Chuck Turner expelled from City Council
By Dave Wedge  |   Wednesday, December 1, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics
Photo by John Wilcox

Embattled City Councilor Chuck Turner today became the first member to be booted from the panel as his colleagues voted 11-1 to expel him for his federal corruption conviction.

Several dozen supporters rallied outside City Hall in support of the Roxbury lawmaker before the board took the vote to end his 11-year run. Turner has pleaded with the council to let him serve out his term - despite his October conviction - proclaiming he was the target of a racially motivated government set-up.

Councilor Charles Yancey cast the lone dissenting vote and Turner abstained.

Turner must vacate his office by Friday and forfeit his $87,500-a-year job. He is slated to be sentenced Jan. 25 and faces a possible lengthy jail term for accepting a $1,000 payoff and lying to federal agents.

Supporters in the council chamber shouted "Unjust!" after the vote and paraded alongside Turner as he walked out of City Hall to the plaza where they continued to rally.

"I don't see this as a defeat," Turner told a rowdy crowd after the vote. "I see this as a continuation of our struggle."

A special election must now be held to fill his District 7 seat, which includes Roxbury, Lower Roxbury, and parts of the Fenway, South End, and Dorchester.

The disgraced pol told the Herald yesterday the vote was "a question of whether the council will rise to the level of moral integrity as opposed to political expediency." After the vote today, Turner called it "a grievous error."

Never before in the council's 100-year history has a councilor been removed.

The Harvard-grad-turned-community activist said yesterday his life is not over. Next week he plans to file papers for a business he's long dreamed of launching: "The Roxbury Institute of Space Exploration . . . to help people understand how they can explore their inner space."

Greeting supporters yesterday, he told one: "People see me as going down. But I think I'm coming up. I'm the phoenix rising from the ashes of destruction."

Developing ...

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1300196

Hey, Tim Cahill, thanks so much! Love, Deval Patrick

Tim, Deval here.

Thanks, I couldn’t have done it without you.

And now, as George W. Bush would say, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.”

If Camelot High at Harvard did political-race case studies the way the business school does, this campaign would be one for the textbooks. Straws 101. An unpopular, failed incumbent, totally unable to reach 50 percent, prevails upon a fellow Democrat to do the Right Thing — to run as a straw, to split the anti-vote so that the moonbat leftist (me!) could hold the office.

It worked perfectly — 49 percent for me, 42 percent for the Republican and 8 percent for you, the vast percentage of which would otherwise have gone to the real candidate, the Republican.

All those South Shore dopes who voted for you thinking you were “one of them” — it was genius, Tim, pure genius to put you in there. Otherwise they’d have broken for Baker 90-10. What do you get in Weymouth — or was it Braintree — 17 percent?

What did Lenin say? The capitalists will sell us the rope we hang them with — on credit. Comrade Tim, this is even sweeter. We stole the money from the taxpayers to buy the rope to hang them with.

I know, you had to give up the treasurer’s job for your kamikaze campaign. Not to worry. Kim Philby got Soviet citizenship, and your kids will still be able to get into the good private schools, no matter what they get on their SATs, just like me and Barack — well, you know what I mean.

Tim, you want to know another quote that occurs to me? H. L. Mencken. “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” I mean, in 2006 the straw was Christy, and this year it was you. And the voters still didn’t figure out the grift.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What a bunch of dopes these voters are, walking around the mall in their 3XL Number 12 Patriots <team stats> sweatshirts, like everything is on the level. The way we’ve got everything set up, these idiots will never make more than $12 an hour, and yet all they care about is how the Patsies are going to do in the Dog Pound Sunday afternoon.

God, politics is so much easier these days when nobody pays any attention to anything except to their new apps and their porn.

Tim, you’re probably worried I’m going to cash out with a Cabinet job with Obama. I got news for you — he’s got bigger problems than finding a job for me. I’ll be around here, count on it. Won’t be able to dedicate my new “book” to you, but you know who I’ll be thinking of as I cash that final $450,000 check, minus commissions.

To Tim, without whom, Massachusetts might have a real governor, God forbid . . .

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1293891

A national perspective on the Bay State's mid term elections.

WHERE LIBERALISM LIVES

 Mugro wrote: 
Texas is still a One Party State too.

Mine is still a One Party State.

However, the good news is that over the past several elections, my county has turned from traditional blue to red. The state rep seat that I ran for four years ago went to a Republican. 

It seems like the rich Dems in the cities and affluent suburbs are dictating our political leadership, but not forever. We gained seats in the state legislature and we'll eventually turn the place red. With bankrupt leadership from Deval and Co., it won't take that long.  

Re-electing Barney F'n Frank! Are you people serious? The man can't even balance his checkbook and you can see what he's done with the US financial debacle and you re- elect him?

The only good news is the the Republicans take the House and boot Nancy and the our gang spenders and Barney looses his chairmanship of the financial comity.

There really is a Ying to the Yang.

 Mugro wrote: 
Well J.  Clearly, you and I need to switch states.  

 Mugro wrote: 
... and I'm going to go out on a limb and pick Dewey over Truman. 

 

 Mugro wrote: 

Good to be back, and thanks for the greetings, Mugs! 

