37%
Hillary Clinton -- 34%
Joe
Biden -- 14%
Al Gore (write-in) -- 9%
Dennis Kucinich -- 6%
Wesley
Clark -- 6%
Chris Dodd -- 6%
Mike Gravel -- 3%
In my own opinion, Obamamania shattered Hillary's "inevitability" within the party -- and it's been Edwards who has capitalized on the fallout. That could change over time. But at the moment, it's not Edwards who has needed to change the dynamic of the race.
As is so often the case with big Pew Research Center studies, their latest annual survey of political values and core attitudes (which they've been doing for 20 years) has way too many interesting tidbits for me to discuss them all. Here are a few.
--Anti-government sentiment has declined steadily since it peaked in
1994/1995, which of course is when the anti-government conservatives
gained power in the federal government. Seems that people haven't liked
it as much in practice as in concept.
--Self-identification as "Democrat" remains incredibly steady, right at
33% of the population at almost all times (dipping only to 30% in '95
and 31% immediately post-9/11). Self-identification as "Republican"
fluctuates more, generally between 27 and 31 percent, but has plummeted
since 2004 (never mind the GOP's inflated 2002 zenith.) Independents
"leaning" toward Dem (I/D, below) or Rep (I/R below) has generally
stayed pretty close over time, but has also veered significantly in the
last few years.
2004 2007
Dem. 33% 33%
I/D 14% 17%
I/R 12% 11%
Rep. 29% 25%
--As I've discussed elsewhere, the GOP appears to be shrinking to
include only those who hold certain beliefs, and the overall numbers of
people who hold those beliefs are shrinking. This shrinking number of
Republicans thus hold views that are increasingly out of whack not just
with Democrats, but with Independents (including Independents who were
formally Republicans.) Just 28% of Independents say they are satisfied
with the way the country is going, compared with 58% of Republicans.
71% of Independents think the government should guarantee food and
shelter for all, compared with 47% of Republicans. 46% of Independents
thing the best way to achieve peace is through military strength,
compared with 72% of Republicans. Similar gaps exist in religious and
social values, and all of these gaps are widening rapidly -- not as a
fluctuation, but as a steady change in attitudes for all but the
Republicans.
--As I've also argued, this gap is even more marked among core
conservative Republicans, who have come to dominate the party platform
as the party sheds its more moderate members. On issues like the
minimum wage, environment, assistance for the poor, affirmative action,
size of government, attitude toward the UN, immigration, and others,
the GOP has boldly placed itself on the opposite side from a growing
majority of mainstream Americans -- and the Presidential nomination
process, dominated by conservatives, will likely serve to reinforce the
gap.
--Young adults, age 18-29, have very tolerant social attitudes (94%
approve of inter-racial dating, for example), and a much more positive
view of government than the older generations. Unfortunately, they also
have worse attitudes about voting and participation.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
The Urban League invited all the major Presidential candidates -- Democrat or Republican -- to speak at its July conference (George W. has spoken at it several times). Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have declined. Urban League leaders are not pleased. So reports Politico, which adds that Romney's spokesperson claimed a scheduling conflict but "declined to specify what it was." Seriously, Mitt, can't you even pretend to care about black voters?
Yesterday, an appeals court tossed out the conviction of James Tobin, the RNC operative convicted in the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal of 2002, sending it back for retrial. Today, New Hampshire Democrats decided to throw the scandal into the volatile cauldron of Washington politics. Outgoing state party chair Kathy Sullivan and attorney Paul Twomey have sent a letter to congressman Paul Hodes and Senator Patrick Leahy, requesting that they investigate alleged political interference in the investigation and prosecution of the case. Hodes is on the Congressional Oversight Committee; Leahy is on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sullivan points out that one of the defendant's own lawyers has said that prosecutors in the case had to run every decision past the US Attorney General -- whose office, of course, is now embroiled in allegations of political interference with prosecutors. As I've mentioned before, the next obvious question about this whole US Attorney firing scandal is: what did the other US Attorneys do to make them acceptable, and not be fired? This could be example #1 in that regard. Stay tuned.
