Brian McGrory begins today’s column reporting in Gov. Patrick’s fine work addressing the awful raid in New Bedford. Instead of continuing to focus on the raid, after a few short paragraphs, McGrory launches into this screed
“Where has this governor been? I’ll tell you where. He’s been planning the most lavish inauguration in state history. He’s been shopping for damask drapes. He’s been leasing a Cadillac, hiring a taxpayer-funded aide for his wife, making calls on behalf of a sleazy mortgage company that regularly forecloses on predatory loans.
First the factual mistakes. It has been repeatedly reported, without any challenge I am aware of, that the staffer assisting Mrs. Patrick has other responsibilities, but we do not want uncomfortable facts to interfere with Mcrory’s need for nasty sound bites. Next “calls on behalf of a sleazy mortgage company?” I am aware of one, very inappropriate, call to Robert Rubin. How did that get mutiplied into a telephone campaign?
Referring to an administration only two months old, McGrory goes on:
” Every now and again, when he butts heads with Homeland Security … or strongarms local health insurance executives to reduce rates, you realize why it is the people elected him.”
“Every now and again”? Instead of an accurate, there has been a mixed bag of achievements and mistakes (the budget is not even mentioned by McGrory), all positive actions are minimized. Come on Brian, have the integrity to admit you do not like the guy and that that will be your perspective for the next four years.
Recently, appearing on the Eagan-Braude show, McGrory said people would never forget about the Cadillac story. Someone e-mailed the show saying that McGrory, having this issue in his Rottweiller like jaws, would make sure that no one forgets. Today’s column shows the truth of that comment. McGrory calls Patrick “his own worst enemy”. Not while you’re breathing buddy. For your next column on dangerous arrogance, try interviewing the guy in your shaving mirror.
Reading that column early this morning, I had the same thoughts.McGrory is writing as if this Administration is 2 years instead of 2 months into it.
As an early Patrick supporter, I’ve been dismayed by the new Governor’s political ‘tin ear’, but to imply that this is some sort of long term pattern of behavior is simply outrageous, and what I’d expect from the Herald, not the Globe.
SGM:
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Brian McGrory’s column distilled the frustration and disappointment felt by many of us who supported Gov. Patrick have felt over the last 10 weeks.
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First, Governor Patrick has not organized the staff the Governor’s office in an efficent manner to serve him properly and prevent pseudo-controversies like the Cadillac and the drapes the real controversies such as his intervention on behalf of Ameriquest from becoming dominant issues of the day. The Governor’s office is populated by too many eager, young, and inexperienced professionals who have significant experience running a successful election campaign, but very limited experience or education in state government policy or executive management.
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Moreover, the Governor has also failed to harness the intellectual and advocacy capacities of his agency heads, particularly in Health and Human Services, or his top policy advisors to advise him on critical legislative and policy implementation issues such as the state’s new universal coverage health care law.
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The management shortcomings of Gov. Patrick have made it appear to the public that, contrary to the image he projected during the campaign, he is an indecisive and dilatory political leader who is consumed by a love of the material trappings of the Governor’s Office. Moreover, with his ill-conceived intervention on behalf of Ameriquest, it appears to the general public, Gov. Patrick has already begun laying the groundwork, 10 weeks into his first term, for a post-gubernatorial executive position as a well-connected rainmaker for his corporate friends in the subprime mortage industry (e.g. Ameriquest).
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Many Mass. Democrats faulted former Governor Weld, roundly crticized for his semiweekly afternoon squash games at Harvard, for his seemingly indolent management style. Objective observers of state government during the Weld administration appreciated that Gov. Weld brought to state government some extermely intelligent, politically savvy, professionals with government experience (e.g., David Forsberg, Trudy Coxe, Mark Robinson, and Peter Nessen) who could plan, distill, and synthesize policy options for the Governor, understood how these various policy options would play in the state body politics, and ensure that after Gov. Weld made a policy decision, they were executed in a timely and successful manner. If Gov. Weld could successfully manage state government affairs while rarely working a 40 hour work week, Gov. Patrick surely can improve his inferior management performance during the 60-70 hours he reportedly works on state government affairs.
