Charlie Baker had a rough night last night. He was giving a speech at an event billed as “the 10th Annual Boston Spirit LGBT Executive Networking Night,” and he found himself unprepared for, and unable to handle, the attendees’ displeasure with his unwillingness to commit to, well, much of anything with respect to the transgender rights bill now under consideration in the legislature. Here’s how his speech ended.
#awkward
Since his disastrous 2010 campaign for governor, Baker has generally done a good job of hiding the fact that he can be a pretty short-tempered guy who doesn’t handle criticism particularly well. That public façade started to crack for real last night (here’s another, milder example of cracks starting to show). Should be interesting to see where he goes from here.
I don’t feel sorry for him at all, he should have known what was coming, and he has no spine.
In my view the only person in that room without any balls was the Governor. I’m proud of these activists for using this opportunity to make noise, civility in the face of injustice is capitulation. A stark contrast to the states top law enforcement official who’s been a drum major on this issue.
It’s politically stupid too, his team leaked this to the press and said he’d have a major announcement and he ended up saying much about nothing. Perfect opportunity for him to show more political courage than DeLeo and put the ball back in his court. Now their dance of do nothing indifference can continue while the bullying and attacks shamefully go on as well.
…he agreed to address this group if he weren’t prepared to support them on this, but I’m not a fan of disruptions.
But sometimes they are necessary.
I thought he used force, against which I would fight as well, but if he were just holding forth on the benefits of Jim Crow I might walk out on him, certainly would not applaud, but I also wouldn’t try to shout him down.
None of these people are going to vote for him anyway, and hardly anyone is going to be “I would vote for him except that he’s not super pro LGBT issues.”
He’ll get the bill, he’ll either sign it or not, but either way it will become law.
He’s already recently lit part of his own base on fire regarding this issue. What more do you want him to do?
This is another case of wanting him to be something that he’s not and something that the people who voted for him are against/divided. I’m sure he’s polled it. Showing “balls’ gets him nothing.
He probably should have just passed on the event. I’m sure he will in the future.
If that was the goal, then it’s been accomplished.
Free Press to look reasonable against demonstrators. He could give lessons to Bill Clinton.
Does that mean he wouldn’t have stood by his brothers right to marry in the 90s when this polled poorly? Every attack against Hillary or Obama on these issues is valid since they came late to the party, as many are quick to remind us. But he is now being late to the party.
Didn’t he just spend 500k of New Balance money purging his state committee of right wing dissent? Isn’t he supposed to be a different kind of Republican? This issue isn’t a slam dunk for him, it’s a lay up. The fact that he’s too afraid to touch the ball doesn’t speak well to his leadership, the fact that DeLeo and Stan are waiting for him to play doesn’t speak well to theirs either. Have the vote, find out who the dissenters are and blow up their phones when the override comes down. This waiting game is the equivalency of letting discrimination continue. There is no right time for it to end other than the present.
And WILL NOT BE voted on?
DeLeo and Stan are waiting for HIS OPINION? Really?
This was a set up from the beginning, everybody knew it, and he showed up anyway. That alone took some guts.
because its in the platform.
I don’t disagree that DeLeo is being a coward on this, but what’s to stop Baker from saying ‘read my lips, ill sign the bill if YOU put it on my desk’ and end the issue? That’s real balls. If you feel DeLeo is playing the same dance of indifference than you can’t deny Baker is a willing partner.
This is a question of social justice to me not partisan brinksmanship. Pass the bill and the issue goes away for all time. The only people that lose under that scenario are the social conservatives he purports to want out of his party anyway. The people losing now are the people the law currently hurts. And they were the ones justifiably angry last night. This is an own goal porcupine.
That wouldn’t make any sense.
The idea that Baker wants social conservatives out of the party is complicated by his pick for National Committeewoman.
http://redmassgroup.com/2016/04/does-ma-family-institutes-welcome-to-orrall-still-hold/
I see plenty of national polls, with majorities of both parties against it. But I can’t find statewide polls. Swear I read some.
but it’s not. Only you are waiting for him to lead on this issue. No one else expects him to. Did these people get attention? Yes. Will it move the governor? No. All it does is make him more wary about even engaging.
It’s closer to saying what drinking fountains people can use based on an arbitrary and non scientific identity marker. So it’s actually more basic than marriage or adoption rights.
