Blue Mass. Group has MOVED!!

"Give. Me. A. Break."

Mike Wallace was on WBUR's On Point this morning. You simply must hear the one question that he would ask George Bush. I won't transcribe it, but start listening to the clip at about 27:30.

Not so much a question as a complete demolition, you'll find.

UPDATE: Ok, I transcribed the best part:

WALLACE: What in the world, sir, Mr. President, prepared you -- what in your background prepared you to be the Commander in Chief of the supreme power in the world? Your military background? No. Your business background? No. Your travels? You were an incurious man for such a long time, I'm at a loss to understand. And you were -- according to Bob Woodward in his book Plan of Attack -- you said when asked if you ever talked to your dad, George H.W. Bush, Number 41, about what you might do better or different: "No", you said, according to Bob Woodward. "No, I look to a higher Father."

Give  me a break.

... So many people say [W] is such a likeable guy. [Clears throat.] I pass.

Tim Murray in the Lt. Gov. race?

Mariposa at Beyond 495 calls our attention to a most interesting tidbit in a holiday party invitation sent out by DDemDispatch: the invite notes that Worcester Mayor Tim Murray has confirmed his attendance in the capacity of candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

Well, well, well!  This has been rumored for some time, but nothing official has appeared on it yet.  And one can't really call this invitation an official statement of Murray's candidacy for the no. 2 job on Beacon Hill.  Nonetheless, it's pretty good evidence that, as everyone has been anticipating, Murray is indeed planning a run for Lt. Gov.

If Murray does join the race, it will shake things up substantially.  He has been Mayor of Worcester since 2001, so his experience in public office is substantially greater than any of the three declared candidates, and he's obviously got a substantial base of support in a major city.  Beyond that, I honestly don't know much about him.  But hey, the more the merrier!

A Teacher Runs in Foxborough

An important update in the 1st Bristol race from Cos.  --David

There's a Democrat running in the 1st Bristol special election, but it's not Feeney. The Sun-Chronicle reported last week that "Claire Naughton, of 4 Everett Lane in Foxboro, took out papers Monday in the Foxboro town clerk's office to run for the Democratic nomination for the seat."

Since then, Naughton has hired staff and is setting up a campaign office. She's a retired teacher in Foxborough and apparently well known in the community. As I noted in a previous post, this traditionally Republican-held district has voting patterns that show it to be a swing district. It sounds like we have an exciting race to look forward to.

As of 2pm on Tuesday, the Foxborough Town Clerk's office reports they know of nobody else running aside from the Republican candidate, Ginny Coppola. With just a few hours to go until the filing deadline, it seems unlikely anyone new will jump in. That means we won't have contested primaries on either side, and the real action in this district is all for February 7th.

Bush Closes in On One Year Off

W., who already holds the record for most vacation days ever taken by a President, is closing on a full year of R&R as the death toll in Iraq mounts, according to Harper's. The well-informed readers of Blue Mass. Group will no doubt recall Bush was on vacation when Katrina struck, and was also taking time off when then-CIA Director George Tenet first found out that Zacarias Moussaoui, an Islamic jihadist, had been taking lessons on how to fly a 747. Clinton, by contrast, spent just 152 days on vacation in eight years. Some have found humor in W.'s achievement.

Candidate Questionnaires in the Somerville special election

PDS member Cos reports on PDS's questionnaires and upcoming candidates forum for the State House seat vacated by Pat Jehlen's move to the Senate.  --David

The Progressive Democrats of Somerville (PDS) today posted questionnaires filled out by the two candidates vying for PDS endorsement in the 27th Middlesex special election: Denise Provost and Elizabeth Moroney. (It's not yet clear whether Ward 5 Alderman Sean O'Donovan is running ... sound familiar?  The Somerville News reports that O'Donovan is in the race - but all they really say is that he pulled papers. We'll know who's on the ballot Tuesday night.)

The PDS questionnaire covers a variety of topics including local aid, election reform, police and public safety, the development of Assembly Square, and social divisions in Somerville. And both candidates will appear in person at the PDS November meeting this Tuesday, November 29th, at the College Avenue Methodist Church, 7-9pm. Each candidate will speak for about 5 minutes, then take questions for about 15 minutes, then PDS members will vote on an endorsement. The meeting is open to the public, so if you'd like to get to know these candidates, read their questionnaire responses and come to the meeting.

One measure of how valuable the PDS endorsement could be in this race: The number of volunteer precinct captains in the recent state senate special election who were affiliated with PDS is larger than the number of precincts in the 27th Middlesex.

[disclaimer: I am a member of PDS.]

More Patrick campaign tea leaves

.08 acres points to this Adrian Walker column about Deval Patrick, which makes this intriguing comment: "I had called after reading that one of his top consultants, Dan Payne, had left the campaign. Supposedly Payne had left because he didn't want to work with another of the top consultants." (That, of course, would go counter to Payne's parting shot that "When your opponent is taking on the gov over auto insurance rates and you're celebrating your 100th home-made web site, something's not right." Spin it how you want.) Well, it would be interesting to know who that is; and if Payne/Consultant X are mutually exclusive, is this a net positive or negative for the campaign?

Walker says that "too many people -- 80 percent, according to various polls -- still don't know who he is." But if that's true, how is he beating Healey in the polls? How is he a statistical dead heat with Romney, rising 11 points since the last poll, more than any other candidate? Did "Anyone But Romney" become that much more attractive as a candidate?

I have no idea what to make of any of this. Polls are weird.

However, ... it's been discussed in the comments of David's original Payne post that Patrick may want to "throw a few more elbows" in the campaign. Reilly calling Healey on 'RKO about illegal immigrants and education was a gutsy move -- or cheap shot, depending on how you see it; either way it certainly was effective as political theater.

