Free Republic

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy accused Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey of engaging in "gutter politics" in her campaign against Democrat Deval Patrick, declaring Saturday, "Make no mistake about it, this is swiftboating." The Massachusetts Democrat, appearing with his party's gubernatorial nominee in Hyannis, did not specify the reason for his criticism. But it came at the end of a week during which Healey criticized Patrick for supporting the parole of a convicted rapist, and during which she began airing a television commercial criticizing Patrick for helping a cop killer get his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment. "I've been in this...

This is an important election. It’s so important that I’m not calling Kerry Healey “Muffy” anymore. Two words sum up why this fight is so serious: Mike Dukakis. Deval Patrick is Mike Dukakis without the tank helmet. Pee Wee Dukakis, as we used to call him, was quoted last week as saying all the Democratic candidates came to see him, but “Deval listened.” Think about that. Pee Wee was referring to his advice to Deval on building an organization of idle, rich moonbats, but the fact is, Dukakis spoke and . . . Deval listened. No one has listened to...

Lt. Gov. Muffy Healey got what she wished for. Be careful what you wish for, Muffy. A pol called me yesterday afternoon. He’d been going from one polling place to another in his district. “You’re right about those Deval people,” he said excitedly. “I just saw two of them. Middle-aged guys, they rode bicycles to the precinct. They seemed to be in a trance. I think I’m frightened.” Said another pol: “We’re all frightened.” One of these guys was a Democrat, the other a Republican. That’s bipartisan fear. Yesterday was our Ned Lamont moment. But the difference is, Ned Lamont...

CBS4) BOSTON With only two days left until the democratic candidates square off in the gubernatorial primary, an exclusive CBS4 / Boston Globe poll reveals that Deval Patrick is pulling away from his rivals in the final days with a 21-point lead over Chris Gabrieli. Additionally, according to the poll, former front-runner Tom Reilly could receive only 18 percent of the primary vote.

Democratic candidate for governor Deval Patrick once joined other pols and lawyers in backing a convicted rapist’s bid for parole, support that is being highlighted on a Web site dedicated to the controversial case. Patrick is among several high-profile politicians, attorneys and academics quoted on the site supporting Ben LaGuer, a former soldier convicted in 1984 of the vicious rape of a 59-year-old Leominster woman. “I. . . have serious misgivings about the integrity of the criminal justice system in this case, as I believe any citizen would,” the site quotes Patrick as saying. A spokesman confirmed Patrick’s support of...