It is becoming more and more clear what DrapeGate, CarGate, and CallGate have in common: the Beacon Hill Breakfast Club wants in.
David Bernstein writes in The Phoenix:
To some, the lack of State House experience among people at top levels – including Patrick himself, his chief of staff, Joan Wallace-Benjamin, and his communications director, Nancy Fernandez Mills – suggests that they, more than most, need the assistance of people who have negotiated the hallways.
Can you blame the denizens of the hack back corridors — they of the darting eyes and quick handshakes — and the journalists who rely on them for their stories? They spent years building relationships, waiting for the fine day when a Democrat would win the Governor’s office and the Gravy Train would roll into Government Junction. The election came, the Democrat won, they rushed to the telephone — and the call never came. Instead, the Governor hired new people with ideas. Transparency increased. “Sources,” knew nothing. The final straw, I suspect, was a budget that delivered some substantive change and evidently cut the pork chop ration. (The savvy Bernstein notes Patrick’s proposal to, “carpet-bomb $86 million worth of legislators’ precious earmarks.”)
Patrick should follow Spitzer and pick a few fights with the Powers of Darkness. How is that Big Dig investigation coming along? Maybe a few indictments could be mustered up? I suspect there are a fair number of tiny green skeletons on Beacon Hill, each decorated with a pyramid and an eye, and each with a unique story to tell. Or perhaps health care — that’s a popular issue these days. Maybe some BMGers have some suggestions.
So in my opinion, the problem of late is that of a messaging and media problem. But his people are experienced – or at least some of them. Sure, his Comm. Dir. Mills isn’t a hack, but her aides Sullivan and Roy have certainly been around the block — that’s probably why he hired them, in part. Mills may just be out of touch with reality. Clearly she either needs to shape up or be shipped out quickly. I’d put her head as the first to potentially roll. Something isn’t clicking there in the communications office, and maybe the rest of his team (many of who are holdovers from the campaign) can’t see how things are going out here off of Beacon Hill. The “big three” issues (Caddy, Drapes, The Call) have been absolute no-brainers; just don’t do them, or, simply spin them better.
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The other stuff has been just odd: why on earth would they put out the awesome news about reduced healthcare premiums on a Saturday? And what’s with this pattern of delivering news and making announcements on Friday afternoons? It’s just all a tad weird.
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Sure, I know it’s early, but despite what David thinks of Steve Bailey’s column this morning, Steve was right: Spitzer is taking no prisoners and Deval looks like the wimp to Spitzer’s east.
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I think this administration so far has kind of been like a penalty-filled opening quarter of a football game. Now, Deval Team, you have to play Belichik-style politics: no mistakes, and let your role players take you to the glory land. Luckily, it’s still early, and we’ll all likely be laughing about Caddys, Drapes and Calls in a couple of years when things have either tanked or gotten immeasurably better. But politics is like football: you have to take it one play, one quarter, one day at a time.
Just kidding.
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On to substance: I just re-read Bernstein’s column and had a couple more thoughts.
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First, at the very end: who is the legislative star that got stolen away from Trav’s office? That could help if s/he’s in the right place politically.
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Second, I actually agree with those who say Deval needs a “heavy” like Sasso. Deval during the campaign was a very solitary figure – it seemed like he was the one who had the good political judgment and acumen and predicted that if he ran the kind of campaign he did, it would work. He was right then. But now it’s soooo much different. Soooo many more people want something from you and aren’t afraid to drop a dime if they don’t get it – something that doesn’t happen in campaigns, particularly for non-incumbents.
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Maybe Joan Wallace Benjamin is supposed to play that role, but she’s got enough cats to herd with all the oversight she needs to do with all the newbies. She can’t be, and shouldn’t be, the Governor’s chief political advisor. There should be someone like Alistair Campbell (Tony Blair’s guy in the early days before Blair went gaga). A gal or guy who everybody knows speaks for the governor and is respected. Because of her lack of political experience, I don’t think JWB carries that kind of weight yet with the Reps, Sens, lobbyists and other interest group folk. If there was someone who you just KNEW you had to make happy if you wanted ANYTHING, then that would help I believe. I don’t know who that would be (David? Charley? Bob?), but it’s one way to solve this mess, because it seems as of right now, there’s no one in that gatekeeper/consigliere role. Maybe the scheduler or something? That sometimes can be the quiet, but assertive post that really controls things.
who seem to have played a role something like the one you’re describing during the campaign — Doug Rubin and John Walsh — opted out of joining the administration, for their own reasons. And it won’t be the current scheduler — she’s not senior enough.
