Let's be completely uncynical for a moment and take Sal DiMasi at his word that he never once discussed some bill his pal, who gave him a discounted third mortgage, was hired to push, as the Globe quotes him as saying. In which case, he really needs to tell chum Richard Vitale to shut the frick up - and register as a lobbyist for chrissakes. Also, ever notice how often George Regan is involved in this sort of story?

The Outraged Liberal is getting tired of the disparities in the way the public treats Deval Patrick's alleged foibles (drapes!) with DiMasi's more serious ethical questions:

... DiMasi bumps along from one questionable encounter and deal to another without so much as an eyebrow raised on the public scene.

Part of the difference of course is that Patrick was elected statewide with a promise of changing business as usual. DiMasi represents one district in the North End, runs the Massachusetts House and is business as usual.

And he's been winning -- casinos, corporate tax reporting. You get the picture. ...

Quick! Who is Matt Viser talking about in this story in the Globe today?

They stood several feet away from one another, but their eyes rarely met. They did embrace briefly.

But did they retire somewhere quiet after to talk things over in private?

So instead it devotes front-page space to detail how Deval Patrick isn't a Third-World tyrant bending the state legislature to his will, while failing, as the Outraged Liberal notes, to pick up on the possible ethical questions being raised about Sal DiMasi.

Still, as Dan Kennedy writes:

If you're the governor of Massachusetts, this is not how you want to be featured on the front page of the New York Times. ...

Charley on the MTA notes the Gray Story didn't tell us anything new and got some stuff wrong, but wonders why Patrick is so completely invisible away from the State House (and no, Mr. Governor, DevalPatrick.com doesn't count):

... He doesn't get out to town hall meetings; he doesn't hold events with the general public to take the temperature of the body politic; in other words, he has indeed lost his political touch. ...

Jay Fitzgerald continues to make the case that DiMasi's casino victory was of the Pyrrhic variety.

Meanwhile, over at the local broadsheet, Joan Vennochi proves her mastery of Lexis/Nexis: She devotes an entire column to pasting in examples of politicians caught in lies over the past decade, then concludes with two sentences that set a new bar for stating the obvious - that presidential candidates get in trouble when they get caught lying. O RLY?

Harry at Squaring the Boston Globe also wonders whether Clinton was caught in another lie - by a college student.

Think state leaders will re-examine the gas tax and our crumbling transportation infrastructure? Nah, didn't think so.

Speaking of the legislature, Cognos sure seems to pop up in the news a lot for a company only the people who read Network World would normally have heard of (yes, that was a blatant link to my day job; however, I can assure you there is no quid pro quo). The Outraged Liberal says:

Coming on the heels of DiMasi dispensing committee vice chairmanships for votes to defeat the casino gambling bill, the Speaker has a definite appearance problem.

Dan Kennedy is happy House Speaker Sal DiMasi used his Fists of Power for good by killing Deval Patrick's casino plan.

The Outraged Liberal isn't so enamored of DiMasi's display of legislative might and says that, in any case, DiMasi actually tried giving Patrick a fair shake but that Patrick emulated first-term Mike Dukakis by trying to run roughshod over the legislature.

WaveMaker is loving Sal DiMasi's claim that nobody was pressured during yesterday's committee vote on the Patrick casino plan, which almost became a tie vote, even though the committee has an odd number of members:

... On the most controversial and far-reaching public policy issue to come before the legislature since gay marriage, one duly elected representative of the people couldn't pull the trigger. Unless Rep. Rice has a clear and obvious conflict of interest that would lawfully prevent him from voting, he should be taken into the public arena and flogged. ...

And then there's the Republican who changed his mind and voted against the bill. Wave Maker, himself a Republican, has more to say about him, but let's turn to the left, where Massachusetts Liberal wonders:

Fashion mavens in the Statehouse today will be checking to see what Wrentham Republican Richard Ross is wearing with his suit. In particular, they will be checking to see if the sling for his twisted arm matches the fabric. ...

Back to Wave Maker:

... There is another element to this vote that should deeply trouble observers of democracy. Legislative Committee votes are to be taken in open sessions where the public and the press are able to observe the process. In this instance, however -- for reasons yet unexplained -- "two votes were taken by email and phone" and counted inside closed offices instead of committee rooms.

Oh, so casino hearings in the legislature next week? The Outraged Liberal reads the latest on the issue and suggests:

Maybe they should hold next week's casino bill hearing in a boxing ring. Or a steel cage. This is about as dysfunctional as state government gets. ...

Who knew Sal DiMasi was so interested in enterprise software?

By killing Gov. Patrick's casino plan already, Dan Kennedy explains.

David Guarino has been writing a fair amount of late about our boy Brian McGrory - praising him as the best columnist in the city (Ed. note: What was that sound Bill the Cat used to make?) and speculating on whether Brian McGrory is now The Man among Globe metro columnists (both of them).

Now, Guarino used to write for the Herald, so he knows Boston media. But he also used to be the p.r. person for Tom Reilly, whom McGrory composed hagiographies of while others were ripping into him for, oh, pretty much everything. And now Guarino reps for state House Speaker Sal DiMasi. All of which leads to Adam Reilly's question: Should the p.r. person for one of the most powerful politicians in the state be commenting on media happenings?

... [W]as Guarino praising McGrory as a private citizen, or as DiMasi's top flack? ...