Talking Politics

Where To Follow Me

David S. Bernstein — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:09:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone for reading this blog. With the closing of the Boston Phoenix, I invite you to follow me over at my new blog spot, http://blog.davidsbernstein.com/ . Hope to see you in the comments over there!

Mo Takes His Turn

David S. Bernstein — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:59:00 GMT

[See also "Mrs. Warren Goes To Washington"]

Elizabeth Warren and William “Mo” Cowan seem to be the happiest Senate delegation in the country. Warren appears gleeful over the prospect of fulfilling her life's work; Cowan, on the other hand, has the bemused and slightly befuddled giddiness of someone who has won an unexpected sweepstakes.

Governor Deval Patrick informed Cowan just a day before announcing publicly that he would be the appointed interim Senator, replacing newly-confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry until a special election to be held in June. A week later, Cowan was in the well of the Senate, being sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden. Looking on was his mother, fresh off knee surgery, who ignored doctor's orders to drive to the capital.

“It was, and has been, a whirlwind,” says 43-year-old Cowan, grinning broadly, eyes shining behind rimless glasses; his face as perky and playful as his black bow tie festooned with multi-colored paisley patterns. “This has been a remarkable experience, but also a surreal experience.”

I interviewed Cowan in his temporary office in the Dirksen Senate building, where the lobby directory still lists Senator John Kerry as Warren's colleague. He isn't even in his permanent space for his temporary assignment; he is squatting in Scott Brown's old office until Kerry's is ready for him to move in.

In retrospect, Cowan is a logical choice. He had just wrapped up four years in Patrick's administration, first as chief legal counsel and then as chief of staff. He was thus free of entanglements for a short-term stint in Washington, before his intended return to private law practice. He had also just spent four years fully immersed in pretty much every issue affecting Massachusetts.

“I have intimate knowledge of how things down here [in Washington] impact things back home,” he says, citing for example the way the sequester budget cuts could squeeze important research being conducted. The same recent experience helps him deal with constituent services.

It has also helped that he has carried over some of Kerry's staff, including his Massachusetts director of the past 10 years, Drew O'Brien, who has been a staple of state politics since writing speeches for Tom Menino in the mid-1990s.

Unlike Warren, who is settling in for her first six-year term, Cowan is on a six-month contract with no option for renewal. But he does not intend to be a mere placeholder. Paul Kirk, the interim Senator appointed by Patrick after Ted Kennedy's death in 2009, advised him to “enjoy the experience – but be a Senator in full,” Cowan says.

He is trying to find concrete ways to do that, within the limited time he has. “I have my eye on the calendar,” he says. “June 25^th is rapidly approaching.”

He has put particular energy into his position on the Agriculture Committee – the first Bay Stater assigned there since 1879. He hopes to have significant input on the farm bill coming soon from that committee. Cowan is also trying to find ways to bring relief to the Massachusetts fishing industry; an issue, he notes, that cuts across all three of his committees: Agriculture, Commerce, and Small Business.

Agricultural policy is less of a stretch than you might assume; he was born and raised in the rural town of Yadkinville, population 2800, in northwest North Carolina.

He credits Patrick with his political education, and says that he is in frequent touch with members of the governor's administration, and periodically with Patrick himself. But Cowan laughs off the notion that he is a puppet, or that he must clear his moves with the man who appointed him. “I think the governor has confidence in my ability and judgment,” he says.

Cowan, who is staying with relatives in the area, says that he has no intention of heading back to Washington once his stint ends in June. He lives in Stoughton, in Congressman Steve Lynch's district, but insists he has no interest in run for Congress if Lynch becomes the new Senator. He has not caught the political bug; he still can't seem to quite wrap his mind around what it means to be a Senator. He can't get over chatting with John McCain on the Senate floor, for instance, and was a bit thrown when I noted that people will forever call him “Mr. Senator.”

