District attorney by fatal default.
by Kevin John Sowyrda
Boston and Beyond
Run, Michael, run!
by Kevin John Sowyrda
contributing writer
The ongoing Chernobyl which is the career of Suffolk County District
Attorney Dan Conley - the latest disgrace, of course, would be the the
no-confidence vote in the District Attorney taken last week by the Boston
police detectives union - makes me long for what might have been.
But first some background - and a bit of news. Conley is the chief law
enforcement officer for a county with 687,000 residents. He was appointed to
the position by Gov. Jane Swift in Feb., 2002. Since then, he has excelled
at earning acquittals for violent criminals while dismissing substantive
accusations of his politicizing the D.A.'s office to the detriment of
professional law enforcement. After chatting with four command level
personnel from Schroeder Plaza over the weekend, I was left with the
impression that the police honestly believe that the D.A.'s office is being
run like the White House: It can be counted on for a steady flow of
incompetent decisions, silly bravado and stubbornness. None of which is what
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. likely had in mind for the city of his
birth. But I digress .
It's hard to disagree with the commanders I spoke with. What poses as a
D.A.'s office for New England's most densely populated county is beginning
to resemble a plotline in an episode of The Simpsons, complete with the dark
humor. Just look at the ridiculous turf war Conley has launched against the
Boston Police Department. This summer, he transferred authority to
investigate homicides committed on MBTA property from the Boston Police
Department to the State Police. It was, apparently, Conley's petulant way of
expressing his pique at not having been consulted when B.P.D. Commissioner
Ed Davis decided to restructure the B.P.D. homicide unit.
Conley's stunt over turf is embarrassing and it detracts from the job of
fighting crime in the city. But what makes it particularly painful to watch
is knowing that it was never supposed to be this way. Former City Councilor
Dan Conley, for many years the quintessential back bencher and non entity at
Boston City Hall, won the D.A.'s post on the coattails of political tragedy.
Conley's better known and respected opponent in the 2002 election for the
post, Boston City Councilor Brian Honan, died in July of that year from
complications related to cancer surgery. Bostonians felt Honan's loss keenly
because he was the non-politician's politician, a man focused on public
service and not personal advancement. The power of Honan's memory explains
the presence of 650 people who came out for the fourth annual Brian Honan 5K
Run in Allston this past Sunday.
Sadly, Honan passed away just when Boston needed him the most, making his
death a political tragedy as well as a personal one. Honan handled homicide
cases as an assistant district attorney before he entered politics. He was
widely viewed as a smart, hard working public servant and the best successor
to District Attorney Ralph Martin, who left office before the end of his
term to go into private practice. Although Conley should have held an
advantage for having maneuvered his way into office seven months before the
September primary thanks to the appointment by Swift, Honan was the odds on
favorite to win. Indeed, Conley's own supporters have confessed to me - and
others - over the years that Honan would have surely bested Conley in the
race for D.A. And he was favored for the very best of reasons: He had
established a concrete reputation as a leader who could build consensus to
solve serious problems.
The chances of Conley ever being praised as a consensus builder, meanwhile,
are identical to the chances of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marching in next year's
Gay Pride. The fourth grade-style antics from Conley this summer earned him
not just a no-confidence vote, but a virtually unprecedented call from
Boston police detectives for his resignation.
We'll refrain from joining the growing chorus chanting Conley's political
funeral march; but it would be best for Boston that a qualified candidate
emerge to challenge Conley as his six year term nears an end.
Enter City Councilor-at-Large Michael Flaherty. It's long been rumored that
Flaherty wanted the appointment to the D.A.'s post back in 2002, but settled
for a backroom deal instead that gave him the City Council presidency and a
promise from the Mayor that he would only seek one more term in office -
thus clearing the way for a run by Flaherty. Now that it looks like Menino
is going to run again for reelection, we hear that Flaherty is demanding the
Mayor's support in a bid to unseat Conley next year.
To all that, we say this: Run, Michael, run!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Romney has bigger problems than Craig
Senator Restroom is the least of Romney's troubles.
by Kevin John Sowyrda
kevinsow@aol.com
Mitt Romney's inevitable, waiting for him in the wings of fate shellacking in the New Hampshire Primary, has little to do with his top fund raiser Alan Fabian resigning after being indicted for a $32 million fraud scheme, or his liasion to the U.S. Senate, U.S. Senator Larry Craig, pleading guilty to conduct in a public men's room which is contrary to all the etiquette I've read lately in GQ magazine. Romney's pending fizzle, just like his father's before him, will come for reasons the candidate just isn't able to understand or see down the road ahead of him.
