NYT On Our Powerless Governor
by Brian Maloney, March 26th, 2008 at 10:59pm
What a difference a year makes: even the left is no longer interested in propping up wimpy Deval Patrick. Now, his totally ineffective tenure is the subject of a New York Times profile:
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick has lately addressed doting crowds around the country as a surrogate for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, his friend and fellow gifted orator. Last month, Mr. Obama even acknowledged borrowing language from Mr. Patrick’s stump speeches, casting a flattering light on a novice politician barely known outside Massachusetts.
But there is no such glow at home for Mr. Patrick, the first Democrat to lead his state in 16 years and the nation’s second elected black governor.
Mr. Patrick, who easily won office in 2006 after dazzling voters with a message of hope and change, suffered a nasty defeat last week at the hands of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which quashed his proposal to increase revenues by allowing three resort casinos in the state. None of the governor’s major policy proposals have cleared the Legislature, in fact, and he and Salvatore DiMasi, the speaker of the House, have taken to trading barbs publicly.
Mr. Patrick is faring better than a year ago, when he was under siege for spending more than $10,000 on drapes for his State House office and upgrading his state car from a Ford Crown Victoria to a Cadillac. (He later agreed to reimburse the state for the drapes and part of the car lease.) By his third month in office, Mr. Patrick had announced that his wife was being treated for depression, and by his fourth, he had overhauled his staff.
But even now, governing is not coming easily for Mr. Patrick, 51, a former civil rights lawyer and corporate executive who came to Massachusetts on a prep school scholarship in the ’70s.
Entry Filed under: Deval Patrick
5 Comments
1. AlicefromLexington | March 27th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Sick or half dead you sure managed to haul
your a– out of bed to start this thread!Heck of a job Bri. Geesh.
2. Jimmy Severino III | March 27th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Jimmy Severino III says that Deval came along at just the right time. We right-wing fringers needed a new punching bag and Deval was made-to-order on that front. How good is Deval for looney right talk radio? You have seen my numbers lately, no? I am dominating! That’s right, your Jimmy Severino III is the cat’s pjs in radio la-la land. Even Brian can’t take that from me anymore! Howie who? Ha-ha-ha-hee-hee-hee.
3. Chris | March 27th, 2008 at 8:56 am
What part of ‘Together we Can!’ has turned out to be false…the ‘Together’ part or the ‘Can’ part? A case can be made for either.
4. joy | March 27th, 2008 at 9:36 am
i just tried to call Finneran’s Forum.
get this / the screener or producer (don’t know which) suggested that i should refer to the host as “mister speaker” when i got on-air
the nerve! i refused to and hung up
anyone else get the same “suggestion” when they call
no wonder he fields so many softball questions since he is being teed up so high
no one pushes me around esp since size 20s like me are not so easy to push around! tee-hee
5. Sorenson | March 27th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Listen to Deval, he speaks with the tender tongue of a baby that has been abruptly tugged off of a breast.