Well, that was an interesting little eruption between Travaglini and Patrick, wasn’t it? And practically over before it started. I was most struck by the sweetness of Patrick’s tone in appearing with Trav on Friday (my emphasis):
Yesterday, after Travaglini’s about-face, Patrick was conciliatory, calling Travaglini “my friend and my new partner.
“We are looking forward to and have started building a very strong relationship,” Patrick said. “We are going to have conversations from time to time that are private and where there are differences. But I’ve said before and we’ve said to each other — not every difference is a controversy. We don’t have any significant differences today. What we’ve been doing is trying to work through our respective . . . legislative agendas and, as much as possible, get on the same page from the start.”
“My friend.” Isn’t that just awfully, ridiculously nice? And he may well mean it, seeing as Trav and Sal DiMasi have been over to the Milton for a Deval-cooked dinner.
This little exchange represents two totally competing styles of wielding power: Confrontation and Bluster vs. The Nice. Which do you think was more effective? Who comes out on top? What if Patrick had responded in kind — or indeed with anything less than the total warmth and equanimity that he displayed?
It may be that this approach is actually better understood outside of the Northeast, where politeness can seem like a show of weakness. (The Long Island native and Boston-trained Bill O’Reilly is a classic example of C&B-based power.) Particularly when someone else is watching, The Nice is actually pretty damn powerful. It takes guts, self-control, focus, and a thick skin: i.e. the confidence that one is not permanently diminished by the verbal blows of one’s adversary. For it to work, it has to be real, warm, and empathetic, not just the usual barbs couched in “please/thank you” language. For the wielder of The Nice, his stature is enhanced in direct proportion to the intensity of a Confrontation & Bluster attack.
This is what real toughness looks like.
In the end, nice guys finish last. Hopefully for those spinning it in their “progressive” way Patrick had better have a steel fist in a velevet glove. Or he’s t-o-a-s-t. done in by his own party.
Is it possible Deval is using the “kill with kindness” approach?
<
p>
BTW – Nice guys don’t finish last, the dumb ones do.
yes for say the first 100 days. Progressives have experience with finishing last so I’ll believe your dumb comment. Here’s another one:
<
p>
Show me a reformer and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t come back……….William Bulger.
Letting someone blow their cover, make a fool of themselves and a huge blunder… then saying, “awww, don’t worry about it Trav.” In public (and probably private too). Now, Trav is going to have to think twice about really challenging Deval.
<
p>
Deval’s nice… but exceptionally intelligent. People can’t dig in and go to the matresses with him, because if that’s happened, he’s probably already won. The political war is over before it started.
Nice is all well and good, and turning the other cheek/embracing your detractor is awfully mannish of Deval but you go too far in that direction and you are running away from such adjectives as “straight shooter”, “straight talk” and “honest” and towards such adjectives as “political”, “disingenuous”, “two-faced” and “pandering”…
<
p>
Which I only mention because of the overwhelmingly one-sided take presented above.
<
p>
I agree that it is nice to be able to not blow up when someone slams you. Deval sure looks to be one slick operator!
I already have the DemsForGiuliani.com domain name reserved and ready. Take a look here at what you can expect that support to look like.