It's a low blow, I know, but I figure once a guy makes that decision to dump his cancer-stricken wife, he's fair game. Anyway, as you may have heard, John Edwards is expected to make a major announcement about his campaign today, related to his wife's health. As my astute colleague Adam Reilly observed last August in a feature on Edwards, Elizabeth is a "major asset" on the campaign trail. Not only is she terrific connecting to people, but his obvious devotion to her helps strip away his surface image as a too-slick, too-charming, too-handsome weaselly Southern lawyer. Elizabeth successfully battled breast cancer after the 2004 election. The speculation is that it has returned, and that Edwards will either drop out of the Presidential race or indefinitely suspend his campaign while they tend to her health. If it's the latter, the real significance (politically, that is) will be found in the wording, both publicly and privately, by which he conveys this to his very impressive and devoted infrastructure of supporters. He'll be signalling to them whether he expects them to stick with him, or whether he is effectively releasing them to choose other candidates. Update: Elizabeth Edwards has cancer in her rib, but the campaign will not be suspended. They've just wrapped up their press conference (in which they demonstrated again what a super-likeable couple they are).
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Astute readers of the Phoenix will recall me telling you back in November that Bob Perry, the multimillion-dollar backer of the Swift Boat group that torpedoed John Kerry, donated to Mitt Romney's self-promotional political committee. As I wrote then: That’s why the most noteworthy contribution Mitt Romney’s
Commonwealth PAC has received so far may be the relatively modest $5750 given by
Bob Perry on November 3. Why? Perry, a mega-successful home builder in Houston,
is the man who spent $4.5 million funding the Swift Boat Veterans’ attacks on
John Kerry in 2004. This year, Perry spent another $6.5 million on the midterm elections. If you were really astute, you picked up on my reporting six months earlier, that Perry had given a much larger sum (a half-mil in total) to the Republican Governors Association under Romney's chairmanship. Now the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza reports that Perry is an official part of Romney's fundraising effort, as part of Romney's "Texas Leadership Team." As I have previously suggested, I suspect that Perry and many other wealthy conservatives plan to "Swift Boat" McCain, and perhaps Giuliani, in the primaries. In the same post, Cillizza answers a question I posed on this blog three months ago: What will Romney name his high-level fundraising "bundlers," in the tradition of George W. Bush's Rangers and Pioneers? I suggested Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medallists, harkening to Mitt's Olympics legacy. I guessed wrong: Romney has created a stratified bundling system based on the "Rangers" and
"Pioneers" model employed by Bush in 2000 and 2004. To be a "Founder," an
individual must raise $250,000 for the campaign; a "Statesman" is charged with
collecting $100,000, and a "Patriot" $50,000.
I think my suggestion is better.
What are we to make of the supposedly apolitical office of the state
Inspector General, releasing a selectively exonerating statement about
Therese Murray yesterday, the day before she is to be elected president
of the state senate?
As first reported by Statehouse News Service, and included in Herald and Globe articles today, the
IG released a statement saying that, while the investigation into the
international tourism marketing earmarks is ongoing, the IG has thus
far uncovered “no evidence to suggest that any state officials (elected
or appointed) were provided trips or airplane tickets by MIMP or any
related parties.”
That aspect of the story is peripheral to the main allegations made in
the article I ran that precipitated the IG's investigation. The main
allegation is that Murray, along with state representative Dan Bosley,
curtailed a competitive-bid process in order to ensure that the
contract went to their prefered recipient, William MacDougal's Tourism
Massachusetts (aka Massachusetts International Marketing Partnership).
Moreover, my story relayed concerns that Murray's powerful position as
senate Ways & Means chair -- and presumptive senate
president-in-waiting -- was preventing any serious inquiry into the
allegations.
The IG's decision to release its statement yesterday certainly bolsters those concerns.
Senator Murray has claimed, through other media outlets, that
MacDougall's company was chosen through an extensive open selection
process. (She has not contacted the Phoenix since the story ran). But documentation says otherwise.
Below I am attaching some of this documentation.