The departure of Payne and RFK's would-have-been 80th birthday have made me wonder: How do polticians who tout compassion deal with the inherent nastiness of adversarial democracy? Josh Marshall recently got an email from a Republican reader which said: "Democratic politicians tend to be wimps. Anyone can see how easily they get pushed around by interest groups in their own party; when criticized aggressively, they tend to seek sympathy rather than hitting back." (My emphasis, natch.) Well, how do you advocate for better health care and caring for old people and poor people and the environment and kids and not being a dick in international affairs -- and be properly aggressive? How can compassion be the flag to rally around and fight tooth-and-nail for, as opposed to a soft underbelly to be exploited?

We gotta figure that one out. Right now Reilly's not doing a bad job of it ... but it could be done even better.

Cashing in their chips

Now this is cool ... er, warm: Mt. Wachusett Community College has reduced its heating costs and CO₂ output by switching to wood chips and other biomass fuels:

Instead of shelling out nearly a half million dollars for electric heat, the college paid a mere $31,000 for the woodchips. The savings is so great that school officials say the $2 million heating system conversion cost will pay for itself within 10 years.

At the same time, Mount Wachusett has so far reduced its greenhouse gas emissions -- a polluted mix mostly containing carbon dioxide -- by nearly 19 percent.

Now, it's been said that a university is "an aggregation of sovereignties connected by a common heating plant". Doubtless in some of our local universities, some duchies and principalities are chafing under that oppressive servitude. Perhaps they might declare their allegiance to the lowly wood chip?

Open Document, Insert Foot II: Electric Boogaloo

Globe reports that the Romney administration is investigating Peter Quinn, director of the Informational Technology Division, for not getting permission to go to some out-of-state conferences:

Romney administration officials are investigating whether Quinn violated travel procedures by not obtaining written authorization for six of the trips -- to Brazil, Ottawa, San Francisco, and other cities -- since September 2004. For six other trips, he received written approval from his supervisor.

 

Quinn proposed the major change-over to using open-source formats for state documents. The insinuation is that he may have been influenced by "sponsoring companies" of these conferences. However, as anyone who gets a glossy flyer from one of these things knows: "... a galaxy of computer companies are listed as sponsors of many of the conferences."

Is this a real conflict of interest, or a witch hunt? The Globe takes credit for piquing the administration's interest: "The state launched its inquiry after the Globe began asking questions about the trips earlier this week". Can we be sure this investigation was in response to our intrepid muckraker, and not in response to some phone calls from a certain lobbyist for a certain arm-twisting corporation? Is the Romney administration going to use this as a side-show to scrap the whole idea, as they seem inclined to do?

Regardless, if you're an open-source/free software enthusiast, the FSF wants you to call your reps to support the change-over.

(See my disclosure at the end of this post. Thanks to Adam Gaffin for putting two and two together... maybe.)

(Update:  More full disclosure: I should have mentioned earlier that my brother now works for, and I have stock in, Red Hat, which is a company that does open-source software. I have not seen any specific mention of them as a company that would gain business due to the proposed change-over, but I suppose it's possible. Sorry for the omission.)

Great! So we're in agreement then!

U.S. to draw down troop levels:

President Bush will give a major speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in which aides say he is expected to proclaim the improved readiness of Iraqi troops, which he has identified as the key condition for withdrawing U.S. forces.

I mean, hasn't it been more than a little preposterous for Republicans to complain that anyone who didn't think that we should just be there forever was a traitor, or a coward? And now they're just following the national mood. Why? Because they have to.

See, it doesn't matter what the Republicans want, or what they want the public to want. We still live in a democracy, and they get spooked when folks get sick of the war and accompanying lies. Josh Marshall nails it: Really, the only thing left is the face-saving -- whatever's left of that fabulous face. And the draw-down will have to begin before the '06 elections.

Really, this is a victory for the anti-Iraq-war pro-sanity side -- and reality finally caught up with BushCo. But this also leaves us with a decision, at the intersection between policy and politics:

• Should national leaders temporarily soften their language on Bush and Cheney, making it easier for them to do the right thing by allowing them to save face? You know, "We're glad the president has taken this preliminary step to finishing the job in Iraq," etc. (This strategy can easily be reversed in time for the elections, since in any event, the Republicans do need to be held accountable.)
• Or, should relentless pressure and criticism be kept up, since that's how we got to this place to begin with?
• Or both? Good cop/bad cop?

Morally and strategically, I don't think withdrawal is a cut-and-dry issue. The Iraqi forces are clearly not ready -- that would take several years under the best of circumstances.  We could be looking at a situation of real civil war -- even worse than what's there now, more on the model of Yugoslavia or the India/Pakistan partition. Murtha thinks that the U.S. is only making the problem worse, with some obvious justification ... but worse than what? Does unimaginably worse chaos ensue, this time with real security implications for the U.S.?

So, insofar as pro-sanity politics influences policy ... What do we want? Only horrible choices remain.

Polling: Employers should pay their share

How the heck did I miss this? At the end of the State House News Service's email bulletin was this gem:

The notion of raising taxes on businesses who can afford to provide health coverage, but don't, earned overwhelming support: 66 to 29 percent. [my emphasis] But [SHNS pollster] Chervinsky cautioned: "Citizens almost always embrace business taxes without realizing the direct impact that has on them personally. One of the problems with sampling public opinion is that people are inclined to say, 'Sure go ahead, tax 'em,' without taking into account all the implications. The citizenry is a little unrealistic."

