Menino’s Blame Game
The Boston Herald’s Jessica Van Sack has a front page story today on Menino’s long record of blaming anyone and everyone but himself for things that have gone wrong on his watch as Mayor of Boston.
Yours truly was interviewed for the article:
Mayor Thomas M. Menino knows that ruling the roost in Boston means never having to say you’re sorry – especially when you can point the finger of blame at others over and over again.
The mayor has blamed the governor, the Legislature, the feds, state police, the firefighters union, plowing contractors, the business community, the gun lobby, weather forecasters, Sunday liquor sales, college administrators and the media when things went wrong in the city.
When the crowd got out of control at Copley Plaza at the release of the wildly popular PlayStation 3 last year, Menino blamed Sony.
When traffic gridlock shut down the city during last week’s snowstorm, Menino blamed Gov. Deval Patrick and local businesses for letting state and private sector employees out early – even though he cut city workers loose at the same time.
“He must believe nothing is ever his fault,” said Matt Margolis, a Republican political observer who co-founded HubPolitics.com with his brother. “He’s so insulated from criticism.”
The sad fact is that Menino has little to fear when it comes to his job. He’s handily reelected term after term, despite his lack of leadership or accomplishments. One example I gave was his failed gun buyback program. That was pretty much his “final solution” when it came to fighting the exploding gun violence in Boston, and it didn’t solve the problem or have any impact at all. Kids are still getting killed.
Menino is a failure as a leader. Unlike President Bush, who took responsibility for the federal government’s response (and essentially the Louisiana state government’s response) to Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Menino is point fingers and laying blame elsewhere. Sadly, the voters of Boston fall for it every election cycle.
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Matt Margolis is co-author (with Mark Noonan) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at The Buffalo Bean. Follow Matt on Twitter.
Mumbles is at his finest when crying about something, as are most liberals. Hmmm….. whine-bag comes to mind.
What do you expect from a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vault?
Hey Mumbles…..whose fault was it that it took me 7 friggin’ hours to get from Mattapan to Cambridge?
Whose fault was it that not one of the city’s plows was seen……plowing?
You can blame the State for the 3 friggin’ hours it took to get from Perkins St on the Jamaicaway to the Rte 9 bridge on the Jamaicaway…..a whopping 1/3-1/2 mile in 3 hours……the Jamaicaway being a State highway.
….but you cannot blame the State for the conditions on Boston roads when not one single plow was seen.
Yeah yeah….it’s all MY fault…