The first is a letter from Robert Ward, president of the Massachusetts
International Trade Council, to Senator Murray. The Trade Council was
responsible, under the 2003 legislation written by Murray herself, for
selecting the vendor for the contract. (After a Request for Proposal
was released, three organizations submitted bids, including
MacDougall's) In this letter, dated January 3, 2005, Ward explains that
the Trade Council's three directors had all resigned. "[W]ithout a
board we are unable to proceed with the awarding of the International
Tourism Fund contract," Ward writes, adding that he plans to have the
$2 million returned to the state comptroller's office.
The second letter is dated the following day, January 4, 2005. It is
from Ranch Kimball, then the secretary of economic development, and is
addressed to Senator Murray and representative John Rogers, who was
chair of house Ways & Means at the time. He reiterates that
"[w]ithout a Board of Directors, MITCI [the Trade Council] cannot award
this contract." He suggests an alternative resolution: transfering the
$2 million to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.
The third is a letter from Senator Murray in response to Kimball, dated
January 21. (It is dated 2004, although it is obviously from 2005.) In
it, she argues that "the correct course of action... would be to
reappoint previous members or appoint new members to the MITCI Board of
Directors. This quick and rather simple action would allow the Board of
Directors to award a contract to a successful bidder."
She does not argue in that letter what she has recently seemed to claim
in the press: that the advisory board, which she was a member of, had
the authority to award the contract without the Trade Council.
The Trade Council nevertheless transfered the $2 million back to the
comptroller. And less than three weeks after Murray sent that letter to
Kimball, the House finalized a supplemental budget package, which
called for that $2 million to go directly to MacDougall's company, in
this earmark:
For the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism; provided, that the office
shall grant not less than $2,000,000 to the Massachusetts International
Marketing Partnership, Inc. for international tourism marketing efforts;
provided further, that the grant shall be made not later than June 30, 2005; and
provided further, that the grant shall be contingent upon certification by the
comptroller that $2,000,000 has been transferred by the Massachusetts
International Trade Council, Inc. from the Massachusetts International Tourism
Fund, established pursuant to section 60 of chapter 141 of the acts of 2003, to
the General Fund ................................................. $2,000,000
A few months later, the Fiscal Year 2006 budget included another $4
million earmark for MacDougall's company. This time (and again a year
later, when another $5 million was awarded), the earmark specifically
claimed that MacDougall's company had been "awarded the contract" under
the rules of the 2003 legislation:
...that said office shall grant not less than $4,000,000 to the Massachusetts
International Marketing Partnership Incorporated, the business entity awarded the contract pursuant to
section 60 of chapter 141 of the acts of 2003.
If in fact MacDougall's company was properly selected from among the
bidders and awarded the contract, as Murray has publicly suggested,
that should be easy to prove: there must be documentation of the
official decision. I am aware of no such documentation. I have much more about all this in the original article, including the opinions of people involved in the process that the Trade Council board members resigned because Murray wanted them to award the contract to MacDougall, while the Council's own staff had reported that MacDougall's company was undeserving and in fact ineligible.
None of this is to argue for or against Murray's elevation to president
of the senate. It is to point out that serious questions remain about
what Senator Murray did, far beyond whether she received any travel
rewards. For the IG's office to release its statement, when it did, was
anything but apolitical, and would seem to strongly suggest that the
office is inclined to support Senator Murray's public image -- which
cannot lend much confidence to those hoping that even the most powerful
in the state are subject to independent oversight of their actions.
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.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The ultra-conservative Club for Growth released its 2006 Congressional Scorecard yesterday, based on votes for (or against) such things as tax cuts, repeal of the estate tax, cutting government spending, privatizing Social Security, and business deregulation.
On a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 merits a Club for Growth "Defender of Economic Freedom" award and zero is, well, Ted Kennedy, here is your Massachusetts delegation:
11 Capuano
10 Neal
10 Olver
9 Delahunt
9 Frank
9 Tierney
8 Markey
7 McGovern
5 Lynch
5 Meehan
4 Kerry
0 Kennedy
No wonder Mitt Romney hates us.
