That clip Howie plays of someone saying, “Hurts...like...a...
bastard”, was that Charlton Heston? Well, his latest role is
in heaven.
http://bostonherald.com/news/obituaries/general/view.bg?articleid=1085290&srvc=home&position=7
>> Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died. He was 84.
The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.
Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.
“Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played,” Heston’s family said in a statement. “No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country.”
Why is everyone so shocked about Gov. Deval Patrick’s latest scam . . . I mean, score?
This whole $1.35 million book deal, relying on “bulk corporate buys” to bolster what would otherwise be anemic sales, falls squarely into the grand traditions of the .
Does anyone remember ex-U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright? Back in the 1980s, the Texas hack also wrote a little book, “Reflections of a Public Man.” His supporters openly admitted they had bought thousands of copies as a way of funneling cash to their pal, Mr. Speaker. Reflections of a Public Man, indeed. After the public reflected awhile, Wright was no longer a public man. Here is how The New York Times [NYT] described Wright’s book in 1988, and I’m sure it will sum up Deval’s as well:
“A modest-sized book written by the Democratic leader and bought in bulk by longtime supporters to benefit him financially.”
The more things change . . .
The problem for Fort Worth Jim was that the book deal became a symbol of his slippery ethics. Ditto, Deval. All of a sudden, even the bow-tied bumkissers of Morrissey Boulevard feel free to raise questions that had previously been ignored by the Politically Correct mainstream media. Like, does Deval have a big-time money problem? How is he making that $30,000-a-month payment on his mansion’s mortgage?
Hope and opportunity, that’s what Deval is all about. Now he’s hoping the controversy about his sleazy book deal goes away, so he’ll have an opportunity to cash that first $450,000 check (presumably minus a taste to his agent).
On Thursday, the governor refused to take calls on his radio show about the sweetheart deal. On Friday, he walked away from a reporter in Lowell who tried to ask him what percentage of the money will be going to “charity.”
Now it turns out in his pitch to publishers, he talked about the crowd of 10,000 he attracted to the Common last fall. Only it turns out it wasn’t him they were coming to see, it was Barack Obama. But this, too, is a familiar phenomenon in publishing: A genre becomes popular and obscure players cash in with memoirs. The Rolling Stones are always hot, so their drug supplier gets a book deal. People want to read about Whitey Bulger, so maybe they’re gullible enough to buy rehashed court testimony by Whitey’s tubby gravedigger.
In this context, you might say Deval is playing Kevin Weeks to Barack’s Whitey Bulger.
The difference, of course, is that, as governor, Deval will have a lot more opportunities for “bulk sales” than Kevin “Two” Weeks ever did. The Massachusetts Teachers Association should be good for 5,000 or so. The cop unions owe him at least 10,000 sales, after his craven cave-in this week on police details.
It goes without saying that no one ever reads any books bought in “bulk sales.” How do I know this? It just so happens that I once owned several copies of “Reflections of a Public Man.” One of Speaker Wright’s old friends from Texas was Boston University President John Silber. Herr Doktor had a huge oversupply and some of them ended up in the Herald newsroom. To our regret, we quickly discovered that they weren’t thick enough to make proper door-stoppers. I grabbed a few, thinking they’d make good gag gifts. I was wrong.
So now we are to have a “Reflections of a Public Man” for the 21st century. I’m sure Random House is very excited. I’m also reasonably certain the thrill will be long gone by the time Deval delivers the “manuscript,” after which he can collect his second $450,000, with the balance due on publication day, when the trucks from Buck a Book back up to the warehouses.
By then, Random House will have realized the error of its ways. They’re expecting “I Have a Dream.” What they’re going to get is “I Have a Scheme.” Buyers’ remorse, thy name is Deval - from the Clinton administration to Texaco to Coke and now the moonbats of Massachusetts. He talks a good game going in, but he’s never done a damn thing. That’s what happens, I suppose, when you’ve always had a free ride.
Somewhere, Fort Worth Jim is smiling.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1085289
I’m guessing that Howie will wait until at least Tuesday if not later this week before he does another death pool. Based upon what Howie usually does, this is too soon after the last death pool to do it this Monday.