As James Carville might boil it down to bumper sticker format for us, "It's the Big Dig, Stupid!" And, please add to that what it isn't - it isn't your father's New Hampshire anymore. The Granite State's political pendulum has swung sufficiently to the left so as to morph former Massachusetts Governor Romney to dinosaur in the making status; and un enrolled voters, free to scribble their preference on either a Democrat or Republican ballot in the 'live free or let die' state, are sure to be drawn to a vastly superior and globally respected contender whose somewhat better tested under pressure and not at all obsessed , as is Romney, with what two consenting adults do in their bedrooms - or is it bathrooms, given the inclinations of Romney's close comrade, Senator Craig.
The candidate on the brink of surging in the polls in New Hampshire is Rudy Giuliani, and as we all vacuum the remnants of Herring Cove sand from our Volvos this weekend we'll be reading news of a slow but gradual increase in Giuliani's standing in the crucial New Hampshire G.O.P. primary.
The field marshals running command, control and intelligence at Bunker Romney are blinding themselves to two giant blips they seem to be missing from their AWACS plane intel. First, New Hampshire residents are fluent in Big Dig Speak and know that Mr. Ken Doll governor was the head of state (as in Bay State) while tunnels were completed perfectly - perfectly, had the specs called for car washes. Look for the Globe - and even that bastion of Republican dialogue, The Manchester Union Leader, to start a post Labor Day blitzkrieg on what Mitt knew and when he knew it regarding the phantom zone which remains Big Dig politics.
I don't see Romney pulling an Ed Muskie when the heat inevitably turns on - Muskie was the presidential aspirant who had an infamous, on camera breakdown in 1972, responding to the Union Leader slicing him and dicing his wife. But our former governor appears all too ill prepared for some tough coverage in the state where Big Dig developments are part of the daily diet prepared by the Boston based TV market, which absolutely dominates densely populated Southern New Hampshire, where candidates will win or lose the primary.
Second, Romney's ultimate Achilles heel is that an ever changing Southern New Hampshire is not home to the same breed of Republicans who recently handed Romney his state fair victory in Iowa on August 11. With more than 175 members of the Romney family in tow (I dare you to tell me all the Romneys don't practice the rhythm method) Romney was amidst his own disciples there. They Bible thump as much as they Gay Bash out in Iowa (proving they're not really reading that Bible before the bashing).
In New Hampshire it's a different ball game. Their reading the Globe, the New York Times and, I can guarantee you, a lot of copies of Bay Windows. It's a different New Hampshire heading into '08, as evidenced in last year's thunderous midterm elections when Democrats seized both congressional seats and the two chambers at the state house in Concord.
The political death knell for Romney's campaign can be found in the telling numbers from that raucous '07 election. We saw entrenched Republican office holders like Republican Congressman Charlie Bass go down to defeat by such huge margins that it's impossible to suggest the demise wasn't served up with the help of a huge chunk of both un enrolled and Republican voters.
Though the Democratic Primary has a fair share of reasons for un enrolled voters to pull that ballot, the G.O.P. primary has the main attraction of Rudy; and there's not an American alive who doesn't remember how he held our hands through the TV set in the hours and days after 9-11. A slew of voters will be pulling a G.O.P. ballot, the type of New, New Hampshire voters who will never lean as conservative as our man Mitt.
All New Hampshire voters know about Mitt Romney is that he has a distaste for Gay people, but actually takes their endorsements until their careers go down the public restroom toilet, quite literally.
Finally, some predictions: Giuliani takes New Hampshire by atleast 9 points - and - the beleaguered, hypocritical and psychologically disturbed Senator Craig resigns from the senate before you're carving your turkey this November.
And one last forecast, this pertaining to a media pundit of note. I predict that the day may actually come when the Gay Community finally organizes a needed protest at the studios of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, host of the forever feisty Hardball program. Addressing the Craig scandal on Tuesday night, Matthews said of the conservative lawmaker's incident at the airport, and I quote, "maybe this is just a part of Gay culture."
