I go full-bore “where’s the 5,000 jobs coming from,” Mr. WannabeGovernor over at my blog, but here’s a classic example of why “The Smartest Man in Government” is quickly becoming the best political joke of a frequently used title I can remember.
First, the video.
“Erica” was on the radio today with Baker, asking about those 5,000 jobs in state government that he wants to cut, wondering if she’s going to be one of those state employees to get a pink slip. Someone (that I don’t know) emailed me the video this morning — and it was a doozy. Baker says to her, talking about how private employees have been taking massive paycuts — he throws around the number “20%” — that it seems like State Employees haven’t been taking any cuts. So, he asks her if she knows anyone who’s had any pay cuts that she works with in state government.
“Absolutely… I took a pay cut.”
Flabbergasted, Baker says she’s the exception to the rule.
Now it’s our turn to be flabbergasted. State Government has been absolutely decimated by the Great Recession. From just one round of cuts last year alone:
Governor Deval Patrick cut an additional 750 jobs from state government yesterday and said he will furlough 5,000 executive branch employees for up to five days, a response to relentlessly plunging state revenues that have forced the governor to make an unprecedented series of spending reductions….The 750 positions he eliminated yesterday are in addition to 1,000 positions already cut this year.
Does The Smartest Man in Government, Charley Baker, even read the news?
Slight disclosure: I may or may not know this “Erica.” Her voice sounds vaguely like my sister’s friend who I haven’t seen in years, but I know she works in state government, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s her. (Different people according to my sister.)
Discuss
25 Comments . Comments are closed.MassDOT laid off 250 last Friday
WHY this is kept quiet is a mystery to me. As I said in an earlier comment on another thread, if I were Deval, I'd be taking out a front page ad, saying, 'See? See? I'm CUTTING!'
Are you absolutely sure the Baker is the BEST poltical joke?
I really think it is
"The Smartest Man in Government" line has made me laugh my ass off each time he does something incredibly stupid, and there's been a lot to pick from during this campaign.
He's YOUR Opponent Of Choice
Forgive me for stereotypically grouping. Just about everything from Baker is what he wants you to hear. He is not good at all being spontaneous. We Republicans are going to have a very spirited primary.
I've been pretty consistent in saying,
I'm not sure he's going to be making it past the primary, for a very long time on this site now. He definitely does have a battle on his hand that will not be easily won, before he ever faces off against Patrick. I harp on Baker so much because when it comes to him, you don't at all get what you see. I'm pretty sure people have a basic understanding of what they'd get with Mihos.
$quot;We Republicans are going to have a very spirited primary$quot;
Yeah, as soon as Christy stops bouncing checks.
Ah, from the same Frank Phillips...
...who fails to report both sides of any story.
And as an example - the big business dispute story Phillips broke? And the follow up about the settlement on the OUTCOME is..Sec. B-2 on 3/5 as a business story! See, we DID report it! And before you ask - I can't find ot on the web site, so I can't link.
Maybe
...and I'm not saying that Mihos wouldn't run a good populist campaign, but he seems to be ceding the populist dynamic to Cahill and his campaign structure (if one can believe my Republican friends from Weld '90) seems to be imploding.
What's your read of the Republican grassroots and Mihos' field at present?
If you keep focusing on the little gaffs and ignore the overall message--Dems lose.
Ok, he was surprised that she took a pay cut...of, setting up RMVs in Walgreens has little of devilsih details. But it seems folks around here are shining light on these little issues and ignoring Baker's larger message, which is we in fact can do MORE WITH LESS.
Frankly, from my experience, I think Baker is right. Separate bureaucracies that deal with different individual issues, such as a homeless mother getting job training who needs daycare for her kids deals with 5 or 6 agencies with conflicting rules and in the end is beaten down by being bounced around from agency to agency filling out forms. We can get better outcomes with more streamlined approaches.
That message resonates with me and I think it will resonate with frustrated middle of the road voters. So mock at your own risk.
For someone
with the resume he has with jobs at the highest levels of state finance on it, he should have been more aware of what he was talking about. Instead, he's pandering to emotional reactions to current events. If he wants to make a crack about the public sector not experiencing pay cuts (in his view) the way the private sector has, then he'd better be correct before he takes the cheap shot. That doesn't mean that serious streamlining of tasks may not be called for, it just means that playing to the cheap seats, politically, doesn't make him a politician I can support.
no, no, no, no
This is going right after where it hurts Baker the most -- his credibility. His whole campaign message is centered around him having been "the smartest man in government," who then went on to single-handidly whisk away all of Harvard Pilgrims problems and solve world hunger, or something. Fact of the matter is "The Smartest Man in Government" has shown a clear disinterest in the actual facts surrounding state government, and an absolute contempt toward those who would call him on it. This is exactly the sort of thing that will undermine and quite possibly destroy his campaign, with him repeating this sort of example over and over again; it ceases to become a few, unrelated events and starts to become a meme.
People need to ask him where those 5,000 jobs will come every day, because he has absolutely no freaking idea and sounds stupid every time he tries to justify it, it's a magical sounds-good number he made up, with no foresight or analysis, for those who salivate at the idea of drowning government in a bathtub, even if 80-99% of us think that's a pretty shitty idea. He has no idea what "regular people" feel or think, at least not these days, and not only is that reflected by how he answers that question when forced, but it also exposes his general lack of knowledge of government.