I assume he is talking about Christian Scorzoni, the well-regarded Trav aide who is going to Ian Bowles’ office as Counsel, I believe. (David Morales wouldn’t be a bad grab either, BTW).
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There are also good legislators and aides up there who were early for DP and should be considered. How about Rep. Steve Kulik, who represents a number of rural towns for Agriculture? Or Alice Wolf, who has the practicality of a former mayor (which she is) while maintaining her progressive vision.
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Good move by Judy Bigby the other day, grabbing John Auerbach for Public Health (disclosure – I served in city govt with John, one of the most creative people I’ve worked with, particularly in coming up with new initiatives on short dollars). There are tons of experienced Dems out there in the localities too — Jay Ashe in Chelsea, Ed Lambert, stepping down as Mayor of Fall River, Mary Claire Higgins in Northhampton, Joel Barrera at the Metro Mayors Caucus. Any one of them would make a great point person on the Municipal Revenue Package.
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Look, those of us who are progressives need this Administration to succeed. We don’t need to set the stage for another 16 years of absentee leadership while housing grows more unaffordable, roads and bridges go unattended, as well as parks, and our cities and towns get nickled and dimed (at best).
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So, to paraphrase Jerry Maguire, “help us help you”. Smooth out the bumps in the road and ask us to come along for the ride. You don’t need 100 examples of civic engagement, you need 1,000 people calling their legislators on behalf of your municipal package. You need dozens of labor leaders lobbying to dump some of the corporate loopholes. You need responsible business leaders (Arnold Hiatt has been one, any more?) willing to stand with you.
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That’s all I’ve got. Anyone else?
…certainly not after the last 8 weeks of PR Deval got. And Deval ain’t indicting anyone…he can’t. And the only thing he can do with health care is maintain a careful balancing act to make it work. (The personal negotiation Deval conducted to lower the monthly health care cost was not only the most substantive thing he’s accomplished so far, but illustrates the amount of “friends” you need to make it work.)
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Maybe the hacks are plotting to return to power. But right now Deval is helping them.
Patrick knew what he was doing in bypassing the people who would put breaks on a phoney agenda.
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Patrick needs to go.
I mean, honestly, that’s a bit silly, regardless of whether you supported him in the election, isn’t it? He’s the Governor for the next four years, period. Whether, and how, he can effectively advance his ambitious agenda is what’s on the table now.
But that’s OK, I guess.
Enough of this anti-legislature junk. I’m a progressive and big Deval backer but he has to work with these people to get things done. And if he can’t he will not succeed – think Dukakis term one.
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The legislature is not the enemy and he could start picking off friends in both chambers by making them feel like they are driving the agenda. Don’t put bills forward without a legislative sponsor — share the credit and the press conferences.
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Sadly I fear our man is quickly gonna lose his ability to strike love, respect and/or fear in the minds of legislators. A few more gaffes, some public poll numbers that show he is down and they will stop listening.
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Being a Governor means you actually don’t call many of the policy shots. It all gets done in the legislature and you get to sign off on things. So, find initiatives, many of them progressive bills, that have been filed by legislators and get behind them.
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In the end, Deval still has time on his side. But, the window of opportunity is narrow with next year being an election year for legislators. He has to get it together now.
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But nobody is suggesting that every member of the legislature is behind this campaign.
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But somebody is.
Who is a particular leader of one of the two houses that just so happens to stab knives in the back of core progressive causes and make secret backroom deals to get ubermillionaires on the ballot at the last minute.
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Hmm…. I wonder if he’d want to have anything to do with all this mess? Just sayin’
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I think it’s time Travaglini go sleeping with the political fishies.
in terms of the “ubermillionaires”, as you put it, that was the other guy
an executive branch occupant that knows what he is doing and knows what governorship means to the people and the commonwealth. It is beyond mindless and in fact is juvinile to suggest to citizens to post your story of
“getting back in” whatever that means, on a website.
