Here we are, less than a month from the Dec. 8 Senate primary election and apparently nine in 10 Massachusetts voters don't even know the date -- with 7 in 10 not even knowing the month.

Maybe the candidates ought to make some changes in their ubiquitous television and radio ads to highlight the date and not bicker over position.

The Suffolk University poll was conducted in the days prior to the eruption of the first significant media storm -- the duel between Martha Coakley and Mike Capuano over abortion restrictions in the House-passed health care bill.

That raises the hope that someone might actually show up on Election Day and keep all those poll workers company.

The survey also suggests that while money can't buy love, it can certainly buy name recognition. The non-stop effort by Steve Pagliuca to plaster his name over radio, TV and web banners has raised his visibiity beyond that of Bill Walker as the Celtics human victory cigar and vaulted him into second place behind Coakley in the Democratic primary.

But if Democratic awareness of the election would challenge those who think they are smarter than a fifth grader, Republican voter awareness is even less -- 98 percent of likely GOP voters didn't know the primary date.

The obvious factor now becomes field organization -- the person who gets their voters to the polls win. Coakley, having already run statewide, would seem to be in the best position. But Capuano has picked up some significant labor endorsements that could given him a boost in terms of boots on the ground.

Pagliuca has assembled a solid brain trust which has produced the ad blitz to raise his name recognition, but what about a field team? Alan Khazei, the forgotten man, reportedly has a good grassroots network but has become almost an afterthought in the race.

Look at the bright side -- turnout can't fall much farther. Unless there is a snowstorm.More blogs about Politics.
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Who knew you would need Dramamine to keep up with the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary?

But in an outstanding display of political dexterity, Rep. Mike Capuano has emulated the new senior senator by declaring he was for the bill before he will be against it. And in the process, proved once again why people curse politicians.

To a seasoned observer (translate that into any insult you wish), posturing is a legislative art form. You say or do something one day to build an alliance or further a goal, then reverse direction if you didn't succeed in nudging the project in the way you wanted it to go.

It's part of the reason why lawmaking is compared to sausage making.

Capuano, of course, blasted Attorney General Martha Coakley for saying she would have voted against the House-passed health care bill because of the abortion restrictions inserted to make it more palatable to some Democrats. Capuano said his goal was to move the legislation forward.

Now, in a dizzying turnaround, Capuano says he would not vote for the final bill to emerge from conference if the abortion restriction is still there.
“If the bill comes back the same way as it left the House, I would vote against it,’’ Capuano said in an interview. “I am a prochoice person, and I do believe this is [necessary] to provide health care for everyone.’’That is not an unusual stance for a legislator, although as John Kerry learned it is really damaging to a politician. Whether it will be as tough on Capuano remains to be seen (and it will be seen, over and over, in Coakley commercials).

And while my comparisons may not be as classically rooted as those of Scot Lehigh, I do share his concern whether health care coverage is available for the orthopedic consult needed to get a foot out of a person's mouth.More blogs about Politics.
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We're from the government and we're here to help you -- count.

Excellent piece of reporting in today's Globe on how many jobs stimulus dollars are supposed to have have created -- and what the reality is.

While I'm sure critics of the Obama administration (and Deval Patrick too) will latch onto the exercise as proof positive of fraud and other nefarious things, I think the answer may be more simple.

It's a government form, ergo it's confusing as all hell.

At least that's the reason I come to after reading the accounts of organizations who submitted the documentation.

A quick scan of the list suggests worthwhile projects that seem to have good intentions like adding or retaining teachers and cops. At first blush, nothing seems an outrageous use of federal dollars.

But the need to document the work -- for good government and also for political safety -- seems to have resulted in confusion and exaggeration.

So, for now, the moral of the story is no crimes here. And a reminder that there isn't a document or reporting requirement that can't be made complicated beyond belief.More blogs about Politics.
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It looks as if Tim Cahill is planning for a gubernatorial campaign with more substance than his daughter inventing a catchy theme that won his the treasurer's job.

