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Wed show ping and column ping. Just saw in Herald that
Ogonowski fell 30 signatures short in his effort to get on
GOP ballot; not sure about the other guy (Beatty?)...meanwhile
Kerry, whose seat Ogonowski was vying for, may wind up
resigning if a—God forbid—Obama presidency means he’ll
be appointed to the Cabinet or something, and he could run in
that special election OR run in the special election should
Ted K pass on. But no matter what he’d need to get the
necessary signatures.

Good news in Beverly (and yup, I voted NO!)
:
Salem News: “BEVERLY — Voters overwhelmingly rejected a $2.5 million tax increase in the city’s first Proposition 2 1/2 override election yesterday, staging what the leader of the winning side said amounted to a ‘taxpayer revolt.’

“Voters turned down the override by a margin of more than 2,800 votes, 6,686 to 3,846. The “no” voters swept all 12 precincts in the city.”

OK here’s Howie’s column

Corruption finally catches up to Bulger crony
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, June 4, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com

Thoroughly corrupt.

Those are the two words that should appear on Tom Finnerty’s tombstone, the same words a federal judge used when he was describing the action of Billy Bulger’s former law partner, which has finally gotten him disbarred, after all these years.

Better late than never, but it is getting mighty late in the Whitey Bulger dragnet game. The fugitive serial killer will be 79 in three months, and although the shoes keep dropping in this case, they don’t drop nearly as often, and the thud they make grows ever fainter.

Recently I ran into a person who seems to have, for lack of a better term, psychic abilities. Sometimes she can find stuff that’s lost. So I asked her about something that’s lost - Whitey Bulger. Will he ever be found? She considered my question for a while.

“Three or four years from now, maybe,” she said, vaguely. “I see him very sick, dying, going into a hospital. Not here, Europe or some other foreign place. That’s how they get him.”

Take it for what’s worth, which I admit probably isn’t much. But one way or another, it’s ending not with a bang, but a whimper. So let’s look on the bright side: At least they got one of bigger fish in the Bulger mob.

The headline described Finnerty as a “Bulger associate,” but he was so much more. They went to law school together, they were both elected officials, and when Finnerty quit as district attorney of Plymouth County, the skids were greased for his assistant, who went on to hire Billy Bulger Jr.

Finnerty is 72, so this disbarment is a lot like retirement, which is exactly how he describes it on the voicemail in his old law office in Dorchester. Finnerty is, he says, “retired from the practice of law.”

What brought the thoroughly corrupt old hack down was his subornation of perjury by one of his clients, a South Boston man named Dooley, who has a job opening doors in the Senate, where Billy Bulger used to preside. Dooley was present in 1996 when Whitey Bulger called home to Southie. Also in attendance were Jackie Bulger, the younger brother of Whitey and Bulger, as well as Billy’s son-in-law, another Senate hack who is still making $89,142 at the State House.

The problem was, by the time Dooley was subpoenaed, Jackie had already lied under oath, saying that he hadn’t been there the night Whitey called. So, Finnerty told the hack to lie and say Jackie was not there. Hey, it was the least Dooley could do considering what they’d done for him.

Of course, it all went terribly awry. The door-opener hired a new lawyer, who got him to recant his perjury. Meanwhile, Jackie got bagged on a different lie and became 23986-038 in the Club Fed system. Even worse, Jackie lost his hack state pension. (At age 70, he is appealing the decision, claiming that denying him a kiss in the mail amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment,” and for anyone named Bulger, it probably is.)

The feds wanted to know whether Finnerty discussed his perjury instructions to the door-opener with Billy, but Finnerty declined to answer, even under a grant of immunity, because of his “attorney-client privilege” with Bulger. Like the 75 State St. scandal, it’s all amazingly convoluted, complete with coded names in the federal court decisions, but the bottom line is, Billy skated, and Finnerty didn’t, even after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Finnerty’s appeal.

What is most interesting at this late date is the late date at which the wretched Finnerty has been “disciplined.” The Board of Bar Overseers said it wasn’t “alerted” to Finnerty’s misconduct until a couple of months ago.

Strange, because on Oct. 6, 2006, the whole story about Finnerty was splashed across the front page of this newspaper. We included a photograph of his client running across the Common trying to escape. OK, so they don’t read the Herald. A follow-up appeared the next day in the Globe. The BBO must have missed that one, too.

Then, a year ago April, the feds announced they weren’t going to file charges against Billy Bulger. That story appeared in both newspapers, but apparently, the BBO overlooked them as well.

Oh well, Finnerty is “retired,” and Billy Bulger goes on and on and on. I’m just wondering when Whitey is going to be sick enough to check himself into that hospital in Europe. Oh, I almost forgot one thing. Jackie Bulger may have lost his state pension, but not Billy.

Gross monthly take for the Corrupt Midget: $16,457.16. Gross annual take: $197,305.92.

Repeat after me: Thoroughly corrupt.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1098473