Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Mass. Liberal on depression in public life

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Just go read it, will ya?

Maybe we should let Deval Patrick do his job (it could stand some improvement). And we should allow the Patrick family some privacy — after all she is not Britney Spears. And most of all, maybe we should learn about depression so the stigma will eventually go away.

Let’s see some probing questions on that topic.

Resign? Seriously, WTF, people? Did we need any more proof that there’s a media-driven feeding frenzy going on? UPDATE: Our JimCaralis says the brainiac who asked that question was Fox25’s Joe Battenfeld. Hey, at least he put his cards on the table.

Folks, we’re talking about a guy “scaling back on nights and weekends” to spend more time with his family. He’s been a big-shot lawyer for a long time, and so is his wife. You know the kinds of hours they’ve probably worked?

Goodness, you’d think we could cut him a little slack to play squash.

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Comments

  1. That thoughtful question was from Joe Battenfeld of Fox news and I agree it was completely out of line.

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    BTW – I think Britney could use a little slack…

  2. Try handball.

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    You play on a racquetball court, it requires leather gloves but no racket, and will give you a better workout than squash or racquetball.

  3. You know what would be great? For Deval to call a press conf or give a speech to clarify that he’s just doing what thousands of other people in the Commonwealth do every day — balancing work and family, sometimes under difficult circumstances. And that depression is nothing to be ashamed of, etc. And invite Kitty and Michael Dukakis to speak as well.

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    In other words push back against the pushback, but do it in an affirmative and human way. I think it could cut through some of the BS. At least my hope is that it could.

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    • I’m sure he has or will say something like that while he’s on the go. But I wouldn’t recommend a press event for that.

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      I think it’s better that he just do what he’s got to do for he and his wife. They can talk about it and advocate on the issue later, when they are comfortable doing that.

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      The fact that he had to mention it publicly means it must be pretty serious. It’s time to deal with their own issues and leave the advocacy campaign for later.

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      The question about him stepping down was a bit extreme, but also sort of a form question. People step down from political positions for family reasons. And I don’t think it would reflect poorly on him if he decided to do that. I respect the hell out of Baddour for basically saying “anyone can be a congressman, but only I can be the father for my little girls.” If Patrick felt he had to leave to help his wife, I’d applaud him.

  4. If Deval didn’t cut back on his hours, wouldn’t the papers be all over how he doesn’t have “family values,” and doesn’t really care about his wife? We’d be hearing stories about how their marriage, like Bill and Hillary’s, is just another power coupling. Or what if they hadn’t disclosed it at all? Wouldn’t that have caused quite the stir? They’d be later saying that he was hiding her health from the public, that he’s not being honest with the people of MA about where his priorities are and how much time he’s putting into the job, blah blah blah.

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    What’s so weird about this whole Administration is that as far as I can tell, the Patrick team has handled most things just right. They were open and honest about Diane’s health, while still emphasizing that he’ll be on the job. Patrick handled the immigration bust in New Bedford about as well as he could have given the mess the Feds gave him. The budget is more transparent than any other budget in MA history, and it cuts corporate loopholes so that major companies pay their fair share while still maintaining competitiveness. They are working on streamlining government to make it more efficient. And they’ve been making some serious negotiations to make health care more affordable. There’s just no “there, there,” to pretty much any of the criticisms of the Patrick Administration, except to say that their media team royally screwed up their relations with the press.

  5. During the election a friend of mine was riding with John Walsh. They said if you pulled down his driver side sun visor there was a note that said “Ask Doug”. Deval spoke in Fall River yesterday and Doug Rubin was with him. It is the first time I have heard his name mentioned since he declined the Chief of Staff position for Deval. I think it is a very good sign if he has come back to help. 

  6. We’re used to having a governor that takes a lot of time off, and we’re all still here.

  7. “media-driven feeding frenzy” you say?

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    I say, “Deval driven feeding frenzy”

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    Something very odd going on with Deval et al. 

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    And, in my opinion, it is unbecoming of you guys to micro analyze every semi- negative thing said about Deval. (David’s post on the Globe’s anonymous source policy is case in point)

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    This guy is a deer who thinks he is a lion, caught in the headlights.

      • I would help if I read the damn thing more carefully.  Thanks Charley.

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        I actually wouldn’t have a problem with Deval or any major public official taking time to play squash or basketball or whatever multiple times a week.  Better to have a healthy gov than a chubby micromanager.  But I guess those not rich enough to join one of those clubs would get pissed when Deval was there playing with all the bigwigs and muckety-mucks who have him in a captive audience on the court (or in the steam room!).

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        Golf might be a different story, but a quick workout sounds good to me.

  10. What I do know is that the level of discourse about Diane Patrick’s ILLNESS is disturbing for both its insenstivity and ignorance.  Would you all be saying these silly frivolous things if she had cancer or if she had had a heart attack?  Depression is an illness, for most it occurs episodically.  When not depressed, people with depression are perfectly functional human beings.  How dare anyone imply that a person cannot be in political life if they or a loved one suffer from depression.  Do you think depression is funny or amusing?  When we speak of depression we are not talking about the blues you might feel for a day or two , but a persistent feeling of emotional pain with very real physical sequala, loss of energy, loss of interest, sleep disturbance,appetite disturbance. In a depressed state if often feels as if you are weighted down by the whole world.  It effects your thinking about yourself and about others.  We are talking serious illness here, that is trivialized by a discussion about the relative value of squash ball and racket ball.

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