Silence in House speaks volumes
Saturday, March 23, 2013
by Howie Carr
Call him Rep. Weiner, this unnamed solon whose name you already know, and if you dont, you can find it easily enough in the Daily Mail of London.
His extinguished colleagues in the Mass. General Court have lowered the Cone of Silence over Rep. Weiners latest alleged unspeakable actions. If the Boston Mafia had observed its own code of omerta this rigorously, theyd still be running organized crime around here.
Its all about Rule 16, which seems to boil down to this: Dummy up, lest somebody someday drop a dime on you when you get a bad ice cube, or feel an insatiable urge to stuff some FBI cash in your bra, or steal enough absentee ballots to vote every illegal alien in your slum apartment house.
Loose lips sink ships, and maybe you, if the guy you rat out decides to trade you up to the feds.
So you can understand how deeply concerned both the House speaker and the chairman of the House Ethics Committee are about the integrity of the process, especially the speaker, considering the last three speakers are convicted felons.
The Ethics chairman is Rep. Marty Walsh, the real Marty Walsh, not the alias that then-Sen. Jim Marzilli gave the cops when he was arrested for flashing old ladies in Lowell.
Marty, who is also an official of a union, said all proceedings are confidential, and that he would have no comment, including to confirm or deny, on any Anthony Weiner-like hijinks that may or may not have been referred to his very ethical Ethics Committee.
Rep. Weiner is the third rep to run into trouble this year, if you include the solon emeritus in Lawrence who violated a restraining order. Hes the fourth if you throw in the judges son who was worked over by a lobbyist in Dartmouth. Ironically, Rep. Weiners eccentricity, shall we say, surfaced on the radar screen a day after a Herald reporter was ejected from a House ethics training session.
It seemed like such an innocuous gathering. A few people reciting the State Houses 10 Commandments: I am the Speaker, thou shalt have no gods before me; thou shalt not get caught stealing; thou shalt not covet thy chairmans bagman. But no, we werent allowed in. Because the House is such an august body. They call the U.S. Senate the worlds most exclusive club. The Mass. House may be the worlds least exclusive club.
Say what you will about the Boston City Council, when Chuck Turner went down for the count, they ejected him from City Hall. OK, so it cost them $100,000 because they didnt wait until Chuck was sentenced. At least for once they tried to do the right thing.
Future clearer than a Menino quote
by Howie Carr
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Run, Mumbles, run.
Not that Hizzoner needs any encouragement from me or anyone else. All signs indicate that hes made up his mind to seek a sixth, or seventh, or whatever term.
(Click on the Herald page here for some of Mayor Thomas Menino's greatest audio hits.)
Exhibit A: Hes finally moving out of the Parkman House. If he were planning to lame-duck it, why return to North Dedham, er Readville? He must go back to being a man of the people, not Liveshot Kerrys high-hat neighbor in Ward 5.
Exhibit B: Hes running the little fundraisers again, the $25-a-head times with city employees. How much simpler it is to raise $500 a pop from everyone in the extended families of the bar owners, the developers and the city contractors you know, the ones who didnt plow the streets this winter.
The mayor has already got more than enough dough on hand to crush Whats-his-name, but he needs these small contributions to show that hes not a tool of the big-money interests, although of course he is, not that any mayor is ever anything but.
These are hopeful signs to all of us who understand how much the mayor means to the city, and we have the sound cuts to prove it. The golden age of Boston pro sports is ending no more jumbletrons or potta-potties lining victory parade routes for the Red Sock.
But Mumbles still roots for the citys ionic teams. Sure, Wes Wexler may be gone, but theres that tight end, Grabowski. I mean, Gonk. Hes as valuable to the Pats as KJ and Hondo are to the Celts. And by the way, wasnt it terrible what that guy said Friday about the wife of Vince Wilcott, er, Wilfork.
Hizzoner is 70 now, but just cause you got a few gray hairs doesnt mean youre over the hell.
As ever, he looks to the future, to a city mooing forward. Some problems remain, rats for instance, but the mayor is working on ways to radicate the problem.
In the meantime, Young people are fudding, not fleeing the city.
Ya hear that, Councilor Connolly. Just like in the days when Martha Luther King Jr. moved here to go to BU, theyre still fudding the city. Because the Menino administration is trying to bridge the grap.
No gender gap for Hizzoner We must unlock the potential of all our woman.
Mumbles knows what is expected of him he must develop stregic plans to bing business to the city. And he is. Just look at New Balance ca-spanding in Brighton.
All these months on the disabled list have given the mayor time to ruminate. Sometimes we forget what a philosopher he is.
We know this country didnt become great by excludin folks and leavin each other on their om.
Om om om Actually, leaving people on their om hasnt worked out that badly for some, but Buddhists remain a very small percentage of the Boston electorate.
Will we move forward together or will we go back to the tricks, trickle-down philosophy that Mitt Romney believes in?
A resounding no to that tricky trickle-down trick thing. So what, Mayor, is job one?
Our first tasker task is improvin public education in our city.
Stop me if youve heard this before. And knock on wood youll be hearing it for four more years.