While passing Chris the Ritalin prescription he has needed for decades, could some of us please get organized and call this guy on putrid statements like that??
by Kevin John Sowyrda
kevinsow@aol.com
Mitt Romney's inevitable, waiting for him in the wings of fate shellacking in the New Hampshire Primary, has little to do with his top fund raiser Alan Fabian resigning after being indicted for a $32 million fraud scheme, or his liasion to the U.S. Senate, U.S. Senator Larry Craig, pleading guilty to conduct in a public men's room which is contrary to all the etiquette I've read lately in GQ magazine. Romney's pending fizzle, just like his father's before him, will come for reasons the candidate just isn't able to understand or see down the road ahead of him.
As James Carville might boil it down to bumper sticker format for us, "It's the Big Dig, Stupid!" And, please add to that what it isn't - it isn't your father's New Hampshire anymore. The Granite State's political pendulum has swung sufficiently to the left so as to morph former Massachusetts Governor Romney to dinosaur in the making status; and un enrolled voters, free to scribble their preference on either a Democrat or Republican ballot in the 'live free or let die' state, are sure to be drawn to a vastly superior and globally respected contender whose somewhat better tested under pressure and not at all obsessed , as is Romney, with what two consenting adults do in their bedrooms - or is it bathrooms, given the inclinations of Romney's close comrade, Senator Craig.
The candidate on the brink of surging in the polls in New Hampshire is Rudy Giuliani, and as we all vacuum the remnants of Herring Cove sand from our Volvos this weekend we'll be reading news of a slow but gradual increase in Giuliani's standing in the crucial New Hampshire G.O.P. primary.
The field marshals running command, control and intelligence at Bunker Romney are blinding themselves to two giant blips they seem to be missing from their AWACS plane intel. First, New Hampshire residents are fluent in Big Dig Speak and know that Mr. Ken Doll governor was the head of state (as in Bay State) while tunnels were completed perfectly - perfectly, had the specs called for car washes. Look for the Globe - and even that bastion of Republican dialogue, The Manchester Union Leader, to start a post Labor Day blitzkrieg on what Mitt knew and when he knew it regarding the phantom zone which remains Big Dig politics.
I don't see Romney pulling an Ed Muskie when the heat inevitably turns on - Muskie was the presidential aspirant who had an infamous, on camera breakdown in 1972, responding to the Union Leader slicing him and dicing his wife. But our former governor appears all too ill prepared for some tough coverage in the state where Big Dig developments are part of the daily diet prepared by the Boston based TV market, which absolutely dominates densely populated Southern New Hampshire, where candidates will win or lose the primary.
Second, Romney's ultimate Achilles heel is that an ever changing Southern New Hampshire is not home to the same breed of Republicans who recently handed Romney his state fair victory in Iowa on August 11. With more than 175 members of the Romney family in tow (I dare you to tell me all the Romneys don't practice the rhythm method) Romney was amidst his own disciples there. They Bible thump as much as they Gay Bash out in Iowa (proving they're not really reading that Bible before the bashing).
In New Hampshire it's a different ball game. Their reading the Globe, the New York Times and, I can guarantee you, a lot of copies of Bay Windows. It's a different New Hampshire heading into '08, as evidenced in last year's thunderous midterm elections when Democrats seized both congressional seats and the two chambers at the state house in Concord.
The political death knell for Romney's campaign can be found in the telling numbers from that raucous '07 election. We saw entrenched Republican office holders like Republican Congressman Charlie Bass go down to defeat by such huge margins that it's impossible to suggest the demise wasn't served up with the help of a huge chunk of both un enrolled and Republican voters.
Though the Democratic Primary has a fair share of reasons for un enrolled voters to pull that ballot, the G.O.P. primary has the main attraction of Rudy; and there's not an American alive who doesn't remember how he held our hands through the TV set in the hours and days after 9-11. A slew of voters will be pulling a G.O.P. ballot, the type of New, New Hampshire voters who will never lean as conservative as our man Mitt.
All New Hampshire voters know about Mitt Romney is that he has a distaste for Gay people, but actually takes their endorsements until their careers go down the public restroom toilet, quite literally.
Finally, some predictions: Giuliani takes New Hampshire by atleast 9 points - and - the beleaguered, hypocritical and psychologically disturbed Senator Craig resigns from the senate before you're carving your turkey this November.
And one last forecast, this pertaining to a media pundit of note. I predict that the day may actually come when the Gay Community finally organizes a needed protest at the studios of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, host of the forever feisty Hardball program. Addressing the Craig scandal on Tuesday night, Matthews said of the conservative lawmaker's incident at the airport, and I quote, "maybe this is just a part of Gay culture."
While passing Chris the Ritalin prescription he has needed for decades, could some of us please get organized and call this guy on putrid statements like that??
