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One More Reason to Hope Tim Murray is the Democratic Nominee in '14

by Dan Haley
2/20/2012

A small but significant part of me would love to see the Boston Globe's editors wiggle their way out of this editorial to rationalize a Murray endorsement.

That is a genuine back-handed compliment. I am impressed and surprised that the editors saw their way clear to publish such an undiluted, scathing deconstruction of the Murray/McLaughlin/Motorcrash fiasco (now half way through month four, by the way, making it pretty much a PR consultant's stimulus program all by itself). To excerpt the editorial here, even heavily, would be to cut out some amount of schadenfreude-inducing goodness. You really should click here and read the whole thing.

 

Globe Cartoon

If you make it through to the penultimate paragraph, you find this:
 

Tim Murray has shown, through his relationship with McLaughlin, that he lacks the judgment and character to make these decisions. And Patrick, who controls all the levers of the executive branch, still sees fit to keep Murray as his personal liaison to municipal government.

"These decisions" refers broadly to the choice between acceding to the Commonwealth's patronage culture by (at best) turning a blind eye to rampant patronage or (at worst) participating willingly in that culture by actively placing and promoting patronage candidates to government positions for which they are blatantly unqualified - either way in exchange for political support. One need only look at Murray's personal role in the placement of McLaughlin's son ("six speeding tickets and a suspended license for refusing a breathalyzer test") in a $60,000 per year slot at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, adjudicating drunk driving suspensions, to form an opinion as to where on the spectrum between 'at best' and 'at worst' the current LG sits.

And how about the editors' tangential swipe at Governor Patrick? Indirect criticism of the Gov's judgement for sticking by Murray as his story becomes less and less plausible and the depth of his involvement in what might be called "old-style Massachusetts machine politics" more and more apparent is somewhat less recrimination than the Governor deserves. But it is more than we're used to from this particular source.

Next they'll have something less than fawning to say about Elizabeth Warren.

Bad as all of this looks for LG Murray, I am still not at all certain that there may not come a time when the Globe's editors are in fact forced to write their way out of the unfiltered condemnation they published yesterday. Take a look at these poll results from February 2. Despite a full quarter of a year of heavy news coverage of Murray's lack of judgement and character, complete with the public interest-enhancing bonus of a late night crash featuring an obliterated state car and a miraculously unharmed, PJ-clad Lieutenant Governor, fully fifty-six percent of respondents didn't know enough about Murray to form an opinion about him. And only seventeen percent hold an unfavorable opinion of our patronage-hirin', black-ice-slippin'/behind-the-wheel-sleepin'/newspaper-coffee-seekin', phone-tag-playin', story-changin' Lieutenant Governor. Them, as they say, are numbers a well-funded candidate can work with.

If things fall back into place for Murray over the next year or so, look for it in October of '14 on the Globe's editorial page (always assuming, of course, there is still a Globe to have an editorial page). It will begin very much like this: "We have been critical of Tim Murray in the past. Every election is about a choice, however. And presented with a choice between a candidate who has through bitter experience confronted and overcome his own deficiencies, and an opponent who seeks to turn back the clock on the progress of the past eight years..."

Comments (6)

Enough: I'm proud to live in Massachusetts and if I felt it was a "cesspool", I'd move...I've also been fighting for 30 years to stop the good old boy network, whether they're Democrats or Republicans...we're on the same team in that area, but stop badmouthing Massachusetts, we're a very well educated and successful state.

LD | 2012-02-22 22:08:37

LD -- It would appear to be a continuing basis - 3 count them Speaker's of the House -- Flaherty, Finneran and DiMasi all convicted felons. All Democrats. Makes me so proud to live in this cesspool

Enough | 2012-02-22 21:47:52

Tim Murray is an easy target and is going nowhere in 2014 (trust me)...unfortunately, he's one of the boys, just like Tom Finneran and Paul Cellucci were and the good old boy network needs to be confronted on a continuous basis and put to rest once and for all... Dear concerned Citizen: Birth control is a personal and private matter and if you don't want to practice birth control, don't...no one is forcing you or Scott Brown to use birth control, but, some people actually want to have it available.

LD | 2012-02-22 20:53:38

The dangers of image-referencing. When I initially posted, the "Globe Cartoon" to which I referenced was a Wasserman cartoon about the Murray accident. That has apparently since been replaced with the Brown cartoon that appears above, and that obviously has nothing to do with the post. As to the Warren quip: Tom, it's just a quip. Glad to see you on the same page with me re. Murray. I am starting to doubt I'll ever have to wonder if you would join the Globe in rationalizing future support of him were he to eventually become the 2014 nominee... Editors: if you are able to excise that cartoon, please do. And thanks as always for re-posting.

Dan Haley | 2012-02-22 16:08:34

I was unaware that Senator Brown standing up the right to life, for religious acceptance and protecting an individual's moral code was "bizarre"

Concerned Citizen | 2012-02-22 16:08:01

Murray's dealings with McLaughlin don't just fail the sniff test. They reek. And his handling of the recent asleep at the wheel deal was disingenuous to the point of being arrogant. It would be a sad day for Democrats and the state as a whole if the man isn't held to account, politically and legally. But what the heck does that have to do with Elizabeth Warren? Or Senator Brown's bizarre support of the Blunt Amendment? It's all well and good to enjoy it when a rival politician cracks his feet of clay, Dan. But there are also matters of substance we're supposed to bring to the public forum. It's best not to blur the two. Maybe instead of reveling in the failings of your rivals you might start now offering something better in terms of policy and political leadership. That's how you can avoid that October '14 Globe endorsement you're proactively resenting here. Heck, you might even win a few more votes.

Tom Driscoll | 2012-02-22 08:05:17