Last Night a bunch guys got together at the Park Plaza for dinner, drinks, light entertainment (very light) and a few short speeches peppered with stories and humor with an occasional dose of reflection, appreciation, and concern for others. They do these three times a year. The group is made up of those on the mailing list (the club members) and their guests.
One rule. No wives or girlfriends or nieces. In other words no gurls allowed.
There are no dues, no election of officers, no charter, no clubhouse, and no other activities of any kind other than the three dinners. Every year at one of the dinners they name a new president. He is sworn in and told to mind his own business and do what he is told. Whic means ‘nothing’. Everyone laughs. Club members are given medallions which many proudly wear at the black tie dinners. New members are invited via a tap on the shoulder. There is no application.
In truth the dinners are run by a small group of people. The treasurer is the poor bastard that has to book the room and collect all the dough. Each member pays for himself and his guest It’s is not a profit making thing or a charity event.
The guys responsible for the entertainment are the others that put time into it.
This tradition traces its roots back to the mid 1800s when Irish American professional men began meeting like this informally so as to strengthen the struggle against anti-Irish sentiment prevalent at the time.
Today all the members have some Irish blood in them. The dinners, although mostly made up of those pasty face, red bulbous nose, white Irish guys Boston has come to hate, have many non Irish in attendance who are there as guests.
Last night a new president was sworn in, a poem written by the late Mayor John Hynes entitled Boston was read. There was also a great story told about what motivated Hynes to run against Mayor Curley in 1950 and beat him. Typical Irish.
Also told to the audience the famous story the former Globe columnist (P.M. column in Boston Evening Globe in early 70s) and state house type Ron Wysocki has told over the years.
There was a long time research director at the Globe named Alcott. Yes was a descendent of those Alcotts. Well someone at the Globe read about his death in the Herald. The Globe obit department didn’t know about. When the Globe called his family and asked why they were informed that Walcott’s wishes were to inform the Herald via telephone and send a letter to the Globe.
But anyway, A bunch of local major domos in business, banking, and politics gave out awards, spoke, and laughed.
People reminisced about the time Charlie Baker was invited speaker. He was great. Got a standing O.
Deval Patrick and the Globe were the butts of many jokes. According to those pesky e-mails Deval knew it was men only for months. He accepted the invite in a timely fashion. Then he withdrew hours before the dinner because there would be no chicks there.
The Globe fully endorsed the move and for the next week informed its readers about these dangerous pasty face women haters.
Deval and the Globe were once again preaching to people from the ungrounded yet lofty perches of elitism. Many of the successful people there last night were self-made children and grandchildren of poor immigrants. Many were lucky sperm club winners because their fathers and grand fathers worked their way out of poverty. Now they have upper middle class jobs. Not wall street money. No scholarships to prep schools and Harvard and Harvard Law. No trust funds funded from distant and remote relatives.
Unlike the elitists at the Globe and in the Governor’s office the men at the Clover Club Dinner last night empathize with the poor, the weak, and the exploited.
Like many of the men in the room last night, Scott Brown has a working wife and daughters. And like many of the men in the room last night, the two things Massachusetts voters hate most are being told what to do and being talked down to. Scott Brown capitalized on that. Can Charley Baker or Tim Cahill do the same without cancelling each other out?
farnkoff says
For charity and good PR.
goldsteingonewild says
Ah you were there too? With that kind of hangover, it explains why you crashed dad’s car.
jconway says
This nicely encapsulates the Democratic Party’s dilemma. It’s base are highly educated, highly mobile, upper middle class, secular voters while the voters it needs to win over are none of those things. Its really quite sad that the white working class abandoned the party and that tale involves both evil duplicity on the part of the GOP who continue to screw that segment over and complete and utter indifference and incompetence on the part of the Democrats. Who cares about the symbolism of this old club when so many people are out of work? Deval really effed up on this one.
mizjones says
bob-neer says
With that nasty little sucker-punch underside.
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p>Ah, yes, good times.
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p>Anyone in the room without grey hair?
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p>Still, sort of sweet, all in all, like the guys who want to tell stories about how great Scollay Square was back in the day, or the nostalgia of a Dennis Lehane.
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p>Good to have you here in the Boston of the future present, Ernie.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
You seem upset that some, not all, in the room were elderly.
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p>You seem upset that these people have memories and some like to share them.
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p>I don’t get the Dennis Lehane reference. But I do think Mystic River was a contrived story that should have been a dream sequence.
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p>By the way Bob Neer, as a crazy lady feeding pigeons in the Boston Common once said to a bunch of kids who gave her some shit and made the birds fly away, “You’ll all get old someday. I hope ya get cansah! Ya hear dat, cansah”
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p>I have no idea what this means Bob,
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p>But I assume it’s one of those ‘I am a victim and those not in my tribe are victimizers because I pointed out the similarities in the room as to how people felt about Deval to be very similar as to why the general public voted for Brown.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
It should read
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p>’I am a victim and those not in my tribe are victimizers’ because I pointed out the similarities in the room as to how people felt about Deval to be very similar as to why the general public voted for Brown.
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p>carry on
bob-neer says
Relax, have a beer. It’s on me.
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p>Have another.
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p>Sheesh.
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p>Hope, not hate, my friend.
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p>I love history, as you know, Boston’s best of all, and especially when told from the horse’s mouth. I’d love to go to a Clover Club dinner if they decided to join 21st century Boston and admit women.