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Guess whose not doing the shooting
Boston and Beyond
Guess who’s not shooting up the South End?
(This article appears in the August 16th edition of the South End News, on news stands in Boston Massachusetts. The web link is www.southendnews.com)
by Kevin John Sowyrda
contributing writer
Thank God that gun permits have plummeted by25 percent in the Bay State and 30 percent in Boston, as recently reported by the Boston Globe. Quincy Police Chief Robert F. Crowley thinks we should be celebrating: "Fewer firearms on the street makes life safer for everyone. The average citizen who has a gun 24-7 I don't believe has the experience, knowledge, and training to know when and if they should use a firearm."
Really? We’re all safer since fewer law abiding citizens — who’ve been fingerprinted and background-investigated — have firearms in their homes, holsters or pocket books? After all, these are clearly the criminal minds of intent, the scum of society who’ve got one hand on the steering wheel of their Ford F 150's and the other out the window shooting up Blue Hill Avenue.
Yup, we're all better off.
Who’s kidding who? Angel Ortiz was just 23-years-old when he was gunned down on East Brookline Street June 10 by someone with no sense of shame or value for life. Think the shooter was a licensed gun owner? Doubt it.
With a tablespoon or so of our sarcasm tucked away, we called the brain trust at the Schroeder Plaza Police Headquarters for comment. We got Officer Dotten on the phone, God help us. We asked Ms. Dotten for her first name for purposes of this column, and she said, "It's Officer." I guess that means her title is Officer Officer Dotten.
Anyway, our “Q&A” with Officer Officer Dotten went as follows:
Q: Is there any correlation between crime in the city and licensed firearms owners?
A: [Long pause.] I'd have to research that.
Q: Have there been any gun shootings linked to licensed gun owners?
A: [Another long pause — longer than the first.] I'm not aware of any … ah … but there may be information on that. That would have to be researched.
Q: Can you tell me how many people in Boston have firearm permits?
A: You'll have to submit a Freedom of Information Act Request for that.
By the way, that's public agency speak for, "Go take a hike!" I knew the answer anyway. It’s a little over 4300 according to the police source I frequently use when the Boston Police media office is acting like, um, the Boston Police media office.
And with that, our very special quality time with Officer Officer Dotten had come to an end. Now I know how the White House Press corp feels.
Anyway, since there are no tomorrows in my life but only today's deadline, I'll just proceed with the obvious theme of this column, that being that as long as the perpetually misguided continue to celebrate meaningless statistical facts like a drop in the numbers of licensed gun owners in our midst and attribute them to reductions in crime, real criminals will continue to enjoy a great belly laugh at our lack of a working, public policy compass.
Only God knows why the political leaders of our day work so hard, each and every day, to not find the solution to rampant crime. At least Mayor Menino got it right. "We're pleased that the number of gun owners has decreased in our city, but the real issue is illegal guns, and we need more laws to deal with illegal guns in our cities,” the Mayor told the Globe.
Good. Now let’s get the focus back on what really reduces the rates of crime in the city. Which is, well, I’m not sure. And that, I think, is the point. We don’t know. No one knows.
What we do know, however, is that the idea that a reduction in gun permits by law abiding citizens reduces crimes rates is absurd.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Don't blame me, blame Jerry Williams.
> Don't blame me, blame Jerry Williams.
> by Kevin John Sowyrda
>
> Did Jerry Williams have any idea what he was doing when he gave birth
> to the Hub's media version of Frankenstein? Do you think he's rolling
> over in his grave right now? I suspect the answer to both questions
> is a definitive affirmative.
>
> Williams was the radio giant of Boston during the Dukakis era of
> politics, and had the temerity to organize a successful repeal of the
> seatbelt law about twenty years ago; proof of his media muscle. In
> 1989 he decided to start a segment on his highly rated afternoon radio
> show on WRKO. He called it 'The Governors,' which was a rather
> sardonic group-commentary on the day's political issues. The round
> robin on 680 AM featured Williams, some anti-government lady from out
> of state whose name never mattered, and Boston Herald Columnist Howie
> Carr, known in the print media as a conservative yuckster
> who delighted in "gotcha" political commentary.
