Vennochi’s complaint is that the progressive bloc of the Democratic Party is apparently willing to let Speaker DiMasi get away with anything, so long as he’s pushing our agenda. While I’ve been very supportive of him, I don’t find Vennochi’s thesis to be true. If she read a few more comments on BMG, she’d notice that there’s a lot of angst among some progressives because DiMasi isn’t progressive enough, just ask Mike.
In any event, even if we all thought his issues were fantastic and were all loudly cheering the Speaker on, that doesn’t mean we’re all suddenly looking the other way (or even some of us). Simply put: what has the Speaker been charged with? What jury has convicted him? It’s never been a policy of mine to convict people in the court of public opinion. As far as I’m concerned, DiMasi is King ‘o the Hill, Big Beacon Style, until a jury of his fellow citizens convicts him in an actual court – not a Boston Globe column.
As for this Joan Vennochi claim?
Should liberals close their eyes to problematic behavior, just as they are doing with another liberal, state Senator James Marzilli? The Arlington legislator has been charged with accosting several women, but refuses to resign even though he has not returned to work since his arrest and has said he will not return.
Bogus. I don’t know a single BMG commenter or progressive activist who doesn’t think Marzilli should step down, including his staunchest allies. Plenty of people have said he should get the help that he needs, none have said he should stay on.
More importantly, isn’t this all moot? What relevance does it really have to the Speaker? Marzilli’s not even in DiMasi’s House, literally and figuratively. Allegedly helping friends is a very different thing than allegedly accosting three different women, with various eye witnesses and a State Senator who doesn’t deny the fact that he did what was said. No one knows what DiMasi did or did not do; I’m sure there’s plenty of people checking that out, but in the meantime, the Speaker has my full support. Plus, one way or the other, Marzilli’s going and gone – so, again, what is there to complain about? There’s an election around the corner that will solve the Marzilli problem. I appreciate Ms. Vennochi’s free press and ego booster, but she’s got her latest column all wrong. No offense.
Crossposted at Ryan’s Take.
Love this post,Ryan. I posted a similar analysis a couple of months ago titled Speakers Come and Go. David front paged it as “interesting”, and there were a lot of thoughtful comments that articulated the difficulty that many political activists have dealing with the human failings or silly decisions of their heroes, or in the case of the current Speaker,the human stupidities of the friends of their heroes.
There is a lot of contradictions in this policy change work, but two truths abide
1. The worst enemies of powerful public figures are often their oldest friends and colleagues who can't resist trying to leverage that “long time relationship” for their own personal advantage.
2. Smart savvy powerful public figures pay careful attention to the care and feeding of the organized constituencies promoting the specific policy changes they planned to do all along.
that is, putting personal financial relationships before his duty to the people of Massachusetts (borderline bribery/quid pro quo stuff)). The second mortgage/ACE Ticket lobbying situation would not have been disclosed if it weren’t for Andrea Estes and the Boston Globe. Although I know he has not been convicted of anything, I think that might be more because the ethics laws are not strict enough than because DiMasi has done nothing objectionable. That said, I don’t think BMG in general has looked the other way- there have been several posts and many comments criticizing DiMasi’s sketchier actions. Ryan himself has sometimes taken DiMasi to task for different things.
Sal DiMasi, Thomas Petrolati raked in $42G as eye bill stalled
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p>Her criticism is spot on.
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p>Find a public statement from a fellow Democratic Senator or Legislator or Governor who says Marzilli should step down. I can find none. Perhaps with diligence, you can find one.
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p>Here’s what President Therese Murray’s press secretary said (I can’t find her saying anything at all!):
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p>Such steely resolve.
Why should anyone but Marzilli, his victims and the justice system be making any ‘calls’ for such? Since when was it the job of other politicians to jump into something like that, especially at the end of term. Marzilli is a distraction. One way or the other, he’s going to get what’s coming to him. It’s not as if Beacon Hill is trying to block him from getting justice served…
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p>Should Marzilli go? Of course he should – and I’m sure most politicians on Beacon Hill would agree. But when there’s so many other things to stick their heads out on, that’s probably not going to be one of them.
Apparently, only when the politician is of the other party.
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p>Which just proves, once again, that politicians and political activists don’t have any scruple that won’t be suppressed for their own benefit.
it’s political sniping and assigning guilt by association. Just because it’s par for the course, doesn’t mean it’s good. And I will point out that one party is more guilty of it than the other…
the other guy.
Didn’t Pelosi ask for Congressman Jefferson to be stripped of his seat on the Small Business Committee after he was indicted on racketeering, money-laundering and soliciting charges?
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p>And when Rich Rizzi was indicted for insurance fraud, he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election but But House Majority Leader John Boehner, publicly asked him to resign.
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p>Besides, practically speaking why not ask for Mazilli to resign? What’s to lose? Marzilli won’t resign.
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p>He’s waiting out the clock with a dead political future, earning a salary and waiting for his pension bump. What are they afraid of, setting a precedent all their own? A fear that if they ask for resignation following an indictment, there but by the grace of God go I.
exactly what Vennochi was writing about. You write like the tool she claims DiMasi is using.
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p>DiMasi is not liberal enough. That is your only complaint?
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p>BTW is BMG yelling for Marzilli to step down now? To at least resign his chairmanship now?
ALL CAPS!!!!1!!!
How many times do we have to say it?
however many times it takes to get him to actually resign. After all, Joan Venocci says that you have the power.
All I read on BMG during the early days of Marzilli-gate was pathetic excuses for his “alleged” behavior. Your liberal bloggers blamed the victim in the Arlington case. Your bloggers hypothesised that Marzilli must have a sugar deficiency or a lesion on his brain or perhaps frontal lobe epilepsy and other such rot.
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p>I think it the height of hypocrisy for progressives to blame victims and to protect a molester of women. That is what happened in this case and BMG was at the center of the storm.
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p>So I say that in order to preserve your progressive stripes all of the Marzilli apologists should apologize to Marzilli’s victims specifically and all women’s advocacy groups in general. You guys screwed the pooch on this one and you should be out front now in demanding this pathetic loser’s pelt.
There’s a difference between explanations and excuses; no one was excusing what Marzilli did. In fact, all the people that I know of on this blog who were saying he could be ill never said that he should stay on – quite the opposite, in fact. Moreover, they were actually right – he was diagnosed as bipolar. That doesn’t mean he gets to stay in office, he still alledly committed those crimes and proved himself a danger to society, but it does mean he needs treatment, so there’s a smaller chance of him ever committing these kinds of crimes again, in or out of prison.
No, that’s not my complaint at all. DiMasi’s gotten a lot accomplished in the best possible manner I could expect it, given the current circumstances. He’s plenty liberal for me. But that’s not my complaint, it’s the complaint of others.
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p>On Marzilli – yes, of course he should step down. Duh. Some of his biggest past supporters have said the same thing on bmg, such as AmberPaw and others. There’s a difference between posting that someone could be sick or ill, etc. and that they should stay on. Some on BMG were only saying the former – because the latter is obviously a bad idea. As I said, of course he should step down.