Dear Mr. Chervinsky:

• "...without considering the direct impact on them personally"? Do you have any idea why this is such a hot issue right now? Maybe because this issue affects so many of us personally? Can you imagine?
• "Unrealistic?" Look, thinking that the current situation is OK is unrealistic in the extreme. Maybe we're just fed up, and think businesses should pay their fair share.

I've said it before: If businesses don't like the assessment for helping to cover their employees, they need to get with the single-payer bandwagon and start pushing. Stop your bitching and help us fix the problem.

(Thanks to the Healthy Blog for the catch. Duh.)

Open Document, Insert Foot

Could the legislature smother the move to open source document formats before it begins? Sharp Tools worries that's the case, citing a friend who was at the legislative hearing:

Microsoft had sent a local Beacon Hill professional lobbyist, who charges multiple thousands of dollars a month. He was sitting there doing business on his cell phone, sending out runners, etc. What he was doing became clear later; while his pet State Senator was reiterating his client's talking points for the media, and everyone on the 'Open Source' side of the fence was sitting in the hearing either listening or awaiting their turn in the hotseat, he was busily lobbying to get a modification made to another piece of legislation.

That modification, it turned out, will create a 'technology oversight committee' which will have the power to veto the decision to move to Open Document formats. It will be staffed by representatives from branches of state government other than the one which proposed this change. Surprise! Pay no attention to what this hand is doing behind the curtain. [my emphasis.]

So, apparently the pro-open-source folks are hoping to win this one on the merits, while Microsoft is twisting arms. Sound familiar? And now the Romney administration seems to be backing off from its plans to move on due to some somewhat mysterious promises from Microsoft to open up its own file formats. "Trust us", says Mr. Softie.

Come on, it's time to move on. Free Software (or Open Source) was created in Massachusetts (full disclosure: my brother used to work at FSF). We ought to be the first ones to implement it statewide, and save some bucks in the process.

(Thanks to Universal Hub for the steer.)

UPDATE: ZDNet suggests that maybe the state should have kept it on the down-low.

Shorter Dick Cheney:

"We're fools but not liars."

Ha ha, I know, I know... they're both.

Another Trio of Special Elections

Thought we were all done with special elections?  Think again!  Cos has written up this excellent roundup of three more open seats that will be filled well before next year's general election in November.  --David

There are three more special elections coming up to fill vacant seats in the Massachusetts House - a new wintertime tradition! Unlike last winter, when three of the most conservative Democrats in the House stepped down, in three solidly Democratic districts, this time we have one Representative who moved up to the Senate, one who died of cancer, and only one who left the legislature. The districts are rather different, too:

• The 27th Middlesex, completely within Somerville, MA, is very progressive and solidly Democratic
• The 2nd Worcester is conservative-leaning and has been held by a Democrat but could elect a Republican. Its population centers on Gardner, and it also contains Winchendon and a few smaller nearby towns.
• The 1st Bristol has been held by Republican representatives for a very long time, but might elect a Democrat. Foxboro is the main population center.

So we've got an urban metro-Boston progressive Democratic district, an inland semi-rural conservative-Democratic district, and a south shore Republican district, all up for grabs. The primaries for all three are on January 10th and the general elections are on February 7th. Filing deadlines are Nov 29 - this Tuesday.

Here's a roundup of the candidates so far...

1st Bristol - Foxboro and half of Mansfield & Norton

State Rep. Michael Coppola, R-Foxboro, died of cancer earlier this year. His widow, Ginny Coppola, has been recruited to run to replace him. She has some state house experience, having served as legislative aide to her husband's predecessor, 1st Bristol State Rep. Barbara Hyland. On the Republican side, the field seems clear for her.

Although this seat has been held by Republicans for a long time, one Democrat is reportedly considering a run - Paul Feeney of Foxboro, an aide to state Sen. James Timilty (D-Walpole). I don't know much about Feeney, though MassEquality says he's a strong supporter of equal marriage.

Timilty's Senate district, the Bristol and Norfolk, includes all of Foxboro, Norton, and Mansfield. Former Sen. Jo Ann Sprague, R-Walpole, stepped down last year, making it an open seat. Timilty ran against Republican Dave McCarter and won 57% to 43% districtwide. Relevant town by town results are:

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	McCarter (R)	Timilty (D)
Foxborough	3,389	4,686
Mansfield	5,455	4,788
Norton	3,347	4,176

Remember, only half of Mansfield and Norton are in this district, but all of Foxborough is. Despite its Republican history, it looks like it could be a competitive district, especially with Timilty's support. We should know within the next few days if Feeney is running.

2nd Worcester - Gardner, Winchendon, Royalston, Ashburnham, Ashby

Conservative Democratic State Rep. Brian Knuuttila resigned in October to take a job with Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis. Knuuttila's former campaign manager, Gardner Chamber of Commerce President Michael Ellis, is running on the Democratic side... with Knuuttila as his campaign manager! Ellis labels himself "very conservative" and says he agrees with Knuuttila on almost all issues. Interestingly one one major issue they differ on is gay marriage: Knuuttila twice voted to amend the constitution, while Ellis says he opposes such amendments. That prompted MassEquality to call this race "the strongest opportunity" to replace an anti-equality legislator with a strong supporter of equal marriage rights, according to Bay Windows.

Another Democrat, Gardner City Solicitor Robert Rice, is also running, so he and Ellis will face each other in the primary on January 10th. According to that article in the Sentinel & Enterprise, Rice seems to be emphasizing his experience in both public and private employment and familiarity with "the plight of the small business owner". With an opponent who chairs the local chamber of commerce, it looks like this race may focus on small business issues.

The Republican candidate is Ashburnham Selectman Jonathan Dennehy, who announced his run the day after the election date got set. Another Republican, Gardner grant administrator Mark Hawke, pulled out of the race last week, citing state election laws that make it difficult to run for office while working for city hall. He is endorsing Dennehy, who has said his campaign will focus on financing for infrastructure projects in small cities and towns.