>
> Carr and Williams had nothing in common. Speaking even as someone who
> once appeared on Jerry's show only to be eaten for breakfast by the
> host, I can tell you that Jerry Williams was probably the most
> honorable and socially progressive radio voice Boston ever heard,
> second only to the great Gene Burns. His issues of concern were taxes
> and government waste, not who consenting adults were spending their
> time with. Were Jerry still alive today I'd bet the farm that he'd
> have put the same energy into supporting Gay marriage as he had
> successfully committed to killing that seat belt law, which simply
> went against his civil libertarian credentials. Those were the days
> when Boston talk radio had something to say, but those days were
> ending.
>
> It didn't take long for Carr to learn the ins and outs of Boston
> radio. He had a superb teacher and mentor, and like many students he
> finally became the teacher. Williams was unceremoniously booted out
> the door by WRKO in favor of Carr, who became a grating voice of
> socially conservative diatribes, to such an extent that Carr's
> missives frequently made anything Don Imus may have said, pale in
> comparison.
>
> Imus is now in exile in Arizona, and Carr has decided to jump the S.S.
> RKO and take over the morning show at Boston's FM talk station 96.9,
> which had carried the Imus syndicated program until the shock jock was
> fired by CBS Radio in April. Tongues are wagging, and here's why.
>
> First, 96.9 will now solidify its reputation as a place on the
> dial with few progressive oasis. There will be two bookends, both
> leaning about as far to the right as Attila the Hun. You'll Howie in
> the morning, hardly a Socrates of the airwaves who has previously
> stated that the best reason for killing Gay marriage is because it
> will trigger a Gay Community appetite for legalizing bestiality. And
> then there's Jay Severin in the afternoon. Severin, most infamous
> for having been exposed by the Boston Globe for falsely claming to be
> a Pulitzer Prize winner, is basically a carbon copy of Carr; but
> perhaps with better pronunciation and dictum and a greater tendency to
> lisp, which has created all manner of rumor. Squished in the middle
> of this jihad of nationalistic, misogynistic and homophobic talk will
> be progressive commentator Jim Braude who co hosts a midday shift with
> another Herald columnist who writes about things no one cares about.
> But she lives in Brookline, so she can't be all that bad.
>
> On the other end of town is the now hemoraging WRKO AM, which just
> lost their best rated, premadona Gay Basher (they had no qualms with
> the Gay Bashing) while already suffering an identity crisis as it
> tries a plethora of co-hosts to stabilize the sinking ship called
> Finneran's Forum, the station's morning drive time show.
>
> The 'Forum' is perhaps the last hurrah of former Massachusetts House
> Speaker Tom Finneran, who came hat in hand to the station for work
> after he was fired from his $416,000 a year job as head of the
> Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. The council's board of directors
> apparently wasn't too overjoyed by Finneran's guilty plea to
> obstruction of justice charges. Finneran is presently serving his
> eighteen months of unsupervised probation, which means he can make it
> to the RKO Brighton studios where station management actually thought
> it was a smart move to give this guy a job.
>
> Carr felt other wise. The two conservatives - both have showered the
> Gay Community with insults too numerous to catalogue - have shared
> little in common beyond their parochial views of modern life. They've
> been ardent foes for years and their recent on air war was no
> publicity stunt, despite what some in town have suggested. One
> insider at RKO told me that Carr took Finneran's hiring as, "the last
> straw," at a station he, Carr, was no longer comfortable at.
>
> The lack of comfort could stem from the fact that, like it or not, the
> bombastic conservative of Boston talk has become a player (the
> Arbitron Ratings sadly prove it) and outgrown what is seen by many as
> a failing media outlet. RKO's signal is basically inaudible at night
> time in much of New England, and the station's only real profitable
> programming has been Carr's three to seven o'clock drive home shift.
> Further, Carr's book on all things Whitie Bulger, a New York Times
> best seller, has made the scrappy commentator a tidy pocket of change
> as much as it's elevated his status on national media outlets like Fox
> News. RKO no longer has the stage to support the weight of such
> ambitious "talent," which hardly appreciated his nemesis being made a
> colleague; or his afternoon show being frequently shortened by the
> Boston Red Sox games, now being aired on the station.
>
> What to look for and what to do? First, Finneran and Carr are now
> going head to head for the morning drive time advertising dollars.
> Bet another farm, but this time on Carr. Finneran's ratings are
> already at the bottom of Boston Harbor, and this is the death knell.
> Second, send all the Excedrin you can muster to commentator Jim
> Braude.
>
> Sadly for Boston, he's about to feel very out of place both at the
> office, and in a local radio industry that continues to lean more and
> more to the right.
