[April 14, 2010] Hello, Lida? Deval Patrick here. I just wanted to say that I know how badly you must feel about yesterday’s loss in the primary. I know that you feel angry and hurt, and that your service to Massachusetts has been ignored. But Lida, I want you to take a step back and a deep breath. You are a terrifically talented person with huge experience. And we can find something of real value for you to do. Right away. But you can’t take the hurt you feel public. It won’t help the party and it won’t help you. We’ve got to find ways to keep moving forward. And I hope that you’ll support me in this search. So let’s talk in a couple of days; I’ll call you again and we’ll talk about the future. O.K.?
Please share widely!
Do you know? Or just insinuating?
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p>I have heard Lida Harkins talk and she is never particularly enthusiastic or supportive of Patrick. She criticizes his process, in slight tones but the feeling is clear. I get the feeling there’s no love lost between them. I’ve seen reference to her angling for Chair of the State Party. NO idea if that’s true. One thinks, though, that if she were in sync with the governor, rumors about trying to oust Walsh would not be floatable. (flotable?) you know what I mean.
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p>What’s with the freakish concern, by the way, of who has called Harkins?
And I am curious as to what disclosures YOU might make. Just wondering what your interest is in this. Not recommending this post, either. As to adding to discourse, it doesn’t.
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p>As to informing, it doesn’t.
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p>As to adding to disharmoney, and innuendo, it does. Not the kind of post I particularly care for.
…is whether the Governor called Rep. Harkins after the primary to try to lift her spirits and get her to support Smulowitz. I’m sure the message would not have been worded as STG put it, but I think the question and the point is legitimate.
As I said elsewhere, this obsession about who called who when and what was said and how was it worded and was it sincere is pure inanity!
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p>I agree, there is a legitimate question about “was enough done”–but the way some people, and particularly those inclined to paint Harkins as a victim, seize upon the minutiae of the phone call/outreach efforts EXACTLY how they happened and when and where’s the time/date stamp… It’s tiresome and irrelevant.
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p>As someone else posted somewhere else, the infamous video about “the phone call” to Harkins also shows that YES Smulowitz DID make outreaches to Harkins and her supporters. NO he did not outline them in excruciating (and irrelevant) detail, and NO it did not include multiple phone calls to Harkins herself. But the outreach WAS made, and what we have left is the aftermath.
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p>The who what where when was-it-sincere-enough seems more a way of worrying at a sore, and not in the least productive.
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p>I’m not really directing this at you Christopher, but at a larger conversation…one that’s carried out on BMG on different threads and at the Starbucks on Highland here in Needham and in ceaseless townie emails and phone calls over the last couple of weeks.
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p>When real issues like gaming and energy policy are at stake, I really can’t muster up a lot of enthusiasm for the obsession with meaningless details.
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p>I guess this is more of a vent than anything… Sorry that you are the unfortunate recipient!
For me this kind of issue is a waste of time and probably depressing as in depressing obtimism and engagement; probably harmful.