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Howie’s Friday column. Column ping.

Finneran joins ex-pol pals aboard lobbying gravy train
By Howie Carr | Friday, February 1, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com

Convicted felon Tom Finneran wants to be a lobbyist for the same reason Willie Sutton wanted to rob banks.

Because that’s where the money is.

How can anyone be surprised that the Advil-addled, ethically challenged former House speaker would decide to take a shot at influence-peddling?

He’s lost his law license, he’s lost his state pension, he should be doing a five-year bit at Club Fed, and on the radio he’s not exactly the second coming of Howard Stern, or even Peter Meade.

Hey, Tommy Taxes: don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

The fact that this criminal hack would be hired by the state police union makes the story more amusing, but hardly unexpected. Which is why when he got the radio gig last year and came on my show just after copping a plea, I put him on the spot.

I asked him if he would vow not to do any lobbying as long as he was on the radio. He brushed away the Bible that I had brought into the studio for the occasion and refused to take the no-influence-peddling pledge.

Give The Felon credit. For once in his squalid life, he didn’t lie.

One poster on a radio message board now imagines the Felon’s next monologue on his new clients, the Mass. State Police:

“They are vastly underpaid and grossly overworked. Those ‘paid details’ are what make Massachusetts great! Our troopers deserve your love, admiration and doughnuts.”

But you ask, how can a convicted felon like Finneran be a lobbyist?

Four words: Good Time Charlie Flaherty. He was the House Speaker before the Felon, and he too was convicted of a federal crime: felony tax fraud. According to statements on file with the Secretary of State, in 2007 this prior speaker/convicted felon made $420,500 as a lobbyist.

The bad news for the Felon is, he’ll have to have his mugshot taken when he registers with the Secretary of State. The good news is, it won’t be the first time.

The Felon made his bones during the old political street wars in Boston in the 1970s between Kevin White and Joe Timilty. Some of the survivors of those City Hall shootouts are now grabbing close to a million a year lobbying.

Consider Bobby White, an old Dorchester coatholder, a good pal of Tommy Taxes. (I saw him at the Felon’s sentencing.) Robert White Associates last year reported taking in $811,000. Not bad for a guy who was below even Mumbles Menino on Joe Timilty’s political depth chart.

Then there’s Brian Hickey. Kevin White ran him for the City Council out of Charlestown in 1981. Last year Hickey’s company took in $953,940, paying out salaries of $589,500, including Hickey’s $200,000.

That’s a lot of “accounts,” as the lobybists call their marks.

Finneran sees all this cash flowing to political ham-and-eggers, and it makes him crazy. So he sets up shop with his old law partner, Jimmy “Bunzo” Byrne, the former city councilor from Dorchester.

Look at lobbyist Steve Karol - he used to be a state rep back in the Jurassic era. Now he’s partners with former Sen. Paul White (yet another Dorchester hack). The Karol Group last year took in $1,034,416. White’s salary: $180,000, Karol’s $174,000.

Then there’s ex-Sen. Henri Rauschenbach, aka Kickenbach, a Republican who used to complain (under oath) about how he only made “30 beans” a year in the Legislature. Now I see that his company took in $324,330 last year, of which he paid himself $130,000. And given Kickenbach’s closeness to Senate President Terry Murray, he’ll be rollin’ in beans again this year.

They all have expenses of course. Rauschenbach, for instance, lists donations to 27 state reps, 19 state senators, a sheriff and a clerk of courts who used to be state senators, and one governor. Of course, the lobbyists have figured out a way to minimize their, uh, exposure. They can only give $200 per hack per year, the rest of us can pony up $500.

Imagine if you’re Tommy Taxes. Kickenbach too was indicted - when it comes to lobbying, if you’re indicted, you’re invited. But Kichenbach beat the rap, and it was just a state rap! Why, Kickenbach isn’t even a convicted felon.

So now the Felon becomes a lobbyist . . . for cops. I guess we’ll have a lot more doughnuts around the studio.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1070466

From the Messenger blog in today’s Herald (site); by
Jessica Heslam:

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As you know, WRKO-AM (680) honchos are looking into whether Tom Finneran’s new lobbying gig will “negatively” impact his role as the news talk station’s morning-drive host.

Julie Kahn, vice president of WRKO owner Entercom, told me today that she and Finneran are having “productive” conversations and she should have a resolution and anouncement next week.

Here’s a lively exchange between Finneran and weekly contributor Wendy Murphy on the former House Speaker’s show earlier today (Thursday).

Murphy: “By the way, I was surprised to see you here, I thought, oh I don’t know, you might be gone.”

Finneran: “Please. Don’t even joke around. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Murphy: “The word is out. You’re trying to make a fortune elsewhere.”

Finneran: “Here’s the word to pay attention to. Multi-year contract. Ok, pal? Pay attention to that.”