It's quite simply bat-shit crazy to say that after a year of cutting 1,750 state jobs, cutting 5,000 more will "streamline" and somehow magically improve the workings of government. It's ridiculous, absurd and an open flank if we push it, because his credibility is exposed. We need 1,000 more Ericas to put Charley Baker away for good.
Cahill's the same way
A few months ago on GBH when he was going on about Deval's unwillingness or inability to cut spending or waste or something, Emily Rooney (or maybe the dude who fills in for her occasionally) asked him where he would make some cuts, he said he didn't know because he "hadn't seen the budget." Which struck me as an extraordinarily odd response coming from the state treasurer. These guys (Baker and Cahill) obviously both really want to be Governor, but unfortunately they both seem to be full of shit.
moreover,
They both clearly want to be Governor, but neither one of them wants to do the dirty job of actually governing. That's what Baker and Cahill's intellectual laziness tells me, anyway.
Amplifying Ryepower12
In general, against someone who communicates values and narrative well, nitpicking is indeed a fool's errand. In 2000, George Bush was immune to questions about his knowledge and to exposures of his budgetary inconsistencies. But it didn't matter. Bush was great at jus' bein' a regular guy espousin' great Amer'can values.
I might add that during that campaign someone was successfully nitpicked. That person was Al Gore. Every inaccuracy, elliptic comment, and resort to hyperbole was the subject of immense scrutiny. Gore began to acquire the reputation of an exaggerator if not a liar. As a result of nitpicking.
Now I ask you, who do you think Baker most resembles personally?
Gore or Bush?
The assassination of Gore
was a concerted effort by all the major news organs. Examples: The NY Times and Chris Matthews The Washington Post The Globe
Hey Ryedog
He's gonna win dude. Then what do you do? Just wondering if "Erica" may or may not be full of crap. In other words does she even work in the public sector or is she some stooge that pulled a fast one on someone with nothing else to do but sit around and look for controversy. Try getting a job.
Wow
An A for Effort in Making-shit-up.
She makes a good point on the radio, so obviously she's lying about her job. Absurd. Seems to me she has a job, even if it's the variety at which you're overworked and underpaid. Maybe you should be a little less concerned with Erica's job and more concerned by the horse-manure job Charley Baker's doing running for Governor. Seriously, as a candidate, thus far, he's an embarrassment. He couldn't come off much worse in this mini debate with Erica if his name was Martha Coakley and Erica was trying to shake his hand outside Fenway Park.
Erica is playing a vital role
Fact checking statements of politicians (whether in campaign mode or in government) is vitally important to our democracy. Falsehoods and exaggerated statements need to be challenged. I wish we had more fact checking in the runup to the disastrous war in Iraq.
You may be happy with victories based on lies and deceit, but I am not. But then apparently you think that anyone who speaks truth to power is "full of crap."
Inane
I don't understand why this community tolerates content-free taunting. Notice how a little bit of taunting takes up the whole conversation. Note too that one could have re-written the content as follows:
As for the taunting, I'm reminded of Schopenhauer's remark that a mere teaspoon of sewage suffices to spoil a vat of wine.
That would have been much, much better
But still not very helpful, because it would have ignored the quote I used to back up Erica's point. That's why I spent 10 seconds (literally) with The Google to find that Boston Globe link. The pay cuts (and job cuts, for that matter) were very real.
FYI
johnny is the latest in a long line of Baker moles. now, at least he's annoying you too.
Heh. Really?
You mean someone who pokes his head in with content-free taunts about how there candidate is the awesomer and everyone should fear them and you're all going down is... annoying.
Where did you come up with that idea?
awwwwww...
tired old play book,
I was expecting more from Charles. Pretending that you can save 2 billion be merging some human service agencies is absurd. In fact, if you just look at Weld/Baker/Romney record when they were in charge, they achieved little savings from these consolidations. The reason is that once they looked at who is served by state agencies they realized that it is a diverse group with many different needs and a cookie cutter approach might make for a good sound bite, but does not work in the real word.
To me more blunt, Republicans like Baker act like they believe that poor people and persons with disabilities "all look the same" and therefore can be served by some type of generic agency. "Hey, lets lump the people with head injuries in the same agency with the mentally ill. And the lets put the blind in with those with developmental disabilities."
They are pandering to ignorance about human need. The facts are that persons with different disabilities have unique needs.
I wonder what running mate Tisei thinks about the merger of state agencies. He's shown an interest in DD issues. Does he agree that person's with developmental disabilities can be cared for by a generic agency?
Umm Festus?
Shouldn't you be gome by now? Your BMG cohorts surely would have expected no less from me. Our democratic governor figures if they can't vote, they can't vote against him. No, but their relatives and friends can. I am torn between Patrick's re-election campaign, and Coakley's non-campaign for stupidest mistakes in the DNCC contest. Actually, the DNCC wins their own contest. Their ad giving us reasons to vote for Senator Scott Brown is the stupidest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
I'm Beginning To See Why
The Baker campaign is imploding now. I tend to be extremely wary over a campaign citing Reagan's 11th commandment so much, while it's moles are tossing excrement everywhere. Hmm.
« Blue Mass Group Front Page
Wed 16 May 11:02 PM