Cowan is trying to keep a low profile; he turned down interview requests, including one from MSNBC's “The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell,” when he co-sponsored a resolution asking President Barack Obama to pardon early-20th-century boxer Jack Johnson. The media interest in that resolution surprised him, Cowan told me. As he's discovering, you get that kind of attention when you're a US Senator, even a temporary one.

Phoenix Pharewell

David S. Bernstein — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 23:38:00 GMT

I've been trying to write something about the end of the Boston Phoenix, but for fuck's sake I'm not going to stack myself up against Charlie Pierce, Susan Orlean, Yvonne Abraham, et al who can write circles around me. And besides I loathe writing. Hate every painful thing about it -- and meanwhile I'm already trying to write this goddamned feature, which now is going to get all huge scrutiny as the Last Phoenix Political Story, in the shadow of all the ridiculously good journalists who set the bar here. No pressure, Bernstein.

So the hell with that.

Anyway, I'm not a very sentimental person, and I'm a pretty self-isolated misanthrope at the office, and plus I figured out a long time ago that local journalism was doomed -- and when I say local journalism, I mean the thing where a staff of professional journalists, editors, designers, production people and so on work collectively to put out a publication (or broadcast, or whatever) that helps people understand, enjoy, and improve their community. Which, by the way, I think we did.

So I'm just going to say this: I am insanely fortunate to have been allowed, for nearly ten years, to fill space in a paper and on a web site, with the invaluable assistance of colleagues. I am immensely grateful for that; I feel bad that others may never have that chance; and, understanding the value of what I lucked into, I have tried to not let that opportunity go to waste.

Sullivan Sullied

David S. Bernstein — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:35:00 GMT

The other day I slammed the generic content on the issues page of Michael Sullivan's new web site. Today in the Globe, Eric Moskowitz reveals that it's even worse than I thought -- it's pretty much all lifted from the web site of the last campaign Paul Moore managed, for congressional candidate Richard Tisei.

Let's put aside the question of whether or not this is plagiarism, in either a legal or ethical sense. (And for what it's worth, I don't particularly blame Moore for losing the unlosable race -- but I couldn't blame anyone for rolling their eyes over Sullivan plucking from that campaign.)

This is just stupid, lame, and pathetic.

Look, I get that the campaigns are under the gun to ramp up quickly. And I realize that the candidate does not actually sit down and write the campaign literature.

But, first of all, it IS campaign literature. The issues page of the campaign web site is not just a "placeholder," as Moore defends it to Moskowitz; it's a piece of literature you are, in effect, mailing on demand to interested voters. I'm constantly baffled by how many campaigns treat it with roughly 1/100th of the care they pay to the content and design of a piece of physical literature.

Secondly, lifting your issues copy -- and from such an easily identifiable source -- makes it quite likely that your candidate will look like Sullivan does today: like a guy who has no actual thoughts or beliefs of his own. I mean, seriously. There appears to have been essentially zero input of Sullivan opinions, beliefs, or priorities into this presentation of Sullivan's opinions, beliefs, and priorities. That's a mystery you don't want people to find out.

And worse, it turns out that the guy who claims to be the one true conservative in the race lifted his entire opening platform from the guy who just campaigned as the state's most moderate/liberal Republican.

At least this solves the mystery of why Sullivan's web site was so silent on the many issues -- abortion, same-sex-marriage, criminal justice, etc. -- where Sullivan most stands out to conservative primary voters. It wasn't a strategy; there just wasn't anything usable on Tisei's web site on those issues.

I realize I'm making a big deal out of something fairly small, that will most likely soon be forgotten.

But Michael Sullivan is a serious political figure, whose run for high office has been expected for years. He has an impressive and energetic core of supporters. And yet so far, everything about the campaign suggests a guy who's running for no particular reason, with no particular purpose.

New Gomez-Bernstein Video

David S. Bernstein — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:48:00 GMT

I video-bomb the hell out of the new Gabs Gomez video. At one point you can see me checking my email and Twitter instead of paying attention to him.