>
> by Kevin John Sowyrda
>
> Did Jerry Williams have any idea what he was doing when he gave birth
> to the Hub's media version of Frankenstein? Do you think he's rolling
> over in his grave right now? I suspect the answer to both questions
> is a definitive affirmative.
>
> Williams was the radio giant of Boston during the Dukakis era of
> politics, and had the temerity to organize a successful repeal of the
> seatbelt law about twenty years ago; proof of his media muscle. In
> 1989 he decided to start a segment on his highly rated afternoon radio
> show on WRKO. He called it 'The Governors,' which was a rather
> sardonic group-commentary on the day's political issues. The round
> robin on 680 AM featured Williams, some anti-government lady from out
> of state whose name never mattered, and Boston Herald Columnist Howie
> Carr, known in the print media as a conservative yuckster
> who delighted in "gotcha" political commentary.
>
> Carr and Williams had nothing in common. Speaking even as someone who
> once appeared on Jerry's show only to be eaten for breakfast by the
> host, I can tell you that Jerry Williams was probably the most
> honorable and socially progressive radio voice Boston ever heard,
> second only to the great Gene Burns. His issues of concern were taxes
> and government waste, not who consenting adults were spending their
> time with. Were Jerry still alive today I'd bet the farm that he'd
> have put the same energy into supporting Gay marriage as he had
> successfully committed to killing that seat belt law, which simply
> went against his civil libertarian credentials. Those were the days
> when Boston talk radio had something to say, but those days were
> ending.
>
> It didn't take long for Carr to learn the ins and outs of Boston
> radio. He had a superb teacher and mentor, and like many students he
> finally became the teacher. Williams was unceremoniously booted out
> the door by WRKO in favor of Carr, who became a grating voice of
> socially conservative diatribes, to such an extent that Carr's
> missives frequently made anything Don Imus may have said, pale in
> comparison.
>
> Imus is now in exile in Arizona, and Carr has decided to jump the S.S.
> RKO and take over the morning show at Boston's FM talk station 96.9,
> which had carried the Imus syndicated program until the shock jock was
> fired by CBS Radio in April. Tongues are wagging, and here's why.
>
> First, 96.9 will now solidify its reputation as a place on the
> dial with few progressive oasis. There will be two bookends, both
> leaning about as far to the right as Attila the Hun. You'll Howie in
> the morning, hardly a Socrates of the airwaves who has previously
> stated that the best reason for killing Gay marriage is because it
> will trigger a Gay Community appetite for legalizing bestiality. And
> then there's Jay Severin in the afternoon. Severin, most infamous
> for having been exposed by the Boston Globe for falsely claming to be
> a Pulitzer Prize winner, is basically a carbon copy of Carr; but
> perhaps with better pronunciation and dictum and a greater tendency to
> lisp, which has created all manner of rumor. Squished in the middle
> of this jihad of nationalistic, misogynistic and homophobic talk will
> be progressive commentator Jim Braude who co hosts a midday shift with
> another Herald columnist who writes about things no one cares about.
> But she lives in Brookline, so she can't be all that bad.
>
> On the other end of town is the now hemoraging WRKO AM, which just
> lost their best rated, premadona Gay Basher (they had no qualms with
> the Gay Bashing) while already suffering an identity crisis as it
> tries a plethora of co-hosts to stabilize the sinking ship called
> Finneran's Forum, the station's morning drive time show.
>
> The 'Forum' is perhaps the last hurrah of former Massachusetts House
> Speaker Tom Finneran, who came hat in hand to the station for work
> after he was fired from his $416,000 a year job as head of the
> Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. The council's board of directors
> apparently wasn't too overjoyed by Finneran's guilty plea to
> obstruction of justice charges. Finneran is presently serving his
> eighteen months of unsupervised probation, which means he can make it
> to the RKO Brighton studios where station management actually thought
> it was a smart move to give this guy a job.
>
> Carr felt other wise. The two conservatives - both have showered the
> Gay Community with insults too numerous to catalogue - have shared
> little in common beyond their parochial views of modern life. They've
> been ardent foes for years and their recent on air war was no
> publicity stunt, despite what some in town have suggested. One
> insider at RKO told me that Carr took Finneran's hiring as, "the last
> straw," at a station he, Carr, was no longer comfortable at.
>
> The lack of comfort could stem from the fact that, like it or not, the
> bombastic conservative of Boston talk has become a player (the
> Arbitron Ratings sadly prove it) and outgrown what is seen by many as
> a failing media outlet. RKO's signal is basically inaudible at night
> time in much of New England, and the station's only real profitable
> programming has been Carr's three to seven o'clock drive home shift.