But his decision to hire a lawyer to do opposition research -- a move that could enable him to shield questions behind attorney-client privilege -- certainly raises questions about how transparent a Cahill administration would be.

And besides, all you need to do for oppo in this state is to read the Globe and Herald and the blogs. That should give you more than enough material.

I know there's certainly a Treasury trove of questions about Cahill.More blogs about Politics.
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Now I see why Steve Lynch opted not to join the race for the Democratic US Senate seat.

While Lynch told the Globe there was no favoritism in the earmarks for substance abuse grants to an organization to which his wife has ties, the reality has a certain unpleasant aroma that would not have played well in the race.More blogs about Politics.
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So much for the play-it-safe front runner strategy. But I have to ask: what were you thinking Martha?

Attorney General and Democratic US Senate front-runner Martha Coakley certainly cast off the label of risk aversive yesterday by declaring she would have voted against the US House version of the health care bill because of its abortion funding language.

That stance flies in the face of the entire Massachusetts delegation, which held its nose and voted for the greater accomplishment over a political compromise that may or may not see the light at the end of the day.

Coakley appears to be arguing for the perfect over the good.
“I refuse to acknowledge that this is the best we can do.’’Mike Capuano, who has been grasping the liberal mantle with all his might, wasted little time -- or words:

“I find it interesting and amazing, and she would have stood alone among all the pro-choice members of Congress, all the members of the Massachusetts delegation. She claims she wants to honor Ted Kennedy’s legacy on health care. It’s pretty clear that a major portion of this was his bill.’

“If she’s not going to vote for any bill that’s not perfect, she wouldn’t vote for any bill in history. She would have voted against Medicare, the Civil Rights bill. . . . Realism is something you have to deal with in Washington."Coakley's words are the voice of someone who came up the ropes in government on the black-white, right-wrong side, a prosecutor for whom there is little wiggle room in the law.

That's starkly different from legislators or executives who are forced to negotiate and compromise to achieve an end product that hopefully will advance a cause even if there are a few roadblocks to work around. Kennedy was one of the finest negotiators in Senate history.

And, to the best of my understanding, the abortion restrictions contained in the House version are standard stuff that have been the law for years. Do I like them? No.

It was a safe vote to reject that amendment to make a stand. But to throw away literally decades of effort to begin and rein in the health care monster? Not even close.

More perplexing is the question of what support this gets her. Women? She's already pretty strong there? Pro-choice voters? Interesting question and I haven't seen poll numbers that break out choice voters as a subset of liberals supporting health care reform.

Is this a move to the center or right, preparation for the general election against a Republican? Hardly. Should she win, many Democrats would now hold their noses and vote for her -- and look for someone to take up the mantle when the seat is up again in 2012.

One thing's for sure. She did shake up a dull race by deciding not to sit on her lead. It will be fascinating to watch the fallout.More blogs about Politics.
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One month out from an historic Democratic Senate primary and all we can talk about is debates and dinner tabs?

Oh, I forgot. We can also debate 15-year-old campaign commercials.

And the bad timing of the campaign award goes to the Herald for a story about Rep. Mike Capuano's voting record following a weekend he spent in Washington voting on historic health care legislation. A story in which not even Barbara Anderson would blast him and so the paper is forced to take an obvious quote about answering to voters and make it sound ominous.

I admit I don't know what I was expecting. Would decades of political coverage patterns disappear in the blink of any eye? It's always been about the trivial day-to-day campaign trail stuff. Substance? Who wants that? It's all about attacks.

Nor is it any surprise that Martha Coakley is hemming and hawing about debates. Front-runners do that. And when your frontrunner status is based on name recognition and a reputation for caution, you definitely don't want to rock the boat.

But we have the cold, hard reality that -- given the prima donna status of the Unite State Senate, where Joe Lieberman, Insurance-Connecticut, is threatening to kill health care reform if it has a public option -- the historic vote will be cast by one of the current candidates and not Paul Kirk.

We know where Capuano stands -- based on votes he cast this weekend rather than be on the campaign trail. What about the others?