Actually, I waspaying attention; I was checking his speech as he was giving it against the prepared version emailed to me by the campaign. As I noted in my blog post afterward, he skipped large chunks of the prepared speech (hence my rapid scrolling that you see).

Staggering Stupidity Of The Sites

David S. Bernstein — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:05:00 GMT

I hate to start off so early in the cycle blasting campaigns as utterly incompetent and drowning in stupidity, but this is just a staggering piece of idiocy that I need to scream about.

You see, Michael Sullivan's web site went live today, and I went straight to the issues page. I have combed through it three times now (yes, this is how I spend my Sundays) and I cannot find one single thing that would distinguish this as a campaign taking place in Massachusetts. It could be anywhere. Kentucky, Oregon, anywhere.

Oh, he's not the only one. Dan Winslow's issues page is equally guilty. Gabriel Gomez's has exactly one Bay State signifier, at the end of the health care section.

Let me explain three reasons why this is super duper stupid.

First, when you are essentially unknown and asking for someone's vote -- anywhere, but especially in parochial New England -- you need to assure them first and foremost that you know a little about, and care a little about, their particular patch of geography.

Second, if you are the Republican running in a Massachusetts federal election, you desperately want to NOT nationalize the issues in the election, because then you will get your ass handed to you on a stick.

Third, the GOP nominee's main line of attack will be authentic, genuine, in-touch Massachusetts, represented by the Republican; versus out-of-touch, dysfunctional Washington, represented by Markey or Lynch. So it's really, really important that people see you as in touch with, and identifying with, the people and places of Massachusetts.

It's really quite easy to do. Look at the opening paragraph of Ed Markey's Senate-campaign issues page:

Ed is a passionate voice for the families and future of Massachusetts. From standing up for the middle class, to fighting the special interests, to creating jobs in the innovation economy, Ed always puts Massachusetts first.

Scott Brown understood this. Here are just a few of the phrases sprinkled into the Jobs section of Scott Brown's 2012 campaign site issues page:

...create jobs here in Commonwealth... puts Massachusetts and America first... create and save Massachusetts jobs... saddled Massachusetts employers... would have crushed Massachusetts jobs... The medical device industry is huge in the state, with hundreds of companies employing 25,000 people... Massachusetts stands to lose thousands of jobs, while many will simply never be created in the Commonwealth... legislation designed to boost Massachusetts entrepreneurs... a new pipeline to New England would help keep electricity prices low for rate-payers, making Massachusetts businesses more competitive... free trade agreements (South Korea, Panama & Colombia) that allowed Massachusetts manufacturers to sell their products to more countries around the world...

Even that is more vague that I would recommend -- you really want to sprinkle in references like "Cape Ann fisheries," "Blackstone Valley corridor," "vital tourism trade from Provincetown to the Berkshires," "old industrial towns along the Mystic River," and so on.

If the web sites are an early indicator, the three Republican candidates, and their campaigns, don't get any of this. Which is just staggeringly stupid.

Issuing The LOCS Challenge!

David S. Bernstein — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:41:00 GMT

In recent years, all four major local sports teams have won their championships -- and with it, the league trophies. I frequently see pictures of pols, staffers, and other Massachusetts political folks taken with one or another of these precious items, some of which have made it into the state house and various town halls and so on.

What I'm looking for are those political folks who have done what I'm calling the Full LOCS -- pictures of themselves with all four trophies, the Lombardi (Patriots), O'Brien (Celtics), Commissioner's (Red Sox), and Stanley (Bruins).

If you or someone you know or work with has the Full LOCS, send me the evidence!

DiMasi & DoJ

David S. Bernstein — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:30:00 GMT

[Note: This was supposed to be posted yesterday, 3/7, but apparently I did something wrong, so I'm posting Friday]

We've been hearing a lot recently about alleged overzealousness of the Department of Justice, following the suicide of activist Aaron Swartz. The attention and scrutiny is good; but it needs to also come to bear in cases with less sympathetic figures receiving the questionable treatment.

