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Verdict on judge: He’s a lefty hack
By Howie Carr | Sunday, September 27, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Who is Judge Thomas Connolly?

And why did this 66-year-old hack Democrat rule Friday that his fellow hack Democrat, Gov. Deval Patrick, had the right to appoint a third hack Democrat to the U.S. Senate immediately, despite a vote to the contrary by the overwhelmingly hack-Democrat Legislature?

Try not to let what I am about to tell you destroy your faith in the integrity of the Massachusetts judiciary.

This Connolly spent five years in the early 1960s at St. John’s Seminary (more on that later) and then went to BC Law. He got his robes in 1990 the old-fashioned way - after donating thousands of dollars to all the right, i.e., Democrat, politicians. The Dukakis for President Committee cashed a $1,000 check from Connolly in 1987. The next year, the future judge wisely coughed up another grand to the Duke’s “Victory Fund 88.”

The Duke lost, but Connolly won - and is winning still, with his $129,694-a-year no-heavy-lifting job, behind which in three years comes the $125,000 pension.

This future enabler of sordid Democrat machinations did what almost all future judges do, duking cash to all the connected Democrats. Whitey Bulger’s brother Billy collected $200 a year. The late Speaker George Keverian (D-Papa Gino’s) was taken care of, as were such contemptible layabouts as ex-Boston city councilor Rosaria “Sister Sunshine” Salerno, Bulger stooge Gerry D’Amico, Tom Reilly, Evelyn Murphy, etc., etc.

Connolly gave money to Sheriff Bob Rufo, who is himself a judge, and Sen. Mike Creedon, who is ditto, after giving his Senate seat to his brother, who is now a clerk, and did I mention that Bob’s wife is a state rep - a Democrat, naturally, like every one of the above.

In 1989, Dukakis announced he wasn’t running again, and Frank Bellotti became the favorite to succeed him as the guy who appointed judges. Suddenly the future Judge Connolly was funneling cash to Bellotti. In 1989 he gave him $200, then $500, then another $125. In 1990, Bellotti collected another $1,000 from the future judge.

But the Duke did the right thing to his maxed-out contributor, and appointed Connolly. At his confirmation hearing, his witnesses included then-Norfolk DA (and now rabid congressional supporter of Hugo Chavez and ACORN) Bill Delahunt. It was the least Bill could do, considering Connolly had just sent him a check for $1,000.

Remember how much Connolly liked to give things to ex- and future AG’s? Well, in 1994 he took the rare step of handing a directed verdict of not guilty to still another ex-AG, Eddie McCormack, who’d been indicted by then-AG L. Scott Harshbarger, to whom Connolly had given $1,000 in 1987.

Back to St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, where Connolly picked up his B.A. in 1964, then spent another year studying theology. Most of the worst pervert priests in the archdiocese attended St. John’s during those same years. In 2002, one of them, the Rev. Jon C. Martin, found himself in court, charged with negligence, in front of his fellow St. John’s alum-turned-judge.

A columnist for the Globe - yes, the Globe - demanded Connolly recuse himself from his schoolmate’s trial “not because Connolly is certain to side with a fellow seminarian but because those who rely on the court for fairness are uncertain that he won’t.”

Hmmm. Couldn’t the Republicans have made the same argument Friday, substituting the word “Democrat” for “seminarian.”

In 2006, a lesbian couple from Rhode Island asked the Democrat seminarian to rule they had been legally married here in Massachusetts, even though our state law prohibited anyone from getting married here if their marriage wouldn’t have been allowed back home.

The St. John’s alum issued a novel ruling in favor of the pair, saying that since gay marriage was not specifically outlawed in Rhode Island, hey, it must be OK, right? Mitt Romney demanded the absurd ruling be appealed. But AG Tom Reilly as usual declined to do anything. After all, Connolly gave him $1,000 in both 1989 and 1990.

So now you know - this is the bum who effectively put the executor of Ted Kennedy’s estate into his master’s Senate seat. Just another day here in the Banana Republic of Massachusetts.
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