Big doings at the Deval Patrick office. David Morales is coming on to serve as Senior Advisor, and Joe Landolfi scoots from A&F spokesperson to be the Governor's Senior Communications Advisor. Morales is a long-time (and highly respected) senior Travaglini aide. Trav's staff has been jumping to new jobs, leading most on Beacon Hill to give credence to the rumor that the senate president is really leaving. Landolfi is a veteran, I believe most recently with Massport before coming over with A&F Chief Leslie Kirwan. Could it be that Patrick has been reading my stuff? By making Morales and Landolfi "senior advisors," nobody on the staff has to lose their job. But one is going: Amy Gorin, chief of staff to the First Lady. I have to feel bad for Gorin, steps down after one of the crappier few weeks of her life, I imagine -- and not of her own making.
Ann Romney likes to deflect questions on Mormonism by saying that Mitt is the only Republican in the Presidential race who has only had one wife. Will she use the line tonight, when Mitt and Ann are interviewed by seven-times-married Larry King? In other Romney news, AP reports that Romney is buying $800,000 in TV ads this month. Wow.
In the aftermath of General Pace's recent offensive comments, the leading Democratic Presidential candidates aren't exactly leaping to don any rainbow shawls. First Hillary flubbed it. Now this, from Newsday's Glenn Thrush, guest posting on the Chicago Tribune's political blog: Newsday caught Obama as he was leaving the firefighters convention and asked
him three times if he thought homosexuality is immoral.
Answer 1: "I think traditionally the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman has
restricted his public comments to military matters. That's probably a good
tradition to follow." Answer 2: "I think the question here is whether somebody is willing to
sacrifice for their country, should they be able to if they're doing all the
things that should be done." Answer 3: Signed autograph, posed for snapshot, jumped athletically into town
car.
Update: Obama and Clinton have both released statements saying that of course what they meant to say is that homosexuality is not immoral.
New Franklin Pierce College/WBZ-TV Republican Presidential preference poll in New Hampshire, out this morning: John McCain 29% Rudy Giuliani 28% Mitt Romney 22%
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
No feature story from me this week, but I have some gossip about the Boston City Council: Minister Bruce Wall is considering running, either at-large or possibly against Robert Consalvo in Hyde Park. Read about it here.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Hot on the heels of Boston's new contract with AFSCME, the city has finalized a contract with SEIU. It includes the 10-year "rolling residency" requirement that AFSCME got, according to a release from Mayor Menino's office. AFSCME has about 1200 city workers, and SEIU has about 700, so that's a huge chunk of the city government's civilian workforce now operating under the new residency rules that will allow some city workers to live in less-expensive suburbs. City Council President Maureen Feeney, among others, was opposed to the change, but, well, that'll show you how much the City Council matters. The new contract "also allows the city to place GPS devices in city-owned equipment and
vehicles upon notice to the union," according to the city's release. That's a win for the city, which desperately wants to be able to track vehicles to prevent fraud and abuse. Of course, once placed, those GPS devices have been known to mysteriously break, or fall out of windows, I'm told....
Joe Biden's Presidential campaign has launched a seperate web site touting the Senate resolution he is co-sponsoring, to "revise United States policy on Iraq." The site, EndingtheWar.com (gee, you think that was chosen to appeal to Democratic Party activists?), appears to be an online petition to show support for the resolution, but I would imagine that signing on will put you on the Biden for Prez mailing list.
Well, this was inevitable. Viacom wants $1b from Google, which now owns YouTube, for allowing its copyrighted material to be posted for the world.
