For a significant amount of time on BMG former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger has been voicing a moral outrage against expanding gaming. Mr. Harshbarger has no hesitation putting himslef in the position of moral compass for Massachusetts when it comes to the evil of gambling. He’s is always ready to point out that ganing won’t deliver the revenue nor jobs proponents assert. So given Mr. Harshbarger’s position as a moral compass and protector of “truth” can anyone explain this from today’s Boston Globe?
Former Massachusetts attorney general L. Scott Harshbarger, who has long positioned himself as a champion of honest and open government, has emerged as an unlikely ally of Michael E. McLaughlin, the former Chelsea Housing Authority executive director, who abruptly quit after his $360,000 annual compensation was revealed.
Harshbarger called Governor Deval Patrick on the governor’s cellphone this week trying to cut a deal on behalf of McLaughlin, whose entire agency is now under investigation by the FBI, the attorney general, and several other agencies over his extraordinary pay and his efforts to collect a state-record pension.
And it gets even sleezier:
Harshbarger, who went on to serve as president of the citizen watchdog group Common Cause after an unsuccessful run for governor in 1998, yesterday told the Globe that he intervened on McLaughlin’s behalf at the request of a “mutual friend,’’ whom he would not name, and was not representing him. He said he had known McLaughlin since the two first ran for office in Middlesex County in 1978.
But Harshbarger called back about 40 minutes later to explain that he was acting as McLaughlin’s lawyer and had met privately with the former housing chief, a fact he did not disclose to the governor.
He also did not disclose that relationship in an e-mail to a Globe editor on Nov. 5 suggesting that McLaughlin is “perilously close’’ to being the victim of a “reputational witch hunt.’’
Shame on Scott Harshbarger.
Patrick was alarmed by the call, during which Harshbarger asked if McLaughlin could end the controversy by accepting a lower retirement benefit, according to two people briefed on the phone call. The next day, Patrick’s chief of staff, Mo Cowan, called Harshbarger back and told him not to call on the matter again.
Bargaining for a “lower retirement benefit” for a guy that submitted fraudulent paperwork to the state? A guy who was making $360,000 while denying repairs to residents apartments at the Housing Authority.
Chelsea Housing Authority executive director was making $360,000????
Second, Governor Patrick was alarmed?
You should have seen my face when I heard the Governor on the Eagan and Braude radio show a couple weeks ago telling the public that there are ‘nine independent reports’ about the impacts of expanded gambling and that the issue has been ‘thoroughly vetted” – since both statements are completely untrue.
I’ve never heard Harshbarger talk about the ‘evils’ of gambling. Maybe he has, but what I’ve heard him talk about for the last few years is the need for a fresh independent cost-benefit analysis.
His group, Citizens for a Stronger Massachusetts, recently produced an analysis of their own to demonstrate the disparity between the non-independent studies the administration is relying on.
Third, after casinos have been built, and kids are getting left in cars in casino parking lots, folks start embezzling pension funds, people start committing suicide, and political corruption actually manages to get worse than is now, it would be interesting to call the Governor up on his cell to see if he expresses similar alarm.
Listen, I’m not going to try and justify the actions of one rich lawyer talking to another rich lawyer to help out some rich alleged D Bag. There are plenty of good, honest, hardworking volunteers who’ve been working for years to dilute the casino Kool-Aid who aren’t Scott Harshbarger. But while Deval Patrick is poised to become the alpha and omega of expanded gambling in the Bay State, and misleads the public about the issue being ‘completely vetted’, demonstrations of his own moral outrage are a little tough for some of us to take.
Harshbarger was excising and abundance of caution by not continuing to call Patrick after he was (justifiably) busted on this.
in the hopes of having this controversy end, sounds suspiciously like a plea bargain. It appears to be the making of an admission of wrongdoing in the hopes of skating away from a possible trip to the gray bar motel. Oops and never mind don’t cut it.
However, Atty. Harshbarger was calling the wrong constitutional officer. But it’s not like him to mistake the chain of command. This will fall on Treasurer Grossman’s plate.
Perhaps he was just seeking the Governor’s help, via his close personal friend Obama, to make the FBI investigation go away.
Democrats in Massachusetts – quite a brand.
he was attempting to conspire with Patrick to assassinate the reporters in the Globe.
Perhaps other BMGers could suggest other completely unreasonable perhaps?
This is just the most recent evidence of the pervasive culture of corruption that has dominated Massachusetts government for years. In my view, this is not about party affiliation and will not be fixed by imposing term limits, slashing taxes, or privatizing public assets.
This is about corruption. The behavior of Mr. McLaughlin is corrupt. The behavior of Mr. Harshbarger is corrupt. And, yes, the behavior of Mr. Patrick regarding casinos is corrupt. In my view, these public figures are corrupt because we — the voters of Massachusetts — are corrupt.