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p>Your point was a valid one, for better and for worse.
peter-porcupine says
bob-neer says
I’m confident I can keep up my end of the drinking, at least, and that is saying something, I suppose.
lightiris says
Deval did the right thing. And the so-called gentlemen who attended this thing? Ugh. At least they don’t have hair on their knuckles any more, what with all the years of friction.
jconway says
I actually think its unfortunate there are few places guys can go stag anymore. Its perfectly okay for women to have their all women gyms, all women Oprah book clubs, all women spas, and all women clubs and organizations-but the second an established institution that has always been men only exists it somehow threatens our fundamental rights and the modern notion of gender equality. There are some activities that are simply manly and are a lot more fun when only men participate in them.
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p>That said your joke was hilarious lightiris and probably a prescient observation.
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p>As for you EB3 remember the ‘reality-based’ community was the last to see the blood in the water floating around Coakley before the GOP sharks came for her, and its the same cognitive dissonance when it comes to Deval. The guy is an incumbent in one of the bluest states in the country and he is polling at 36% and would lose if his opposition was united. He is polling at 36% now a year to go in the election. Coakley had solid leads for the two weeks before the bottom fell out from under her, as far as I can tell Deval has very little room left to fall. Of course Charley infamously argued that means ‘he is bound to go up’ like a giddy Enron investor. In any case even if he did win, a plurality win is hardly a progressive vindication folks but a sad commentary on the state of our states’ politics.
jconway says
Outside of my views on abortion, (which I would argue are an extension of liberal human rights theory to the unborn-the libertarian position of the modern Democratic party is far more conservative and utilitarian IMO), I would still proudly say I am a progressive. Just one that thinks fiscal conservativism goes hand in hand with good governance and is disenchanted with our states’ current offerings of candidates for Governor. I really hope Grace Ross listens and primaries Deval, even though she will lose it would be good for both ‘small d’ and ‘big d’ democracy.
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p>
farnkoff says
If I were to make the same derogatory generalizations about the patrons of Healthworks (an all-women’s health club) would that be okay with you? If these men are doing and saying mean, nasty things at their affairs, or engaged in devious or corrupt activities or negotiations, that’s one thing. Lacking any evidence of this, I don’t know if the insults and moral condemnation are appropriate.
lightiris says
I’m about as enamored of clubs that exclude women or men as I am of clubs that exclude Jews or Blacks, the value and integrity of the individuals participating in these clubs notwithstanding.
eddiecoyle says
While I have believe Gov. Patrick has not met reasonable expectations about reforming state government in the areas of state contracting, performance management and evaluation of state services and programs, accountability, or transparency, he has eight months to try to reposition himself as an authentic reformer of state government.
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p>The performance of the Democratic legislature, particularly the House, has been abysmal, dilatory, and, in the case of the former House speaker, (allegedly) corrupt. I would advocate Deval propose a set of very aggressive reforms in competitive state contracting, lowering the amount of maximum campaign contributions in state elections, performance management and evaluation of state services and programs, accountability, and transparency. When the Legislature and state employee unions balk at adopting these proposals, then Gov. Patrick should use their likely opposition to run against the Legislature and these unions as a “reborn reformer,” making these specific proposals the centerpiece of a second term effort to “change the culture on Beacon Hill.”
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p>I understand that running against the leadership of your own party on Beacon Hill and upsetting the state employee unions represents politically risky. Unfortunately, state government remains in a very precarious fiscal situation, requiring its chief executive to take some calculated political risks to reduce state expenditures, create greater efficiencies in state government management, and improve the quality outcomes of state services and programs.
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p>Charlie Baker has a record of accomplishing these reform and management tasks as head of Administration and Finance of the Weld administration and in helping to save and turn-around Harvard Pilgrim health plan. During his first official week on the campaign trail, he failed at communicating effectively how he proposes to apply his successful government and private sector management experience to the burdensome policy and management problems plaguing state government.
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p>Nevertheless, Charlie Baker also has six months to articulate convincingly his reform and quality outcome improvement agenda for the state. Charlie Baker, like Gov. Patrick is not a natural, glad-handing, back-slapping politician; he’s a reserved, cool, and thoughtful man whose can claim a series of successful professional life experiences immeasurably more impressive than our new Republican Senator/National Political Flavor of the Week. However, retail state politics demands that Baker will need to have his political handlers develop the photo ops, campaign symbols, and public appearances that attempt to demonstrate and connect Baker’s government reform ideas, and tax and spending proposals to the economic struggles currently facing Massachusetts citizens. That is the challenge that Charlie Baker will have to meet if he wants to be our next governor.
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p>Maybe, Scott Brown can lend Charlie Baker his famous pick-up truck and an amplified bullhorn so Charlie can drive it right underneath the portico of the State House and blast his message of reform through the legislative halls of the House and Senate and all the up to the Corner Office where current gubernatorial occupant would do well to re-embrace the mantle of government reform.
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p>Finally, Tim Cahill has about as much chance as becoming our next governor as the Clover Club announcing that the 2011 dinner will be a “dry” event. I don’t see Cahill as a player unless Gov Patrick popular support craters to below 33%. I am afraid there just aren’t as many lace-curtain, South Shore, Irish men and women around as there were in the 1970s and 1980s. They have moved out of state and out of the region, where the politics may be cleaner and tamer, but where the Irish bar and folk music scenes are considerably lamer.
dave-from-hvad says
except I disagree that Charlie Baker has a completely postive history of accomplishing public management reform under Weld. In the early ’90s, Baker, then undersecretary of health, and Peter Nessen, then A&F secretary, engineered the dismantling of nine state public health, mental retardation, and mental health facilities.
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p>This led to a major expansion of the largely unregulated state contracting system for human services. Deval Patrick is now simply attempting to further expand that underfunded and largely broken system.
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p>Baker also took charge of the deregulation of the health care system in Massachusetts, which had mixed results in keeping health care costs down and was a factor in the mega-mergers of large hospitals in Massachusetts and the closure of many smaller hospitals.