Posted on 07/28/2006 12:31:13 AM PDT by raccoonradio
online exclusive
Fat Matt Amorello was a complete boob to the bitter end.
Two weeks ago today, he had a deal on the table that would have paid him through the end of the 2007 fiscal year - $223,000.
Here it is, exactly 14 days later. The bloated fool spent upwards of $1 million on white-shoed lawyers, and he ends up with a deal by which he leaves the payroll on Feb. 15, 4 1/2 months earlier than under the first deal.
So Fat Matt is out $85,000 - and it cost him a million bucks to lose the money, and his job.
Of course, that million was just our money. What did Fat Matt care? Its only the tollpayers dough.
If there were any justice in the world, a way would be found to put a lien on his little house in Wenham to get back at least a portion of the public money that he has squandered on his shameless mouthpieces here in the final days.
Two weeks ago, the legislative leadership thought theyd worked out a deal for their old colleague to walk the plank, with dignity. He hadnt returned their phone calls all day, not very nice of Matt, considering that for years they had been his sole base of support. But finally, wilting under the public pressure to do something about the unfolding disaster, they got Fat Matt on the speaker phone and dictated the terms of his surrender.
But it was a golden parachute, allowing him to retain a seat on the Turnpike board and that $223,000 salary. Just before 5 oclock he went outside to do a live news conference. Back at the State House, both branches were getting ready to turn over the tunnels investigation to Gov. Mitt Romney.
Several of the solons whod thought they reached a deal with Fat Matt to quit were watching, waiting for him to announce that he was stepping aside. But he said nothing in his opening remarks about resigning. The hacks began to fidget. Finally a reporter asked Fat Matt directly, Are you quitting?
No, he said, softly, so softly that the question was asked again. Was he out?
No, he said, and back at the State House, one of the solons began yelling at the TV screen.
Are you out of your bleepin mind? he screamed at Fat Matt.
The answer, as we have all seen, was yes. A sane person would have thrown in the towel that first day. Six years ago, when Gov. Argeo Paul Cellucci told Jim Kerasiotes the jig was up, Kerasiotes opened his desk and took out a 30-page legal opinion informing him that the governor had no such power. Kerasiotes leafed through it, then considered the road that lay ahead, and decided to call it quits.
For Mitt Romney, this is one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for situations. Now he owns the Big Dig tunnels, all of them. What did Colin Powell tell George Bush before the invasion of Iraq:
You break it, you bought it.
Two events bookend Mitts single term as governor. In 2003, at the beginning, he got rid of former Senate president Bill Bulger. It cost the state $960,000 in severance. In 2006, at the end, he whacks former Senate lackey Matt Amorello. This one costs about $150,000 in severance.
A few days ago, a guy who works at what he calls MasSpike called and joked that they were nailing the windows shut at 10 Park Plaza, to prevent any of Fat Matts Worcester crew from jumping out if the court decisions started going against him, the way they in fact did.
Fat Matts got two weeks left. Ditto, we can assume, for all the Fat Matt Gang. Ice Cream Boy and Norman Chalupka and the worthless flack Mariellen Burns and the injured Scripture-quoting general counsel Mike Powers. All of them are about to lose their phoney-baloney hack jobs.
But its every man for himself, and Fat Matts got to think of himself. He fought the law and the law won, and now hes out 85 large. And if in fact his lovely bride Charlotte made him hang on to the bitter end, with TV cameras recording him waddling down the driveway to his SUV this morning, then Charlottes got some splainin to do.
Maybe she can get her old hack job at Massport back.
Ha! Great post!
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