Issue Date: 2/15/2007, Posted On: 2/14/2007
Political intelligence
by Kevin John Sowyrda | kevinsow@aol.com
Does WRKO Radio in Boston have some sort of death wish? Do the folks in charge want to blow up the station once revered for its employment of talk master icons like Gerry Williams and Gene Burns? Unlike the present cast of not-yet-ready-for-prime-timers at 680 AM, the late greats did not spend their valuable mic time beating the LGBT community over its collective head with a baseball bat. Yet that’s the main shtick of this publicly licensed member of the electronic media in the Hub, and the beating goes on this week with one new, though very beleaguered, player at bat.
This week, WRKO introduced its latest impediment to profit making: Tom Finneran, the former House Speaker and former president of the Mass Biotechnology Council who is a convicted felon on five years probation. He may not have his law license anymore, but he does have the coveted drive time slot at Boston’s best known gay-bashing station. We’ve documented many of their worst moments here — the most notorious of which was when mid-morning host John DiPetro called gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross a “fat lesbian.” He lost his job soon thereafter, but any notion that he was canned for having called Ross both “fat” and a “lesbian” is wishful thinking given what else is said on the air about the gays at WRKO. Just take the childish banter of Howie Carr, whose list of anti-gay slurs runs longer than the route of the Boston Marathon.
Finneran was hired to replace Scott Allan Miller, who was the only regularly featured host at WRKO who didn’t engage in anti-gay pejoratives, stereotyping or hysteria. Miller was a distinctly civil voice at a station where livid and obnoxious diatribes are the talk de jour. Why he was replaced by Finneran, whose legislative career was noteworthy for its unwavering commitment to political posturing, shenanigans and a diehard, socially conservative agenda which would have seemed unduly harsh to June and Ward Cleaver is a mystery. But it was one that interested me, so on Monday and Tuesday of this week, I gave the state’s only right-wing Dem a listen.
I’ve suffered through Tom’s radio persona (think blowhard, windy, boring) before; he’s guest hosted in a vagabond way on other Boston stations. I thought he’d be better this time around because the stakes are much higher. Finneran needs this gig to pay his bills (invoices from his defense lawyer alone are probably stacked higher than the Hancock Tower).
I must admit I’ve had a high stakes bet going with a friend of mine, who was willing to put down a C note if Finneran played it safe and avoided “the gay marriage thing” for at least his first week behind the mic. Take a guess at who’s $100 richer today.
Just two days into his new job, Tom came back from the break and welcomed us to “W aaaaah K O.” Apparently no one’s thought to inform this burned out pol from Mattapan that the grating, oh-so-70s Boston accent went out with the Brady Bunch. Nor is he aware of the fact that if you speak like you studied English with Tom Menino, you are not long for the world of radio.
But I digress.
Tom, and his teenage sidekick Holly-something-or-other — who speaks as if she were Lee Atwater reincarnated — are aghast, appalled, perplexed and simply livid at the treatment of poor Republican State Senator Scott Brown who has been vilified for reading obscene emails to about 60 students at Wrentham’s King Philip Regional High School last Thursday, where the senator was fulfilling his constitutional duty to remind Massachusetts voters exactly why they voted for Democrats in November.
Brown had been filleted like a catfish on a website on Facebook.com, created by a student at the high school. The student and some friends were less than diplomatic in some of their web postings about how they felt about Brown’s zealous opposition to civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. Brown read the emails aloud, and in detail (he dropped the f-bomb twice), ignoring the protests of teachers monitoring his guest lecture. It will obviously be his last sojourn to His Majesty’s school.
Finneran had Brown on Tuesday to talk about the incident; it’s about 8:13 a.m. and Finneran is throwing every softball question imaginable to Brown. Brown drowns us with his “who me?” tag line from all his other interviews of the past few days, and then Tom announces: “We’re holding the wrong person accountable,” staunchly defending Brown as an exceptional legislator and a martyr for the cause of protecting the American family, and all that sort of fluffernutter.
Finneran is beginning his media career on the wrong foot, to no surprise. The Brown affair — that has a ring to it, doesn’t it? — should be seen from the macro perspective and not the micro. One would think the public sympathy would first lie with those who continue to be victims of prejudice and discrimination, as opposed to those who must endure a less than gracious web posting from time to time — a rather normal fact of life, one would think, for politicians. Especially one who’s being touted by the state GOP as a potential challenger to U.S. Sen. John Kerry in 2008.
So it only took Finneran two days to bring his 1950s view of America to the airwaves. The next few months will simply solidify the indisputable fact that the once great WRKO has degenerated to a station which doesn’t just lean right, but runs right. You’ve got Rush Limbaugh — enough said — and the work day is finished with Howie, whose often joined by Republicans (like Brown) who make comments and slurs regarding gay families which pale in comparison to anything a couple of students at King Philip Regional High School may have written about the senator.
My research is over. Having gathered my fair share of material by about 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, I turn back to WBUR where Bob Oakes proves there’s some decency left on the Boston airwaves. But let me make one thing clear: Finneran didn’t make me turn the dial just because he’s verbally awkward and tongue tied, or because his presence on the air is college level radio at best, or because his finesse is non existent, or because he couldn’t do a good interview if a gun were held to his head, or because the show’s intros by former Channel 38 “great” Dana Hersey are just plain, old silly. No, Finneran makes me turn the dial simply because he’s the same old Finneran — utterly obsessed and angered by what other consenting adults, different than he, do in their bedrooms.
