Hard to miss Duke when his cons won't go away

The Boston Herald ^ | 3/25/05 | Howie Carr

[raccoonradio]

Mike Dukakis hasn't been governor since 1990, and he's still molly-coddling criminals in Massachusetts.

Just ask double-murderer Norman Porter, Chicago's ``beloved anti-war poet,'' who's finally - finally - back in Massachusetts.

The Duke commuted one of his life sentences, tried unsuccessfully to commute the other, and then finally let him walk away from a prison so ridiculously lax in 1985 that the warden - excuse me, superintendent - ate dinner every Friday night in the special cell bloc for organized-crime thugs.

And the Democrats wonder why they still can't elect a governor. Everybody is afraid we'll end up with another M. Stanley Dukakis.

A call was placed to UCLA yesterday, where Pee Wee Dukakis is ``teaching.'' It brought back so many memories to hear his voice on the answering machine - remember ``good jobs at good wages'' and ``nationwide searches''? He wasn't in, so I left a detailed message, asking him to call back so we could discuss some of his most memorable commutations and weekend furloughs:

Willie Horton, the most famous of them all, a murderer given the weekend off so he could journey to Maryland to terrorize a young couple and rape the wife. During the 1988 presidential campaign, a reporter reached Willie at his Maryland prison and asked him who he intended to cast his Massachusetts absentee ballot for.

``Why, Dukakis of course,'' Willie said.

Vincent Federico, another killer, given a furlough from MCI-Shirley in 1989 to conduct what he called ``family business.'' He was being inducted into the Patriarca crime family. After the ceremony (taped by the FBI), he was offered some nice food but demurred because, he said, he would be having lobster and shrimp that evening back at the prison.

``You call dat doin' time?'' said one of the old goombahs.

Jimmy ``The Bear'' Flemmi, Stevie's older brother, a killer and junkie. The Duke wanted him to enjoy a weekend on the town. The Bear went to his girlfriend's house and, finding her gone, strangled her cat. He was captured three years later in Baltimore after sexually assaulting a young woman.

I mentioned all of these nice young gents to the Duke and asked him to get back to me. As usual, when the phone didn't ring. . . .

But really, until you see some arrogant left-wing murdering puke like Porter, you forget just how wretched Dukakis was. When Billy Bulger said jump, he said, ``How high?'' He was even more frightened of his wife, Kitty.

The guy had to be the absolute worst judge of character ever. He appointed two sheriffs who went to prison. One of his college presidents ended up in the jug. Another was run off after he began coming on to (male) college students.

Then there was the welfare system. When Dukakis was running the state into the ground, someone came up with the bright idea of giving fake Social Security numbers to illegal aliens - so they could go on welfare faster.

Thanks, Duke! Remember the Medicaid-funded sex-change operations?

During the presidential campaign last year, people sometimes speculated as to who might have been the more disastrous president, Dukakis or his old lieutenant governor, Liveshot Kerry. I always said Kerry, but as I watch Norman Porter on TV and the Pee Wee era all comes back to me, I begin to have my doubts.

As for Norman Porter, I'm sure he's shopping for a judge to release him on personal recognizance. Too bad Maria Lopez is no longer around. Now there was a good judge. Can you guess who first put her on the bench?

[raccoonradio]

I'm, er, Mike Dukakis, good jobs at good wages, nationwide search, took a state that was a basketcase and made it into a showcase, Massachusetts Miracle...and I'm ...reporting for duty!

[Semper Paratus]

In 1985 when I was an editor for a local business magazine my publisher was able to get me an hour interview with Governor Dukakis in his office. When I left I had no doubts that he was trying out his "Massachusetts Miracle" pitch on me for the future Presidential run.

[raccoonradio]

Howie was telling some of the good old Dukakis stories yesterday, including this one: Two labor leaders came to Dukakis' house to meet with him. He needed them to deliver votes for him. "Can I get you guys a beer?," asked Pee Wee.
They said, sure.

Big Spender Dukakis comes back later with a 12 oz. can...

And two glasses.

[rockabyebaby]

OMG I had forgotten medicaid funded sex operations, man what loser Dukaka was and yes who can forget good ole maria the screamer!

[massgopguy]

Good God, I was at a lobster bake at his house with my ex-wife who ran the governor's correspondence office. He was the wettest noodle I ever met. I knew right there that there was no way that this eunuch accordian player was man enough to be the president of my country. However I did enjoy the open bar in the governor's council chamber at the Christmas party.

[dighton]

Murderer's arrest ends fugitive life as Chicago poet

In 1975, Governor Michael S. Dukakis commuted Porter's first life sentence, and he began serving his second sentence. Dukakis tried twice in 1978 to commute that sentence, as well, but was unsuccessful.

On Dec. 21, 1985, Porter walked out of a minimum-security facility, the Norfolk Prerelease Center, and didn't come back.

[Enchante]

I was living in Mass. in the '80s when I was invited to a private meeting of Dukakis with a few dozen potential supporters before Dukakis announced his bid for the presidency (I traveled in very liberal circles in those days). Dukakis and others of his ilk helped turn me in a more conservative direction, as it was knowing, watching, and listening to him in 87-88 that began to convince me that most liberals are too clueless to be entrusted with major national responsibilities. He's a nice guy, but naive and clueless. One of the only things Algore ever had right was when he raised the soft-on-crime issue via Willie Horton in the 1988 primaries. People think that ol' Willie was some Republican dirty trick, but the original attack came from the Algore campaign.... and it was perfectly well justified, as Mass. under Dukakis/Kerry and friends had indeed become the bastion of naive liberal idiocies.