27th Middlesex - middle half of Somerville

This was Pat Jehlen's state rep seat from 1991 until she got promoted to the state senate last month (it's also the district I lived in from 1996-2003). It includes Davis Square and has become one of the most strongly progressive districts in the state.

The first candidate to signal her intention to run was Somerville Alderman-at-Large Denise Provost, who did all but announce at Pat Jehlen's victory party, and pulled papers as soon as they became available. Provost's neighbor, liberal Somerville planning board member Elizabeth Moroney, an aide to state Senator Pam Resor (D-Acton), is also running. The third Democrat in the race is Somerville Ward 5 Alderman Sean O'Donovan, viewed as a "conservative" by Somerville standards. Another Somerville ward Alderman, Walter Pero, was considering a run, but decided against it.

Provost, Moroney, and O'Donovan will face each other in the January 10th Democratic primary, which in this district will likely be the deciding election. John Roderick will likely run in the February 7th general election, as an independent. He ran for this seat as a Libertarian in 2002, against then-incumbent Pat Jehlen, who defeated him handily. The Somerville News reports that he is pro-choice, opposes the death penalty, supports gun ownership, and labels himself "a union man", and that he would like to see a non-Democrat run for this seat.

In this one, Denise Provost is strongly favored. She just won her second at-large race in a row, coming in first in a seven-candidate field for four slots. In 2003, she actually got more votes than the mayor (this year, the mayor's race was uncontested). Of her 5,776 total votes, 3873 came from precincts in the 27th Middlesex district. Her biggest base of support is wards 5 & 6, both of which are in this district. She has been twice endorsed by Progressive Democrats of Somerville (of which I am an active member) for Board of Aldermen, and I think she is likely to get the PDS endorsement again at the organization's November 29th meeting. She is allied with many of the same progressives who elected Carl Sciortino and Pat Jehlen. And she just ran an election campaign, so her signs have been all over the city for months, and she's got a very up to date list of supporters throughout the district. She simply never stopped campaigning after the November 8th election.

Sean O'Donovan is also an incumbent, but he's only been running in Ward 5. He won on November 8th with 1302 votes, and at the same time Denise Provost got 1299 Ward 5 votes for the at-large race. It's not clear if he has more support than she does even in his own ward. O'Donovan will be viewed as the conservative in this race, and insiders expect mayor Curtatone's organization to help him, though as far as I know Curtatone hasn't said anything in public. Either way, I think a united progressive community would win this district.

The wildcard is Elizabeth Moroney, who hasn't run for any elected office. She just resigned from a long stint working for Pam Resor in order to run for this seat, and Resor is loved by hooked-in progressive activists, but both she and Elizabeth are mostly unknown to Somerville voters. Moroney has a lot of liberal positions, but can she catch up to a candidate who's had several months head start in such a short campaign? If she does manage to draw off some more liberal voters, that could split the vote and give Sean O'Donovan a realistic opening.
Personally, I'm going to support Denise Provost.

I'd love to hear more about the Gardner and Foxboro elections, from people who live there or who know more about the candidates. [ed. note: Beyond 495 already has several posts up on the Gardner race and will no doubt have more as time goes on.]

More thoughts on the Delahunt-Chavez oil deal

Thanks to Ken at Dirty Water for noting a different take on the Delahunt-Chavez oil deal.  Steve Bailey, one of the Globe's business columnists, writes that he's no Bush fan, but he still doesn't like Hugo Chavez "grandstanding" by selling cut-rate oil to Massachusetts residents as a way of "pok[ing] a stick in George Bush's eye."  Bailey goes on to note that a lot of Venezuela's residents are a lot poorer than the poorest Massachusetts residents, and that Chavez's own country maybe could use the money more.  Ken agrees, saying that the whole thing seems to be "largely a political stunt by Chavez."

You'll get no claim from me that Chavez isn't grandstanding, or that he isn't delighting in embarrassing George Bush by doing more to help low-income Americans pay their heating bills than their own government is doing.  I wouldn't even say that this isn't a "stunt" by Chavez.  But I don't think any of that proves that Delahunt shouldn't have cut the deal he did.  Regardless of whether poor Venezuelans are poorer than poor Americans, or whether (as Bailey somewhat irrelevantly notes) Venezuela's infrastructure is in bad shape, the fact remains that there are a lot of people who live in this state who are looking at a very, very cold winter without help.  And there's nothing Bill Delahunt or, really, any other American can do to make Chavez run his own country better.  Delahunt is right: his job is to serve his constituents, and it seems to me that that's what he did by, essentially, taking advantage of bad blood between a President with no interest in helping poor Americans and an ambitious Bush-hating foreign leader who is, as Bailey says, "trying to establish himself as a player in Latin America."  Good for Delahunt for being clever enough to leverage that bad blood into a good deal for his constituents who can't afford to heat their homes.  Besides, as I said before, Chavez may not be the most admirable head of a major oil-producing country, but he surely isn't the least.

Get the blue laws out of this blue state

Please, please, will someone repeal our ghastly blue laws?  It's ridiculous enough that our chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General and would-be Governor Tom Reilly, had nothing better to do one day this week than to write a nasty letter to Whole Foods informing them that if they kept their stores open on Thanksgiving Day - paying their employees twice their usual wages in the process - they'd be criminally liable.  (The impetus behind the letter?  Not disgruntled employees who objected to coming to work - it was Shaw's Supermarkets, a major Whole Foods competitor.)  Today we read that police ("acting on a tip") actually forced a supermarket that had missed the warnings to close, and that "the attorney general's office would investigate all reports of illegally opened stores."