Let me end with a prediction. Some executive at Entercom, the owners of RKO, won’t tolerate the inevitable ratings slide at the station for long. Finneran loses this gig by Christmas and joins the presidential campaign staff of Mitt Romney. A perfect fit.
Susan Ryan Vollmer, editor of the South End News/Bay Windows, edited and contributed to this column.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
A botched response
"Mooninites" don't even like pipe bombs.
by Kevin John Sowyrda
If Ted Turner had any guts - and he has a cargo ship load - he'd personally renege the sham deal with Boston to cough up two million dollars in needless reparations which are intended, in truth, to assuage the embarrassment of political egos and appease constituents who are led by the most vividly incompetent constabulary in the world, second only to the Aruba Police Department, as we all viewed and suffered last week.
The Turner TV Network caved after days of Hellish publicity following the January 31 public safety meltdown in the Hub; when public officials deemed Turner's Cartoon Network advertising gadgets to be a massive terrorist bomb plot. The fourteen devices 'apprehended' by police in Boston depicted something called a "mooninite", who is a character from the cartoon network. Yeah . . . just the symbol the terrorists have been using for years.
So instead of playing kiss-you-love-you with Attorney General Martha Coakley, I think Turner would enhance his cult like status in America - and for once in a positive way - if he jaunted over to the Moakley Federal Court House and turned the tables - filing a federal law suit against Boston for infringement of free speech. It would be nice to have a public, federal trial to find out why Mayor Menino and his Keystone Cops needlessly created a mass hysteria, which is just the mentality the Bush Administration wants us to be exercising these days. And Menino is a Democrat?
The conclusions police officials decided to hastily make last Wednesday were potentially dangerous, and certainly inept and definitely costly. Boston proved that we have the equipment and manpower to respond to emergencies, but that we lack a crucial ingredient to preparedness - the intellectual prowess and the psychological demeanor to discern between a clear and present danger and something purely innocuous.
A pile of blinking signs spread across the Hub to promote another brain numbing cartoon network program was never going to turn Boston into a mushroom cloud. Somebody at Schroeder Plaza has been watching way too many episodes of "24".
Since I'm not Matt Damon I don't break bread with a great many al qaeda members, or even sympathizers thereof, but I dare suggest their incendiary devices of choice are limited to the torsos' of fanatics and very unremarkable containers - which will not likely blink for your attention or give you the finger, as the "mooninites" did. Simply put, there was no 'm.o.' here, indicating a terrorist attack; which is exactly why none of the other cities where the advertising blitz occurred on the same day went to Def con One as we strangely did. If Peter Sellers were still alive he'd resurrect his Dr. Strangelove character and make a movie and a few million out of this.
Of course, Police Commissioner Davis would justify his department's "the sky is falling" mentality by reminding us of the Tufts-New England Medical Center incident. It occurred just as police were panicking about the Turner Broadcasting blinking advertising signs. Two very fake pipe bombs had been discovered at the Longfellow Bridge and in an office at the hospital; allegedly the dirty work of a former hospital employee. Accordingly, the police operated under the false premise that there was a relationship between the fake bombs and the "Mooninites". This argument is sheer sophistry.
First, "Mooninites" don't like pipe bombs. I've asked them. Second, the pipe bombs were very quickly proven to be very "un pipe bombs" and their similarity to the flashing cartoon character is simply nil. Davis lacks a cogent argument that two prank pipe bombs and some blinking boxes spread across the city had any measure of dangerous relationship. The only common denominator is that they posed no real threat. In my opinion Davis was not sufficiently experienced or trained to assess this and needs to quickly recruit some of the real pros at the N.Y.P.D. for his executive staff.
In retrospect, they're calling this the mother of all pranks; guerilla marketing gone a little too wild. And of all the cities where it was implemented on January 31, only Boston's mayor and his Praetorian Guard had a full blown panic attack. What does this say and how should we proceed?
First, Commissioner Davis, if not publicly, should atleast privately consult with the real pros and decide what could have and should have been done differently. Falling prey to very false alerts isn't just costly but dangerous. Second, the mayor was off his game, and that is being overly generous. The only thing more disturbing than his lack of good judgement here was the way he communicated to the national media in the aftermath of the high-octane response. He hardly looked mayoral and he deserved to be the fodder for Jay Leno's monolog, and many others.
Finally, a suggestion to one of the few people at city hall who does not subscribe to the belief that Menino is above the temporal afflictions the rest of us must endure. City Council President Maureen Feeney would be well within her rights to appoint a blue ribbon commission - yes, the council can do this - to find out what medication is best prescribed for a mayor and police department which need to avoid future histrionics. Some say their actions on January 31 were prudent and precautionary. I say it was panic from the top down, and hardly professional.
Kevin John Sowyrda is a political commentator and writer. You can reach him at kevinsow@aol.com and read his daily blog at www.thebostonmemo.blogspot.com
CORRECTION: In my column last week I wrote that City Councilor John Tobin had called for the resignation of Boston School Committee Chairwoman Dr. Elizabeth Reilinger. In point of fact, the councilor had called for Dr. Reilinger to resign from the superintendent search committee only. Reilinger did resign from the search committee this week. I regret the error and stand corrected.
by Kevin John Sowyrda
If Ted Turner had any guts - and he has a cargo ship load - he'd personally renege the sham deal with Boston to cough up two million dollars in needless reparations which are intended, in truth, to assuage the embarrassment of political egos and appease constituents who are led by the most vividly incompetent constabulary in the world, second only to the Aruba Police Department, as we all viewed and suffered last week.
