Posted on 07/03/2011 3:26:57 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Herald column. Howie is on vacation from the radio show this week
Sunday column thread
Next hack judge? There oughta be a law
By Howie Carr | Sunday, July 3, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo
Just because you flunk the bar exam seven times doesn’t mean you can’t become a judge.
At least not in Massachusetts, and not if one of your brothers is already a (Jane Swift-appointed) judge and another one is a big-time lobbyist who donated more than $100,000 to Beacon Hill pols. It also doesn’t hurt if you were hired into the hackerama by none other than Jailbird Jackie Bulger, Whitey’s ex-con brother.
Meet the hack du jour, Peter M. Coyne. This career coatholder, who already makes $85,000 a year as an assistant clerk-magistrate, has been nominated for a $130,000-a-year juvenile-court judgeship by Gov. Deval Patrick.
He’s a ZooMass-Amherst grad who then went to Suffolk Law School, graduating in 1983. He once worked at the MassPike as a “courier.” His hack credentials are impeccable.
Coyne took the bar exam for the first time in July 1983. Flunked. Took it twice in 1984 — February and July. Two more belly flops. He gave it another shot in February 1986. Flunked. February 1987, ditto. February 1988, ditto.
In 1989 he became a cab driver, then a year later joined the hospitality industry as a bartender at Local 369 in Braintree. In 1992 Coyne took the bar exam again. Can you guess what happened? By then he was working as a “telephone installation technician” in Southie.
But then, in February 1993, the miracle happened. He passed the bar exam!
He bounced around for a few years, among other things working for his lobbyist brother, whose clients include Exxon Mobil, Kraft Foods, MillerCoors, Raytheon and Verizon. In 2001 he got his rightful spot at the trough like everyone else in his hack clan.
“Within a family,” he explained to the Governor’s Council, “some people might be interested in the same line of work.”
Work? Non-work is more like it.
The vote on whether to confirm this payroll patriot — who did not return repeated calls — is Wednesday. I predict a 4-4 tie. That means Lt. Gov. Tim Murray will have to break the tie. Would you care to guess to whom Coyne donated $250 on Dec. 5, 2008?
But wait, there’s more. Another vote is scheduled for Wednesday. State Rep. Christopher Speranzo of Pittsfield has been nominated by his dear pal Deval for the clerk-magistrate’s job of the Central Berkshire District Court. It’s a lifetime $110,000 job, up from the $61,000 he makes as a back-bench solon.
The job has gone unfilled for two years, so it’s obviously crucial to the administration of justice. This is from the State House News Service account of Speranzo’s testimony: “He acknowledged never having run a private law practice, never having participated in a trial, and never having participated in criminal matters.”
Speranzo did not return repeated phone calls Friday. I particularly wanted to ask him about a public letter to the Governor’s Council describing him as “a pothead. I have smoked marijuana with this man on several occasions. So him getting this job means he knew someone.”
You mean there wasn’t a nationwide search? I predict another 4-4 tie with Lt. Gov. Murray breaking the tie. Would you care to guess which statewide elected official Speranzo donated $100 to on May 28, 2010?
I only have one final question for Deval. How many of these boobs do you have to appoint before you win the bet?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1349404
Why are you posting to Mitt Romney’s radio station
in Massachusetts (WRKO with RomneyBOT Howie Carr)
rather than to a STORY?
Listen. I do the Howie Carr ping as a service to his fans and others. Lately he has been very much against Romney. Sorry if it offends you but I won’t bother responding to your posts anymore after today. (Romney’s radio station? When did he buy it? Yes, he supported Romney in 2002—what did you want him to do, “Vote for Shannon O’Brien”?)
Heh heh.
Flak too close to the target for you, WRKO and Soros?
A best of show today but kinda new to me—I was away last wk (but heard parts of it via podcast)
Michele is on today. Well, there’s always Hannity on 1200 or Doug Meehan on 96.9...