That's why Milton Valencia's interview with Sal DiMasi's wife is a welcome sight in today's Globe. The treatment of DiMasi has the appearance of being, well, pretty much despicable.

Harvey Silverglate wrote about this in the Phoenix last summer.

It is difficult to avoid suspecting that the [Federal Bureau of Prisons] chose a distant prison in order to persuade DiMasi that, if he were to testify helpfully (translation: tell prosecutors what they wanted to hear), he would be rewarded with a more convenient prison assignment and other amelioration of his conditions and length of confinement.

You should read the whole piece. As with Valencia's article today, we are largely guessing at what the DoJ is guilty of -- but that's the DoJ's fault, not ours, and we should demand a great deal more accounting than we're getting.

Right here locally, we are chock-full with opportunities to make such demands. In addition to Swartz and DiMasi, we have the truly flabbergasting multi-year-and-still-going investigation of probation patronage, among others -- and we now have the former US Attorney, whose games of prosecutorial whack-a-mole were regularly raked over in the Phoenix, offering up his experience for examination in his campaign for US Senate.

Filibuster? I Hardly Knew....

David S. Bernstein — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:49:00 GMT

US Senator Rand Paul ranted for over three hours on the Senate floor today, in a filibuster protesting the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA; he would have gone longer, but fellow Republican Mike Lee decided to tag in to help, and then Democrat Ron Wyden took a turn. It ain't just liberty-minded folks on the right who have problems with the drones you know.

It will be interesting to see whether any of the Senate candidates here in Massachusetts come out to say they would take part in the filibuster.

Meanwhile, it raises a question: if you had to watch a Massachusetts state senator give a multi-hour, epic filibuster, who would you want it to be?

Sure there might be some you agree with, or who are smart; but could you watch them speak extemporaneously for four, five, six hours straight?

I think my top five would be:

1) Mike Knapik

2) Bob Hedlund

3) Gale Canderas

4) Dan Wolf

5) Mike Rush

Who are your picks?

Koutoujian For Kongress?

David S. Bernstein — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:32:00 GMT

Middlesex County sheriff Peter Koutoujian has tipped his hand: an eagle-eyed friend of Talking Politics alerts me that the domain name Koutoujianforcongress.com was registered over the weekend, by the sheriff's committee director and campaign manager Tsoleen Sarian.

Koutoujian lives in Waltham, which is in Ed Markey's 5th congressional district. As I wrote recently, the race to succeed Markey -- should he win the special election for US Senator -- has started early. State senators Will Brownsberger and Katherine Clark, and state representative Carl Sciortino, have all declared their candidacies. Koutoujian is among a large group known to be considering the race.

But Koutoujian has other options in front of him, including the Middlesex DA seat coming open in 2014 (with Gerry Leone opting out of re-election), or perhaps state attorney general if Martha Coakley pursues the governorship. Sarian does not appear to have registered domains relating to those positions.

That's hardly conclusive, but certainly a strong indicator of his interest

He's certainly not willing to be as definitive as Brownsberger, Clark, and Sciortino at this point. [Update: A spokesperson tells me there are no immediate plans to open a federal campaign account, as those three have.] Here's the statement he sent me in response to my inquiry about the domain name:

“My primary focus right now is serving the people of Middlesex County as Sheriff. I love this job and I’m continuing to implement all the reforms and other important programs we have started.

With his long history of service to citizens in our region, I am supporting and working hard for my friend, Ed Markey.

I believe it will be in the best interest of the Commonwealth for Ed Markey to represent Massachusetts in the US Senate. If that happens, I would consider running to serve the people of the 5th District in Congress."

Gay Is OK, Or It Isn't

David S. Bernstein — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 23:59:00 GMT

Let's just put something aside quickly: the Supreme Court ruled, in 1995, that the Allied War Veterans Council (AWVC) had the right to deny permission to participate in the South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade to the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Group of Boston. So, that's settled; we're not having that debate. As periodically must be the case in a free and open society, the courts ultimately decide just how big of a dick you're allowed to be, and they have decided in this case that the AWVC has the constitutional right, in this situation, to be total dicks.

