Howie just gave a FR ping.
Fri column ping
It’s time we honored overachieving hacks
By Howie Carr | Friday, July 30, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
So Sen. Stanley Rosenberg had to fly down to Louisville to accept an award, because it wasn’t just an award, it was a lifetime achievement award.
This is a joke, right - a “lifetime achievement award” for a Massachusetts solon? Surely they meant to give Stanley a “lifer achievement award,” because that’s what he is, a legislative lifer.
See, when John Olver was a state rep, Stanley was his aide. Then Olver got elected to the Senate and Stanley became the rep from Amherst. Then Olver got elected to Congress from the First District and Rosenberg moved up to the Senate.
Now he’s 61 and he lists his profession as, you guessed it, legislator. A legislator with a lifer, er lifetime achievement award.
This august honor was presented down in Louisville at the convention of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which also gave out an equally prestigious honor to a Washington state Democrat - the William M. Bulger Excellence in State Legislative Leadership Award.
You can’t make this stuff up. I just wish I knew if the Corrupt Midget Award comes with a $200,000-a-year pension.
Another big moment at this week’s convention: Sen. Dick Moore of Uxbridge becoming the president of the organization that presents the William M. Bulger Excellence, etc. etc. Who better to run the organization - the Alfred-Hitchcock lookalike did 16 years in the House, then briefly left the womb of the State House, then returned to the General Court.
Another lifer, in other words.
But this Rosenberg award gives me an idea for some real Lifetime Achievement awards.
The Paul Kujawski-Brian Dempsey Lifetime Achievement Award for Malt Beverage Consumption.
The Michael Rodrigues Shopping at Tax-Free New Hampshire Liquor Stores Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2010 award has already been claimed by former Congressman Marty Meehan, busted earlier this month leaving N.H. Liquor Store No. 50 in Nashua. (I know, Marty was never a state rep, but he has the soul of one.)
The Chris Asselin Lifetime Achievement Chutzpah Award for first being indicted for corruption, and then in his farewell speech mentioning his wife, who had also been charged, and now, after serving his federal sentence, running for re-election to his old seat in the district he looted.
Only one caveat on these lifetime achievement awards: They ought to have a five-year waiting period, just like the Baseball Hall of Fame, only for Massachusetts solons, it would be until the statute of limitations expires on their, uh, public service.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1271127