Massachusetts Politics

To the pundits and members of the chattering class I would say, Stop wracking your brains trying to figure out what was Mitt Romney thinking when he came courting Trump in New Jersey right after the election; instead, keep it simple and go with the most obvious explanation: Mitt wants back in the big show because he still hopes to be President one day. Since losing to Barack Obama four years ago, Romney’s been picking at the edges of the political game but has avoided jumping back into it, although you could say he came close when he called Trump out as “a con man, a phony and a fraud” -- a famously ineffective attempt to halt Trump’s march to the nomination and possibly position himself as a draft-able alternative at the Republican convention.   After Trump secured the nomination and then upset Hillary to secure the presidency, Romney was definitively out of the game, lost forever in the Trump dust cloud.   Or so it seemed.   Imagine Romney on election night out there in...

Trump wins and I can’t get out of my head the comments of a good friend who’s a relative by marriage, a true-believing Republican who’ll tell you that Barney Frank caused the subprime mortgage industry meltdown that caused the Great Recession because Barney wouldn’t let up on policies to foster home ownership by families that had no business owning homes because they didn’t have the money, never mind the mindset, to be owning homes, absent federally facilitated inducements. This friend is a retired bank lawyer who had a distinguished career in New York City and Chicago and he’s telling me last summer, to my surprise and astonishment, that everyone had “a duty to vote for Hillary” in November.   Why? Because this friend was part of a team of lawyers who worked on Trump’s first mega-bankruptcy in New York, circa 1990, and he had a long-running opportunity to observe Trump up close.   “I was in the room with him a lot,” said my friend.   “I wasn’t the only one in the room wi...

Hey, Elizabeth Warren! Hey, Ed Markey!     Listen up.   Please. I have an idea for a speech for you to give in the U. S. Senate.   If you decide it’s not worth an entire speech, use it as a talking point in a constituent newsletter or a pitch to campaign donors. The subject: President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court and the refusal by the Republicans who control the Senate to hold hearings, and vote, on that nomination. An opening on the court was created by the death of Antonin Scalia, who passed away in his sleep on the night of Feb. 12 or the morning of Feb. 13 at a ranch in Texas.   About an hour after the death was announced, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement asserting that the Senate should not confirm a replacement until after the 2016 election for president.   “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice,” McConnell said. On March 16, President ...

What could be more obvious in human behavior than this: rational human beings act in their own economic self-interest.    Thus, it was no surprise when Marty Meehan, former representative in the U.S. House from the Third Massachusetts District and current President of the University of Massachusetts, decided last month to buy a $975,000 condo in Boston and pay the mortgage on it with the $60,000 annual housing allowance granted him by the state. Meehan, who was appointed UMass President last year, works mainly in an office at One Beacon Street, in downtown Boston, and had been renting an apartment nearby for $3,900 a month.   When his landlord raised the rent, he realized he’d be better off buying a place in order to gain equity and make a profit upon selling it. Meehan and his family own and occupy a home in Andover.   He told the Lowell Sun he intends to use his new condo, which has two bedrooms, for meetings and meals with prospective university donors.   No ...

I’m an outlier.   Most voters are disgusted by now with the race for president and just want the whole thing over with.   I, on the other hand, remain wonderfully stimulated by the never-ending spectacle of presidential politics.   Or maybe I’ve been overstimulated to the point of derangement?   Earlier this week, I attempted to write an essay summarizing my thoughts on the race.   Many have encouraged me to do so.   (Thanks, Mom.)   But, struggling diligently at the keyboard, all I was able to produce were these meager jottings: -If lightning hits the outhouse on Tuesday and Trump emerges as our next President, I have a suggestion for our governor on how to get in the good graces of The Man: Hire one or more of his obnoxious sons as lobbyists for the Commonwealth in D.C.   When it comes to friendship, the Donald has always been a transactional kind of guy. -Senator Elizabeth Warren, I predict, will remain perpetually unsatisfied with Charlie...