--Mitchell Adams, head of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative -- and certified Friend of Bill (Weld, that is) -- negotiated a half-million-dollar severance deal if the new governor fires him, Frank Phillips reports in the Globe. That's two years' worth of his whopping quarter-mil salary. Adams made a brief but critical cameo appearance in my recent article about state senator Therese Murray and the Massachusetts Tourism scandal, which is now the subject of an Inspector General inquiry. Adams served as chair of the tiny Trade Council that was tasked with awarding the bid for the international tourism marketing contract in 2004. As I reported, Adams resigned from the board that November; sources suggest that he did so to avoid making that decision. They argue that Adams feared angering Murray if the contract went to a different bidder other than Mass Tourism -- and specifically feared that Murray would use her power as Senate Ways & Means chair to cut funding to the MTC, which, as we see in Phillips's report, was quite a lucrative gig for him. -- Phillips also reports that UMass is likely to announce today that Congressman Marty Meehan is the board's selection to be the next chancellor of its Lowell campus. Assuming he accepts, the sprint for his seat commences in full. (BTW, I didn't really mean yesterday that our state senators are wimps. Just poking a little fun.) --Our own former US Attorney Donald K. Stern weighs in on the firing of eight US Attorneys by the White House, in a Globe op-ed. Elsewhere in the paper we get a Washington Post report that the White House originally wanted to fire ALL the USAs. Nice. Next question: what did the others on the chopping block do to prove they were worthy of keeping? --I like Margery Eagan, but I'd ask her to rethink her advice to Diane Patrick to embark on a depression-awareness speaking tour. We have no idea of her condition, but Eagan's suggestion trivializes the difficulty and severity of the illness, by assuming that one can just hop out and start speaking to audiences about it so quickly. Mrs. Patrick is a patient who needs to get herself healthy before she starts thinking about helping others.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Steven Baddour of Methuen announced today that he won't run for the congressional seat, if Marty Meehan leaves for the UMass-Lowell job. That appears to make it official that we won't have a single state senator in the race. Susan Tucker of Andover has already decided she won't run. So have Steve Panagiotakos of Lowell and Pam Resor of Acton, if I'm not mistaken. And, if I'm not mistaken, those are the only four state senators who live in the 5th district; Antonioni, Chandler, Fargo, and Havern also represent portions of the 5th but don't live there, and as far as I know, none are considering a run. The last time a congressional seat opened up like this, five state senators went for it: Democrats Stephen Lynch, Brian Joyce, Cheryl Jacques, and Marc Pacheco, and Republican JoAnn Sprague.
An Interfaith Walk for Climate Rescue will begin on March 16 in Northampton and work its way to Boston over the course of a week. You can check out the plans if you're interested in participating. It culminates on Saturday the 24th, which apparently is Climate Rescue Day, with a rally at Copley Square. That's a bit if a scheduling issue, because on the 24th there's also a march and Peace and Justice Festival on the Common to protest the Iraq War. So, rally for climate or peace? You have two weeks to decide.
I really have little to say at this point, other than to wish Mrs. Patrick and the entire family well. It's important to seperate the two stories here. One is the health of Diane Patrick, which is a private matter, albeit one that we are all, understandably, extremely interested in. She's a public figure (in the celebrity, not official sense of the term), so naturally our empathy drives our curiosity to know everything about what she's going through. But, the Patrick family is under no obligation to feed that curiosity, and should do so under its own terms and judgment. The second story is the announcement that the governor will be cutting back his work schedule. That's obviously a public matter, and one that does require some explanation and discussion. And, I'm sure that will be forthcoming as the governor and his staff work it out. So, what I'm saying is that I have nothing really to say at this point, but I thought I should at least say that I have nothing to say. So, that's what I'm saying. Update: Despite having little to say, I will be on Greater Boston tonight talking about it.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Let me first give kudos to Deval Patrick for going to the mat for those families in New Bedford. I don't want to dive into the whole illegal-immigrant debate at the moment, but clearly these folks don't deserve to have their families ripped apart summarily like that -- and others in the area don't need to live in terror that it will happen to them. Patrick could have stayed out of it, or could have taken the feds' word that they were being sensitive to the needs of those with children. He could even have hesitated while considering the political implications of stepping in -- which would have been understandable given the recent pounding he's taken for having a political tin ear. Instead, he saw a potentially horrible situation unfolding, and acted quickly to try to prevent it. By the way, what does our former governor think of this? Anyone? But now, because it's late on a Friday afternoon, we check the in-box and, why yes, it's a big announcement from the administration! Fancy that. The director of the beleaguered state crime lab has been given the boot -- er, resigned -- and the state has contracted with a private firm to do a "complete management and operational systems analysis." This is not a huge surprise (the bidding process for the independent analysis has been known), but the simultaneous ousting of Carl Selavka suggests that the ongoing lab review by the State Police has found enough to suggest systemic administrative problems, and not just one bad apple as some reporting has made it sound. On the other hand, the elevating of a veteran lab employee to be acting director might be a different sign. The crime lab scandal is, in my opinion, a potentially huge and far-reaching one. We've gone through plenty of these reviews around here before -- the Chief Medical Examiner's office, the BPD fingerprint unit, etc. -- and it is never done in the kind of public, transparent way necessary to restore public confidence. I think today's announcements are generally good signs that this one might be different (although the odds are still against it) -- even if they did come late on a Friday afternoon.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
If you care about the Darfur crisis, or want to see how top-notch journalism outlets are taking advantage of the internet, or if you are just interested in what exactly Massachusetts's own Andrew Natsios is dealing with as special envoy to Sudan... check out Travis Fox's "interactive report" (I'd call it multimedia, but whatever) for the Washington Post, on the Darfur crisis spilling into Chad.
