Former House Speaker Tom Finneran — who faced his own public scandal with a humiliating felony conviction — compared his disgraced successor, Sal DiMasi, to ordinary jobless Americans struggling to find work in a dismal economy.
“Any human being feels for somebody else who’s going through it,” said Finneran, now the morning-drive host on WRKO-AM (680). “You’ve got millions and millions of Americans who are unemployed. Most of them are desperate for work, so you feel for anybody who is in that situation and has the self-respect and the determination to stand on their own two feet and provide for their family.
“In that regard, Speaker DiMasi is in a tough boat. He’s in the same boat that millions of Americans are in.”
Finneran — who lost his own law license after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in 2007 — refused to weigh in on DiMasi’s move yesterday to keep practicing law pending his appeal, but the radio yakker expressed sympathy for DiMasi.
“This is about an oppor-tunity — no guarantee, certainly, but an opportunity — for him to provide in some small measure for his family while he awaits a highly uncertain future,” Finneran said last night outside his Mattapan home.
He also acknowledged he would like to have his own law license back — and hasn’t given up on returning to the bar one day.
“It’s something that I’ll focus on probably a little bit more in the out years,” he said.
DiMasi — once the state’s most powerful politician, much like Finneran — was in court yesterday fighting to keep his law license while his lawyers appeal his conviction on extortion, conspiracy and fraud charges. The out-of-work ex-pol faces at least 12 to 15 years behind bars; his sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
In court yesterday, a prosecutor from the Office of the Bar Counsel urged Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford to suspend DiMasi’s law license while his attorney argued that the 65-year-old North End Democrat needs to reboot the law practice he sacrificed to serve as a lawmaker.
“The man needs to earn a living,” said DiMasi’s attorney Thomas R. Kiley. “What’s the rush?”
DiMasi was convicted of pocketing $65,000 in bribes while in office to land two multimillion-dollar state contracts for a Canadian software firm.
Botsford is reviewing First Assistant Bar Counsel Nancy Kaufman’s petition to temporarily yank DiMasi’s license and ask the Board of Bar Overseers for more permanent action.
“He’s been given the benefit of the doubt,” Kaufman said. “Once he’s convicted, it’s the public that gets the benefit.”
Laurel J. Sweet contributed to this report.
Um tommy boy, millions and millions of Americans didn't try to scam taxpayers out of money. No sympathy here pal.