Back in August of ’93 I had to hit a wake in a Boston suburb where if you didn’t live there you wouldn’t know where it was. It was during Tom Menino’s first mayoral election. A hot summer afternoon in the middle of that campaign season. Who do I see going in ahead of me at this wake far outside of Boston? Acting Mayor Tom Menino/candidate for Mayor Tom Menino. No one, including the family, would have knocked him for not showing up. In fact i bet nobody expected it.
I didn’t know Menino knew this guy (why would I) but i later found out he didn’t know anyone else in the family. He just knew and liked the guy who died. Period. Not the widow or children or siblings. The deceased was not from Boston. I doubt there were two Boston voters in the funeral home.
Point Being: This is when I knew Tom Menino was a good guy (just don’t cross him).
You see folks, Menino didn’t have to go that wake. He probably pissed off the campaign people for giving up two hours of vital campaigning time to say a prayer for a dead guy whose family can’t deliver a single vote.
In fact it’s more important to hit the wake of a family member of the politically connected then that of the main man himself. He can’t do anything for you after he’s dead.
Menino went to the guy’s wake because that is what decent people do and he was a decent man. (Just don’t cross him)
Ninety-nine percent of the politicians would not have attended the wake under those conditions.
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We all lose if the casinos go forward in Massachusetts. Do you think the old time wise guys holding on to their dying traditions and collecting money from the hundreds/thousands of gaming machines inside private clubs, doing a little loansharking, protecting bookies, supplying women, plus some drug business want to see a new paradigm?
But now with these casinos it will be a game changer and bigger bad guys will be coming to push these old timers out of the way and take control of the many opportunities a “destination” casino needs available for it to be successful.
If I was an old Italian with a nice monthly envelopes coming in I would want things to stay exactly the way they are.
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How about the pro-casino ad showing a Springfield EMT and fireman begging you to let Springfield keep its casino.
Ahhhh, is that reason enough to vote against casinos? Fuck the firemen and cops and everyone else on the municipal payrolls who can’t wait to get their stubby little fingers on this money.
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Okay folks, now lets get out there and get Martha elected. Then we can get on with finding the right candidate to run against her in four years. But right now, as far as I am concerned, Martha is a Saint.
Come Wednesday morning we can all come back to earth and remember how much she sucks.
But Charlie is worse by far. Remember that.
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JimC says
I remember that short period. Nobody would have predicted 20 years in office.
Just as no one would have predicted 16 years of Republican governors back in 1990.
jconway says
On Menino and also on Coakley. Baker is a radical libertarian who will slash and burn, union bust, and do very little to move the state forward. Martha is good on economics, bread and butter issues, and social issues and will do less damage on civil liberties as Gov than she did as AG. And if she sucks-a primary isn’t unheard of or out of the question.