What about financial and regulatory reform? We have the Pagliuca commercials. And we have an unexplored record of his tenure at Bain Capital.

What about Iraq and Afghanistan? Health care could be paid for by shaving the costs of these two wars -- but is there a price we would pay beyond dollars?

And it seems to me that Scott Brown does have a name against his on the Republican ballot. Rejecting a debate with Jack E. Robinson because it would be held at the Kennedy Library is one of the most laughable and pathetic dodges I have ever seen as a political junkie.

Hey, how about some real issues and some campaign coverage folks.More blogs about Politics.
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The screw-ups just keep on coming for the Patrick administration.

One day after the double whammy of stories that suggest the administration seems to favor the Patriots over the homeless we are treated to a Globe story that shows the one thing the state's overburdened transportation doesn't seem to be lacking is highly paid bureaucrats.

And this one really raises the question of whether anyone in the Corner Office is paying attention.

I agreed with the sacking of the ineffective Bernard Cohen, and while queasy about the appointment of James Aloisi Jr., I thought he might know where the skeletons were buried and do something about it.

It appears instead that he brought in his own skeletons.

So the new super Massachusetts Department of Transportation is larded to the gills with undersecretaries and spokesmen and women. What ever happened to the basic business practice of showing the old boss' minions out the door along with him (presumably with some severance or at least unemployment insurance.)?

Of course, this administration and who knows how many before it isn't the only one with political appointees filling its ranks. The Globe's MBTA editorial rightly notes the number of "heads-up" calls about job seekers that make their way from the offices of Transportation Committee co-chairs Rep. Joe Wagner of Chicopee and Sen. Steve Baddour of Methuen.

But if ever an agency needed a top to bottom cleansing of what Bill Weld once incongruously referred to as "walruses," this is it.

And governor, you may want to take a look at how well your own senior staff is serving you -- whether they inform of these inexcusable foul-ups. And if you press ahead despite their warnings, you may also need to take a good look in the mirror.More blogs about Politics.
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To the policy wonks out there, the Globe's stories about the Patrick administration's use of federal stimulus cash to build a footbridge at Gillette Stadium and plans to reduce funding for the homeless are unrelated -- separate caches of cash to be used for different reasons.

But it's that political blindspot which has dogged Deval Patrick for three years and is about to create another major headache for a man who has allowed some significant accomplishments to be lost in a stream of unthought-through screw-ups.

The issue certainly wasn't lost on the Globe headline writer who labeled the footbridge a "golden gateway" between Patriot Place and a potential major commercial-industrial development on the other side of Route 1.

Nor will it be lost on advocates who will be appalled at the thought of the homeless being forced to live on the streets full-time because of budget cuts that will reduce beds, food and clothing assistance.

No one will take comfort in the cold words of an administration functionary who told the Globe:
“The administration has held homeless programs harmless in four rounds of budget cuts. The administration has made it a priority to end homelessness, but with the serious revenue shortfall that the state is facing, these cuts are necessary.’’The administration wonks will plead the dollars going to Robert Kraft and the Route 1 footbridge are federal transportation stimulus dollars and can't be used for other purposes. But the rest of us will remember Kraft's threats to pull the Patriots out of Massachusetts and then House Speaker Tom Finneran's reference to the Patriots' boss as a "whiny millionaire."

Maybe a few Super Bowl trophies will melt the public's annoyance about taxpayer dollars going to finish a major stadium and commercial project Kraft launched with private financing.

But it certainly won't rebound to Patrick's favor as television crews do regular stories about the men and women wandering Boston streets in the soon-approaching winter cold because the administration could no longer "hold them harmless."

In policy and financial terms, the two situations might be light years apart. But to the public, they will be inextricably linked and that is why Deval Patrick has screwed up mightily. Again.More blogs about Politics.
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Now let me get this straight -- you didn't notice the big ship with the guns when you bought the condo?

