These are good times for Charlie Baker, despite the poll reported in the Boston Herald that he’s in a virtual dead heat with independent challenger Tim Cahill in the three-way primary race to unseat Governor Patrick. Baker himself points out that even Christy Mihos had 22 percent at this stage of his 2006 gubernatorial race …
State’s MASS SAVE energy rebate program a public relations disaster
It was a great idea, but its flawed execution can’t help being a black eye for the Patrick administration. The idea was to do for appliances what the cash-for-clunkers program did for cars. Massachusetts had over $6 million to give out in rebates for energy-inefficient washers, refrigerators, dishwashers and freezers. The rebates ranged from $50 …
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What Hillary Clinton Didn’t Say
Nation building is at the core of the U.S. State Department mission. George Bush denied it, ran against it and, after 9/11, got drawn into it. Barack Obama is staking his reputation on it, even if he calls it something else. But will it sell with the American people?The premise is important – the idea …
Casino gambling: providing informed consent
Reasonable doubts remain about the studies touting the benefits of casino gambling to Massachusetts, especially if today’s Boston Globe is correct that the legislature only asked for an analysis of benefits and not a cost-benefits analysis. Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and former Governor Mike Dukakis have raised significant warnings about the economic payoff, citing …
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Stevens and Hatch: Two events mark the passing of civility
It’s not just the bow ties they had in common; it’s the air of civility. Yesterday U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he will retire from the nation’s highest bench. Within the same 24-hour period, former Massachusetts House Minority Leader Frank Hatch passed away. Both left an imprint on the institutions with …
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Give Tim Cahill the Paul Tsongas Pander Bear Award
Back in the 1992 Presidential campaign, then-candidate Senator Paul Tsongas (D-Lowell) gave the first-ever “pander bear” award to then-candidate Bill Clinton, Governor of Arkansas. The symbolism has been used by both parties to attack candidates who bend over backwards to ingratiate themselves with certain people or groups of people, irrespective of the merits of the …
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Barney: Speaking Frankly on financial services reform and Pentagon budgets
With the passage of health insurance reform behind us, look for the President to sign financial services reform by Memorial Day, give or take. That, according to Congressman Barney Frank at this morning’s Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “The public is overwhelmingly in favor of financial services reform, so the banks can’t expect too …
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Charlie Baker: Right on Municipal Workers’ Health Insurance
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker’s main issue differentiating himself from Governor Deval Patrick has for weeks been his emphasis on cutting state spending, including eliminating 5000 jobs. But he hasn’t been specific about where those jobs are, so his criticism of the Patrick administration has lacked clarity, credibility and clout, easily dismissible as campaign rhetoric …
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Scott Brown – All squirrely on health reform
Name a position on health reform, and Scott Brown has taken it. As a state senator, he voted for the Massachusetts health reform law, which became the model for the federal law. Yet he rode to Washington on a pledge to be the 41st (and decisive) vote against health insurance reform legislation in the U.S. …
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Health Insurance Reform: The End of the Beginning
The course leading to the House vote on health insurance reform was clearly a case of winning ugly. We’ve all had an overdose of exposure to legislative sausage-making. But, in the end, the 219-to-212 vote was a huge step forward, an historic moment in the history of this country. More than 30 million uninsured people …
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