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'Even Ronald Reagan posed in his pajamas after being shot'

Margery Eagan gets only slightly unhinged when she basically demands an in-person interview with the mayor to prove he's not pulling a Woodrow Wilson on us:

If Menino's not really running things, who is? Dot Joyce? Devoted wife Angela? Dapper O'Neil weighing in from The Great Beyond?

But Menino gets away with this disappearing act because no one wants to get caught crassly speculating about his health should the irrepressible mayor come back 150 percent - like Glenn Close shooting out of the "Fatal Attraction" bathtub.

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Comments

She's worried about who's in charge? In charge of what? The Mayor of the City of Boston does not have the nuclear weapon launch codes. If he was abducted by aliens, would the city apparatus even notice until the next election papers were due?

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Our trash continues to be picked up on a regular basis, the kid's school remains open and I have every confidence that if I needed an ambulance or police, a call to 911 would bring a response as quickly as before.

That having been said, yeah, I was a little surprised to not hear from the mayor himself yesterday, but then again, if I were confined to a hospital room for a month, I probably wouldn't want to go on air, either, so am willing to cut him some slack.

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The article is Herald-blunt, but the question is fair: Who has been picking up the slack this past month? The Mayor does something tangible in his day-to-day other than cut ceremonial ribbons and fundraise, right? So who's been doing that something tangible in his absence?

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The Mayor does something tangible in his day-to-day other than cut ceremonial ribbons and fundraise, right

Have you ever seen the mayor face a "hostile" crowd? Almost never. (I've seen it once when he told a Beacon Hill crowd that the city would not staff a local elementary school even if they paid to acquire and renovate a building).

The mayor gets credit for a lot of things - but he really does very little. His critical job - hire competent subordinates for departments and board lackeys for agencies who will do his bidding - which is why the cops come when you call them, the FD shows up when the alarm goes off, the schools function - or at least open and close if it's not snowing or hurricaning and the parks get cleaned. It's also why the BRA grants tax credits to companies even when under investigation for ripping off the city pension fund (State Street) or if they don't need it (Liberty Mutual/JP Morgan/Vertex). The mayor told them how to vote no matter what the citizens say.

It's well known among community groups that he generally only shows up for the layup events where he will get very few hostile questions and if someone shows up to ask hard questions, Dot Joyce steps in faster than a secret service agent - the mayor doesn't take hard questions.

I wish him well in his recovery and I also wish he would step aside - the sooner the better. Unfortunately, we won't get any kind of progressive reformer - whoever becomes mayor can't win without city workers' votes and you can't get those votes if you are a reformer.

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Margery really needs to update her references, maybe to anything and anyone from after 1990.

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Wasn't even thinking of the Wilson mention. I was thinking of Dapper and Fatal Attraction.

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Compare the Kevin White administration...

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What's the comparison?

One could also compare him to Ray Flynn, who raced into burning buildings and fought pit bulls, but that by itself doesn't mean Flynn was the better mayor (in that regard, I'd rather do things such as compare crime stats - which are way down from the Flynn days, and which don't require a mayor who can run the Marathon).

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The Flynn days? Those crime stats had absolutely nothing to do with crack, did they? Yeah - Mumbles cleaned up Dodge City.

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no thanks

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Michael Kineavey is his right hand man so is probably running the city.
All politics is about theater. Why would they want to have the Mayor photographed looking like hell? (and weak!)

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He's in better shape than the Herald's journalism.

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I've supported the Mayor for the past 20 years and think he has done great things for Boston. But even before the health issues came up I was hoping he would not run in 2013. It's time for new ideas and energy to run this city.

I hope the Mayor fully recovers and wish him well with his rehab.

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I mostly like what he's done but between his tenure and his health it is probably time for him to move on. No politician is perfect, but I found it strange that his opponents were criticizing his tight fist around development. Part of the reason we, as a city, did not get hit too hard from the real estate crush is the steady development we've had.

If we had a real gung-ho development minded mayor the South Boston waterfront would be lined with tall buildings with high vacancy rates and failing restaurants. I prefer the "slow & steady" growth over the "boom & bust" strategy that has crippled other areas of the country.

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Or just not paying attention?

How is Menino NOT gung-ho development? It's the driving financial force behind him being mayor for life. He didn't learn the lesson of the 80's and crashed the commercial market 12 years ago and he didn't learn his lesson from this crash and will probably crater the luxury market in the next 2-3 years because the man doesn't know how to say no.

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it's about a guy who needed "life credit" to get a UMass/Boston "degree" but thought that his paranoia entitled him to do urban planning. We're not talking Kevin White, here.

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I agree, I like guy but it maybe time to take a break. I'm sure his wife would agree.

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Well put, Dan G.

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How long til Menino tries to further regulate food in the city now that he has the 'beetus?

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Until we have term limits, it's nobody's business what's ailing him. You should only be worrying when it's about a one or two term Mayor.

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