The NH Union-Leader's top political reporter, John DiStaso, makes this observation today: A week ago, in response to a question during an interview with New Hampshire
Union Leader editors and a reporter, Mitt Romney said, "English needs to be the
language that is spoken in America. We cannot be a bilingual nation like
Canada." Five days later, a Romney news release announced that the campaign had
"launched its first Spanish radio ad."
Last night, the AFL-CIO leadership voted unanimously to recommend that its 54 member unions refrain from endorsing Presidential candidates until the full organization picks one in the fall. Some unions might very well do so anyway, but most will probably comply. (This obviously doesn't affect the unions not affiliated with AFL-CIO, most notably the SEIU locals.) The idea is to make the AFL-CIO's endorsement a huge key to winning the Democratic nomination. Fair enough. But which candidates are helped or hurt by this development? I think this helps Hillary Clinton. John Edwards, and to a lesser extent Obama Barack, were likely to gain some union endorsements -- which bring with them monetary contributions, volunteer help, boosts in the polls, independent-expenditure ads and literature, and general credibility. Clinton would have been successful in persuading many, but not all, of those unions to hold off their endorsements. But every endorsement would serve as a dent in her 'inevitability' armor. On the other hand, this could mean that whoever emerges as the credible alternative to Clinton by the fall, could get an enormous boost in the crucial final stretch before the primaries by gaining the AFL-CIO endorsement -- and with it tens of thousands of volunteer troops and tens of millions of dollars in independent expenditures.
...because, as I've mentioned before on this blog, I love everybody.
First of all, let me tip my hat to Scot Lehigh -- or should I say Saint Scot, chronicler of Mitt -- who absolutely eviscerates our former Governor and leaves the well-coiffed head on a stake, in a Boston.com web-only column.
Meanwhile, in the dead-tree version of the Globe, Joan Vennochi reports
what I've known on the QT for a week or so, that the great Democratic
consultant Michael Goldman is leaving Bloomberg radio and returning to
consulting. Goldman gave me that news off the record recently when we
did a Greater Boston segment together -- which is like being in a home
run derby with Mark McGwire.
As it happens, Congressman Bill Delahunt was also at the studio that
day to do a seperate segment, which I mention by way of transitioning
to Delahunt's role (at Governor Patrick's request) in getting DSS in to
see the Michael Bianco Inc. employees being detained at Fort Devens.
Delahunt, who always strikes me as one of the most decent people
around, has long been particularly compassionate about immigrant issues
-- which has earned him a spot as an enemy of the hard-line
anti-immigrant crowd nationally. Regardless of the outcome of the
deportation proceedings, the affected families will fare much better
through this thanks to having Delahunt as the district's US rep.
Speaking of the local-area Congressional delegation (writing is all about transitions, folks), you'll recall that I advised you to keep your eye on their key positions in government oversight.
I hope you have. Massachuetts's own John Tierney chaired the recent
hearings on the Walter Reed fiasco -- and New Hampshires Paul Hodes
(who reminds me a little of Goldman, now that I think of it) made some
news clips with his aggresive questioning as well. This followed, of
course, the must-see hearings on Iraqi reconstruction (featuring Paul
Bremer and the pallets of cash), in which Boston's own Stephen Lynch
played a large part. Up next, incidentally, the committee appears to be
closing in on what's behind the stink at GSA
they've been asking about for some time. Elsewhere, this week Marty
Meehan announced that the new Armed Services Oversight and
Investigations subcommittee, which he chairs, "will be evaluating
current U.S. plans for and progress to date
in training, equipping and sustaining the Iraqi Security Forces." Hey, there's an idea, four years into this thing, huh?