It seems neighbors of Old Ironsides are looking to change a 200-year-plus tradition of firing the warship's cannons twice daily.
“The residential population and congestion of this area has (sic) grown significantly and, it seems to us, that the cannon charge/noise is excessive,” the unidentified resident first wrote in an Aug. 26, 2009, letter obtained by the Herald.One of the rules of real estate is location, location, location. The proximity to the Navy Yard, and the history that lives within it are no doubt factored in to the purchase, which should be the first clue that you are living near the world's oldest commissioned warship.

And if that didn't do the trick, the ease with which you can observe the annual spectacle of the turnaround on July 4th might be a factor too.

But apparently some intrepid urban adventurers didn't realize the downside.
Over the summer, we have entertained several times, and we have had guests sit up in shock when the cannon goes off,” the resident wrote. “It has also awakened them at 8 a.m. while they are vacationing and then blasted them again at sunset.”Boo-hoo. Great alarm clock if you are lazy enough to loll around until 8 a.m.

You want excessive noise, trying living around a student late-night party. Maybe the Navy should re-train the guns on the units where folks have issues.More blogs about Politics.
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Now let me get this straight -- you didn't notice the big ship with the guns when you bought the condo?

It seems neighbors of Old Ironsides are looking to change a 200-year-plus tradition of firing the warship's cannons twice daily.
“The residential population and congestion of this area has (sic) grown significantly and, it seems to us, that the cannon charge/noise is excessive,” the unidentified resident first wrote in an Aug. 26, 2009, letter obtained by the Herald.One of the rules of real estate is location, location, location. The proximity to the Navy Yard, and the history that lives within it are no doubt factored in to the purchase, which should be the first clue that you are living near the world's oldest commissioned warship.

And if that didn't do the trick, the ease with which you can observe the annual spectacle of the turnaround on July 4th might be a factor too.

But apparently some intrepid urban adventurers didn't realize the downside.
Over the summer, we have entertained several times, and we have had guests sit up in shock when the cannon goes off,” the resident wrote. “It has also awakened them at 8 a.m. while they are vacationing and then blasted them again at sunset.”Boo-hoo. Great alarm clock if you are lazy enough to loll around until 8 a.m.

You want excessive noise, trying living around a student late-night party. Maybe the Navy should re-train the guns on the units where folks have issues.More blogs about Politics.
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Now let me get this straight -- you didn't notice the big ship with the guns when you bought the condo?

It seems neighbors of Old Ironsides are looking to change a 200-year-plus tradition of firing the warship's cannons twice daily.
“The residential population and congestion of this area has (sic) grown significantly and, it seems to us, that the cannon charge/noise is excessive,” the unidentified resident first wrote in an Aug. 26, 2009, letter obtained by the Herald.One of the rules of real estate is location, location, location. The proximity to the Navy Yard, and the history that lives within it are no doubt factored in to the purchase, which should be the first clue that you are living near the world's oldest commissioned warship.

And if that didn't do the trick, the ease with which you can observe the annual spectacle of the turnaround on July 4th might be a factor too.

But apparently some intrepid urban adventurers didn't realize the downside.
Over the summer, we have entertained several times, and we have had guests sit up in shock when the cannon goes off,” the resident wrote. “It has also awakened them at 8 a.m. while they are vacationing and then blasted them again at sunset.”Boo-hoo. Great alarm clock if you are lazy enough to loll around until 8 a.m.

You want excessive noise, trying living around a student late-night party. Maybe the Navy should re-train the guns on the units where folks have issues.More blogs about Politics.
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The tragedy at Fort Hood, with the death of 12 soldiers and the wounding of 31 others, would have been bad enough if the gunman was named John Smith.

But I fear that a nation that should focus on what happens when men and women in a voluntary military force are stretched beyond their physical and mental capacities by endless deployments will get lost on a false issue.

I fear we will focus on the fact the alleged shooter is named Nidal Malik Hasan.

Yes, the folks who like to pretend that Barack Hussein Obama is a really a foreign national sent to infiltrate and destroy the American way of life will turn its fury on an Army psychiatrist's religion and ethnicity.

