Deval’s jobs-for-votes ‘outreach’ program

Boston Herald ^ | 5/11/07 | Howie Carr

[raccoonradio]

In most new administrations, you have a transition, and then the inauguration.

For Deval Patrick, first it was the inauguration, and now comes the transition, more than four months after the swearing-in.

This is not a complaint, you understand. It’s probably best for all concerned - well, at least taxpayers - that Deval had to handle the really big issues first, namely the new Cadillac. But now Deval finds himself compelled to begin the transition, because they need jobs to bribe a handful of holdout solons to switch their votes on gay marriage.

Forget their denials, that’s the reality. And how fast do you think they can switch these votes with $100,000-a-year jobs, especially with older reps who are bumping up against the 80 percent pension ceiling?

The math is very simple. The hack will get a guarantee of three years at 100 large, which means their kiss-in-the-mail will be $80,000 a year.

So what if they voted the other way in January, to let the people decide if they want “gay marriage,” and all that comes with it. That was then, this is now, and so they’ll be with Deval and Arline and Sal.

But there’s more to Deval’s decision to finally clean house than his devotion to the sodomy lobby. Last week, the Democrats had a big fund-raising dinner at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, attended by the usual mix of hacks, moonbats and pinky-ring union thugs. And they all agreed on one thing - they haven’t gotten enough jobs. Not nearly.

And the bellyaching was only going to get worse. Next weekend is the state Democratic convention, in Amherst of all places. It’s the coronation of John Walsh as the new party chairman.

But more importantly, all the moonbats will be in one place, and surely the lack of jobs is bound to be a sore point, even among those with trust funds, which is most of them.

It’s amazing that this week Deval didn’t have a commissioner to go out and lie to everyone that the Storrow Drive Tunnel is safe. That dismal task fell to a flack, not so coincidentally the wife of a Boston Globe lifer.

“If you wish to be considered for reappointment,” Deval wrote the GOP holdovers, “please forward immediately your resume, accomplishments, publications, personal statements and any other relevant information.”

What is relevant information? Well, relationships to snotty Globe velvet-coffin types comes to mind. So do contributions to Deval, and at least one commissioner hedged his bets, giving first to Muffy Healy and then to Deval when the trends became clear last fall.

But that letter Deval sent out a week ago should have gone out around Thanksgiving. That would have frozen them in place. Mitt wasn’t going to let his hacks steal anything; he’s running for president, after all.

Now whatever happens is on Deval’s “watch,” to use one of their favorite words. It’s almost the end of the fiscal year, which in the hackerama is a lot like Christmas Eve. Do you think any unfortunate contracts are going to be signed in these waning days? And another thing: why tell someone you’re going to whack them? I’ll wager the Xerox machines are whirring overtime these evenings. Hard drives are being downloaded. Dimes will be dropping shortly.

Another problem for Deval is, he needs to replace the current crop with people who are at least marginally competent. He needs his “own people,” but who exactly are Deval’s people? His public safety secretary, for example, was with Reilly. Oh sure, maybe he has a few friends from the old days at Hill & Barlow, but not nearly enough.

So this belated transition is just another indication that Deval is very close to irrelevance. But it could be worse. He could be relevant.

[raccoonradio]

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