We have hidden from the reality that “taxes are the price we pay for civilization” for three decades, since Proposition 2 1/2. We have punished representatives — Republican and Democrat — who have tried to keep tax revenue in line with public expenses for decades.
A culture that knowingly exploits the poor, destitute, and desperate with a predatory state lottery is a corrupt culture. We spend enormous amounts on professional sports while our civilization crumbles because “taxes are too high”.
What sort of “enormous amounts”? Fenway Park is the most expensive ballpark in baseball. According to reports like this, the average fan paid $24.62 in concessions and souvenirs in Fenway Park 2011. Figure $100 a whack for a ticket (NOBODY can buy tickets at face value), and we’re talking $100-125 per fan per game. According to the above link, Fenway Park attendance in 2011 was 3,054,001. That’s well over three hundred million dollars that we spent in one year on Fenway Park alone. Surely we see comparable spending for our other professional sports.
Our culture spends hundreds of millions of dollars per year on just one sport (baseball), and while claiming we can’t afford to maintain our transportation infrastructure or educate our children?
Sorry, folks, but that is a corrupt calculus (why am I reminded of Rome and the gladiators?). It betrays a cultural attitude that leads to and creates the corruption we see in episodes like this. Such corruption is, of course, not limited to government — the Wall Street, health insurance, and defense industries epitomize it.
It will not change until we change it.
…to the temptation to try to help out a friend, but we have checks and balances so that this help does not become the decisive factor. Yes, I’m sure the Governor WAS alarmed as it is the Chelsea Housing Authority who hires and contracts and executive director. Not sure why gladys-kravitz had to turn this issue into gambling, especially when the protagonist (Harshbarger) has been on the same side. Even the Governor has a lot more on his plate. Just because you are a single-issue voter does not make him a single-issue Governor.
I didn’t. First line in the post (emphasis mine):
The post seems to insinuate that Harshbarger is a big fat hypocrite because of his actions with the Chelsea Housing Director versus his actions in the gambling debate. I wanted to point out that there are a lot “good, honest, hardworking volunteers who’ve been working for years to dilute the casino Kool-Aid who aren’t Scott Harshbarger.”
I am also pointing out some things the Governor should be even more alarmed about – things he will ultimately be responsible for – instead of getting a call from Harshbarger, and how not even the Governor has always acted in good faith. Like on the issue of gambling – whether he has a lot of other stuff on his plate.
And I am NOT a single issue voter. You don’t know how I vote on anything except gambling. I have said many times that I blog only about this issue. Which doesn’t mean that I don’t have a lot of political opinions that I discuss outside of this forum. Though admittedly – when it comes to candidates, this issue has helped me determine who shares my values, who does their homework, etc. etc. etc.
Yes, I will buy that….sleezy, shameful and corrupt on the part of the former AG….no so fast. Looking forward to knowing who described Patrick’s reaction as “alarming”. I respect the work of the two journalists but this tells me nothing credible.
Nothing. Hearsay.
Where was the Governor’s “alarm” when the Sec. of Econ. Development, aka the Governor’s water boy, Greg Bialecki, was exposed as swimming with investments in gambling companies with business interests currently before the Commonwealth?
Oh, my that’s right…..there wasn’t any “alarm.”
Red herring? A misstep by one of the few old guard who continues to contribute to public service and has actually assisted the Patrick Administration on a number of critical issues including the recent Probation fiasco?
Striker57’s drooling attempt to discredit Harshbarger while not shining a light on the people responsible for the the alleged fraud is telling of the gutter mentality of gambling proponents. The Speaker, Rep. Wagner, Senate Prez and perhaps with this opening, the Governor, via proxy have all taken ad hominen swipes at one of the few people with the kahunes to take on the tough issues.
What is the role of procasino cheerleader Chelsea City Manager Jay “the archangel” Ash, who rakes in a generous six figure salary? Checks and balances? Doesn’t matter if HUD is not officially under the city manager, he should have used the skills that the hometown newspaper states that he possess? After all he appointed members of the board….oh and so did the Governor!
That’s a little too “hands off” boys….sort of like wearing blindfolds, eh? If it took those responsible for oversight this long to figure out the corruption, what makes anyone think that politicians in the Commonwealth will have any ability to oversee the gambling industry??? Tail, wag dog.
And, c’mon Estes and Murphy, please dig a little more with some balance and real information vs. this “two people briefed on the call,” BS, eh? Has Governor Patrick ever sought Harshbarger’s council on his cell phone? Does Patrick pay Harshbarger for his work/consultation on probation or the gambling regulatory guidelines submitted to the Governor? If you want to go hunting give us the whole story or was this a slap down by the Globe, too?
It certainly reinforces why the oligarchy supported by lemmings is flourishing on Beacon Hill. Payback’s a bitch.