Look! It's Martha Coakley and Gerry Leone
They represented the Commonwealth in the death of Matthew Eappen and prosecuted Louise Woodward on a second degree murder charge; and got a conviction and 15 year sentence only to have it turned over by the court and reduced to manslaughter and time served 279 days. Success!? or overzealous prosecution!?
The case didn't hinder Martha's career. To the contrary, she was elected to higher office as a household name in part due to state-wide, national and international media coverage of the trial.
Gerry Leone has done a fine job filling Martha's shoes as DA of Middlesex and introducing Niki Tsongas to endorse Martha's bid for US Senate. Enjoy.
For extra credit, identify your favorite Coakley moment.
(No fair mentioning her uninformed declaration that she would have voted against the health care reform bill last Saturday because of the Stupak Amendment, not knowing the Democrats strategy was to get the bill passed to the Senate and fix restrictions of abortion coverage there.)
Comments
Prosecutorial Misconduct at the very least
There was no valid scientific reason or basis to exclude the Eappens from the "possible suspect" list, but Coakley allowed the mother to participate in the gathering of evidence and cozied up to the family despite the boy falling ill while having been in their care for several hours.
Not to say there was adequate evidence to prosecute the Eappens - except, perhaps, for cheaping out and not hiring a qualified caregiver. There was enough doubt to hold them at arms length.
But with Martha, it's never about the truth - it's always about grandstanding.
What I don't get about Coakley is...
...why all the apparent enthusiasm?
If she's elected (and she's in a pretty good position right now), she'll be a competent, liberalish senator. The judgment issues that led to certain questionable prosecutions won't play into her work as a senator, at least to the extent that she'll be just 1 of 100 votes. And I can understand why women's groups are getting behind her.
But I wonder how many women wish (silently, perhaps) there was a female candidate they could get truly excited about. And I wonder if I'm somehow hugely wrong in my assessment that Coakley has limited upside as a genuine political leader.
The fact that Coakley is the standard bearer among Democratic women right now says a lot to me about what "others" the Old Boy Club lets in. She doesn't threaten anyone's power base or status quo. She'll likely do as she's instructed on big ticket political decisions. She's safe.
I want more than safe. I want someone who is going to shake it up a bit. I think Capuano has some of that in him, even if he is very much the pol. I'm becoming more interested in Khazei, even though I wonder if he's got a ghost of a chance. Mr. Celtics doesn't interest me.
Martha Coakley is beholden
Martha Coakley is beholden to other politicians and Mr Celtics is beholden to business.
Twitter me this!
Why I think you're wrong about Pagliuca
Look at Alan Grayson in Florida. He was the President of IDT (telecom/internet company) and a lawyer. But he isn't beholden to any business because he didn't need their money to get into politics. He's in it to represent the people he feels have been screwed by government in the past.
Pagliuca's the same way, if not as fiery. It's not the rich ones that come from business that you have to worry about being bought out by corporate interests. They've already got their's, unlike the career politician who's looking to get more out of it than they already have. The fact that they would take a PAY CUT to go into politics should actually say something about the value they put on the job and the fact that they're not in it for the lobbyist dinners and financial corruption.
I really hope these guys can find a way to get at least another public debate on TV because I would like to hear and see Pagliuca get challenged a bit more from Capuano and Coakley.
I'm still leaning towards Capuano, but Pagliuca could be interesting from a "Grayson Lite" prospective as well.