They are now supposedly selling lobster rolls on the streets of DC, I'll have to save my pennies and try it out some day.  Our city now has an Irish chipper that serves up a tasty fish and chips (Cod).  Went to a seafood restaurant in Deale, MD over the summer and had some fried Ipswich clams that were delectable!  And of course, there's always Legal Seafoods when I'm jonesing for some clam chowder. So I'm pretty well fixed to ease my shellfish/seafood cravings between visits to Cape Cod!

 aflanigan wrote: 

That's ok. As long as they are making the decisions back home, that would be a good start for me.

 Mugro wrote: 

Well, let's just say that on social issues, NE Republicans don't usually coincide with the mainstream Republican Party in the rest of the country, particularly since the 80s.  Probably why Republican leaders like Weld, Weicker, etc. from the New England region have never really been able to make it to the national platform.

Have you noticed the absence of Sen. John Kerry as usual. Not campaigning for anybody, low key and hiding on his yacht in RI.

BTW, good to see you back in the saddle here, aflanigan!

 aflanigan wrote: 

From my perspective, the New England Republican (a nearly extinct breed but making a comeback this election year) is a fiscal conservative and social moderate. "Adopting the Dem platform" on marriage equality and abortion rights? I didn't think that the Dem party had a patent or copyright on either issue. New England Republicans have long been in support of abortion rights and gay marriage. And please, let us never confuse Mitt Romney as being either a New Englander or a New England Republican!!

I would beg to differ with you on one topic: it is EASIER to be a fiscal conservative in hard times than in times of plenty. When there was money everywhere, the fiscal conservatives were laughed at when they told us to save for a rainy day. It is times like these where everyone is finding it fashionable to be a fiscal conservative, for everyone knows how much of a mess Bush 43 and Obama got us into. And may we NEVER confuse Bush 43 with fiscal conservatism!!

 Mugro wrote: 

Surely, you speak sacrelige, my friend!  I thought he was considered a traitor by the voters who got him elected (though you have to give him props for being cagey enough to skew Democrat in his voting patterns in order to increase his reelection chances in such a blue state)?  I'd be similarly concerned that Mr. Baker, who has already adopted the Dem platform on social issues like marriage equality and abortion rights, will veer towards the center on fiscal policy.  Being a fiscal conservative is relatively easy when the national economy is robust; we'll see how many governors in either party walk the fiscal conservative walk in the current economic climate.

 aflanigan wrote: 

What's wrong with Scott Brown? He is a fine Senator. A breath of fresh air in a stuffy room.

 Mugro wrote: 
Be careful what you wish for!  (Remember Senator Centerfold?)

In a few hours, this man  will be looking for a new job.



Good riddance, Spend-It-All-Deval!

Barney Frank's Brookline stronghold flirts with Sean Bielat
By Margery Eagan  |   Tuesday, November 2, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Columnists
Photo by Nancy Lane

Oh my God, could bluer than blue Brookline - the capital of Moonbat-istan - be breaking for Republican Sean Bielat?

For 25 years I've lived in Brookline, where Republicans admit they're Republicans at their own risk. Yet I haven't seen so many lawn signs for a Republican since a few courageous matrons put a "Weld for Governor" placard on their lawn in 1990 and paid the price: social suicide. They were promptly shunned at Whole Foods. Their poor children sat alone in the cafeteria.

It says something huge about Barney Frank's fall from grace that a few brave Brookline-ites are ready, again, to risk their neighbors' wrath.

Here's what I'm seeing: a few dozen small and discreet Bielat signs, mostly in South Brookline on the West Roxbury line, where there's more diversity. That is, you can actually question Al Gore's prediction that the Cape will be underwater by 2025 and not be jettisoned from The Great Books Club.

I also see Bielat signage on homes worth $2 million and up. What do rich people care? If no other kids will share a cafeteria seat with their little third-grader, they can ship Muffy and Junior off to private school.

There are almost no Bielat signs around Coolidge Corner, where Bielat lives and apartments and condos dominate. Lots of Brookline condo associations won't allow political signs. Some wouldn't even allow American flags to fly on the day after 9

11. I do recall some "Darfur! Not on My Watch" signs outside condos a few years back though, which gives you an idea of what we're dealing with.

Bielat spokeswoman Lisa Barstow confirmed yesterday why Bielat himself can't put a sign outside his own condo: his association's rule. "But they did give him a special dispensation on primary day and for the general election," she said. Wow. How ecumenical of them.

I don't want to get carried away here. We're not talking a Bielat tidal wave. Signs for Barney and Deval and "No on Question 3" still dominate, maybe 10 to one. And we're not talking signs on every lawn like, say, in South Boston, where political favors mean the difference between a nice job and "see ya' later." I also don't see the whole GOP slate. It's not Bielat and Baker. It's just Bielat, as if Brookline is willing to dip its toe in the enemy camp, but no more.

What to make of all this? Who knows. I'd still bet on Barney to win.

But Bielat's a smart guy who's run a class campaign. Maybe the worm has turned.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1293214

 BasmntMadman wrote: 

Worse. He aided and abetted them, and then flew on their private jets.