The Turner TV Network caved after days of Hellish publicity following the January 31 public safety meltdown in the Hub; when public officials deemed Turner's Cartoon Network advertising gadgets to be a massive terrorist bomb plot. The fourteen devices 'apprehended' by police in Boston depicted something called a "mooninite", who is a character from the cartoon network. Yeah . . . just the symbol the terrorists have been using for years.
So instead of playing kiss-you-love-you with Attorney General Martha Coakley, I think Turner would enhance his cult like status in America - and for once in a positive way - if he jaunted over to the Moakley Federal Court House and turned the tables - filing a federal law suit against Boston for infringement of free speech. It would be nice to have a public, federal trial to find out why Mayor Menino and his Keystone Cops needlessly created a mass hysteria, which is just the mentality the Bush Administration wants us to be exercising these days. And Menino is a Democrat?
The conclusions police officials decided to hastily make last Wednesday were potentially dangerous, and certainly inept and definitely costly. Boston proved that we have the equipment and manpower to respond to emergencies, but that we lack a crucial ingredient to preparedness - the intellectual prowess and the psychological demeanor to discern between a clear and present danger and something purely innocuous.
A pile of blinking signs spread across the Hub to promote another brain numbing cartoon network program was never going to turn Boston into a mushroom cloud. Somebody at Schroeder Plaza has been watching way too many episodes of "24".
Since I'm not Matt Damon I don't break bread with a great many al qaeda members, or even sympathizers thereof, but I dare suggest their incendiary devices of choice are limited to the torsos' of fanatics and very unremarkable containers - which will not likely blink for your attention or give you the finger, as the "mooninites" did. Simply put, there was no 'm.o.' here, indicating a terrorist attack; which is exactly why none of the other cities where the advertising blitz occurred on the same day went to Def con One as we strangely did. If Peter Sellers were still alive he'd resurrect his Dr. Strangelove character and make a movie and a few million out of this.
Of course, Police Commissioner Davis would justify his department's "the sky is falling" mentality by reminding us of the Tufts-New England Medical Center incident. It occurred just as police were panicking about the Turner Broadcasting blinking advertising signs. Two very fake pipe bombs had been discovered at the Longfellow Bridge and in an office at the hospital; allegedly the dirty work of a former hospital employee. Accordingly, the police operated under the false premise that there was a relationship between the fake bombs and the "Mooninites". This argument is sheer sophistry.
First, "Mooninites" don't like pipe bombs. I've asked them. Second, the pipe bombs were very quickly proven to be very "un pipe bombs" and their similarity to the flashing cartoon character is simply nil. Davis lacks a cogent argument that two prank pipe bombs and some blinking boxes spread across the city had any measure of dangerous relationship. The only common denominator is that they posed no real threat. In my opinion Davis was not sufficiently experienced or trained to assess this and needs to quickly recruit some of the real pros at the N.Y.P.D. for his executive staff.
In retrospect, they're calling this the mother of all pranks; guerilla marketing gone a little too wild. And of all the cities where it was implemented on January 31, only Boston's mayor and his Praetorian Guard had a full blown panic attack. What does this say and how should we proceed?
First, Commissioner Davis, if not publicly, should atleast privately consult with the real pros and decide what could have and should have been done differently. Falling prey to very false alerts isn't just costly but dangerous. Second, the mayor was off his game, and that is being overly generous. The only thing more disturbing than his lack of good judgement here was the way he communicated to the national media in the aftermath of the high-octane response. He hardly looked mayoral and he deserved to be the fodder for Jay Leno's monolog, and many others.
Finally, a suggestion to one of the few people at city hall who does not subscribe to the belief that Menino is above the temporal afflictions the rest of us must endure. City Council President Maureen Feeney would be well within her rights to appoint a blue ribbon commission - yes, the council can do this - to find out what medication is best prescribed for a mayor and police department which need to avoid future histrionics. Some say their actions on January 31 were prudent and precautionary. I say it was panic from the top down, and hardly professional.
Kevin John Sowyrda is a political commentator and writer. You can reach him at kevinsow@aol.com and read his daily blog at www.thebostonmemo.blogspot.com
CORRECTION: In my column last week I wrote that City Councilor John Tobin had called for the resignation of Boston School Committee Chairwoman Dr. Elizabeth Reilinger. In point of fact, the councilor had called for Dr. Reilinger to resign from the superintendent search committee only. Reilinger did resign from the search committee this week. I regret the error and stand corrected.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Boston and Beyond
By Kevin John Sowyrda
Madness has gripped the city. And Mayor Thomas Menino is at the center of it. Manny Rivera, the extra super superintendent of schools of Rochester, N.Y., was hired to replace retired Boston Schools Superintendent Thomas Payzant. Everyone was excited about the hire. Rivera is uber-qualified. But last week, he backed out to take a job in New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration.
Since then, a whispering campaign has blamed Rivera's decision not to come to Boston on School Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Reilinger: Reilinger was making it hard to come to terms with Rivera on a contract. She was trying to make key hires for Rivera. Within seconds of this news breaking, At-Large City Councilor Michael Flaherty was calling for Reilinger's resignation. He was quickly joined by At-Large Councilor Felix Arroyo and District 6 Councilor John Tobin.