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Finally, Governor Patrick desperately needs to reform his management style to take better advantage of the intelligent, experienced professionals he had recruited for his administration. He can begin his management reform process by transfusing the Governor’s office with some “old blood,” who are just as attuned to the “politics” of state government as to the economics and the values surrounding the critical public policy issues the Governor and the state faces over the next four years. Governor Patrick should also consider consulting the National Governors’ Association which has a management consulting team designed to assist new Governors in helping them manage Governors’ offices and the state bureaucracy more efficiently.
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If the Governor fails to address his administration’s serious management shortcomings soon, he will find that by November 2010, if not earlier, his remaining professional options will be listed in his Blackberry or cell phone under the Human Resources entries for Ameriquest, Coca-Cola, CitiGroup, and Ropes & Gray. Such a development would be truly be heartbreaking for the scores of Bay State residents who have invested their authentic aspirations and their limited available time and energies on behalf of a man who articulated and advanced such laudable policy objectives and social values during the election campaign.
You make some really good points. (BTW consider offering your editorial services to McGrory as he could benefit from your measured, thoughtful approach). Regarding the Weld administration, I seem to recall Peter Nessen left rather quickly (he did the same thing under Romney). I’m speculating he knew early on Weld was not serious about reform. For all of his mistakes, that cannot be fairly said of Gov. Patrick. I believe in the value of experience but doubt that a “Sasso” or other old hand will bring magical results. The maddening thing about Ameriquest was the hundreds if not thousands of people, many without Beacon Hill experience, who knew in a nanosecond that the Ameriquest call was a terrible decision. My purpose was not to excuse the governor, but to use this site as a place of record where columnists, as well as politicians are held accountable for their decisions.
Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughtful reply to my posting about Gov. Patrick’s current management problems.
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Honestly, I don’t recall how long Peter Nessen or any of the other intelligent, capable administrators remained in state government under Gov. Weld. I do recall once Gov Weld departed from state government in ’97, it sparked an enormous brain drain from state government that hindered the effectiveness of the Cellucci administration.
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My primary point was to illustrate that all new Governors have a limited window of opportunity to frame and define their policy priorities, managerial effectivencess, and mobilize their political allies before state legislative leaders, Democrat and Republican, and a skeptical, often hostile, media place their own frames on the Governor and his administration’s performance. I agree that a “Sasso” in the Patrick administration probably would not magically transform the management performance of the administrtion over night. Nevertheless, John Sasso or his ilk would never have permitted Gov. Patrick to make the ill-considered call on behalf of Ameriquest.
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Brian McGrory’s opinions about Gov. Patrick’s performance may be somewhat overheated and overwrought. Nevertheless, as a columnist, his job is to provoke his readers so that they talk about his column at the office water cooler, at the ballpark, or blog about it on BlueMassGroup. Viewed from this perspective, I have to admit grudgingly that Mr. McGrory (or for that matter the toxic, Howie Carr) do their jobs especially well.
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Governor Patrick is an excellent communicator. He has the capability of successfully framing and conveying his political goals and objectives to the public, regardless of critiques of Mr. McGrory and his media colleagues. If Governor Patrick begins to use the policy and management staff in the Governor’s Office more effectively, rely on the capable professionals in Administration and Finance to crunch the numbers, and lean on his state agencies heads and executive departments secretaries for policy and strategic advice, then he has the potential to be one of the most effective and impressive of our nation’s Governors. If he fails to undertake these management reforms, then Gov. Patrick will only have his high-minded, empty political rhetoric to fall back on when his political opponents (including some Democrats) and critical representatives of the media find common cause to undermine the noble and widely supported policy objectives and social values affirmed by Governor during the election campaign. At that point, “Together we can…” won’t cut it with the electorate because in state government, as in life, “Results matter.”
is not McGrory’s.
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You stress management failings in the Administration that have left the public with a bad impression of Patrick.
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McGrory acts as if the impression were true.
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More to the point, he does his best to perpetuate it. It would not surprise me to learn he has already programmed the copter-caddy-curtains graf into a Microsoft Word template.