Future clearer than a Menino quote
by Howie Carr
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Run, Mumbles, run.
Not that Hizzoner needs any encouragement from me or anyone else. All signs indicate that he’s made up his mind to seek a sixth, or seventh, or whatever term.
(Click on the Herald page here for some of Mayor Thomas Menino's greatest audio hits.)
Exhibit A: He’s finally moving out of the Parkman House. If he were planning to lame-duck it, why return to North Dedham, er Readville? He must go back to being a man of the people, not Liveshot Kerry’s high-hat neighbor in Ward 5.
Exhibit B: He’s running the little fundraisers again, the $25-a-head times with city employees. How much simpler it is to raise $500 a pop from everyone in the extended families of the bar owners, the developers and the city contractors — you know, the ones who didn’t plow the streets this winter.
The mayor has already got more than enough dough on hand to crush What’s-his-name, but he needs these small contributions to show that he’s not a tool of the big-money interests, although of course he is, not that any mayor is ever anything but.
These are hopeful signs to all of us who understand how much the mayor means to the city, and we have the sound cuts to prove it. The golden age of Boston pro sports is ending — no more “jumbletrons” or “potta-potties” lining victory parade routes for the “Red Sock.”
But Mumbles still roots for the city’s “ionic” teams. Sure, “Wes Wexler” may be gone, but there’s that tight end, “Grabowski.” I mean, “Gonk.” He’s as valuable to the Pats as “KJ and Hondo” are to the Celts. And by the way, wasn’t it terrible what that guy said Friday about the wife of Vince “Wilcott,” er, Wilfork.
Hizzoner is 70 now, but “just ’cause you got a few gray hairs doesn’t mean you’re over the hell.”
As ever, he looks to the future, to a “city mooing forward.” Some problems remain, rats for instance, but the mayor is working on ways to “ ’radicate the problem.”
In the meantime, “Young people are fudding, not fleeing the city.”
Ya hear that, Councilor Connolly. Just like in the days when “Martha Luther King Jr.” moved here to go to BU, they’re still fudding the city. Because the Menino administration is “trying to bridge the grap.”
No gender gap for Hizzoner — “We must unlock the potential of all our woman.”
Mumbles knows what is expected of him — he must develop “stregic plans” to “bing business” to the city. And he is. Just look at “New Balance ca-spanding in Brighton.”
All these months on the disabled list have given the mayor time to ruminate. Sometimes we forget what a philosopher he is.
“We know this country didn’t become great by excludin’ folks and leavin’ each other on their om.”
Om … om … om … Actually, leaving people on their “om” hasn’t worked out that badly for some, but Buddhists remain a very small percentage of the Boston electorate.
“Will we move forward together or will we go back to the tricks, trickle-down philosophy that Mitt Romney believes in?”
A resounding no to that tricky trickle-down trick thing. So what, Mayor, is job one?
“Our first tasker task is improvin’ public education in our city.”
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. And — knock on wood — you’ll be hearing it for four more years.
>>Some state reps continue to cash in on a lucrative perk their constituents don’t get — hefty per diem reimbursements that pay them thousands of dollars simply for commuting to the State House in an unchecked honor system.
Leading the list in 2011 is state Rep. John Binienda (D-Worcester), who put in for 241 days and was reimbursed $8,676. Others include state Rep. Ted Speliotis (D-Danvers), whose 237 days garnered $4,266, and former state Rep. Martha Walz, who claimed 220 days for $2,200. State Reps. John Fresolo, (D-Worcester), Alice Peisch (D-Wellesley) and Paul Donato (D-Medford) all claimed 218 days...Fresolo claimed the most days for any rank-and-file member without a leadership post. He did not return phone calls yesterday.
---
Fresolo has other issues to deal with