Yesterday brought one of the biggest stories in years — the $100 million judgment against the federal government for the FBI’s role in framing four men for the murder of Teddy Deegan — on a subject that Howie Carr knows more about than just about anyone. That subject, of course, is organized crime in Boston. He’s even written a book about it. You’d think that yesterday’s news would have inspired Howie to dig a little deeper than usual and write a column that educates his readers, as his columns about organized crime almost always do.
But no. Sadly, Howie’s knowledge of and interest in organized crime was apparently overcome by his peculiar obsession with Mike Dukakis. So, instead, Howie chose to write about Deval Patrick’s widely-acclaimed nomination of Margot Botsford to the SJC. Blah blah Dukakis moonbat blah blah. You know the column — you’ve read it a dozen times before.
What a disappointment. I was actually looking forward to reading Howie today.
None of which is to say, by the way, that Botsford’s husband didn’t screw up by substantially over-donating to both Deval Patrick’s and Tim Murray’s campaigns. You’d think that a former Governor’s Legal Counsel would have a better grip on the most basic restriction in state campaign finance law — that you can’t give more than $500 to a candidate per year. I don’t for a second believe that Patrick’s nomination of Botsford had anything to do with Bostford’s husband’s mistake, but still, people should be more careful.
Howie believes that the bigger immediate threat to the Commonwealth and her citizen’s is a Justice Botsford, who by all indications believes like Deval Patrick in a living constitution. A constitution that can be used to create laws judicially instead of through the legislature and executive.
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I fully expect a column regarding Teddy Deegan on Sunday. His mafia stories usually run on Sundays. Although I won’t be reading it because I’ll be in Prince Edward Island. Have a great week in the Commonwealth People’s Republic of Massachusetts.
we have three branches of government and only one makes laws: the legislature. the judicial branch should no more be usurping that branch’s power than the executive should be usurping the judiciary’s
No. Peter Gelzinis is at least as knowledgeable about the mob and the FBI as Howie, and he’s got a column on it in today’s Herald. There are at least a half-dozen journalists who are more important to this story than Howie is. One of them, David Boeri, explained it in the Phoenix when Carr’s book came out.
thinking Radio Schack is the place to go to buy your stereo. IN 1978.
but i like the joke and Howie sucks.
Why did the bastards always want your name and address whe buying batteries?
…for advertising purposes.
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Actually, they only collect ZIP codes. If there’s a charge on a credit or debit card, it is probable that they can get the addresses automatically from the bank.
I’m an old man. I don’t care what happend after 1990.
That always puzzled me, why did you need the 20 questions and this full page receipt.
No wonder you wish he wrote about the Mafia. He demostrates that someone in DP’s office isn’t paying any attention, and now makes it look like SJC appointments are for sale. Nice.
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Cue the “there is no pattern” and “nothing here folks” people.
That would be reporter Laurel Sweet. Howie’s just piling on.
sorry, my memory is hazy. can you send me a link to just one of the twelve stories where a former gubernatorial chief-of-staff/legal counsel with a wife on the bench gave a candidate running for governor three times the legal limit and then saw his or her spouse elevated to a higher court a year later?
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if rosenfeld had never worked for a governor, if rosenfeld wasn’t a lawyer, if rosenfeld had never before contributed to a political candidate, sure, you could say he just “screwed up.”
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Instead rosenfeld knows full well how little it takes to buy a judgeship. don’t forget what he never has: at the state house nothing is on the level, everything is a deal and no deal is too small.
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Seriously, how much should he have to pay to get his wife elevated on the bench? He knows he’d be a fool to offer more than a grand.
We don’t know whether Rosenfeld was sitting at home writing checks or attending events and making donations. If it was the latter, then I can see how easy it would be to forget you were at the limit and make a contribution you weren’t supposed to make. Believe me, I’m not making excuses for Rosenfeld or Patrick (or Botsford), but let’s wait and see. Even in Massachusetts, I don’t think you can buy a seat on the SJC for $1,500.
…I’m surprised that anyone listens to him, much less reads his column in a quickly-going-bankrupt newspaper.
I for one find Howie incredibly entertaining, he is very knowledgeable of Boston and knows where all the bodies are buried so to speak when it comes to Beacon Hill corruption. His book was an entertaining read as well. The things that I dont like are the fact that he pretends to be a populist when he is in fact an elitist, and that most of his opinions are wrong. Other than that though he is much better to listen to then Rush or any of the other right wingers and his show remains an old school talk show where the listeners dominate and the topics are not always political.
…as far as I’m concerned Howie’s humor peaked long ago and is on the downhill. (Rush Lamebrain’s humor peaked earlier and is tanking even faster.) The only thing moderately humorous about Howie’s show now is his PutzLine*. And sometimes his FaxFriday bit.
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*PutzLine: That is what Mike Connors (Mannix), when Howie was interviewing him a few years ago, called the Chump Line, played at the beginning of the five o’clock hour. And even that is getting lame.
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Thank goodness for Internet streaming and satellite radio.
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Populist? Elitist? As far as I can tell, on the radio he is playing a character. I don’t believe that he believes much of what he says. Why? Because I have heard him slip out of character. He’s playing to an audience. BTW, in 1995, during the federal gov’t shut-down, I heard Rush Lamebrain slip out of character, too. I don’t believe that they believe a word that they are spewing. They are playing to an audience.
that for all his bomb-throwing, Howie Carr serves a vital purpose in Massachusetts politics. you might not like what he has to say -and believe me, it hurts when you find your name and let’s say a minor transgression written about in a column- but lots of massachusetts politicians are kept on their toes, looking over their shoulders, for fear that howie might be around the corner.
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do you think this city needs more, say tom oliphants, bartering away puff pieces in order to advance the agenda of pols they’re cozy with?
Unfortunately, despite his faults, Howie or someone like him is needed in this one party state. Duke man is correct. As Howie would say, “Do you really want the bow-tied bum kissers at the Globe running our lives?”
Another problem with Howie is that while he does attack a lot of “hacks” that deserve it he
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a)only attacks Democratic hacks, he didnt attack “fat Matt” until it was too late or Scott Brown
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and
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b)some of the “hacks” he does attack and malign reputations are great public servants that while under investigation were later proved innocent, remember Howie did lose that court case over the “soft judge”
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That said I feel that Howie embodies what the Mass GOP is, a hodge podge of angry white blue collars who dislike special treatment for gays, blacks, hispanics, and women; mixed with the affluent Wall Street types. Obviously Howie is a millionaire and affluent and even came from money to begin with (no Deerfield Academy graduate is blue collar) but still speaks the language of that angry blue collar set. James Michael Curley once said GOP Senator Salonstall had a “brahmin accent but a Southie face” and similarly Howie has a brahmin pedigree but a Boston accent and I find it very amusing when he, an elitist himself, takes on the cause of the common man against the liberal elites.
“Obviously Howie is a millionaire and affluent and even came from money to begin with (no Deerfield Academy graduate is blue collar)….”
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you got that wrong, jconway, you got that so wrong it’s freaking risible
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howie’s father was a custodian at deerfield and he got in free because of that. If there’s one thing that has stained howie’s psyche it is that he does NOT come from money and that he was a second-class citizen among the elite at deerfield.
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but regardless of howie’s pedigree, this is just plain stupid:
“(no Deerfield Academy graduate is blue collar)….”
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deerfield hands out lots of scholarships, more to the financially needy than the academically excellent
…from Howie’s radio program that his father was in management in a hotel company–mostly in Maine and Palm Beach. I did not get the impression that his father was a janitor at Deerfield.