Great Scott, let's hope these scofflaws see some serious punishment!  How are parents supposed to teach their children respect for the law unless swift and harsh justice isn't meted out for such obviously criminal behavior?

Seriously, the idea that the power of the state to impose criminal penalties should apply to opening a store on a Sunday or a holiday has, as I've written before, always struck me as utterly absurd.  I'm all for legal safeguards such that workers can't be punished for refusing to work on major legal holidays or on the day that they observe the Sabbath.  I'd even go along with requiring the payment of extra wages for those workers choosing to work those days.  But let's please (1) get these regulations out of the criminal statutes (where they're officially known as the "Common Day of Rest Law") and into the labor code where they belong, and (2) get the all-knowing and beneficent state out of the business of dictating to private enterprises the days on which they may and may not serve the public.  For one thing, the state carries out that function extremely badly - really, you have to read these statutes to believe them.

I disagree with Globe paleocon columnist Jeff Jacoby on just about everything.  But he's right on this one: "The blue laws are and always have been obnoxious deprivations of liberty."  Yup.

My open source software full disclosure

Here's my full disclosure regarding open-source/Free software issues: My brother once worked for the Free Software Foundation, which essentially invented open-source; he now works for, and I have stock in, Red Hat, a company which makes open-source software products, especially Red Hat Linux. I have not heard of Red Hat specifically gaining any business due to the proposed move to OpenDocument formats.

Oh the huM&Mity!

The NYT reports: In a replay of a similar 1997 incident, the M&M balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City flew out of control, struck a lightpost, and fell to the ground.  Two people suffered minor injuries.  Many witnesses are expected to relive the frightening incident the next time they think about popping those tasty chocolate morsels into their mouths.  (OK, the NYT didn't report that last bit.)

Before:

After:

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm heading off to the homestead for the traditional gathering of family and friends, and the annual exercise in overeating.  I chipped in a donation to Rosie's Place this morning.  If you have a chance, pick a similarly worthy charity and do the same, or volunteer a couple of hours, in the spirit of the day.  Today's Globe has helpfully published a large list of organizations looking for monetary and in-kind donations, and for volunteers.

Here's hoping you and yours have a wonderful holiday.

The Good Old Boys Strike Again

Kudos to our absentee Governor for vetoing the bill passed by the Gold Old Boys in the House and Senate that would have placed new restrictions on wine shipments via mail. The Legislature acted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that states must allow direct shipments to consumers from out of state vineyards. The vetoed bill tried to undercut the Court's ruling. Romney said the measure did not help consumers but protected existing liquor distributors in Massachusetts. Indeed. This kind of back-scratching legislation is what has given the Democratic Party, and especially the Massachusetts legislature, a bad name among many Massachusetts residents and national observers. Raise a Thanksgiving glass for consumer choice.

Phoenix profiles O'Flaherty and Schiavone

Adam Reilly (who else?) writes up an interesting piece on this very interesting race that pits Christopher Schiavone, a gay ex-priest, against incumbent Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty (D-Chelsea), a non-gay F-bomb-tossing Irishman (part of his childhood was spent on the Emerald Isle).  And remember: if you read what the alert commenters at Blue Mass. Group like CharlestownGayGuy have to say, you knew this race was coming at the end of August!

Boomerang

Yeah, so Romney and Healey's anti-immigrant-education stance hasn't been going so well lately, and now the State House News Service reports in its roundup (note to MA bloggers: sign up for this) that voters aren't buying:

On the question of in-state tuition rates for the children of illegal immigrants, respondents were asked , "Would you support or oppose legislation allowing children brought into the country illegally to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities as long as they have lived in Massachusetts for the last three years and have graduated from a state high school and have signed a sworn affidavit that they are applying for U.S. citizenship?" Exactly 54 percent said they'd support the proposal; 43 percent said they were opposed. [my emphasis]

I think the wording of the question pretty much decided how most folks would answer -- there's quite a few qualifiers there that Romney and Healey are hoping you don't notice. We got yer nuance right here...

Also get your hot fresh Schadenfreude here: Healey's approval/disapproval is 32/33, with 37% with no opinion.

"If I'm Kerry Healey, I'm seriously, seriously concerned," said [SHNS pollster] Chervinsky, who's conducted polls for media and politicians for 25 years. "She has as many people who view her unfavorably as favorably. That's horrible for an incumbent running for office. That should be 60/30."

Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick both beat her in a face-to-face. (Chin up, Patrick campaign!)

Hilarious anti-Alito ad

People for the American Way is not my favorite lefty interest group, at least when it comes to judicial nominations - they often strike me as shrill and as playing fast and loose with the details of complicated cases.  But their new anti-Alito ad is a must-see.  Most of it is more or less what you'd expect, though it's much better done than the Roberts ads in that it makes a point while actually being fairly accurate.  But the end of the ad is truly inspired.

The wingnut-wanker continuum, revealed at last!

From the always hilarious Editors over at Poor man, this fantastic graph of political figures and pundits, plotted on an x-axis of wankery vs. a y-axis of wingnuttery (click to enlarge).  Read the whole post to understand why they went to this trouble.  I, for one, am glad they did - it made me laugh out loud.

Dan Payne departs from Deval Patrick's campaign

Today's Globe brings the news of long-time Democratic media consultant Dan Payne's departure from the Deval Patrick campaign.  Payne had been advising Patrick since before Patrick decided to run, and had said back then that "if he decides to run, the governor's race automatically becomes a national campaign," presumably because of Patrick's ties to the national Democratic party through his service in the Clinton Justice Department, and also because Patrick is the first serious African-American candidate for Governor in Massachusetts history.  One does have to admit that, at least at this early stage, Patrick's candidacy does not seem to have generated the kind of national interest that many had predicted.  (Payne wasn't the only one - the Globe said early on that a Patrick candidacy would "surely bring national attention to the contest.")

