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Air Deval’s take on using (or abusing) job perks? Just do it
By Howie Carr
Boston Herald Columnist

Gov. Deval Patrick is accustomed to getting a free ride, and so he was shocked yesterday when someone asked him about his latest free rides, in a state police helicopter that once was used for public safety.

“My policy,” Air Deval sniffed, “is to use all the resources at my disposal to be governor of the whole state.”

Translation: “The job don’t mean a thing if you can’t wear the bling.”

Then he said, “Next question,” which should have been this:

“But . . . but . . . what about the carbon footprint, governor?”

Deval, obviously, was taken aback by this lese majeste by a reporter. He’s not used to being questioned, about anything. He’s the king, and he was surrounded by his vassals, the Local Government Advisory Commission - municipal mendicants with their hands out for more local aid.

“I don’t care,” one shrew shrieked, “how often he uses the helicopter.”

How about you? Could you use a free ride this snowy day? Just cruise to the grocery store high above all those peons slipping and sliding around down on the snowy roads. It doesn’t get any better than this. Together we can!

Yeah, you can get used to riding around in a chopper real quick. Just ask Jane Swift. Of course, she paid a steep political price for her Thanksgiving flight back to her double-wide in Berkshire County on the state police helicopter. Why do you think Mitt Romney took it out only once in four years?

But that was then and this is now, and now there’s a new governor, and he’s apparently allowed to use the state police chopper whenever he damn well pleases and nobody can say anything.

But of course there is a very big difference between Jane Swift and Air Deval Patrick. She had an “R” next to her name, and he has a “D.” That makes him one of the Beautiful People.

It’s getting clearer by the day that Air Deval likes the perks of his job very much. His state police entourage is growing to Romney-esque proportions.

Now we know why Deval doesn’t plan to do anything about police details. Better to stick to the really important stuff, like refusing to sign a Ronald Reagan proclamation, and trying to gut the CORI law for the benefit of Benjamin LaGuer and all the Benjamin LaGuers to come.

Unlike the helicopter, his proposal to destroy the CORI law may not fly. But it’s not like Deval isn’t doing anything. Air Deval has also appointed a new insurance commissioner, a judge named Nonnie S. Burns.

Name doesn’t ring a bell? Well, if you were in the Wellesley College Class of 1964, you might remember her as Hilda Margaret Steer, the name by which she was formerly known, as she put it in her Governors Council questionnaire 10 years ago.

I wrote a column about her and several other hacks being appointed to the bench by Gov. Bill Weld, and how they were in reality nothing but liberal lawyers who had tested positive for robe fever.

You’ll notice how The Judge Formerly Known as Hilda (or TJFKAH, for short) was described as a Weld appointee, so we’re supposed to think she’s not someone who gave money to such well-known pro-business statesmen as Carol Moseley-Braun, Barney Frank, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and Rosaria Salerno.

Then TJFKAH decided she wanted to retire to a judgeship, and guess what? She suddenly started ponying up to Bill Weld’s Senate campaign. And now she’s going to be Deval’s insurance commissioner, and what a coincidence that she’s making a career move right after her judicial pension vested.

I wonder if Deval will give TJFKAH a ride on his helicopter.

Together we can pay for Air Deval to follow in the footsteps of Jane Swift. The only difference is, for Deval it’s a free ride.