Don't buy it. This is nothing more than crude spin, which is so reminiscent of the Kevin White days that I'm having deja vu. Knowing what I know about Menino, his advisors and how they think, this has the fingerprints of Menino politburo chief Ed Jesser all over it. Yes, Menino has publicly defended Reilinger, but that's easy to do when your surrogates (hello Flaherty!) are out there doing your dirty work for you.
Let's step back for a moment and put this in a larger perspective. The Mayor had a terrible year last year. Let's call it his Annus Horribilus — not that Menino is a queen. But I digress.
How did things unravel so quickly for the "urban mechanic" who no longer has the ability to even sew up a contract with a perspective superintendent of schools? (Is Menino or anyone else in his administration familiar with the practice of having a high profile hire sign a memorandum of understanding that he or she will stop looking for other employment until a contract is signed?) I'm not sure. But evidence of the unraveling is everywhere.
Last year, Somerville — Somerville — beat Boston on crime stats. Crime was out of control because Menino thinks he has the competence to run the police department when it should be run by duly sworn professionals. That's why Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole departed for the Emerald Isle and that's why the crime fighting measures promulgated by the administration at City Hall were often comical in nature, if not out right, demented. That gun buy back program was just a smashing success, wasn't it? Those Target gift certificates were the ultimate enticement for the criminal element to surrender their lives to Jesus, weren't they? Please.
Then there's the no small matter of property taxes. Property taxes aren't simply stifling; they're fueling a Diaspora of middle class wage earners to locations outside the city limits. Here's a stat that's so obscene I hesitate to print it in a family newspaper: over the last four years, the average increase in property taxes for single family homes in Boston have increased 50 percent. No, that's not a typo. That information comes courtesy of Sam Tyler of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. Boston is the nation's ultimate municipality of extremes: A misled and mismanaged abode for the very rich, the very poor — and a decreasing element of working-two-jobs people squeezed in the middle, waiting for the real estate market to finally pick up so they can dump their flats for the best price and get out of town.
Other indignities: The grand tradition of Santa's Village was allowed to wither away. Menino said he hoped that to replace the tradition with a new one: Decorating the outside of City Hall with holiday lights instead. The demise of Tower Records — the building on the corner of Newbury Street and Massachusetts Avenue will become luxury condos.
Menino has tried to bounce back. He's apparently staying up late surfing Google to resurrect old ideas, even those he once ridiculed. Case in point would be the proposal to sell that pathetic excuse for a City Hall and relocate the Emperor's Court to better digs at the waterfront. Does this sound familiar? It should, since this ball was first thrown into the court of public consideration in 2004 when Tobin filed a formal order before the city council proposing basically the same idea. When he did so, he was viciously lambasted by Menino's then press secretary, Seth Gitell.
Lambaste it one day, put your signature on it the next, I suppose. You gotta love city politics.
But we're already seeing signs that 2007 is going to be just as difficult for Hizzoner as 2006 was. Say it with me now: City Council President Maureen Feeney. The district councilor is going to rock City Hall like as if it were sitting on the San Andreas Fault.
Feeney has been an anomaly in Boston for many years for the simple fact that she refuses to kiss Menino's toes every time he strolls the aisle. This absence of bad habit distinguishes her from the plethora of political and business sycophants who pollute this metropolis. Though Feeney's council is legally handicapped by a city charter in serious need of rewriting, it's nonetheless an elected body politic which can garner media attention, if, that is, it's run in a gutsy, independent way. Expect just that of Feeney.
The first sign of that is Feeney's refusal to sign on to the Reilinger bashing currently underway at City Hall. "President Feeney has full confidence in Dr. Reilinger's ability as chairwoman of the school committee," spokesman Justin Holmes told me this week.
Let's just hope this latest mess — and this is a mess, Boston needs an extra-super superintendent and I don't know where we're going to find one now — jumpstarts the 2009 mayor's race. Politicians smell blood better than sharks and they know a wounded and miserable political animal when they smell one. Should Menino run for reelection, it really doesn't matter. People are tuning him out. The heir apparents to the throne include Tobin. He can usually think out of the box, projects a refreshing level of blunt honesty and exhibits all the qualities of leadership lacking in the mayor's office today. (Though Tobin joining the chorus for Reilinger's resignation this week was a disappointment, but predictable — since when does the old boy network at City Hall tolerate strong-minded women?)
Add to the contender's list a very well financed At-Large Councilor Michael Flaherty, venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli — who I dare say has one last run left in him. And, with any luck, names we may not even imagine at this moment in time.
Susan Ryan Vollmer, editor of the South End News, contributed to and edited this column. Kevin John Sowyrda is a political writer and analyst. You can reach him at kevinsow@aol.com and check out his daily blog at www.thebostonmemo.blogspot.com
By Kevin John Sowyrda
Madness has gripped the city. And Mayor Thomas Menino is at the center of it. Manny Rivera, the extra super superintendent of schools of Rochester, N.Y., was hired to replace retired Boston Schools Superintendent Thomas Payzant. Everyone was excited about the hire. Rivera is uber-qualified. But last week, he backed out to take a job in New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration.
Since then, a whispering campaign has blamed Rivera's decision not to come to Boston on School Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Reilinger: Reilinger was making it hard to come to terms with Rivera on a contract. She was trying to make key hires for Rivera. Within seconds of this news breaking, At-Large City Councilor Michael Flaherty was calling for Reilinger's resignation. He was quickly joined by At-Large Councilor Felix Arroyo and District 6 Councilor John Tobin.
