I would have my staff go through things like the transportation bond bill and find out what is in there that Sal’s district wants. Stop funding on it. What does his district not want? Fund it. Then there is the obvious. The DCR suddenly can’t get the rink and pool open this season. And of course with a big waterfront, there are all sorts of spigots tapped into many state agencies. And its not just funding money. Licenses and permits get held up or just denied out right.
Then I would do the same to anything Sals’ lobbyist friends and high contributors want. It is not hard to find out what tit they are feeding on.
If I was Deval Patrick I would make Sal DiMasi’s phone ring and ring and ring. Not from wussy reps and policy wonks and Harvard types. I would piss off the people who expect and perhaps deserve something from him. They will not let up. (Unlike every other rep district in the state, including Beacon Hill and the rest of Boston, Sal’s constituent will travel to the state house and ask to see him.) Make his phone message list triple and his constituent services aide have a breakdown. Oh, by the way the state needs the back nine at Salem Country Club for a popular development.
Then, if I was Deval Patrick I would get Sal DiMasi one on one with as many constituents as possible. It is easy for the speaker to duck constituents. He is busy man. But he can’t ignore them. So I would schedule appearances in Sal DiMasi’s district at least once a week. He will be forced to attend many of them. I am the governor and this is his district. I would go to Little League banquets and anything else in the North End. I would name little chunks of state owned land after local heroes and have big ceremonies. This would give his constituents, each with a different problem, many opportunities to corner Sal. (“Hey, Sal, did u get my messages?” “Hey Sal, What? You don’t return phone calls anymore?”) The best is when one is bitching at him and he sees five others circling, waiting to chat.
Then when he gets back in the car he will see six missed calls on his private cell. Dickie McDonough will be two of them. Back at the office more messages from other friendly lobbyists, contributors, and constituents all needing Sal to put the small fire burning them up and caused by me, Deval Patrick.
Then, if I was Governor Deval Patrick, I would wait.
is not a promotion.
i never knew. Spigots. whoda thunk?
Sometimes a person doesn’t have to “reach out” in a jam. Sometimes a marker is honored without a word spoken. It’s OK to push. It’s OK to push real hard. But when you shove, sometimes that isn’t a good idea. When you let things get “personal” you can open a very large can of worms.
Me personally—–I wouldn’t go down that road. History books are replete with folks that took things personally.
on behalf of a bad idea like casino gambling.
And Sal seems to have some ethics issues…those are potentially more interesting to me going forward.
Sal has made it clear over the last 2 years that there’s no such thing as a new idea he doesn’t hate. We need new ideas, period. Think the way things are going now is a good thing? This guy needs to get with the program and start proposing solutions or get out of the way.
Do you know DiMasi’s record?
When all we heard we “no, no, no” in regards to corporate tax loopholes, the telephone pole tax excemption, local options meal tax.. and the state passed a 500 million deficit budget while the towns continued the override/layoff pattern.
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p>And we don’t get any help — open up the GIC, let us join, we said, so the state did — with 100 pages of legal coalition bargaining BS attached — and about a 3-week window to decide if we wanted to join. No chance of us being able to digest that coalition bargaining agreement and reach informal agreement with our unions prior to accepting, so I think maybe 1 town joined.
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p>Maybe I’m blaming him for problems endemic to the house.. but from the way he runs things you get the idea he could fix them if he wanted. Patrick, for all his faults, at least looks like he’s trying.
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p>
he doesn’t take enough credit for the issues that the House and Senate have done, including GIC, Municpal Pension, Gay Marriage, Green Energy, Life Scimces, etc.
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p>It’s easy to blame the House Leeadership, but is it fair?
And what are Sal’s ethics problems? except the fact that he is Italian. And please don’t tell me about his low level bookie an divorce clients> And Deval admnistration approved the software sal made a call on.
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p>What are these ethics problems? tell me please. Now!
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p>Other than he’s a greaseball.
Ernie, are you familiar with this excellent little work of political science? I think you would like it.
I am one of those few who is not convinced that the actual relationship between Sal and Deval is so bad. They are both grownups and know how to play hardball. They also know that, in the end, when people’s livlihoods are at stake, they have an obligation. That’s why it’s easy for them to bicker about casinos and easier for them to do things like raise the human services budgets and fund state-wide kindergarten and pre-k.
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p>They do not hate each other. That is a myth being perpetuated by the media to keep things interesting. It is akin to the myth being perpetuated by the media that Hillary Clinton actually has a shot at winning the nomination — it’s done to sell papers/garner viewers or listeners, and for no other reason.
I’m glad that the Governor and EBIII are not the same person.
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p>On second thought, has anybody ever seen them in the same room together?
Ernie, I appreciate your keen political instincts and advice for Gov. Patrick. However, wouldn’t it just be more cost-efficient for Governor Patrick and for the state to just appoint Speaker DiMasi as president of a remote community college, name the Speaker as chairman of one of the scores of useless and duplicative state government authorities (e.g, Mass Housing Finance Authority or UMass Building Authority)or appoint DiMasi of the Industrial Accidents Board? (I assume Sal’s ethical difficulties make a judicial appointment somewhat problematic.)
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p>Alternatively, if Sal demands a higher price for his departure from state government, surely Gov. Patrick could call one of his friends at CitiGroup or NSTAR and find some six-figure director of intergovernmental relations job so Speaker DiMasi can accumulate some easy $$$ during his remaining pre-retirement years?
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p>If former Senate President Bill Bulger could be bought off by Bill Weld and his fellow Republicans with the presidency of UMass, Gov. Patrick should certainly be able to identify and secure a soft landing spot in the public or private sector for Speaker DiMasi that would remove him as an unyielding obstacle to social progress in the Commonwealth.
are casinos the definition of “social progress”?
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p>You know what – I expected far more from Deval Patrick than casinos as the big answer to the Commonwealth’s chronic revenue shortfalls.
That will be the primary election issue:
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p>”I expected far more from Deval Patrick than casinos as the big answer to the Commonwealth’s chronic revenue shortfalls.”
Heh. No purity bullshit from you, Ernie. Good for you. Yup, this is the way it’s done. Patrick would do well to think long and hard on this advice because, as you know, it would work. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the purists who can’t seem to figure out that politics and campaigns are won on a winning combination of three things: strategy, tactics, and manipulation. The candidate (or the campaign) who’s best at all three while maintaining a demeanor that projects exactly the opposite of what these qualities suggest will win every time.
Now who would be more apt to deliver this?
Mr. Speaker
or
Deval Patrick?
“He made whom an offer he couldn’t refuse”
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p>Deval will walk on a lark let alone a lucrative offer. Cripes, I can’t believe the crap thrown at the Speaker for his leadership on the casino bill with the disguise that it’s all about his not accomplishing any economic stimulus. If the Patrick Adminstration behaved like it had it’s ADHD under wraps and rolled out a limited number of sensible plans (casinos – not) and worked as effectively as they did when they were candidates building consensus and support, we would have forward momentum without the BS drama.
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p>I think your plan sucks, Ernie. It’s worse than “politics as usual” and while I am quite certain from recent evidence that DiMasi has the ‘nads, it is doubtful that Patrick does. He can’t be a clean candidate and a dirty Governor without the crud sticking to the wall. Write a book or a screenplay and donate the profits.
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p>you guys have to learn to bloody laugh
“If I were …”, not “If I was …”