So no, the right to be a dick is not at issue here. What's at issue, year after year, are two things.

First, whether the AWVC will finally decide to choose to stop excluding LGBT organizations;

Second (assuming the AWVC doesn't do the right thing) whether people -- and particularly political figures -- should choose to participate in a parade that excludes LGBT organizations.

These questions get raised every year -- MassEquality aways apply, and are always turned down -- but are getting additional scrutiny this time around, because of all the political action in South Boston that I wrote about recently.

South Boston resident Maureen Dahill, who is running for state senate, issued a statement Friday asking the AWVC to allow LGBT groups to participate. That prompted the Boston Globe to do an article about the issue, in which the AWVC's Philip J. Wuschke tried to be inoffensive -- you know, instead of the old days, when they would openly sneer at the queers, nowadays Wuschke says that he keeps them out for the same reason he wouldn't allow white supremacists to march in the parade.

No really, that's what he said.

See, according to Wuschke, any group that includes the term "gay" or whatnot in its name (or its mission, like Join The Impact, which was turned down last year) is inherently making a political demonstration; and a political demonstration, Wuschke makes clear, has no place in his parade next to, oh, let's say, the group marching behind a giant "Nick Collins For State Senate" banner.

Look, this is not difficult. The parade's organizers exclude LGBT groups from their parade, because they disapprove of them. Perhaps more or perhaps less than they disapprove of white supremacists, I don't know. But I know that they don't want gay groups in their parade, because they don't think gays are OK.

Well, a lot of us do think gays are OK. And so, we think that excluding them is similar to excluding, say, Jewish groups or black groups because the organizers disapprove of Jews or blacks.

This brings us to the second issue I mentioned above. The first issue has been answered: the AWVC intends to be dicks again this year, as usual. So, should people participate?

As with the rights issue, there's grey area when it comes to deciding what events to boycott; you're not always going to agree 100% with the sponsoring organizations, or the way they run the event.

But if you think it's OK to be gay, I just don't see the grey area in this one. I don't think too many pols would want to march behind a big sign with their name on it, in a parade whose organizers exclude black or Jewish groups because they don't like them.

Steve Lynch (who will be in a Holyoke parade, but will have a group marching for him in Southie) hides behind the irrelevant "right to be a dick" argument here; he and Collins (who reportedly will march; his campaign has not yet responded to my request for comment) are in kind of tough political pickles here. They both have long participated in the parade, so to switch positions now and boycott would A) implicitly concede that they've been doing the wrong thing for all these years; B) look like a change for political convenience as they are running in a wider area; and C) upset their base supporters while gaining them very few new ones.

I get that. And I feel for them, that the politically astute course of action happens to be the morally repugnant one -- assuming, as I do, that they both in fact think that gays are OK.

But that's why those of us who believe in civil liberties always emphasize the difference between supporting the rights of people to be dicks, and actually supporting the dicks, and their dickish behavior.

The people equating LGBT groups to white supremacist are dicks. You march with them, you're not just supporting their right to be dicks, you're supporting the dicks, and their dickish behavior.

And it seems to me, that's dickish behavior. And it makes you a dick.

Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Group of Boston - See more at: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/south_boston/2012/03/gay_groups_denied_permission_t.html#sthash.L9g8FCGG.dpuf

Politicians, Reading

David S. Bernstein — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:36:00 GMT

I recently noted that I like pictures of Massachusetts politicians reading to kids in a classroom. Well, yesterday was some sort of Read Across America day (Springfield's own Dr. Seuss's birthday is today), and my the photos are so good, and so numerous, I've started a site: mapolireadingtoclass.tumblr.com/. (And BTW my other one, mapoliwithanimals.tumblr.com/, is still active and growing!

Please forward along any pictures you have, to dbernstein@phx.com. They can be any Massachusetts pol, past or present, any time. If possible, include any details -- particularly the name of the school.

