Friday, January 25, 2008
Hope For One Term
Deval Patrick's newly-announced budget has accomplished one victory in his war for hope: he's managed to convince someone as cynical as me that just because you think the current situation is bad, doesn't mean it can't get worse. I figured "hope" would end up looking like the equivalent of midnight basketball, school uniforms, and maybe a few token reforms. Even in my darker moments I didn't imagine that his vision of the future would end up looking like the beer-and-cigarette-stained carpets around the dollar slots at Foxwoods.
When the Massachusetts legislature, in which Republicans play a role only slightly less ceremonial than the Sergeant-at-Arms, starts openly wondering if your plan is based on too much flimflam and tax increases, it's time to call the men in white coats. These guys shovel money out right up to the moment they think they smell constituents approaching with torches and pitchforks. Short of racking up capital gains taxes or requiring every ice cream shop in the state to give away free cones one day a week, it's hard to think of a way to make this baloney bonanza worse.
This budget goes a long way towards proving that his disappointing first year was due to more than beginner's [bad] luck. The Globe story implies that the legislature owes Patrick some sort of deference since he's a Democrat:
I wouldn't have given odds on this three weeks ago, but now it's a whole new world. Deval's put his cards on the table and he's showing a pair of twos. A year is a lifetime in electoral politics: just ask Hillary and John McCain, who've had the plug pulled on them more times than Terri Schiavo. Like Monty Python's Black Knight, Patrick's not dead yet, but he'd better come up with something quick if he wants to make it past 2010. ¶ 8:30 AM
Deval Patrick's newly-announced budget has accomplished one victory in his war for hope: he's managed to convince someone as cynical as me that just because you think the current situation is bad, doesn't mean it can't get worse. I figured "hope" would end up looking like the equivalent of midnight basketball, school uniforms, and maybe a few token reforms. Even in my darker moments I didn't imagine that his vision of the future would end up looking like the beer-and-cigarette-stained carpets around the dollar slots at Foxwoods.
When the Massachusetts legislature, in which Republicans play a role only slightly less ceremonial than the Sergeant-at-Arms, starts openly wondering if your plan is based on too much flimflam and tax increases, it's time to call the men in white coats. These guys shovel money out right up to the moment they think they smell constituents approaching with torches and pitchforks. Short of racking up capital gains taxes or requiring every ice cream shop in the state to give away free cones one day a week, it's hard to think of a way to make this baloney bonanza worse.
This budget goes a long way towards proving that his disappointing first year was due to more than beginner's [bad] luck. The Globe story implies that the legislature owes Patrick some sort of deference since he's a Democrat:
Poppycock. Patrick ran against the legislature more than he ran against Muffy Healey, so what do they owe him? If anything, this is a sign to start tearing him down in preparation for a contested primary, or hounding him off to a cabinet office in Washington should the Democrats win the presidency. It's not like this is a contested state where Democrats need the Patrick's coattails to win elections. Patrick's position is more like the one Jesse Ventura found himself in as governor of Minnesota, where the GOP and DFL were only too hapy to team up to clothesline him.But during 16 years of Republican governors, the Democratic-held Legislature got
used to controlling the process and not having to yield to the priorities of someone in their own party.
"They made no bones that a Romney budget went into a circular file," said Thomas Trimarco, who oversaw the budget under Governor Mitt Romney. "They are not used to it. They have not adjusted to this new dynamic."
I wouldn't have given odds on this three weeks ago, but now it's a whole new world. Deval's put his cards on the table and he's showing a pair of twos. A year is a lifetime in electoral politics: just ask Hillary and John McCain, who've had the plug pulled on them more times than Terri Schiavo. Like Monty Python's Black Knight, Patrick's not dead yet, but he'd better come up with something quick if he wants to make it past 2010. ¶ 8:30 AM