Don't buy it. This is nothing more than crude spin, which is so reminiscent of the Kevin White days that I'm having deja vu. Knowing what I know about Menino, his advisors and how they think, this has the fingerprints of Menino politburo chief Ed Jesser all over it. Yes, Menino has publicly defended Reilinger, but that's easy to do when your surrogates (hello Flaherty!) are out there doing your dirty work for you.
Let's step back for a moment and put this in a larger perspective. The Mayor had a terrible year last year. Let's call it his Annus Horribilus — not that Menino is a queen. But I digress.
How did things unravel so quickly for the "urban mechanic" who no longer has the ability to even sew up a contract with a perspective superintendent of schools? (Is Menino or anyone else in his administration familiar with the practice of having a high profile hire sign a memorandum of understanding that he or she will stop looking for other employment until a contract is signed?) I'm not sure. But evidence of the unraveling is everywhere.
Last year, Somerville — Somerville — beat Boston on crime stats. Crime was out of control because Menino thinks he has the competence to run the police department when it should be run by duly sworn professionals. That's why Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole departed for the Emerald Isle and that's why the crime fighting measures promulgated by the administration at City Hall were often comical in nature, if not out right, demented. That gun buy back program was just a smashing success, wasn't it? Those Target gift certificates were the ultimate enticement for the criminal element to surrender their lives to Jesus, weren't they? Please.
Then there's the no small matter of property taxes. Property taxes aren't simply stifling; they're fueling a Diaspora of middle class wage earners to locations outside the city limits. Here's a stat that's so obscene I hesitate to print it in a family newspaper: over the last four years, the average increase in property taxes for single family homes in Boston have increased 50 percent. No, that's not a typo. That information comes courtesy of Sam Tyler of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. Boston is the nation's ultimate municipality of extremes: A misled and mismanaged abode for the very rich, the very poor — and a decreasing element of working-two-jobs people squeezed in the middle, waiting for the real estate market to finally pick up so they can dump their flats for the best price and get out of town.
Other indignities: The grand tradition of Santa's Village was allowed to wither away. Menino said he hoped that to replace the tradition with a new one: Decorating the outside of City Hall with holiday lights instead. The demise of Tower Records — the building on the corner of Newbury Street and Massachusetts Avenue will become luxury condos.
Menino has tried to bounce back. He's apparently staying up late surfing Google to resurrect old ideas, even those he once ridiculed. Case in point would be the proposal to sell that pathetic excuse for a City Hall and relocate the Emperor's Court to better digs at the waterfront. Does this sound familiar? It should, since this ball was first thrown into the court of public consideration in 2004 when Tobin filed a formal order before the city council proposing basically the same idea. When he did so, he was viciously lambasted by Menino's then press secretary, Seth Gitell.
Lambaste it one day, put your signature on it the next, I suppose. You gotta love city politics.
But we're already seeing signs that 2007 is going to be just as difficult for Hizzoner as 2006 was. Say it with me now: City Council President Maureen Feeney. The district councilor is going to rock City Hall like as if it were sitting on the San Andreas Fault.
Feeney has been an anomaly in Boston for many years for the simple fact that she refuses to kiss Menino's toes every time he strolls the aisle. This absence of bad habit distinguishes her from the plethora of political and business sycophants who pollute this metropolis. Though Feeney's council is legally handicapped by a city charter in serious need of rewriting, it's nonetheless an elected body politic which can garner media attention, if, that is, it's run in a gutsy, independent way. Expect just that of Feeney.
The first sign of that is Feeney's refusal to sign on to the Reilinger bashing currently underway at City Hall. "President Feeney has full confidence in Dr. Reilinger's ability as chairwoman of the school committee," spokesman Justin Holmes told me this week.
Let's just hope this latest mess — and this is a mess, Boston needs an extra-super superintendent and I don't know where we're going to find one now — jumpstarts the 2009 mayor's race. Politicians smell blood better than sharks and they know a wounded and miserable political animal when they smell one. Should Menino run for reelection, it really doesn't matter. People are tuning him out. The heir apparents to the throne include Tobin. He can usually think out of the box, projects a refreshing level of blunt honesty and exhibits all the qualities of leadership lacking in the mayor's office today. (Though Tobin joining the chorus for Reilinger's resignation this week was a disappointment, but predictable — since when does the old boy network at City Hall tolerate strong-minded women?)
Add to the contender's list a very well financed At-Large Councilor Michael Flaherty, venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli — who I dare say has one last run left in him. And, with any luck, names we may not even imagine at this moment in time.
Susan Ryan Vollmer, editor of the South End News, contributed to and edited this column. Kevin John Sowyrda is a political writer and analyst. You can reach him at kevinsow@aol.com and check out his daily blog at www.thebostonmemo.blogspot.com
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Kelly was hard not to love
by Kevin John Sowyrda
Jimmy Kelly and I were living proof that sometimes you have to make an enemy to make a friend. Having roasted him like a baked potato in an admittedly scathing column I wrote on the colorful councilor back in the mid nineties or so, I didn't anticipate that at a later date we'd be breaking bread together at a posh Boston luncheon club; or that we'd cultivate a mutual admiration and a genuine friendship which I think we both valued greatly.
I'll admit Kelly won me over, as they might say in journalism. But he didn't do it the old, Boston way. Kelly was not the phony political gadfly who used fakery and thinly veiled charm to assuage his political opponents, as I once was. He hailed from the Joe Moakley school of politics where you had political opponents, not enemies. Like his mentor Moakley, Kelly could brawl with you on the front burner issues of the day and then grab dinner with you in a flash, sincerely inquiring about your family and how things were going in your life. That's what appealed to me about Jimmy Kelly the most, and it's why I wish he had lived for many more years.
