COME ON GUV, GET STUPID AND GET INVOLVED: The leadership of the Massachusetts Democratic Party regularly goes through the political equivalent of a high-intensity aerobic workout trying to tie Charlie Baker to Donald Trump. If I saw someone at a health club straining as hard as some Dems do when arguing that our governor must do more to distance himself from our president, I'd hand him a bottle of cold water and beg him to take a breather. Example: In an interview broadcast Sept. 9 on WGBH radio, Baker responded "I don't want to get involved" when asked if he'd be comfortable with the idea of a second Trump term. Before the day was over, Gus Bickford, Democratic state party chair, released this boiling-hot statement: "It is outrageous that Charlie Baker cannot tell his constituents whether he is concerned about the possibility that the most dangerous President this country has ever seen could be re-elected to another four-year term. Trump is a racist who is pushing a nationalist agenda from the White House, but Charlie Baker doesn't want to get involved. Trump attacks women and wants to defund Planned Parenthood, but Charlie Baker doesn't want to get involved. Trump is attacking the transgender community, stripping people of basic protections, but Charlie Baker doesn't want to get involved. Trump is ripping children from their families and putting them in cages, but Charlie Baker doesn't want to get involved. It is disgraceful that Charlie Baker doesn't think the most consequential Presidential race of our lifetime is worthy of him getting involved. Governor Baker's silence indicates that he is either worried about upsetting the extreme right-wing of his Party, or he supports his party's President." Three years of this stuff hasn't had an impact on Baker's poll numbers. Maybe it's time, guys, to try something new?
MAYBE THEY HAD A REASON AND FORGOT IT: Two members of the Governor's Council, that living fossil of the Massachusetts Colonial Era, have been voting no lately on authorizing the state's financial warrants. And they won't say why. State Comptroller Andrew Maylor wanted to smoke out the opposition, so he sent a friendly letter on Oct. 18 to all Council members offering to attend an upcoming meeting and answer any questions they may have. Warrant naysayers Robert Jubinville and Marilyn Devaney have so far not reacted publicly to the Maylor mailer. Warrants need to be authorized to pay state employees and state bills. My guess is Jubinville and Devaney have a beef with someone on the state payroll or have developed a dislike for a particular state office or function. Whatever's motivating them, you can bet your paycheck it is the opposite of profound. This is the Governor's Council. They don't have enough to do and no one pays them enough attention. Mischief is inevitable
MITT COULDN'T MAKE JV AT TRICKSTERS U: By now you've likely heard that Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and current U.S. senator from Utah, has been maintaining a secret Twitter account under the delicious name of Pierre Delecto. This enabled him to comment anonymously on events and persons in the public sphere. Romney himself set off the media sleuthing that showed him to be a "lurker" -- that's the slang term for secret Twitter users -- when, unprompted, he told a writer for the Atlantic that he owned such an account. He has to be the only high office holder in the land who'd tell on himself when engaging in the grey arts of political skullduggery, which is why I love the guy. Even when going rogue, he acts almost like an Eagle Scout. Newshounds carefully reviewed every tweet by "Pierre" and found nothing especially rotten, nasty or underhanded -- and nothing terribly interesting, either.
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