I emailed Payne, noting that we've been generally supportive of Patrick's candidacy, and asking whether he had any concerns at this point about the campaign's overall prospects.  Here's what he wrote in response:

When your opponent is taking on the gov over auto insurance rates and you're celebrating your 100th home-made web site, something's not right.

Ouch.  Payne's reference to the "100th home-made web site" is to the campaign's recent announcement that 100 people had joined "Team Patrick," a feature on the Deval Patrick web site that allows anyone to create a page explaining why they support Patrick and urging their friends to do the same.  That does strike one as an underwhelming milestone.

Look, I don't know any of the personalities in this shake-up, and the Globe article suggests that there is some tension, to say the least, among those involved.  So who knows what the back story is here.  And it's maybe a tad unfair to point to Reilly's role in the auto insurance controversy - he is the Attorney General, after all, and he would have a prominent role to play on the subject even if he weren't running for Governor.

That said, I've already sounded a couple of notes of caution about how the Patrick campaign seems to be progressing (or not, as the case may be).  And Payne knows a whole lot more about running campaigns, and has a much better sense of where an upstart campaign like Patrick's ought to be at this point in the cycle, than I do.  The Globe article says that "Patrick ... is faced with the task of convincing the Democratic establishment, party activists, and major donors that he is a viable candidate."  To be sure, he's got a bunch of the activists with him.  But at least in a statewide race, that doesn't seem likely to be enough.  You've got to have the big donors, and, like it or not, you've got to have at least some of the establishment.  Barbara Grossman is a good start.  But who else is coming on board?  And when?  Where's that "national attention" we thought the race would get?  And when are Patrick's "I have no idea who you are" poll numbers going to start declining?  Thanksgiving is here, Christmas is around the corner, which means no one's paying attention until New Year's, at which point Romney will announce that he's not running, so that consumes headlines for a while, and suddenly the primary is only a few months away and Reilly still has four million bucks in the bank.  I'm still hopeful that the Democratic primary is going to be a real race.  But I'm getting nervous.

Romney sidelined by Delahunt-Chavez oil deal

Mitt Romney is supposed to be the Governor of Massachusetts, isn't he?  Sometimes it's hard to be sure.  When asked what he thought about the fact that Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-Quincy) had managed to score 12 million gallons of low-cost heating oil for Massachusetts residents, Romney had this to say:

I'm delighted to hear we'll be able to purchase oil at a lower price than the market for our citizens.

What a quote.  "I'm delighted to hear" - like he read about it in the paper.  Come to think of it, he probably did.  I also love the fact that he sounds so surprised by the deal - as though he had assumed that, gosh, the market's the market, and there's nothing anyone can do about it other than sign bills that the Democratic legislature passes. 

If Romney cared, he could probably make something happen, as this deal proves.  But he just doesn't seem to care.  While other elected officials are busting their butts to help low-income residents of Massachusetts heat their homes, Romney is out ... well ... what's he doing again?  Oh yeah.

Gotta love this

Probably doesn't mean much at this point.  But it sure feels good (click to enlarge).  The backup is here.  Thanks to Kos.

Fulfilling expectations

• In the "Arrgghghghggh" department... I came this close to actually praising Our Guv for supporting the proposed Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Too good to be true, as it turned out. Our Guv is siding with the power companies:
  

  News of the delay comes two weeks after Romney indicated his overall support for the initiative at a conference in Boston, calling it ''good business" because it would prompt Massachusetts companies to develop state-of-the-art clean-energy technology.

  Since then, power plant owners and other businesses have intensified their lobbying, urging Romney to reject the deal, which would freeze power plant emissions at their current levels and then reduce them 10 percent by 2020. The critics' chief concern has been that the deal would send energy costs higher.

  Yes, that last part might be true, but you have to look at it in the context of a total lack of leadership on the energy front from the Governor, who after all opposes viable alternatives. (Thanks to Bostonist for some links and good commentary.)
  
• Speaking of viable alternatives ... a friend who was at a recent event in Arlington with Deval Patrick and the three declared Lieutenant Governor candidates says that with regard to our energy needs, "None of them mentioned conservation. It's the 800-pound gorilla."
  
  To the candidates: It's OK ...  we can handle it, you know.
• And speaking of conservation, at commenter stomv's advice I went out and got a new badass, 7-day programmable $40 thermostat for the crib this past weekend. Aside from some mild confusion about wires, and some concern about the mercury-filled old thermostat (kids, do not drink this at home), it went pretty smoothly, and now the heat is nice and modulated, and pretty much doesn't come on uselessly in the middle of the night. I expect it'll pay for itself this winter.

• This is like musical chairs, but the West Medford and Union Square Green Line extensions are still on the table. Folks in JP are unhappy that the Arborway trolley got axed, as was the Red-Blue line connector. And there's still no news on making the other end of the Green Line, or the middle, suck less.

2006 and local blogs

Linked from Political Wire, Kari Chisholm of Mandate Media has a post about the potential importance of political blogs in the '06 elections. Mandate Media runs the indispensible LeftyBlogs site, which sorts out the local blogs by state. (We've got a link to the MA lefty bloggers on our blogroll, and Kari was kind enough to leave birthday wishes to our site.)

The über-example of blogs' influence in a campaign was the  Daschle-Thune race in South Dakota in '04. But most of the time, it seems to me that blogs aren't going to have that kind of power, especially not in bigger states. But Chisholm puts her finger on it here:

Though readership is tiny for local political blogs, the Nevada Democrats' spokeswoman Kirsten Searer makes the critical point:

"The beauty of bloggers is they have an audience of the right people. If they break news, then insiders in politics and mainstream media are likely to pick it up."