Jimmy Kelley was hardly the embodiment of social enlightenment of our times. He was the scrapper from Southie - not a student of the Old School, but its stubborn and determined headmaster. He was convinced that the "good old days" were best kept in perpetuity.
But Jimmy Kelley, despite his workaholic ethic and his phenomenal passion, was fighting a torrent even more powerful that his indomitable spirit and his unquestionable love for the City of Boston. Jimmy Kelley was swimming against the tide of change, a supremely powerful force even more compelling than the veteran councilor's iron ideology. America is more socially progressive that the world Kelly knew and cherished in the 1970's, when he first achieved political stature in the Hub. As much as he may have wanted the clock to stop, or atleast slow down, it was not so inclined.
And now let's be blunt. I'm sure there's a temptation for more than just a phalanx of Bay Windows readers to privately view Kelly's death, though tragic, as a political blessing for a community which was diametrically opposed to the councilor on issues of pivotal importance. My retort is that if Jimmy Kelly was a homophobe, I pray on bended knees that the remaining homophobes in our little, American kingdom emulate Kelly's love for people. To put it quite simply, if the man truly was a bigot he was probably the only bigot in the world who never hated anyone, even though bigotry and hatred are usually a purely package deal. I can't help but thinking that he was Archie Bunker brought to life; uttering things that may have made us cringe from time to time but also exuding a humanity and a nature of simplicity which made him much more likeable than fearful.
In the South End Jimmy Kelly may have had enemies, but data from past elections prove he also had a fair crop of friends. When the Boston Globe rather shamelessly promoted Kelly's most recent election opponent as the inevitable dragon slayer, Kelly responded by doing what he does best - ignoring the Globe and campaigning full speed ahead. He was handily reelected, leaving the Globe with plenty of egg on its face. And many of Kelly's votes came from the South End; where there's apparently some tolerance for Southie Conservatives, atleast when they're hard working and real.
As for hard work, Kelly's diligence as a tireless ombudsman during the South End floods was prolific evidence that he embraced our neighborhood as much as his own. He may have rejected large components of the Gay Community's legislative aspirations, but it would be disingenuous to assert the he rejected the Gay neighborhood itself.
Is this ironic? Of course it is. That's because Jimmy Kelly was ironic. His ironies were as endless as they are intriguing to consider in retrospect. He didn't want us to march in his parade, but he'd march here at full speed to help us. He was hardly the city's champion for Gay marriage, but he will be mourned by more than just a few Gay men and women. He was the most conservative leader in city government, but its commonly known that many of his closer friends were Gay men and women whose company he cherished.
History may well remember Kelly as the unabashed conservative's conservative, who upon closer inspection was hard not to love - even by those who don't usually embrace conservatives.
Kevin John Sowyrda is a political commentator and writer. You can read his daily blog at www.thebostonmemo.blogspot.com
Jimmy Kelly and I were living proof that sometimes you have to make an enemy to make a friend. Having roasted him like a baked potato in an admittedly scathing column I wrote on the colorful councilor back in the mid nineties or so, I didn't anticipate that at a later date we'd be breaking bread together at a posh Boston luncheon club; or that we'd cultivate a mutual admiration and a genuine friendship which I think we both valued greatly.
I'll admit Kelly won me over, as they might say in journalism. But he didn't do it the old, Boston way. Kelly was not the phony political gadfly who used fakery and thinly veiled charm to assuage his political opponents, as I once was. He hailed from the Joe Moakley school of politics where you had political opponents, not enemies. Like his mentor Moakley, Kelly could brawl with you on the front burner issues of the day and then grab dinner with you in a flash, sincerely inquiring about your family and how things were going in your life. That's what appealed to me about Jimmy Kelly the most, and it's why I wish he had lived for many more years.
Jimmy Kelley was hardly the embodiment of social enlightenment of our times. He was the scrapper from Southie - not a student of the Old School, but its stubborn and determined headmaster. He was convinced that the "good old days" were best kept in perpetuity.
But Jimmy Kelley, despite his workaholic ethic and his phenomenal passion, was fighting a torrent even more powerful that his indomitable spirit and his unquestionable love for the City of Boston. Jimmy Kelley was swimming against the tide of change, a supremely powerful force even more compelling than the veteran councilor's iron ideology. America is more socially progressive that the world Kelly knew and cherished in the 1970's, when he first achieved political stature in the Hub. As much as he may have wanted the clock to stop, or atleast slow down, it was not so inclined.
And now let's be blunt. I'm sure there's a temptation for more than just a phalanx of Bay Windows readers to privately view Kelly's death, though tragic, as a political blessing for a community which was diametrically opposed to the councilor on issues of pivotal importance. My retort is that if Jimmy Kelly was a homophobe, I pray on bended knees that the remaining homophobes in our little, American kingdom emulate Kelly's love for people. To put it quite simply, if the man truly was a bigot he was probably the only bigot in the world who never hated anyone, even though bigotry and hatred are usually a purely package deal. I can't help but thinking that he was Archie Bunker brought to life; uttering things that may have made us cringe from time to time but also exuding a humanity and a nature of simplicity which made him much more likeable than fearful.
In the South End Jimmy Kelly may have had enemies, but data from past elections prove he also had a fair crop of friends. When the Boston Globe rather shamelessly promoted Kelly's most recent election opponent as the inevitable dragon slayer, Kelly responded by doing what he does best - ignoring the Globe and campaigning full speed ahead. He was handily reelected, leaving the Globe with plenty of egg on its face. And many of Kelly's votes came from the South End; where there's apparently some tolerance for Southie Conservatives, atleast when they're hard working and real.
