Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

BMG exclusive: women defend Patrick’s stance on LaGuer

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As noted below, Kerry Healey’s latest ad suggests that no woman would ever “compliment” or otherwise do what Deval Patrick did on behalf of a “rapist.”  It’s a pitiful attempt to close the yawning gender gap between Healey and Patrick, as reflected in the polls.

And the suggestion is false.  My previous post listed several testimonials from women on behalf of LaGuer, some of them much more effusive than anything Patrick ever said.  In light of the new ad, I wrote to some of them to ask what they thought about the ad’s implication.  Here’s the first response I’ve gotten back, from Sally Greenberg:

As a lawyer for the Anti-Defamation League at the time (I no longer am with the ADL) I was concerned, as were many others in the legal community, that Mr. LaGuer had not had a fair trial.  This was based on evidence that there may have been racial bias directed against Mr. LaGuer during jury deliberations. We have since learned that there may have been additional irregularities, among other issues, in the handling of DNA and fingerprint testing related to Mr. LaGuer’s conviction.

It certainly doesn’t serve the interests of justice, the interests of women or the interest of rape victims to have the wrong person in jail for the terrible crime of rape. There are many many good people who have looked at LaGuer case and determined that it deserves a fresh look. Speaking for an unbiased judicial system in the face of evidence that the system may not have operated fairly for Ben LaGuer was the right thing to do and remains the right thing to do today, in my view.

UPDATE: an extraordinary personal story from the comments:

I wish you could see the steam coming out of my ears right now.

I am a rape survivor of 34 years. A violent stranger, that was NEVER caught.

But if he had been, I most certainly would want to be ABSOLUTELY sure he was THE ONE.  I didn’t have DNA in 1972, hell,and yes, it’s true, that back then the victim was the one at fault.

We’ve come a long way in justice in 3 and a half decades and if you notice, we are no longer VICTIMS, we ARE survivors.

Deval, I believe did the right thing, he removed all doubt  and it proved that LaGuer WAS the guilty one! And once it was definitive, he then washed his hands of the case!!!!!

I am sick and tired of the “fear” tactics of the Healy camp. When these attack ads happen, it does bring memories flooding back.  It NEVER completely goes away.

We’ve got to find a way to stop the garbage.  I wouldn’t give this woman my vote, even without Deval.  I wouldn’t let her wipe my shoes.

What she and MR. Pretty Hair should be doing is finding a way to KEEP these guys off the street longer than a few months, and STOP making the victims the target of salacious “media”.

Tell me Muffy, how do I get over 4 years of you and Mitt????

It’s called Patrick/Murray on Nov. 7th.

Barb in Worc.

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Comments

  1. I cut and pasted your previous post and sent it to Dianne Williamson.

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    Perhaps you’ll hear from her as well.

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    Thanks for researching all that.

  2. I wish you could see the steam coming out of my ears right now.

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    I am a rape survivor of 34 years. A violent stranger, that was NEVER caught.

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    But if he had been, I most certainly would want to be ABSOLUTELY sure he was THE ONE.  I didn’t have DNA in 1972, hell,and yes, it’s true, that back then the victim was the one at fault.

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    We’ve come a long way in justice in 3 and a half decades and if you notice, we are no longer VICTIMS, we ARE survivors.

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    Deval, I believe did the right thing, he removed all doubt  and it proved that LaGuer WAS the guilty one! And once it was definitive, he then washed his hands of the case!!!!!

    <

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    I am sick and tired of the “fear” tactics of the Healy camp. When these attack ads happen, it does bring memories flooding back.  It NEVER completely goes away.

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    We’ve got to find a way to stop the garbage.  I wouldn’t give this woman my vote, even without Deval.  I wouldn’t let her wipe my shoes.

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    What she and MR. Pretty Hair should be doing is finding a way to KEEP thes guys off the street longer than a few months, and STOP making the vitims the target of salacious “media”.

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    Tell me Muffy, how do I get over 4 years of you and Mitt????

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    It’s called Patrick/Murray on Nov. 7th.

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    Barb in Worc.

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    • No thank you…..in the wonderful words of Maya Angelou,that I quote at the end of every email I send. “When you know better, you do better.”  I like to think of myself as an educator as well as an activist.

    • Barb — give this some editing for length and tone and then just edit this down please e-mail this to every Letters to the Editor in every paper in the state!

  3. As someone who prizes clear thinking and writing, I never thought I reach the point of saying something like the following: Muffy is just plain tiring, tiresome and tired.

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    This woman is, quite literally, a hairdo who has nothing to offer. How could she possibly think that this bilious horseshit she trowels out could be the key to getting elected????

  4. I would also add that the reason college costs are skyrocketing, at least in Massachusetts, are the outrageous fees that Muffy and her charlatan boss have affixed to public education in Massachusetts…The answer isn’t demonizing the children of immigrants (who may well be citizens), it’s stemming the tide of using fees and fines as a way to balance the state budget.

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    Elmer Gantry and Buffy St. Marie have been pretending for four years that they’re fiscally responsible. Please….In his first six months in office, that huckster in the corner office tacked a fee on to anything he could find. Bar Exam? Raise the Fee. State sponsored prostate test? Raise the fee. License for a dock in a pond in Pembroke? Raise the fee.

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    How that assface Howie Carr and that succubus Barbara Anderson can bemoan Deval as fiscally irresponsible is astoundingly disingenuous…The Romney administration sucks. Buffy St. Marie sucks, and I hope she gets beat by 84 points. I want this to be this first time in political history where a candidate wins by triple digits….

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    I know this has nothing to do with rape, but I felt like venting…To paraphrase Lawrence Eagleburger, Buffy St. Marie makes me want to puke.

    • Howie Carr is a fat ass that is still using his college yearbook photo on the Bogus Herald front page.  Who gives a flying you-know-what if the carbuncle on satan’s butt spews another diatribe (and cheap shot) and anyone.  Hear that?  That’s crickets.  I see more people reading the crappy Metro than the super crappy Herald in the morning.

      • something like 35% of Americans get their news from talk radio. Massachusetts, despite its liberal tendencies, has a booming talk radio industry. For shame, that means we can’t just disregard Howie.

  5. I saw the new ad and it is very disgusting.  I do not think anyone, Republican or Democrat is going to believe that Deval is essentially going after women.  If you don’t pay attention to the ad all you see is a woman alone walking in a parking garage and then see Deval’s picture.  Sherry Healey is supposed to be concerned about victims yet in all her advertising she is just trying to make the victims more scared. 

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    Tim “attack dog” O’Brien always has a lot to say too, except when he gets put on the spot and has no comment.  Has he ever responded to the news that Healey gave an honor to Bulger’s henchman?

    • in Waltham yesterday with Reps. Koutoujian and Stanley, Sen. Fargo, the national chair of the International Brotherhood of Police, a representative from Mass COP, and two victims advoactes. The adovactes talked about how Healey’s campaign has made it much harder to do their jobs over the past few weeks as their clients are expressing fear that their experience will be aired in public and therefore be revictimized. The advocates are worried victims will not come forward and seek help as it is already a very difficult step to take and this just makes it a harder choice. Thanks Muffy.

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