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The highest court in Massachusetts is set to hear arguments in a long-running legal battle over whether former House speaker Thomas Finneran should be able to collect his $34,000 annual pension despite his conviction on an obstruction of justice charge. Finneran’s fall from grace began in 2003 when he lied about his role in a legislative redistricting plan. …

WRKO radio host Tom Finneran said he has no second thoughts about the disparaging on-air crack he made regarding Howie Carr’s female producer when confronted outside the station’s Brighton studios yesterday. When asked whether he regretted making the “whale” comment, Finneran told the Herald, “There’s nothing to regret. I’m not making any comment.” The former House speaker also said he had no comment when asked whether station management has talked to him about his remark. The morning-drive host referred to Carr’s producer as a “whale” during the show last Friday - the same day Carr was slapped with a weeklong...

The state’s highest court ruled Monday that former House Speaker Thomas Finneran should be disbarred from the practice of law. Finneran, who pled guilty in 2007 to obstruction of justice, had sought a lesser punishment of suspension, but the court sided with the Board of Bar Overseers. "(Finneran’s)" misconduct implicates both the integrity of the judicial system and the honesty of a member of the bar," Justice Margot Botsford wrote for the court. "We have no reason to disagree with the finding that (Finneran’s) conduct during the voting rights lawsuit represented an aberrant event in his long career of serving...

Former Massachusett House Speaker Thomas Finneran’s desperate bid for a last-minute presidential pardon has failed, after President Bush issued his final acts of executive clemency by commuting the prison sentences of two former U.S. border agents accused of shooting a Mexican drug dealer. A White House aide said the clock ran out for Finneran, convicted of lying about his role in legislative redistricting. Finneran enlisted the help of three former Republican governors to convince the outgoing GOP president to forgive him of the federal felony. “There are no further announcements expected regarding pardons,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. Neither...

BOSTON — Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran has enlisted the help of four former governors in his bid to get a pardon from President Bush on an obstruction of justice conviction. The Boston Globe reports Friday that Finneran submitted an application for a presidential pardon last month. The four governors — Democrat Michael Dukakis and Republicans William Weld, Paul Cellucci, and Jane Swift — followed with a letter of support. In the letter, obtained by the newspaper, the governors says Finneran has been severely punished and has "learned the error of the episode." Finneran, currently a radio talk show...

WRKO radio host Tom Finneran - the disgraced, ex-speaker of the House - lost his cool again yesterday on his morning show, bellowing “bull (expletive)” while defending embattled state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. I’m not sure what’s worse - the profanity or defending Wilkerson. Here you have a convicted felon - with his very own radio show - defending an allegedly corrupt lawmaker on Beacon Hill. Wilkerson was caught red-handed taking cash bribes - even stuffing $1,000 into her bra - just a stone’s throw from the State House, according to federal investigators. The feds have charged her with taking money...

Howie Carr live thread. Howie beats Severin in the ratings. But Finneran tanks big time.

Howie live thread

It backfired as hit man humor and now Herald columnist Howie Carr wants Tom Finneran behind bars for a tongue-in-cheek threat to have him whacked and stuffed in the trunk of Gov. Deval Patrick’s Cadillac. “Real men don’t talk about putting people in trunks, they just do it,” Carr sniffed yesterday of the former Democratic House speaker, who traded up a felony conviction for a plum gig hosting WRKO-AM’s morning talk show. Last week, Finneran told Patrick on the air that the two of them should take “Howie Carr for a ride,” and “only two will come back.” Calling the...

Listen to me, Tom Finneran. I’ll always be there for you when you have a problem at WRKO. Think of me as your probation officer. Whenever you’re gripped with an overwhelming state-rep urge to, say, steal a hot stove, come to Mr. Carr. Consider me the ankle bracelet you should be wearing. And incidentally, keep your sticky felon fingers off my headphones in the studio. I have the phone number in Judge Stearns’ lobby, pal. You could still end up on the Bureau of Prisons (BOP.gov) Web site under “Inmate Locator.” It would be easy to make jokes about this...

Howie live thread. A press conference was aired on WRKO re: the new morning show with Tom Finneran. Start date will be Feb 12. Scott Allen Miller will continue in his current slot until then and he may wind up elsewhere at Entercom after his show ends. Finneran says the show will feature everything from politics to sports (oh, the press conference just ended and the first caller said it was a sad day for the station, and the caller said Finneran was an "arrogant, condescending, liar"). I think it was said Finneran might appear on Howie's show later today...

Nearly every (printable) thing one hears about John Kerry these days is that he's a liberal from liberal Massachusetts where liberal people are constantly doing the most outrageously liberal things, liberally. So how is it that a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in favor of gay marriage has caused such furor in the state legislature, where there's now a determined effort to ban gay marriage once and for all? A general answer is that while Massachusetts is indeed a very liberal state overall, it's not entirely composed of Harvard Square and Back Bay. The state is also home to hundreds...

Tommy Finneran always thought he was the smartest guy in the State House. But yesterday, the former speaker started crying as he cops a plea at the federal courthouse, and this was all he has to say in his own defense. I was an idiot. I was a bad boy, a very bad boy. I am very, very sorry. And then he started choking up, and blubbering, and melting into a puddle, and from now on you can just call him Boo Hoo. You had to wonder, what would he have done if he’d been handed some real prison time,...

BOSTON (AP) -- A former Massachusetts House speaker accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit plans to plead guilty Friday to obstruction of justice, a person familiar with the agreement said Thursday. The lawsuit had claimed that a 2001 state law that redrew legislative district boundaries discriminated against minorities in Boston while protecting incumbents, including the now-former House speaker, Thomas Finneran. A federal court panel eventually tossed out the legislative map, finding it "sacrificed racial fairness." Finneran's trial on perjury and obstruction charges had been scheduled to start Jan. 16. The former speaker said Wednesday that...

Unbelievable--today's Globe says former MA house speaker Tom Finneran is being considered for a WRKO job--if he doesn't go to prison. Link below. If they want someone who's (allegedly) committed perjury, why not just ask Bill Clinton?

BOSTON - Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran was indicted Monday on federal charges of lying under oath about his role in the redrawing of the state's legislative districts. Finneran, 55, was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice and could be sent to prison and lose his license to practice law if convicted. "My response to the charges brought against me today is NOT GUILTY. My family and I look forward to my day in court," the Boston Democrat said in a statement. Finneran, who resigned last September to head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, was widely considered the state's...

<p>LAST WEEK, Acting Governor Jane Swift, Mayor Thomas Menino, House Speaker Thomas Finneran, and Senate President Thomas Birmingham introduced legislation to create the Millennium Greenway Trust, a public entity that would own the Central Artery corridor, to be known as the Rose Kennedy Greenway.</p>

<p>BOSTON -- House Speaker Thomas Finneran went to court Monday to save his sofa.</p> <p>Advocates for the voter-approved Clean Elections law are trying to auction his office furniture, including his desk, sofa and love seat, to pay for the law, which he staunchly opposes.</p>