That's enough praising for now. I don't want to overdo it.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
In this week's Phoenix (on paper tomorrow, online now), I have a feature looking at the lack of statehouse veterans on Deval Patrick's staff -- and whether this lack of experienced insiders is hurting the governor's effectiveness. Read for yourself: The Green Governor?Few of Deval Patrick's "fresh blood" staff have been seasoned in the statehouse hallways. Is the inexperience showing?
Today the state GOP asked the state Ethics Commission to look into Deval's Citigroup call. (Have I mentioned that so far I like the new Mass GOP under Torky? The way they're handling the Patrick miscues, including this one, is SO much better than they ever would have.) Meanwhile Patrick spoke to reporters this morning to ask his supporters to please "don't give up on me." My first observation is that you've got to feel bad for poor Timmy Murray, thrown in
front of the media to defend "the call" yesterday, only to
see his boss turn around and admit that the call was indefensible. The
Governor owes him one.
More importantly: what's up with Patrick refusing to speak to Frank Phillips, and
having his press secretary answer questions with a "we'll just stand by
our statement," but calling columnist Eileen McNamara to explain
himself? That's bogus with a capital B. Let me guess: if necessary, Patrick
will offer further explanation in his weekly podcast, or on a blog post,
or over dinner with Brian McCrory -- anything but take questions from
the journalist who reported the story. Then there's this from today's press encounter, from Lisa Wangsness's account: "This morning, Patrick sidestepped a question about whether he realized at the
time that it was wrong to make the call on behalf of Ameriquest or whether it
never occurred to him that his efforts for a company that does significant
business with the state would be inappropriate. Patrick would say only that he
had learned from the mistake." That is one of several questions that I -- and many others in the state -- would like an answer to. And I dare say that the actual reporter of the story probably has some questions that I don't even know to ask. Patrick should answer the questions, or explain why he's not going to answer them. Patrick should sit down for an interview with Phillips, period.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
A peace rally is scheduled for Copley Square on March 10, at which hundreds of protesters will form a 100-foot-wide peace symbol. There's a website if you want to take part. This is meant as a warm-up of sorts for the big March 24 march and rally -- which also has a web site.
Back in January, legislators began asking Tim Cahill to explain why lottery revenues for the current fiscal year were so far below projections. On January 19th, he testified at a Beacon Hill hearing that the problem was, in part, due to the unfortunate fact that no big jackpots had built up, meaning no huge rush of people spending their paychecks on lottery tickets. MegaMillions hasn't hit since, and the pot for tonight's drawing is $340 million. Coincidence? Or smart state fiscal planning?
Oh, Deval. I don't know what the proper ethics are regarding his phone call to Citigroup to vouch for his old friends at Ameriquest, as reported in today's Globe. But it doesn't help to suggest that it's OK because he wasn't acting in his capacity as governor. Sure, and Tom Reilly was acting as a friend, not in his capacity as AG when he called the Worcester DA about that driving fatality a year ago. When you hold a position of power, you don't get to pretend that your power is irrelevant in circumstances of your choosing. In addition, the last thing Patrick should be doing is anything remotely Ameriquest-related. I'm of the opinion that Patrick got a remarkable free pass during the campaign on his involvement with Ameriquest -- and frankly, he's been lucky that his relationship with that company hasn't been brought up recently, as Massachusetts has been drowning in foreclosures thanks in large part to that company's predatory loans. It's reasonable to ask, I think, what his attitude is about this very serious problem, and whether that attitude is tainted by his experience at Ameriquest. In any event, not a good story for an administration that's been low on good stories lately.
