What steps do you think need to be taken next?
How can grassroots apply pressure to keep this issue in the public eye and demand accountability?
Do legislators realize that even their allies are disgusted with this behavior?
Don’t Speaker DeLeo and Chairman Murphy have any sense of humility and shame that the institution that they oversee is (allegedly -ed.) riddled with corruption?
Will the reforms and progressive promises of candidates be applied to this appalling situation that has been long-going and widely known but ignored by many who are culpable for inaction?
Please share widely!
Thomas Petrolati needs to be perp-walked to a waiting car, in handcuffs, on the evening news. He needs the same media treatment given Diane Wilkerson and Chuck Turner. He needs to be off the public payroll, entirely, the sooner the better.
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p>There is nothing alleged about the pervasive corruption that fills Beacon Hill and City Hall.
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p>Once again, the silence of recently re-elected Martha Coakley is deafening.
If she doesn’t do something soon, especially on the heels of the Feds making most of the other arrests, people are going to begin to wonder if we even need an AG’s office.
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p>Ditto on your words concerning Petrolati. An investigation will uncover details which we will all gasp at.
…attitudes like this put little daylight between you and JohnD when it comes to views on public servants. Like him it appears you would take pleasure in watching these people go down. I’d be happy if these people were simply barred for life from ever seeking public office. Fines may be appropriate as well. Save jail for people whose freedom would jeopardize my person or property. I also wish you’s stop referring to Beacon Hill and City Hall as if they were one in the same in these discussions.
Not “public servants” — corrupt public servants.
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p>My desire to see these corrupt hacks publicly humiliated is not for my pleasure (I don’t own a TV, I doubt if I’d even watch it). It is instead because I want to live in a culture where such corruption is not tolerated.
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p>In the matter of venal corruption, Beacon Hill and City Hall are one in the same. They are fed by the same network of corrupt lawyers, doctors, and lobbyists. They work the same network of media sources. Have you forgotten why the FBI was interested in Michael Kineavy? Diane Wilkerson was “Beacon Hill”. Michael Kineavy was “City Hall”. Mr. Kineavy was on the other end of those phone calls that got Ms. Wilkerson in so much trouble.
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p>Martha Coakley is supposed to oversee both and she is again doing nothing.
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p>So on the matter of how corrupt public servants should be treated, I am happy to agree that there is very little daylight between JohnD and me. I wish there was less of a chasm between you and me on this issue.
What we want from Ms. Coakley are not words but actions. If her office is investigating these matters, it is both appropriate and necessary for her to maintain silence.
I agree that we what we want is action.
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p>The AG is very capable of releasing a statement about whether or not their office is reviewing, engaged, investigating (or not) the matter at hand with the appropriate word-smithing and legalese to essentially inform the public and not say anything….that’s why they get the office with the view on the upper floors of Ashburton Place.
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p>It is necessary to both inform the public and not say anything that interferes with a potential or active investigation.
Potentially, our not-so-senatorial Attorney General’s skills are not concentrated in the PR arena. So I hope for — and probably should get on the phone to demand — action even if it is silent.
There are all kinds of ways for an effective Attorney General to communicate that action is happening.
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p>Please offer any evidence that Ms. Coakley is doing anything about this. I’d like to point out that it’s not as if this were the first indication of a corruption problem in Massachusetts government.
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p>Why is this requirement to maintain silence any more urgent for this matter than in dealing with, for example, internet predators? Yet she found it easy to speak to that issue. When the question of Mr. Kineavy’s habit of deleting emails first came up, she didn’t feel the need to restrain herself from dismissing the issue as campaign hijinks.
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p>Sorry, but that dog won’t hunt.
While my solution might be more draconian than yours here it is.
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p>We as a state need to ask the Obama administration to appoint a special prosecutor for Massachusetts. It’s not just the probation department. It’s the treasury and lottery under Tim Cahill, among other things.
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p>We need to have someone that is divorced from Massachusetts politics with full powers investigate our government. We as a Commonwealth deserve nothing less.
The corruption must be rooted out.
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p>The reaction of Mr. DeLeo is horrifying to me. The reaction of Martha Coakley is appallingly low-key.
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p>This local government will never raise the revenue desperately needed to fund the massive public investments needed to sustain the lifestyle that makes me love living in Massachusetts until this pervasive culture of corruption is expunged from our midst.
to read outrage on these corrupt practices. Rock on, BrooklineTom. Thank you.
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p>…..Martha we are calling you out to take action…as I have written previously here everyone knew this was going on….where are you?
There is no chance that Martha Croakley will prosecute any of her allies on Beacon Hill.
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p>Expect her to move aggressively against non-elected civil servant levels people like O’Brien. But no way is sh going after DeLeo, Petrolati, Baddour, Rush or any of the other hacks. She needs their support to run for senate or governor, or whatever.
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p>Patronage has been an open secret for years and she has done nothing about it – what makes you think she is going turn on her political allies now?
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p>But Massachusetts deserves all the corruption we have – after all we vote them back into office every year.
…what I still haven’t been able to glean from this is whether any laws currently on the books were actually broken, as opposed to simply not passing the smell test. If Mr. O’Brien has the sole discretion to hire then I can’t see the legal issue. I’ve also heard a couple different things about tests; one that tests were gotten rid of because minorities weren’t being hired, but another that some people’s scores were being inflated. Sorry if it sounds like I’m having trouble keeping up, but some clarity would be appeciated.
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p>BTW: Reread your first sentence. Is Petrolati going so far away that he won’t be “seeing” his leadership post?:)
But he needs to be removed from heading Redistricting as well.
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p>He dosn’t have the reputation of being, shall we say, an ‘honest broker’? (Besides, when he headed the committee ten years ago, the ‘boss’ wound up convicted and disbarred).
What I know about this is what I’ve heard on WFCR from Sen. Rosenberg, who will apparently chair the joint House/Senate redistricting committee (and, I conjecture, is no friend of Petro):
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p>http://www.publicbroadcasting….
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p>Interesting info — US House districts must have exactly equal population according to the Census, state house and senate districts may vary by 5%. But nothing about who the House leader of the redistricting will be (the vice chair of the joint committee, maybe?) Has this position been named yet? Stan says that it is a newly constituted committee every ten years.
It has gone on so long that people may have forgotten that its illegal.
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p>But if an elected official “recommends” someone for a job in return for campaign contributions – then it’s bribery.
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p>The probation department’s HR people were keeping a bribery spreadsheet that listed each candidate, their legislative “sponsor” and the amount of the associated “contribution”.
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p>Legislators who take bribes should be in jail.
Story
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p>Patronage is bad for everyone. But if people are simply related to an individual, that’s nepotism but it might be innocent nepotism. However, when Deleo’s Godson gets hired into an organization with “strong” financial ties to him, that’s pretty smelly to me and deserves to be looked at closer.
Am I really supposed to believe that Christopher Bulger was the most qualified legal resource available in the Department of Probation?
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p>It is nauseating that any member of the Bulger family is employed in any capacity whatsoever by this Commonwealth.
This afternoon, a Texas jury convicted former Congressman Tom DeLay of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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p>The penalty, under Texas law, includes jail for five years to life.
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p>I certainly hope those who join me in calling for aggressive action here in Massachusetts also join me in supporting an extended incarceration for Mr. DeLay.
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p>There is no question that Mr. DeLay was guilty. He has been convicted. He should serve hard time.
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p>We must not tolerate venal corruption of elected officials.