I'm not saying that a politician absent from the "reading to class" web site necessarily hates children. It's possible they could be anti-literacy. I'll let the voters decide.

Lynch Screwed By Omission

David S. Bernstein — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:54:00 GMT

There's a story starting to spread that Stephen Lynch is the only member of the Massachusetts delegation who did not sign an amicus brief, from the lion's share of congressional Democrats, against the Defense of Marriage Act.

It's true. And the excuse given, that some e-mail glitch must have kept his staff from receiving the information, sure sounds a little fishy, right?

But come on -- Lynch, regardless (or to make up for) his past problems with LGBT issues, has been rock-solid on same-sex marriage and in opposition to DOMA. If you haven't noticed, he's been travelling the land trying to convince Democratic primary voters of his liberal credentials. There is no way, in the middle of this US Senate primary, that he intended to be off that list.

It even makes one wonder whether the DC Democratic forces who have rallied behind Ed Markey in that primary may have deliberately stirred up trouble with this.

More likely it was just a staff error on one side or another, or maybe even an actual email glitch. But he's gonna have a hard time convincing anybody of that.

In Labor

David S. Bernstein — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:54:00 GMT

Kind of a big deal about to happen in the Massachusetts Senate primary: Lynch and Markey will address the MA AFL-CIO this afternoon, and then the executive board will vote on endorsement.

Lynch is expected to be close to the 2/3 needed for endorsement; but Markey, with support from teachers and AFSCME, probably has enough to force a no-endorsement outcome from what I've been hearing.

It's all closed to press, as usual, but I'm hoping to have a result to pass along by around 5:00 or so.

There's a fun rumor going around that I pass along not because I think it's true but because it shows just how much intrigue and paranoia goes on with these things. The rule is that to win the endorsement, a candidate needs the vote of two-thirds of the board who are present. So, the rumor is that the Lynch camp is trying to get key board members to play hooky from the meeting, to lower the number of votes he needs.

Gomez Meets World

David S. Bernstein — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:12:00 GMT

I think Republican US Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez has gotten an unfair rap for avoiding the press and public -- it's normal for a candidate, especially an inexperienced one entering a high-profile campaign, to take a little prep time before throwing himself to the wolves. Normally, that's part of the pre-announcement phase, but in this case, thanks to Scott Brown's dithering, Gomez had no choice but to launch immediately and start gathering signatures.

His silent period ended today, with a three-stop tour. I skipped the Quincy debut in favor of stop number two in the lovely hamlet of Shrewsbury. Gomez, looking handsome in a navy suit, open-collared blue button-down, and tassled black loafers, shook a few hands in Brody's Diner, delivered a brief speech, did two TV interviews, and took a few questions from the press.

I thought he was impressive; he wasn't exactly dynamic, but seemed very open and likable. His hands shook during his speech and when talking to the media -- which I found a little endearing, that a guy who has flown military jets would get day-one nerves speaking to shmucks like me. He also left out big chunks of his prepared speech (which he delivered without notes), which could have been a deliberate decision but I suspect was due to nerves.

His message is very Scott-like: Washington politicians bad, regular guy good; rigid partisanship bad, common sense solutions good. If the state's Republican voters are looking for another Scotto, this guy should fit the bill just fine.

In answer to my questions, he said that he would have voted yes on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization had he been in the Senate (see my post about this here), and on same-sex marriage said that "if two people are in love, they should be able to get married."

He also had what I thought was a pretty good line about sequestration: "they've bottled up a virus and mailed it to themselves." I'm less impressed with his populist call for member of congress, Senators, and the President to forego paychecks until they fix it, but I suspect that will play well with GOP voters.

Oh, also, he teased the Globe's Stephanie Ebbert for mis-spelling Colombia, and I do enjoy a pol who gives journos the business.

I still think Michael Sullivan is the favorite to win the nomination, for reasons I gave yesterday, and obviously today was just a first peek at the mostly unknown and untested Gomez, but my first impression is that he'll be a legit contender.