Never mind the fact he is a Virginian who faced the same fears of deployment as many of the men and women he counseled. Forget about the fact he was trained as a soldier and a doctor by the U.S. Army.

None of this is intended to lessen the unspeakable horror of the crimes he is alleged to have committed. What it does amount to is a wish that we focus on the real issues and not on straw men that will be created by those who make hatred a central part of their lives.More blogs about Politics.
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Mayor for Life Tom Menino wants you to believe he is refreshed and energized as he stares at the start of his fifth term -- brimming with new idea to tackle the problems of education, public safety and city administration.

Of course this same new vision suggests the e-mail controversy surrounding top aide Michael Kineavy was simply a tempest in a teapot that will disappear now that the election is over.

The problem with both visions is they are coming through rose-colored glasses that suggest waves of new cash will come washing through the city, along with brilliant ideas on education reform. It presupposes the Boston Firefighters Union will roll over and cry uncle.

And it assumes Attorney General Martha Coakley will sit on pretty clear indications that the state's public records law was violated in the destruction of e-mails.

We've heard this talk before. After his 2005 inauguration, Menino called for the construction of a 1,000-foot tower downtown as part of his "bold vision." The site for this landmark is the Winthrop Square garage, not from from the one development project that will mark his fourth term: The Filene's Hole.

This time, Hizzoner is calling for a medical research and residential complex on the South Boston Waterfront.
“Researchers love to get together,’’ Menino said. “They speak their own language. They like to hang out together.’’Work-play space?

Again, a slight problem. There are at least two research buildings on hold (including one hole in the ground) in the Longwood Medical Area where the majority of researchers ply their trade near the institutions that employ them. It's always possible another life sciences firm will decide to join the overbuilding, but live-work space?

The grim reality facing the suddenly upbeat mayor is that schools, public safety and infrastructure require money for improvement and that is one thing his government, the commonwealth nor the federal treasury have. And won't have for awhile.

But the commonwealth does have money for law enforcement -- and a decision on the e-mail flap is likely to put a major blemish on what is admittedly an otherwise spotless record. There are no bags of cash lying around under desks in City Hall but there has been an attitude of "l'etat, c'est moi" that can be just as harmful.

One good thing on the cash crunch-vision thing: the move of City Hall to an inaccessible corner of the Waterfront won't be happening any time soon. So those researchers won't have easy access for getting city business tended to.

Congratulations and good luck Mr. Mayor. You'll need it.More blogs about Politics.
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How'd you like to be on the Green Line this morning reading the Globe headline "Report Finds T's Riders at Risk." Actually it's a somewhat moot point: if you use the MBTA regularly, you already know that.

What's interesting in the report by a special panel commissioned by Gov. Deval Patrick is where the fingers of blame are pointed: not my favorite whipping boy, former General Manager Dan Grabauskas. Nope, they are aimed at the source of most of the state's woes these days, the Great and General Court.

David D'Alessandro, who headed up the panel created after Grabauskas' ouster, paints an ugly picture of MBTA management.
“It’s fair to say that they are not keeping up with the safety standards that they themselves subscribe to."Two Green Line crashes and too many track fires to keep track of certainly validates that statement.

The report validates the contention of Grabauskas and others that the problems center on the strangling debt imposed upon the T by a good legislative idea with bad follow-through. In this case, it was a move to end the wasteful forward-funding system that allowed the T to present a blank check to the Legislature for payment.

And much like the mangled creation of the Massachusetts Highway System, that strangled and eventually killed the late, unlamented Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, lawmakers did just enough to sweep the mess under the rug for awhile.

For both the highway system and public transit, "awhile" is now -- the middle of a grinding recession that is forcing the state to choose between local aid for schools, teachers and firefighters or essential human services. Transportation is an afterthought in this mess.

I'm not sure I can give Grabauskas a clean pass. Yes, he was working with tied hands, but:
... the state underestimated the agency’s expenses by $558 million between 2000 and 2008, he wrote, because of unrealistic projections for operating costs that were outside the T’s control.