But the group is smaller, so it’s less important…
I’m very curious to hear African-American perspectives on that.
He has repeatedly linked the fight for gay and trans rights to the civil rights movement he was beaten and bled for.
don’t want to move off-topic but I wanted to correct. You need to add Mr. DOMA, states rights guy Bernie Sanders to your list along with Clinton and Obama coming late to the party, if you are making the point on candidates.
This is about real Bay Stater’s currently being hurt by the law. Charlie opposed this in 2010, he opposed it last night, he could flip flop tomorrow and I’d give him a kiss. I just want the right thing done, I don’t care who does it or what party does it as long as it’s done now. It’s the delaying and dithering that’s infuriating to these activists, and they had a right to say so last night.
…that either way it will become law? From what I’ve heard and read about certain Dems I don’t think it’s clear that there are the necessary 2/3 to override a veto.
Then again, it’s all hypothetical because there will never be a vote.
DAMN that Charley Baker and his mind control! Stan is POWERLESS because of it!
Send the bill to his desk! I completely agree the Democratic leadership is playing politics with this as well, but he takes the issue away from them by committing to the bill. The only reason they are saying they need to wait to get an override is because he hasn’t said he won’t veto, if he says he won’t veto the bill could pass both houses by a majority tomorrow and he could sign it. Why is he waiting for Beacon Hill Democrats to make the first move on a hard issue? They never do, don’t leaders make the first move? I thought Charlie was a leader?
…how can he promise to sign or veto a bill when he has no idea what might be in it?
If he says he will veto, they will send a bill with a cut in the income tax to 2%. If he says he will sign, it will include single payer health insurance and a hike in legislative salaries to $250,000.
And if he fails to act as he said he would, no matter what pile of steaming crap is surreptitiously included, he will have to explain over and over why he is not a liar who has stopped beating his wife.
When dealing with the legislature it is wise to double check if they claim the sun came up that morning. So to at in advance what you would do about a piece of legislation before a vote is taken would be idiotic
It’s pretty straightforward and changes “sex” to “gender identity” for the applicable parts of the code. “I’ll sign it if it gets to my desk clean with no amendments”. Why is that hard? I think it’s because he’s still more paranoid about his right flank than he is about the legislature.
…right after Bob and Stan say they will hold a vote on the Diaz bill with no amendments
…that this legislation will be loaded down with extraneous nonsense or are you just looking for an excuse?
Baker on this bill, or porcupine on Trump?
Must remember not to try doing this on my cellphone while riding the T
‘Go ahead, Make my day!’, isn’t that what the Gipper would do? Either way, it shows how childish our legislators are acting. “I’ll do the right thing when those guys do it first” is not a great mantle of adult leadership.
Baker is already in a fight with his right wing over exactly this sort of thing. And that turns out to be nothing gained, because these folks want to make him look like the NC governor. Which I guess is fair enough, because its a big deal.
But now the leg can take cover, and bury it, and blame the governor.
And, given the fight he has been engaged in with his own right wing, he was almost certainly going to sign the bill. And the leg which does not want the bill can bury it and get a free pass. “We can’t override. Oh well. Next! Oooh probation appropriations! Goody!”
This is all great if all you want is to make a Republican look bad, but if what you wanted was the passage of the bill, this seems likely to have been directly counter-productive. Again and as always, local progressive seem more anxious to reward the local right wing Democrats than they do to actually accomplish anything.
But again, there is no right wing of the MA party of any influence. Baker supposedly purged them all and the his bffs GE and Shirley Leung gave him clear cover with the business community, not to mention his gay brother and his being ahead of many Democrats (including the two running for president) on endorsing full marriage equality.
Absolutely DeLeo is laughing at the Winthrop Elks club bar that Baker own goaled himself so bad on this issue so he doesn’t have to lift a finger and can hold it over the liberals. It was the #1 reason the liberals I talked to who re-elected him said they were doing it for. And now Baker just gave DeLeo another excuse for another two years to get it done, while escaping the blame.
I won’t blame trans activists, they have had to endure bullying and discrimination for too long and it’s condescending and paternalistic to insist on them to wait and be polite while Baker makes up his mind on an issue that’s a layup for him, let alone a slam dunk. There are no profiles in courage in leadership on Beacon Hill on any issue in am either party. You Baker defenders are being played just as much as we are.