It is nice to see that the Republicans at the NRCC completely miss the point about blogs.  Roll Call quotes spokesman Carl Forti:

"The people who go to these blogs, it’s the very partisan Republicans and very partisan Democrats, and those aren’t the people we are worried about."

As regular readers of P&T know, the whole purpose of a campaign website is to communicate with, motivate, and organize the grassroots supporters and fans of a candidate. 

If there's a blog out there - either of the news, commentary, or activist variety - that's talking to your people... well, that's a blog worth tracking and wooing.  Nevermind their roles in pushing stories to the forefront of the big media.

Yup. As we've wondered before, it may not be breadth, but depth of readership that can be influential. It'll be interesting to see if and how the MA blogcircle affects the '06 races.

The Delahunt-Chavez deal: what's the problem, exactly?

What a fascinating story this is.  Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-Quincy) has personally cut a deal with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to provide millions of gallons of low-cost heating oil, to be distributed through Citgo (which is a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company) and handled here by Citizens Energy, Joe Kennedy's outfit that for years has been helping poor area residents find affordable heating oil.  The back-room goings-on behind this deal are a tale worth reading.

Sounds great, right?  Some people don't seem to think so.  Chavez, of course, is not exactly on the Bush administration's A-list - he's the guy who publicly called Bush a "crazy man" and an "assassin," and his distinctly left-leaning government is fairly tight with Fidel Castro.  And so Steve Johnson of the right-wing Heritage Foundation has piously proclaimed that deal-cutting with someone like Chavez "is not something I'd like my congressman to be doing."

Let's take a moment for a reality check.  It's not like we don't do business with Venezuela already - they're our fourth-largest supplier of petroleum products, and they own the omnipresent Citgo.  And who's number 1?  Why our good friends the Saudis, of course.  Oh, but of course, we would never cut deals with them.

Mr. Johnson, I assume, earns a nice salary from the Heritage Foundation, and is able to pay the heating bills on his pleasant home in Silver Spring, Md. without thinking twice about it.  Apparently, it's more important to him and his ilk that foreign leaders who don't like the Bush administration be easily portrayable as bad, bad, bad, than it is that low-income Americans be able to heat their homes.  Or maybe he doesn't think the private sector should have any role at all in helping poor people with their heating bills - rather like the CEO of a different oil company, ConocoPhillips, who told Congress not long ago: "We feel it's not a good precedent for one industry to fund a program as such.  We think that's a responsibility of the government."  Oh, but whoops, the government has seriously underfunded its principal program to help poor people buy heating oil, and Senate Republicans recently blocked an effort to bring funding up to authorized levels.  So, Mr. Johnson, what's your solution?

If Hugo Chavez wants to bolster his image with the American public by selling them cheap heating oil through Citgo, I have a hard time seeing what the problem is.  Call it petro-diplomacy if you want.  At least his government doesn't underwrite Islamic extremism.  Joe Kennedy has it right: "You start parsing which countries' politics we're going to feel comfortable with, and only buying oil from them, then there are going to be a lot of people not driving their cars and not staying warm this winter. There are a lot of countries that have much worse records than Venezuela."

Anyway, so Chavez doesn't like the way Bush is running the country?  Big deal.  He's not alone.

The Bumblers

Some interesting observations from Bill Fisher: "'New Brownies in the Wings?'  Years from now, we’re likely to remember two things about Hurricane Katrina: The massive human suffering caused by the incredibly dysfunctional response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and President Bush’s iconic kudo to FEMA’S clueless head: “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie!”

"The ‘Brownie’ the president was referring to was, of course, Michael Brown, then FEMA’s hapless director. Days after Bush’s remark, Brownie was ordered back to Washington and later fell on his sword and resigned in disgrace (though he attempted to defend himself before a Senate hearing and remained on the payroll as a “consultant” for several more months).

"But in Washington, there’s always a long line of mediocrities waiting in the wings to serve their country. And President Bush seems to have a particular knack for nominating them.

"Here are three of the more recent:

"Paul Bonicelli was just appointed to oversee the democracy and governance programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Those programs are mandated to play a central role in Bush's efforts to democratize Iraq and the broader Middle East.

"Bonicelli’s background in spreading democracy and good governance? Well, his current post is dean of academic affairs at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, whose motto is: “For Christ and Liberation”. This ultra-fundamentalist institution requires all its students to sign a "statement of faith" declaring that they believe "Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is God come in the flesh," "Jesus Christ literally rose bodily from the dead," and "all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity."

Fisher continues:

"Bonicelli and PHC have close ties to the Bush Administration and to private right-wing religious groups who form such an important part of Bush’s base. PHC students have been chosen to serve as interns for Karl Rove and for the White House Office of Public Liaison, and students and faculty are frequently invited to White House and inaugural events. In 2002, Bush named Bonicelli along with former Vatican advisor John Klink and Janice Crouse of the ultra-conservative Concerned Women for America, to a U.N. delegation to promote biblical values in U.S. foreign policy – and sparked an outcry of protest from women’s rights advocates.

"One has to wonder how Muslims will react to the news that "all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity."

"Then there’s Ellen Sauerbrey, nominated to head the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The mission of the Bureau is to coordinate U.S. response to migration problems arising from war and natural disasters, and to work with international groups on population and reproductive-health issues. The Bureau has a budget of more than $700 million.

"Sauerbrey's qualifications? Well, she ran Bush's 2000 presidential campaign in Maryland, and twice ran for governor of that state. And she served as U.S. envoy on women's issues at the United Nations, which means advocating for Bush-administration positions on abortion, abstinence, and reproductive health. Those policies have been widely criticized for frustrating family planning and failing to provide reproductive health services to refugee women.