For example, the original plan left no money for workers’ health care cost increases, even though they grew by 73 percent in the first eight years. The T, the state’s largest electricity customer, saw fuel and utility costs more than double over the same period.

A good manager doesn't just throw up his hands and say sorry when he is given crap to work with.

The problem today is the years of neglect are showing up in frequent breakdowns, fires and gropers. That makes the system even less inviting to ride for all but those who have no other way to get to work.

And then there is the reliability of service on a system where buses and trolleys seem to run in pairs for their own safety.

Patrick's challengers are likely to blame him. But for a governor who has already pretty much tipped his hand that he plans to run against the Legislature, this is just another arrow in the quiver.

And in the meantime, good luck to the rest of us.More blogs about Politics.
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The great analyzers are offering tales of caution for Barack Obama this morning, with predictions that Republican victories against a wildly unpopular Democrat in New Jersey and by a conservative acolyte in Virginia may be early signs of a tsunami ready to sweep out Democrats a year from now.

The somewhat cautionary analyses will be twisted by the Official Mouthpiece of the Republican Party (Fox News to the rest of us) as a repudiation of "The One" and a reaffirmation that the GOP alone has what it takes to lead us out of the wilderness (conveniently forgetting who led us there.)

But the Times at least prominently notes the bucket of cold water that may turn the "your mileage may vary" analysis into a a pile of worthless words.

The GOP lost an upstate New York House seat that had been within the party for more than 100 years because the True Believers managed to force out a conservative who they decreed to be lacking in proper bona fides. The Conservative Party challenger fell and with it another GOP House seat.

Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan Republican Party chairman, seems to be on to something.
"Conservatives can win when they emphasize the right things and don’t allow their message to get co-opted. The Democrats and some of their friends in the media attempt to paint all conservatives as fire-breathing cavemen."Of course, this is the same guy who labeled Obama as economic fascist, so take it with a grain of salt.

The fire-breathing cavemen and igloo women who stir up the GOP base are likely to be emboldened by the results in New Jersey and Virginia and gloss over the reality of New York-23. If it happens, that will be the ultimate lesson of the 2009 elections.More blogs about Politics.
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Well at least the day wasn't a total loss for Steve Pagliuca. The Celtics cinched an important part of their future by signing Rajon Rondo to a multi-year deal.

But if the Globe's Bob Ryan finds the 23-year-old Rondo "inscrutable" what to make of one of the men who signs his paychecks?

I mean, how does defending Mitt Romney, while simultaneously dissing Ted Kennedy and your own media consultant, add value to your campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the right to take Kennedy's seat?

It's all well and good that Pagliuca considers Romney a friend and mentor. But there are very few more toxic names in Massachusetts Democratic politics than the former governor -- the man who seduced and abandoned the Commonwealth, running for president in 2008 (and no doubt again in 2012) by dissing the Bay State.

The link -- and the campaign cash -- was enough to make the true believers who vote in party primaries leery of Pags. But to compound that suspicion by saying Myth was right to complain about a 1994 US Senate ad crafted for Kennedy in a nasty race against Romney is strange strategy.

And to do so when Tad Devine, the creator of that ad, is working for him today, amounts to a self-administered migraine. As the Globe notes, Devine is:
"...now in the awkward position of defending Pagliuca’s business record using the same argument Romney made back then: that it is unfair to single out companies that failed without noting the many successes that led to jobs being created."Devine will likely collect the checks for the warm-and-fuzzy Pagliuca spots for the remaining six weeks of the campaign. Not much worry beyond that, no matter the initial Western New England College polls showing Pags running a distant second to Martha Coakley.

And while Pagliuca tries to shore up his outsider credentials, Rep. Mike Capuano is playing the inside straight, and comes out smelling relatively clean.

Let's face it -- for better or worse (mainly worse), campaigns come down to cash. Where and how you raise it for the election and where and how you bring it home for your constituents.

Policy positions are fine, but pork is in the eye of the beholder and as we all know one man's (or woman's) earmark is another one's important local project.