> Further, Carr's book on all things Whitie Bulger, a New York Times
> best seller, has made the scrappy commentator a tidy pocket of change
> as much as it's elevated his status on national media outlets like Fox
> News. RKO no longer has the stage to support the weight of such
> ambitious "talent," which hardly appreciated his nemesis being made a
> colleague; or his afternoon show being frequently shortened by the
> Boston Red Sox games, now being aired on the station.
>
> What to look for and what to do? First, Finneran and Carr are now
> going head to head for the morning drive time advertising dollars.
> Bet another farm, but this time on Carr. Finneran's ratings are
> already at the bottom of Boston Harbor, and this is the death knell.
> Second, send all the Excedrin you can muster to commentator Jim
> Braude.
>
> Sadly for Boston, he's about to feel very out of place both at the
> office, and in a local radio industry that continues to lean more and
> more to the right.
>
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Camp Romney
Boston and Beyond (available in copies of the SOUTH END NEWS at Boston news stands through July 5, 2007.)
Kevin John Sowyrda
The media has shown a fancy of late for a staffing problem at Team Romney, where everybody is presumed to be as straight as they are straight shooters; with at least one exception that is. It appears that coatholder-in-chief Jay Garrity may have been a Mall Cop in another life; which is to say that he’s obsessed with pretending be to a real and bonafide member of the constabulary. To that end, Garrity has been caught with his badge off — or on — as various law enforcement officials investigate him for pretending to be them. Garrity is also charged with flashing in public — his blue lights, that is. Mr. Garrity is now on leave from Camp Romney, which translated from politic speak means his next job in the Byzantine world of campaigning will be licking envelopes for the Mississippi State Republican Party.
But there are bigger staffing skeletons in the multi-million dollar operation which is the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Just as the media made quite the fuss about contender John Edwards hiring two staffers who in another life had written allegedly anti-Catholic commentaries as bloggers, the press should be quite interested in two of Romney’s top advisors who were the de facto managers of the Massachusetts state treasury when it suffered a $10 million embezzlement scandal, the worst in state history.
Eric Fehrnstrom and Beth Myers were hardly shrinking violets at Treasurer Joe Malone’s office when nearly $10 million was heisted from the taxpayers. Fehrnstrom, recently identified by the Washington Post as “always at Romney’s side,” was deputy state treasurer and Myers was chief of staff when the office they ran was pilfered of enough cash to buy a sweet pad near Romney’s grotesquely opulent manse at Lake Winnipesaukee.
Though the Edwards camp was excoriated in the mainstream media for retaining two bloggers who dared to differ with arcane Catholic dogma, there’s been no article I can find in the mainstream media, blogosphere or any other sphere regarding the fact that Romney’s two campaign chieftains had day-to-day control of a public agency where cash was quite literally carried out the front door by political loyalists appointed by them, and the elected treasurer, Joe Malone.
When it was revealed that the cronies of Malone, Myers and Fehrnstrom had been siphoning cash over an extended, six year period, the three quickly became objects of derision in the press. Although none were charged with any crimes, in the court of public opinion, they were seen as guilty of a comical level of mismanagement.
When asked by the Associated Press if he and his top managers were “guilty” of not keeping a proper eye on the store, Malone, a life long Republican, said that he did not have a preference for “micro managing” and that he trusted those working under his chain of command. So much for Reagan’s famous advice, “trust but verify.”
When all was said in done, prison sentences were handed out and the only thing we can say regarding Malone, Fehrnstrom and Myers is that their careers were suddenly in cryogenics. When you manage an office so well that a cool $10 million is slipped by your nose, it tends not to endear you to the employers browsing your Monster.Com resume posting.
But then came Mr. Ethics, Mitt Romney. His Excellency’s first move as governor was to resurrect Fehrnstrom and Myers to run the executive suite on . Myers would become an alter ego to Romney as his thoroughly loyal chief of staff. (It was Myers who was widely reported to have played an instrumental role in advising Romney to abolish the advisory commission on LGBT youth, which had been a meritorious invention of one of Romney’s Republican predecessors, William F. Weld.)
