I will admit Howie has mentioned that Barney did get off a couple nice jokes at one time:
“Depress the Central Artery? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just raise the city?”
“If they want to depress the Central Artery they should just have Mike Dukakis talk to it.”
It was cheaper to build a tunnel under the English Channel.
“If they want to depress the Central Artery they should just have Mike Dukakis talk to it.”
Hopefully, Willard will soon be available to take that task over. After all, if you want a tunnel, you need to bore it.
Wed column ping
Redistricting luck of draw for Bob Kraft
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, December 7, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Forget congressional redistricting, the real redistricting this fall at the State House was in the casino districts.
You think U.S. Rep. Steve Lynch won big? Not compared to Bob Kraft and Steve Wynn, he didn’t. Forget settling the NFL lockout last summer. This could be Kraft’s biggest score of the decade. Do you think the NFL will go along with this? Well, let’s see, where do they always have their offseason meeting?
At the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. And where is Bob Kraft’s winter home? At the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. When he says jump, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says, “How high?”
Surely Mayor Menino and Speaker DeLeo had some indications they were being rolled. After all, the first story about the pending Wynn-Kraft merger appeared in this newspaper in September. But apparently they couldn’t read the smoke signals — specifically, how “Development Associates LLC” didn’t want to get thrown into American Indian territory, where the locals get a temporary leg up over all the Great White Fathers who’ve been speaking with forked tongue.
So now for the first time ever, Foxboro and Boston are in the same district, for purposes of designating a casino. What a revoltin’ development dis is, if you’re Mumbles. As for Kraft, he’s got to be wondering about this guy — first he gets mad because Kraft tries to put a stadium in Boston, so it ends up in Foxboro.
Now Kraft wants to put a casino in Foxboro, and Menino throws a hissy fit and wants it in Boston.
How does this all play out? It’s too early to tell, but we do know one thing. DeLeo couldn’t get a bill without Gov. Deval Patrick’s signature. He and Menino weren’t in any position to quibble over the “redistricting.” So they didn’t.
As Barney Frank found out, the devil is in the details.
We used to have “Praying Indians” in this state. Now we have gambling Indians — Mashpee Wampanoags. Out of their stable we find seven lobbying groups, including The Delahunt Group LLC, and Smith, Ruddock and Hayes (Smith and Hayes being ex-state reps, and Emmet Hayes is also known as Mr. Shannon O’Brien).
The Hard Rock group is represented by Golden West Associates, which includes, among others, ex-Sen. Martin Dunn and ex-House Speaker David Bartley, age 76. That last sentence is the first time the words “David Bartley” and “hard rock” have ever appeared in the same sentence.
MGM Grand Resorts International has retained a law firm that just hosted a time for the lieutenant governor, Tim “Crash” Murray.
Then there’s Suffolk Downs — DeLeo and Menino’s favorite. Their stable includes ex-House majority leader Wacky Jackie Murphy, ex-Rep. John Stefanini and his cousin, Charles Stefanini.
Of course, Suffolk needed some new guns. Their former lobbyist, Dickie McDonough, was just packed off to the federal prison in Fort Dix last week on a fraud rap in the Cognos circus, joining Mob boss Carmen “The Cheeseman” DiNunzio at that Club Fed in the Garden State.
How much you want to bet Dickie isn’t the last State House hack hooked up with this casino deal to end up in the sneezer?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1386550