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I mean what planet did he grow up on? He is a lawyer after all he should be grounded in government and the law.
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I think he a an empty suit put up by the republicans and he now does not know whta to do.
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I think americans all over the country should compare notes on the these deomocrat wonders who won office with absolutely no elective experience. I think an investigation should be started to determine if the republican machine counted the votes
The tragedy is that some in the legislature think the same principle can be carried right through to the Constitution and, why not, the whole Commonwealth. Those “little people,” the pesky voters, forget them. The gang at the top has become a law to itself.
Be still my heart… I think I even agree with Hedlund (The room’s spinning, I’m getting dizzy… thud).
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If I were the Gov. I’d be on the phone with Sasso today, asking him to take leave of his consulting practice, and helping out for the next 6 months.
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He doesn’t need a hack, he needs a seasoned navigator.
A provocative article to be sure, Bob, but unfortunately off the mark in many respects.
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First off, to suggest that the legislature is somehow deviod of ideas is rather peculiar. If that is the Administration’s attitude (which, by the way, I don’t believe it is), then they are losing out on some good opportunities to build on their agenda.
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Secondly, it’s one thing to pick a fight with the legislature in a strong, forceful way (like Spitzer has done), but it’s quite another to have a number of missteps leading to a reduction in political capital that simply makes the Gov. look weak.
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Finally, I would think it fairly obvious that if you are dealing with people you need on your side, you need to have people knowledgeable enough about those people to get them on your side (either via the use of political fear or persuasion). We know from the Bush Administration how poor policy arises out of a complete lack of knowledge of the subject at hand (and no, I’m not comparing Deval to Bush — I’m simply sounding a warning bell).
and the sources he quotes, sound rather like a salesman trying to sell you a new watch, because yours is broken, because he has poured glue into it.
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“We told you,” they say sadly, “we’d screw you. But you wouldn’t listen. Now we have to screw you. See what you make us do?”
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It’s refreshing, at least, to hear them openly state that the governor should not suggest anything the legislature does not already approve of, as in the municipal options example.
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Deval’s problem is that he threatened the legislature with his popularity without actually using it. That’s why they decided to attack his popularity.
I was referring to Bob’s post when I said “article”, so I was unclear.
I simply note that there are two types of criticism of Deval at work: the honest, and the utterly disingenous. The latter–showcased in the Phoenix–are simply the hacktocracy’s disguised calls for his unconditional surrender.
Think before you act.
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Lesson 2
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Surround yourself with people whose opinion you trust.
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Lesson 3
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Listen more.
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It’s doesn’t take a Sasso or Rove or whoever to avoid these mistakes. They are all politics 101.
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Maybe he thought that if he succeeded on the Federal level and in the Corporate board room that the “Hack” filled Statehouse would be a no brain-er. Well it’s not.
You want Deval to stop screwing things up? You want him to figure out that musing about a quid pro quo with legislators is wrong and stupid, or that making phone calls on behalf of private companies with state interest is stupid and wrong? Then stop enabling him!
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This isn’t a hack problem, a Globe problem, or a Legislature problem — it’s a Deval problem. I’ve been trying mightily to hold off on judging him, but he makes it hard. Sometimes the media is right, and it’s right on calling him on his screw-ups. I advise Deval to hold off on anything major other than the budget until this summer at the earliest, and give himself time to learn the ropes. Seriously — did anyone here think that making that phone call wasn’t obviously a bad decision? Did anyone here think when they heard the story “hey, I don’t see the problem with that”?
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Above all, I’d suggest Deval remember that he’s not Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer picks fights because he knows how to fight, and he’s won big fights before. Deval’s fights thus far have been page-18 level legal cases, and he has six weeks of elected experience. Spitzer had 8 years as attorney general working with a Republican governor while beating that governor’s business allies with a club.
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Spitzer’s mandate is leagues beyond Patrick’s in any case. Governor Spitzer scored 69% of the vote on election night. Deval couldn’t get a majority of Democratic primary votes and barely scraped together 55% in the general. No matter how large his online fan club, Deval Patrick is no Eliot Spitzer, and he won’t become one just by trying to be a bully.
