A Little Speakers’ History – Bradley Garrett and Cheryl Coakley-Rivera

Thompson had a hair across his ass for someone from Worcester. Hence the Pike doesn’t go there.

Thompson had a wife and a mistress with the same first name making it difficult for his staff to know whom he meant when he said send flowers to “Phyllis”.

His first love however was the bottle. He would get sauced in the evening and promise waiters and anybody else jobs. The next day they would appear at his office ready to work. Thompson would always follow through on the forgotten promise.

Thompson was looked at by some members as General Hooker’s soldiers looked upon him. They absolutely loved him.

Jack Davoren succeeded Thompson for a few years then moved to the Secretary of States office where he was eventually defeated by a state rep. named Paul Guzzi.  Guzzi  capitalized on the voters’ anti-incumbent attitude with one of the greatest TV ads in MA political history. It showed him outside the empty State House parking space under the state house arch where a column had the words” Reserved for the Secretary of State” painted on it. Very effective backdrop as Guzzi pledged to show up for work everyday.

What Guzzi didn’t say was the ad was filmed on a Sunday. Fraud.

So anyway, Davoren is replaced by Bob Quinn. The Boston College Harvard Law state rep from Savin Hill. Quinn was the first king in an agreement among the state house types a the time that the lineage would be Quinn – Speaker, Dave Bartley – Majority Leader, and Tom McGee – Whip. That would be the ascendancy. And unlike Johnny Rogers’s phony baloney agreement with Sal, everyone did their part and the other two moved up accordingly.

Would they regret McGee? Some thought so then.

So Quinn does a few years as speaker and the House elects him Attorney General to replace Elliot Richardson who was appointed U.S. Attorney General by Nixon.  He runs for governor in 1974 and loses in the primary to Dukakis.

For you baseball history buffs out there, at the time Quinn was A.G. the baseball owner and character Bill Veck owned Suffolk Downs. There was all kinds of wise guy stuff happening in and out of the stables. Quinn, as A.G. had state troopers clean it up. Veck wrote a book about his Suffolk Downs day called Thirty Tons a Day. In it he kicked the crap out of Quinn for doing his job. Pretty funny.

As planned Bartley, the Theo Epstein of his time replaced Quinn and McGee moved up to Majority Leader. While there Bartley saw to it that Holyoke Community College received enough dinero to get on the map. So eventually one day the phone rings and Bartley’s off to the presidency of Holyoke Community College.

Now the fun starts. In comes McGee. Stands about 5’6″, smokes cigars 24/7, dresses like a pimp, and talks, laughs and burps like a farm animal.

McGee had the pedigree to be himself.

Poor kid from Lynn he lied about his age to join the Marines. He saw combat in the Soth Pacific including Iwo Jima. He got elected to the Lynn City Council and then the state house. He was very good at helping constituents.

But he was a nut. In a good way perhaps, but a nut.

His drinking days were what you would expect however by the time he became speaker he was sober a a judge. His non-alcoholic drink of choice was Schweppes Bitter Lemon, straight. I dare you to drink a glass of it.

Oh, and BTW, remember the Iron Duke? McGee wanted to be just like him, times ten.

So McGee came in with a take no prisoners approach. He had Ed Markey’s desk moved out to the hall when he crossed him. This of course allowed Markey to make the greatest MA political ad ever and get elected to Congress. I think Markey still brings McGee coffee and the newspaper everyday. If not, he should.

But for those still around the building the most important thing about McGee’s tenure and the lessons to be learned can be summed up in two words. GRACE HOGAN.

McGee, a married man at the time, had a secretary/receptionist/chief of staff/ girlfriend my the name of Grace Hogan.

Grace pissed off everyone and everything everyday.  She was unbearable. Nothing was too petty for punishment. And McGee let her do what she pleased. So she very effectively made at least 81 reps, including many in leadership, want McGee gone. All agree she was the ultimate cause of the mutiny.

So in comes Kevierian, the card playing, cigar smoking, Harvard educated, street wise intellectual whose wit was always larger than his girth. That however didn’t make him a great speaker. Too many soldiers doing their own thing. Nothing got done.

The more things change…

————————————————-

State Reps Garrett Bradley (not to be confused with Raymond’s brother Brad Garret) and Cheryl Coakley-Rivera showed themselves to be the clueless members of the General Court.

The quotes in the Globe by these two members of Speaker DeLeo’s and former Speaker DiMasi’s leadership teams show a couple of proud peacocks oblivious to the fact that their attacks on Carol Aloisi were direct attacks on their current and fornmer bosses.

Evidently Cheryl was very unhappy with the quality of work a staff member hired by the Speaker’s office was doing. It also appears Garrett Bradley is upset with how Speaker Deleo’s and DiMasi’s office were assigning staff.

Now she works in Garrett’s office and she has to read his quotes throwing her under the bus.

Of course all you need to know about one of the most arrogant pretty boys to eneter the chamber is that he boasts more than a Harvard man does about his is educational pedigree. Did you know he was a Triple Eagle? WOW!

Hey Garrett, saying you a triple eagle is another way of saying you could not get into Holy Cross.

These lightweights probably don’t realize what schmucks they are with the quotes.. I wonder what their staff members think they will say about them when they are gone. I  know their new boss Deleo wasn’t happy.