Monday, March 05, 2007
My only question here is what took so long. Over here we had John Auerbach, longtime executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission... and over there was this open position for Deval Patrick to fill as Public Health Commissioner. No-brainer, I'd say. Several others have speculated to me that Auerbach would be a great appointment. Now, apparently it's done. I like Auerbach, so I think this is a good hire for Patrick and his Health and Human Services secretary, JudyAnn Bigby -- and a loss for Boston, of course. Fortunately, I think there are a lot of good people out there, and this should be a relatively easy spot for Menino to fill.
A new LA Times poll of Republican National Committee members and state Republican chairs has good news for Mitt Romney -- and perhaps a more meaningful glimpse into his standing within the party base than recent straw polls. These are the top insiders in the party structure. (Each state has one RNC committeeman and one committeewoman, as well as the state party chair.) They also are all "superdelegates" with votes at the '08 convention, assuming they retain their positions. Romney leads the Presidential-preference question among these folks, with 20 percent. Giuliani is at 14%, McCain 10%, Gingrich 8%, Huckabee 4%. Just over a third had no preference. Romney also has a tremendous favorable/unfavorable rating, at 83% favorable, 8% unfavorable. Giuliani is the same (83/10), but McCain is 56/38. Brownback's number's are not good. Huckabee's are, at 66/4 with 26% unaware and 4% not sure. The survey also polled DNC members, who line up Clinton-Edward-Obama, but with very high favorables for all the major candidates. (Not much love for Dennis Kucinich, though.)
Mitt Romney said the word "conservative" 18 times in his big CPAC speech Friday (or "conservatives" or "conservatism"), and bussed in a bunch of supporters to make a big splash at the conference. His speech was pretty well-received on the major right-wing web sites, and he squeeked out a first-place finish in the straw poll. That should give his supporters a little moral boost for a while. However.... It sure doesn't look like many of the regular conference-goers -- the ones whose hotel rooms aren't being paid for by Romney -- are sold on him. You can understand why large percentages of true conservatives would leave Giuliani and McCain off their ballots, but it's more telling that seven out of ten wouldn't make Romney, the supposed conservative alternative among the major candidates, one of their top two choices. (And it's even worse if you subtract out the Romney-paid votes.) I think Romney did himself some good, but is still a long way from being the concensus-choice conservative alternative.
Friday, March 02, 2007
With the Senate considering hearings on whether to change the military's "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy on homosexual soldiers, Senator Ron Wyden recently sent a letter on the topic to David Chu, Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness at the Department of Defense. Chu responded with this letter, obtained and helpfully posted online by ABC News. In it, Chu warns that the mere discussion of the policy undermines the War on Terror: The Global War on Terrorism is far-reaching and unrelenting.... A national debate on changing [the policy], with the accompanying divisiveness and turbulence across our country, will compound the burden of the war.
It appears that Mitt Romney finished a humiliating fifth in last night's Spartanburg, SC straw poll, behind Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, John McCain, and Sam Brownback. Romney's camp is putting out quotes saying that such votes are meaningless, but I can tell you that these straw polls were a key part of the Romney strategy from the beginning, and this is a huge blow. Update: The final order was McCain, Giuliani, Hunter, Brownback, Romney. Romney got 10% of the votes.Most importantly, it comes just as Romney is desperately trying to rescue his collapsing support among conservatives, as I wrote this week, and he needed to show them something positive -- not this. And now, Romney himself is mouthing the blame-the-MSM line that his supporters on the right have started using, as I wrote. The Globe's Scott Helman reports from New Hampshire today that Romney told reporters that the mainstream media's focus on him proves that he's the leading conservative candidate. More telling is Romney's phrasing in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, as Helman reports: "I think it proves that the media has determined who the conservative candidate
is, because they're going after me with hammer and tong and that's the way you
would expect to go after the conservative candidate," Romney was quoted as
saying in the interview. "I'm proud of the fact that the mainstream media isn't
wild about my candidacy, and that's why I'm going to win."
Yeesh. Bashing the vast liberal media conspiracy this early in the game? If I was one of the business/finance leaders who contributed to Romney's campaign, I'd want my $2000 back. Anyway, there's now an awful lot of pressure on Romney's performance at the big Conservative Political Action Conference. He is scheduled to speak at 2:45 this afternoon, and it will be carried on C-SPAN. | |