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You’ve been writing a lot of funny posts lately, but that’s one of your best lines yet!
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On a serious note, I don’t know why anyone is comparing Spitzer to Deval because – guess what – they’re not the same. You are one of the few – and I can’t think of any truly progressive peson who did, even during the actual election. Quite frankly, most of us were too busy worrying about winning to care about Elliot Spitzer.
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Throughout the campaign and during his stay in office so far, Deval’s plans have been wholly different and his causes are at a different level than Spitzer. You say they’re “page 18 causes,” but that’s only because the media cares more about caddies, drapes and phone calls than reforming the local-state gov’t dynamic or eliminating unfair tax loopholes that have shifted the burden of taxes on the people who can least afford it for far too long. I guess you just don’t care about his efforts on health care, diversifying local tax revenue or creating a balanced budget – but let me assure you, they’re what will make this state run over the next few years if passed.
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Deval Patrick won both the primary and general election in a landslide. L.A.N.D. S.L.I.D.E. Your attempt at revisioning history that soon after the election is rediculously funny, though, because you convientanty forgot to mention that Deval got 56% of the vote when there were two other major candidates in the race and a third who was still credible. Deval’s next highest opponent had 35% of the vote. That is a whooping of the highest order.
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You’ve continually ragged on Deval Patrick for as long as I can remember. That’s fine. It’s your perogative. However, we get that you don’t like him. Therefore, your constant reminders that ‘you’re liberal’ and so your opinions actually count more and other such nonsense is humorous at best, because it’s just not true.
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But keep on making things up – like calling Deval a bully. Pah-leeze. Bully? That’s another one of your fantastically hilarious lines. Seriously, I think we’ve got a commedian on our hands. Dennis Miller would be proud.
Keepin’ it real for the kids, are ya Ryan?
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First off, I’d recommend that you read the main post here. That’s where Eliot Spitzer was mentioned, hence my reply. Also, there you’ll find the idea that Deval should pick fights to enhance his popularity, a strategy that is an excellent definition of bullying. I didn’t say Deval was a bully, I said that he should not submit to the temptation to become one.
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Secondly, despite your enthusiastic use of capital letters, Deval got 55% of the vote in a heavily Democratic state heavily Democratic year. And yes, that got him 20% over the divided opposition (do you really think people were torn betweeen Mihos and Deval?). On the subject of “whoppings”, I call the 40-point victories of Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New York and Tennessee — Tennessee for heaven’s sake — landslides.
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I perhaps should have been more specific. I have tried not to be critical of Deval as governor. Yes, during the primary and general, I had questions of him, but three times I have written that we need to hold off on judging his performance as governor until this summer. That is my prerogative, just as yours would be to react to a video of Deval kicking an old woman in the street by saying he had good taste in footwear and the “Glob” shouldn’t have reported the story.
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Anyway, I’m unsurprised by the continued personal attacks, especially considering the first time you ever responded to one of my comments was to call me a troll. I just wish the attacks were funnier. Here’s a freebie — I’m notably overweight. You should be able to crack a funny using that.
I have to say looking over our western border I am starting to get Governor envy. While none of Patrick’s mistakes are fatal, they just seem amateurish. If he’d asked anyone on this site they would have told him no on the drapes, caddy and call.
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But even more, while his budget is a step in the right direction, it’s just that a step. Spitzer on the other hand is taking on big fights for reform.
Spitzer lost his first round, but he also put the legislature on notice there will be a price to pay. He’s trying to scare them. He just might do it.
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Spitzer knows who the biggest thug in the room is, and hit him first with the hardest blow. Later, he figures, he can pick off the little guys.
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Unfortunately, Patrick decided to just weave and bob around the really big problems here. Trouble is, they’ll just wear him down long before he reaches the big boss.
Spitzer was an experienced politician and knew how to fight tough. Deval Patrick is extremely intelligent and will learn fast, but mistakes at the beginning are to be expected. I predict we won’t see any blunders on this order again, though (and we’d do well to remember this phone call took place on Feb. 2oth – around when the other stuff happened too, so we truly haven’t seen these blunders happen again since the drapes.. it just so happened this story came out after the other ones).
That budget has made more enemies for Deval than friends.
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Not to mention that it was DOA the day after it was filed.