>>As a working musician and former DJ and producer at WERS-FM (88.9) and WGBH-FM (89.7), Hogan knows how hard it is to get new music out there — especially noncommercial folk music such as his. If the Whitey hype brings a few more pairs of ears to his music, he’s happy. Heck, Hogan wouldn’t mind getting the tune placed on a TV show or in a movie. Even if some might consider it the glorification of a gangster.
screaming mcphee, no thanks, vanity hannity, no thanks, hmmm, maybe I’ll try Doug Meehan
Michele also means more Sandy, which is a nice change
ThanX for the update
With Michelle into today is a good match for the current topic.
Michelle = True Crime Novelist + Sandy = Previously practicing attorney.
RacconRadio thanks for the daily update
To the powers that be: Please, no more Michelle McPhee. That voice is beyond penetrating. We’ve made the switch to 1200 AM.
To the powers that be: Please, no more Michelle McPhee. That voice is beyond penetrating. We’ve made the switch to 1200 AM.
You’d think they’d keep her on her reg. slot and have Jen Brien (who fills in for Michele when Michele is in for Howie) on instead...but RKO is prob. grooming her for the afternoon slot if Howie winds up leaving in a year.
Agreed.
Well she actually already has the midday slot: 1-3 pm.
I did hear that call too.
Yes, I meant the 3:00-7:00 p.m. period, as Howie’s potential replacement.
Oh OK; usually that’s spoken of as p.m. drive
Fri column ping. Michele on today, Howie back Mon.
Whitey Bulger’s Plymouth Correctional blues
By Howie Carr | Friday, July 8, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Can it really be true: Is Whitey Bulger now telling everyone at his new home at the Graybar Hotel that he deliberately let the feds snag him?
Information-wise, the Plymouth County Correctional Facility is locked down big-time since the arrival of the Halitosis Kid. Neither the U.S. Marshals nor the county screws would tell you if your coat was on fire. So the only glimpses into Whitey’s new life come from the stories leaking out of the lockup.
“Whitey seems to be full of himself,” said one source. In other words, same old Whitey, only really old now.
Like most new prisoners at PCCF, Whitey spent two or three days in the medical unit, then was placed in a cell.
From a source:
“He is now under constant watch. He won’t shut up and is always talking to the people watching him. They get (bleeped) and think he’s annoying, so they hold a book or magazine in front of their face and pretend to read and not hear him.”
Oh, the indignity! Once his bloated gunsels strained to catch his every obscenity, to learn the name of the latest bleepster on the Lower End Hit Parade. Now Whitey aimlessly mutters like the evil old fart he is, and the guards roll their eyes and dismiss him as “annoying.”
It’s easy to understand why Whitey can’t stop yapping. For 16 years, he had an audience of one — Catherine Greig. He might have been able to dodder down to that Boston sports bar in Santa Monica, but he couldn’t mesmerize the local losers and no-account boozers with any of his really good stories — like how he suckered Paulie McGonagle into the back of the death car by telling him he had some queer $20 bills to sell Paulie, only — get this! — they weren’t counterfeits, they were real twenties, which was why they fooled Paulie. Not that Paulie ever figured out the play before he got his head blown off. . .
Then there’s the (unconfirmed) report that Whitey now claims he let himself be caught by the G-men.
“Really?” said one of his former associates yesterday. “You’d think if he was planning to get pinched, he’d have stashed that $800,000 in cash somewhere first. Not to mention the guns — California’s got him cold for all those guns, they’re good for at least 10 years, and for Whitey, that’s life.”
Wonder how Whitey’s adjusting to the haute cuisine at Chez McDonald. This was a guy who used to lecture his plug-uglies about junk food, not to mention “germs.” Now he was offered this menu on the Fourth of July:
Two hot dogs (with buns), macaroni salad and corn chips. And the No. 1 dessert at the PCCF is apparently mini chocolate chip cookies. Think day-care center.
What a way to do life, one day at a time. Bet tonight they’ve got “fish” and beans on the menu again. Bon appetit, Whitey!
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1350364
Mindless sports talk @98.5 for me. McPhee in,GQuagmire OUT!
Screamer in, rockabye out! Howie will be back Monday!
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