As for hard work, Kelly's diligence as a tireless ombudsman during the South End floods was prolific evidence that he embraced our neighborhood as much as his own. He may have rejected large components of the Gay Community's legislative aspirations, but it would be disingenuous to assert the he rejected the Gay neighborhood itself.
Is this ironic? Of course it is. That's because Jimmy Kelly was ironic. His ironies were as endless as they are intriguing to consider in retrospect. He didn't want us to march in his parade, but he'd march here at full speed to help us. He was hardly the city's champion for Gay marriage, but he will be mourned by more than just a few Gay men and women. He was the most conservative leader in city government, but its commonly known that many of his closer friends were Gay men and women whose company he cherished.
History may well remember Kelly as the unabashed conservative's conservative, who upon closer inspection was hard not to love - even by those who don't usually embrace conservatives.
Kevin John Sowyrda is a political commentator and writer. You can read his daily blog at www.thebostonmemo.blogspot.com
Monday, December 25, 2006
Issue Date: 12/21/2006, Posted On: 12/18/2006
Political intelligence
Kevin John Sowyrda
The hoof prints are still on the faces of anxious New Hampshire residents who flocked to touch and gawk at the very junior U.S. Senator Barak Obama, who visited the first-in-the-nation primary state Dec. 10. People were trampling each other to get a glimpse, to nail down a photo or actually touch the personage himself. You'd have thought Elvis was back in the building.
Obama hails from the Land of Lincoln and his strategy, thus far, is hardly as noble as his state's namesake. His playbook seems to have three themes: to not be Hillary Clinton, to not be Hillary Clinton and, last, to not be Hillary Clinton.
So what's behind this simplistic strategy of not being that other senator — from New York? And what's behind the suit, the pretty face, the distinctive, baritone voice and the half-way decent communication skills? Glad you asked. Behind it all is very young and overanxious progressive-on-not-all-issues who lacks the integrity and conviction and intestinal fortitude to take a brave stand on whether same-sex couples should get the civil right to marry. Obama is publicly opposed to such rights and first said so when he successfully ran for the Illinois state senate in 1996 (the year that the federal Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress and signed by then-President Clinton). Let me drive this point home. Before you donate your hard earn green backs to the draft Obama web page, consider the fact that the man who preaches freedom and justice for all believes in a proviso that you and I get the entire package of 'rights-Americana,' except that chunk of the package called marriage. This tells me one thing about Obama: Like most other politicians, he makes his policy decisions with the help of a wet finger to the wind. Those afflicted with Obama-mania, which is the belief that Obama is a new kind of politician, one who speaks truth to power while honoring and respecting all sides of a debate (not to mention, um, the fact that desperate Democratic politicos believe that Obama can connect with evangelicals), fail to realize that he’s no different than every other pol. He listens to political consultants. "Your abortion views are going to cost you enough problems in the South and the Rust Belt," I can imagine them chirping in his ear. "But if you champion causes like the Marshall Ruling in Massachusetts, legalizing gay marriage, it will drive too many moderates away for you to have a chance in a general election."
Had I just five minutes of face time with Obama, I’d advise him against making decisions based on conventional polling data. Many people appear to be strongly opposed to gay marriage until you follow the question with two others — how important do you rank this issue and do you want your gay friends and family members to experience prejudice? Second, I'd ask Obama to do what he says he wants to do — lead! Leadership is about saying the things other people are afraid to say. Leadership is about putting it all on the table. A real leader would put this issue in the context in which it belongs and pose the question this way: With one of out two marriages ending in divorce, does anyone seriously believe that letting same-sex couples marry will make things worse?
But none of this will happen. Obama's pre-campaign is about the proverbial dog and pony show. Look great. Say very little. And ride the wave of adulatory mainstream coverage by boomer political reporters who are dying to prove that they’re color-blind by, well, injecting color into the 2008 presidential race. A prime example of this, by the way, can be found in the current issue of Newsweek.
The cover story of the Dec. 25 issue, titled “Is America Ready for Hillary or Obama?” deals with the issues of gender and race in American presidential politics. But writer Jonathan Alter inexplicably failed to include the results of a Newsweek poll, which I found via PR Newswire, showing Clinton kicking Obama’s ass 50 percent to 32 percent. But that’s not all. The survey of 1000 adults, age 18 and over, on Dec. 6 and 7 showed that in a match up of Clinton versus Sen. John McCain, those polled prefer Clinton 50 percent to McCain’s 43 percent. The same goes for Clinton versus former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (48 to 47). She stomps our own Mitt Romney 58 percent to 32 percent.
Obama doesn’t fare nearly as well. Those polled prefer McCain over Obama 45 percent to 43 percent and Giuliani over Obama 47 percent to 44 percent. The only candidate Obama can beat in this poll is, you guessed it, Romney: 55 percent to 25 percent.
You’d think Alter would have found this relevant to his story. But think again.
Unlike Obama, Clinton says that marriage should be a state’s rights issue. She recently softened her opposition to civil marriage rights for same-sex couples by saying that she would support a gay marriage bill in New York, should the state legislature pass one. That distinguishes her, by the way, from the third big foot in the Democratic presidential follies coming soon to New Hampshire hamlets — our way our own Sen. John Kerry, who believes that the Massachusetts constitution should be amended to prevent same-sex couples from marrying.