Although Capuano may be on the periphery of the bubbling controversy over the friends of John Murtha, he has very clear and strong ties to bringing home the bacon -- particularly for transportation and health and biomedical research.

As the man who once held the seat Capuano is hoping to give up to move up once said "all politics is local." And Kennedy was never hurt by the fact he had the clout to deliver for his constituents.

A much sounder strategy to win a Democratic primary than feeling sorry for Mitt Romney.More blogs about Politics.
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Shh. If you're really quiet, you may actually hear the sound of the Republican Party coming apart at the seams.

On the one hand, you have the effort by moderates trying to revive the virtually extinct New England branch of the party once so honorably represented in Massachusetts by the likes of Edward Brooke, Henry Cabot Lodge, Leverett Saltonstall, John Volpe and Francis Sargent.

But not so far away, the the upper reaches of New York state near the Vermont and Canadian borders, you see the reality of the modern day GOP -- a national party so intent on litmus test lockstep that it forced out its nominee in favor of the Conservative Party's read meat-eater.

Days before an election. Is it any surprise the maneuver has the fingerprints of Sarah Palin on it?

Republicans have long insisted they are the party of the big tent -- open to any and all who wish to escape the ideological purity that infected Democrats.

The reality is much different, where seeking wiggle room on abortion and taxes are good enough reasons to be read out of the GOP.

Compare that with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Insurance-Conn., the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate, who is threatening to singlehandedly scuttle health care legislation if the public option is included while

Those of us in Massachusetts have long known the breadth and depth of opinion in the party where Tom Finneran and Scott Harshbarger could co-exist, somewhat peacefully.

Conservatives are likely to recall the 1964 GOP convention as the model -- where they cast out the Northeast strain of Republicanism represented by Nelson Rockefeller in favor of the sagebrush version embodied by Barry Goldwater.

The party was indeed reborn -- under the race-baiting of Richard Nixon and the economic sophistry of Ronald Reagan. Forty years later we have the result -- a not, so kind, not-so gentle philosophy of Reverse Robin Hood economics, a belligerent foreign policy and an intolerance of any idea not hatched in the febrile minds of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

The Party of No insists Barack Obama is a socialist or worse and says all will be right if we simply do it their way. But guess what -- we did do it their way for the last 28 years and what did it get us?

Two wars, a financial meltdown abetted by a lack of regulation, continued climate deterioration and a public discourse that is well, coarse.

So good luck to the New England GOP -- you know the folks represented in the United States Senate by Olympia Snowe of Maine, branded as a traitor because she did not march lockstep against health care legislation.

But you road will be long thanks to the Stalinists and their fellow travelers running the GOP. Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee, run out of office because of his moderate credentials, summed it up best.

“If you ask me, I’d recommend they run as independents."More blogs about Politics.
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Funny, it seems the GOP "values voters" seem to be talking a lot less about the subject these days.

Could it be that this contrast -- a White House of Halloween trick-or-treating and an honest discussion of marriage compared to the tabloid trashing going on between Sarah Palin and the unmarried father of her grandchild?

Just curious.More blogs about Politics.
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As we get ready to pull the curtain to unveil Boston Mayor Tom Menino's fifth term "vision," it seems high time to reflect what is and what's in store.

The Globe offers a look today at mixed messages in crime prevention and education. Scot Lehigh treated us to fifth term goals. We have seen the Filene's Hole and are "treated" to teeth-rattling rides along main thoroughfares like Commonwealth Avenue.

Michael Flaherty did offer words -- but it's unlikely they will be enough to derail the Menino Express.

It all comes to down to likability, of Menino's common touch mangling of the language as somehow representative of Joe and Jane Sixpack.

As a non-resident I don't have a vote or even a direct stake -- although I work within city limits so I am now contributing to the coffers through the local option sales tax. So my whining may fairly been seen as sour grapes.

But I really have to wonder if this is the best the city has to offer -- or if politics has become such a pariah profession that the best and brightest walk away before the start.

Long Live King Tom!More blogs about Politics.
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