"When asked about her qualifications, Sauerbrey told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she has a big heart: "I think most important you need to have the compassion and caring for helping to protect vulnerable people."

"No doubt. But a little experience in refugee affairs wouldn’t hurt either.

"Finally, there’s Julie Myers, nominated to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security and the second largest Federal investigative agency after the FBI. ICE’s mission is to deal with all Customs and Immigration violations occurring within the U.S., including drug shipments over a U.S. border and the detention and deportation of all illegal aliens involved in removal proceedings. ICE runs the largest and most secretive prison system in the U.S. and accounts for close to 80% of all arrests made within the FBI’s joint terrorism task force. It prosecutes more individuals than any other Federal agency.

"Her resume? She was a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, N.Y., for two years, and for the past four years held a variety of jobs at the White House and at the departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury. At the White House, she was a special assistant to the president for personnel issues. No doubt also helpful was her service as chief of staff to Michael Chertoff when he led the Justice Department's criminal division before he became a Federal judge and later Secretary of Homeland Security. Equally helpful was her work with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Perhaps even more helpful: She is the niece of now retired Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"ICE is a massive bureaucracy with tens of thousands of employees and an annual budget of close to $15 billion. It has been widely criticized as dysfunctional. So one might have expected a nominee with extensive experience in management, not to mention immigration issues.

"Matthew Issman, national legislative vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, characterized the Myers appointment most succinctly: She "just doesn't pass the smell test and is another indication that this administration created the Department of Homeland Security as window dressing and does not care whether ICE is successful”, he said, adding, "What we need is a strong, law-enforcement leader, not another inexperienced, well-connected lawyer with friends in the White House."

"Washington is a town where the best and the brightest co-exist with well-connected political hacks. It defies credulity that the Bush Administration continues to shoot itself in the foot by stubbornly choosing the latter, and thereby setting itself up for another ‘Brownie’."

No, this is not Photoshop at work

This, rather, is the leader of the free world attempting to exit a press conference in China.  This photograph appeared on the front page of today's NY Times.

*sigh*

Osama Still at Large

Just a quick reminder that more than four years after the bloodiest day in U.S. history since Antietam, and the worst attack on our country by foreigners since Pearl Harbor, the person who planned, financed and celebrated that assault is still at large. Catching and punishing him is not a priority for the adminisration. "You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you," Bush reported in 2002. The irresponsibility and incompetence of this Republican administration are an insult to the victims of 9/11 and a danger to America.

Today, RFK would have been 80

Wes F. and David Eisenthal have reminded us that today would have been Bobby Kennedy's 80th birthday. Here's a site dedicated to him. I'll just chime in with my thoughts.

It seems to me that the Democratic Party, and by extension the country, has never regained its moral vision since he died. RFK was a guy who saw the impoverished and downtrodden, showed the world the reality of their situation, and pointed out that our fates are interconnected. His essential compassion is plain from the speeches and footage (which is all I have, being born after he died):

"There are children in the Mississippi Delta," he said, "whose bellies are swollen with hunger ... Many of them cannot go to school because they have no clothes or shoes. These conditions are not confined to rural Mississippi. They exist in dark tenements in Washington, D.C., within sight of the Capitol, in Harlem, in South Side Chicago, in Watts. There are children in each of these areas who have never been to school, never seen a doctor or a dentist. There are children who have never heard conversation in their homes, never read or even seen a book." [link]

Maybe because of his brothers' deaths, he had a searing awareness of the tragic condition of humanity, of the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune".

In the intervening thirty-seven years since he was killed, our vision has been clouded by the Reagan-era reaction against the Great Society vision; and the rise of megabuck politics -- briefly co-opted by Clinton. The phrase "bleeding-heart liberal" came to have such dismissive power only in that reaction, which clove liberals from the source of their moral power: After all, whose heart doesn't bleed? Is there any other kind?

RFK's legacy is his compassion for his fellow human beings. As Democrats and as a people, we have yet to begin living up to that. His words and life still present the starkest possible challenge to us, but also an opportunity to reclaim our vision and power -- if we decide to take them on.

Return on Community Investment

Len Stewart of Cape Cod Works has a must-read post on how we must look at any health care reform: It's an investment in our community, which will bear real and tangible economic as well as moral benefits. Quoting Dave Rogoff, Director of Hillsborough County Health and Social Services:

When there is agreement that access to health care makes financial sense, however, cooperation towarding funding solutions develops regardless if it is determined to be a right, a privilege, or something else entirely. [my emphasis]

Luckily, it makes abundant financial sense. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation determined that under its own plans,

Achieving universal coverage under the Roadmap plans would require between $700 million and $900 million in new government spending, some of which would be federal. While universal coverage would require modest additional state spending, the Commonwealth would also gain an estimated $1.5 billion a year from the direct economic and social benefits of improved health as well as other positive effects on the state’s economy. [my emphasis]

Now, that was under the "Roadmap to Coverage" plan; Neither the House nor the Senate is talking about spending 700-900 million new dollars. But the principle is clear: It's an investment, with the reasonable expectation of a significant return. If we're healthier, we're more productive; we miss less work; we earn more money; we spend more money; we create jobs; and so forth.

And not coincidentally, we're probably all a heck of lot happier.

Get your Lowell on

In the House brouhaha (ballyhoo, balderdash) from yesterday, Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Lowell) reacted to Rep. Jean Schmidt calling a Bronze Star Marine a coward:

"You guys are pathetic! Pathetic!"

Now that's what I call representation. Thanks Marty. (Say it again if it feels good.)

Blue.S.A.