As for Fehrnstrom, he became the highest paid communications director in the history of the governor’s office, and was sometimes making news more than giving the governor’s reaction to it. On one occasion at the offices of New England Cable News, Fehrnstrom was accused by one of the station’s producers of attempting to assault another on-air guest, longtime North Adams Mayor John Barrett. Not much came of the incident, except to reinforce Fehrnstrom’s reputation as a petty, political scrapper.
But today, the petty political scrapper and the ultra conservative chief of staff to a state treasurer, and then a governor, are quite literally running the day-to-day operations of a presidential campaign. They do so with humble people like me still wondering if they were merely guilty of an abysmal level of managerial ignorance.
Either way, the press has a bigger story in Fehrnstrom and Myers than they’ll ever have in the coat holder who likes to play cop.
Kevin John Sowyrda
The media has shown a fancy of late for a staffing problem at Team Romney, where everybody is presumed to be as straight as they are straight shooters; with at least one exception that is. It appears that coatholder-in-chief Jay Garrity may have been a Mall Cop in another life; which is to say that he’s obsessed with pretending be to a real and bonafide member of the constabulary. To that end, Garrity has been caught with his badge off — or on — as various law enforcement officials investigate him for pretending to be them. Garrity is also charged with flashing in public — his blue lights, that is. Mr. Garrity is now on leave from Camp Romney, which translated from politic speak means his next job in the Byzantine world of campaigning will be licking envelopes for the Mississippi State Republican Party.
But there are bigger staffing skeletons in the multi-million dollar operation which is the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Just as the media made quite the fuss about contender John Edwards hiring two staffers who in another life had written allegedly anti-Catholic commentaries as bloggers, the press should be quite interested in two of Romney’s top advisors who were the de facto managers of the Massachusetts state treasury when it suffered a $10 million embezzlement scandal, the worst in state history.
Eric Fehrnstrom and Beth Myers were hardly shrinking violets at Treasurer Joe Malone’s office when nearly $10 million was heisted from the taxpayers. Fehrnstrom, recently identified by the Washington Post as “always at Romney’s side,” was deputy state treasurer and Myers was chief of staff when the office they ran was pilfered of enough cash to buy a sweet pad near Romney’s grotesquely opulent manse at Lake Winnipesaukee.
Though the Edwards camp was excoriated in the mainstream media for retaining two bloggers who dared to differ with arcane Catholic dogma, there’s been no article I can find in the mainstream media, blogosphere or any other sphere regarding the fact that Romney’s two campaign chieftains had day-to-day control of a public agency where cash was quite literally carried out the front door by political loyalists appointed by them, and the elected treasurer, Joe Malone.
When it was revealed that the cronies of Malone, Myers and Fehrnstrom had been siphoning cash over an extended, six year period, the three quickly became objects of derision in the press. Although none were charged with any crimes, in the court of public opinion, they were seen as guilty of a comical level of mismanagement.
When asked by the Associated Press if he and his top managers were “guilty” of not keeping a proper eye on the store, Malone, a life long Republican, said that he did not have a preference for “micro managing” and that he trusted those working under his chain of command. So much for Reagan’s famous advice, “trust but verify.”
When all was said in done, prison sentences were handed out and the only thing we can say regarding Malone, Fehrnstrom and Myers is that their careers were suddenly in cryogenics. When you manage an office so well that a cool $10 million is slipped by your nose, it tends not to endear you to the employers browsing your Monster.Com resume posting.
But then came Mr. Ethics, Mitt Romney. His Excellency’s first move as governor was to resurrect Fehrnstrom and Myers to run the executive suite on . Myers would become an alter ego to Romney as his thoroughly loyal chief of staff. (It was Myers who was widely reported to have played an instrumental role in advising Romney to abolish the advisory commission on LGBT youth, which had been a meritorious invention of one of Romney’s Republican predecessors, William F. Weld.)
As for Fehrnstrom, he became the highest paid communications director in the history of the governor’s office, and was sometimes making news more than giving the governor’s reaction to it. On one occasion at the offices of New England Cable News, Fehrnstrom was accused by one of the station’s producers of attempting to assault another on-air guest, longtime North Adams Mayor John Barrett. Not much came of the incident, except to reinforce Fehrnstrom’s reputation as a petty, political scrapper.
But today, the petty political scrapper and the ultra conservative chief of staff to a state treasurer, and then a governor, are quite literally running the day-to-day operations of a presidential campaign. They do so with humble people like me still wondering if they were merely guilty of an abysmal level of managerial ignorance.
Either way, the press has a bigger story in Fehrnstrom and Myers than they’ll ever have in the coat holder who likes to play cop.
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