So for Democrats in 08 the choice is clear: Clinton over Obama (and Kerry). But if Giuliani should win the GOP nomination, all bets are off. He supports the rights of same-sex couples to marry. And when his marriage finally disintegrated, where did he go? He moved in with his gay friends, of course. A loving couple, by the way, who are currently prohibited from marrying.
So if by some phenomenal act of fate Giuliani is the GOP nominee come November 08, gay voters and their friends will have a big reason to vote Republican.
Stay tuned.
My editor, Susan Ryan Vollmer of the South End News/Baywindows, contributed to this article.
Political intelligence
Kevin John Sowyrda
The hoof prints are still on the faces of anxious New Hampshire residents who flocked to touch and gawk at the very junior U.S. Senator Barak Obama, who visited the first-in-the-nation primary state Dec. 10. People were trampling each other to get a glimpse, to nail down a photo or actually touch the personage himself. You'd have thought Elvis was back in the building.
Obama hails from the Land of Lincoln and his strategy, thus far, is hardly as noble as his state's namesake. His playbook seems to have three themes: to not be Hillary Clinton, to not be Hillary Clinton and, last, to not be Hillary Clinton.
So what's behind this simplistic strategy of not being that other senator — from New York? And what's behind the suit, the pretty face, the distinctive, baritone voice and the half-way decent communication skills? Glad you asked. Behind it all is very young and overanxious progressive-on-not-all-issues who lacks the integrity and conviction and intestinal fortitude to take a brave stand on whether same-sex couples should get the civil right to marry. Obama is publicly opposed to such rights and first said so when he successfully ran for the Illinois state senate in 1996 (the year that the federal Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress and signed by then-President Clinton). Let me drive this point home. Before you donate your hard earn green backs to the draft Obama web page, consider the fact that the man who preaches freedom and justice for all believes in a proviso that you and I get the entire package of 'rights-Americana,' except that chunk of the package called marriage. This tells me one thing about Obama: Like most other politicians, he makes his policy decisions with the help of a wet finger to the wind. Those afflicted with Obama-mania, which is the belief that Obama is a new kind of politician, one who speaks truth to power while honoring and respecting all sides of a debate (not to mention, um, the fact that desperate Democratic politicos believe that Obama can connect with evangelicals), fail to realize that he’s no different than every other pol. He listens to political consultants. "Your abortion views are going to cost you enough problems in the South and the Rust Belt," I can imagine them chirping in his ear. "But if you champion causes like the Marshall Ruling in Massachusetts, legalizing gay marriage, it will drive too many moderates away for you to have a chance in a general election."
Had I just five minutes of face time with Obama, I’d advise him against making decisions based on conventional polling data. Many people appear to be strongly opposed to gay marriage until you follow the question with two others — how important do you rank this issue and do you want your gay friends and family members to experience prejudice? Second, I'd ask Obama to do what he says he wants to do — lead! Leadership is about saying the things other people are afraid to say. Leadership is about putting it all on the table. A real leader would put this issue in the context in which it belongs and pose the question this way: With one of out two marriages ending in divorce, does anyone seriously believe that letting same-sex couples marry will make things worse?
But none of this will happen. Obama's pre-campaign is about the proverbial dog and pony show. Look great. Say very little. And ride the wave of adulatory mainstream coverage by boomer political reporters who are dying to prove that they’re color-blind by, well, injecting color into the 2008 presidential race. A prime example of this, by the way, can be found in the current issue of Newsweek.
The cover story of the Dec. 25 issue, titled “Is America Ready for Hillary or Obama?” deals with the issues of gender and race in American presidential politics. But writer Jonathan Alter inexplicably failed to include the results of a Newsweek poll, which I found via PR Newswire, showing Clinton kicking Obama’s ass 50 percent to 32 percent. But that’s not all. The survey of 1000 adults, age 18 and over, on Dec. 6 and 7 showed that in a match up of Clinton versus Sen. John McCain, those polled prefer Clinton 50 percent to McCain’s 43 percent. The same goes for Clinton versus former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (48 to 47). She stomps our own Mitt Romney 58 percent to 32 percent.
Obama doesn’t fare nearly as well. Those polled prefer McCain over Obama 45 percent to 43 percent and Giuliani over Obama 47 percent to 44 percent. The only candidate Obama can beat in this poll is, you guessed it, Romney: 55 percent to 25 percent.
You’d think Alter would have found this relevant to his story. But think again.
Unlike Obama, Clinton says that marriage should be a state’s rights issue. She recently softened her opposition to civil marriage rights for same-sex couples by saying that she would support a gay marriage bill in New York, should the state legislature pass one. That distinguishes her, by the way, from the third big foot in the Democratic presidential follies coming soon to New Hampshire hamlets — our way our own Sen. John Kerry, who believes that the Massachusetts constitution should be amended to prevent same-sex couples from marrying.
So for Democrats in 08 the choice is clear: Clinton over Obama (and Kerry). But if Giuliani should win the GOP nomination, all bets are off. He supports the rights of same-sex couples to marry. And when his marriage finally disintegrated, where did he go? He moved in with his gay friends, of course. A loving couple, by the way, who are currently prohibited from marrying.
So if by some phenomenal act of fate Giuliani is the GOP nominee come November 08, gay voters and their friends will have a big reason to vote Republican.
Stay tuned.
My editor, Susan Ryan Vollmer of the South End News/Baywindows, contributed to this article.
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