Graham-nesty
WTKK-FM star (and author of the forthcoming book That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom) Michael Graham extends an invitation to Gov. Patrick.
Gov. Deval Patrick’s new willingness to step into the trenches of conservative radio yielded an invitation yesterday from talk jock Michael Graham, but the governor said he wants the right-wing ranters to play nice.
“I’m not lookin’ for a smackdown,” Patrick said yesterday after speaking to building trade unions in Plymouth. “All I’m saying is, I want to be out there. I want to talk to people.”
WTKK-FM’s Graham said, “We may not agree with him on everything, but the notion that this is some kind of lion’s den – please! It’s just people talking.”
Graham said he promised the governor there would be no “violence or nudity.”
Of Graham’s olive branch, Patrick said, “that’s very nice of him.”
The Herald reported yesterday that Patrick, seeking to gain traction in a tough three-way fight to retain the Corner Office, was “open” to hitting the airwaves with previously shunned right-wing hosts. Graham immediately invited Patrick on his show yesterday.
Patrick’s staff said he couldn’t fit a last-minute appearance into his schedule, but that he’d go on the air with Graham within weeks.
It appears, however, that Patrick won’t show up on another popular show:
Patrick aides were considering putting the governor on Herald columnist and WRKO-AM (680) host Howie Carr’s show, but Patrick seemed skittish about the idea.
“We’ll see,” he said.
There’s another show you can do, Governor! Come on, man! Do I have to beg?
UPDATE: More from the Globe and Herald.
An Alternative Take
Dan Kennedy reminds us that Gov. Patrick’s defeat is far from a foregone conclusion.
For one thing, Patrick, despite his missteps, has managed to score some notable victories, including tough ethics reform, taxpayer-friendly changes to the public-employee pension system (although not enough), reorganisation of the state’s wretched transportation bureaucracy and an education-reform law that emphasises standards and accountability.
Patrick’s efforts to combat carbon emissions led a former California environmental official to say that Patrick “is trying to make California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a carbon girlie man”. Moreover, Patrick, a formidable campaigner, has maintained his nice-guy persona, with no hint of personal scandal. That matters in a state whose last three house speakers have run afoul of the authorities, and in which a state senator was caught by a surveillance camera stuffing cash down her bra.
Further, Kennedy notes:
The point is that whether Patrick loses his re-election bid, as expected, or manages an improbable comeback, it will have nothing to do with Barack Obama.
Despite their surface similarities, Patrick’s and Obama’s life experiences are dramatically different. Patrick grew up poor in a black section of Chicago. Obama’s existence, by contrast, was rootless and marked by his struggle for a racial identity.
One important characteristic defines them both, however. Each was elected promising not just to enact a specific set of proposals but to change the very way business is conducted. Each has found it much harder than he’d expected to fulfill that promise.
If Deval Patrick loses this autumn, it will tell us little about what Massachusetts voters think about Obama. But if he wins, it may provide Obama with something of a road map he can study – and possibly follow to his own re-election victory in 2012.
Kennedy’s piece is a must-read. If nothing else, it reminds those of us fundamentally opposed to Patrick’s vision just how much work needs to be done.
UPDATE: Please be sure to join us Wednesday night at 8:00pm EST for the latest edition of The Notes on Blog Talk Radio! Our guests will be pollster Scott Rasmussen and author Marc Thiessen. Plus, more from Scot Lehigh, Howie Carr and the Boston Herald.
SECOND UPDATE: Gov. Patrick is willing to appear on conservative-leaning talk radio shows? I can think of one conservative-leaning talk radio show where he’ll receive a warm welcome! Plus, more from Howie Carr, David Bernstein, Rasmussen Reports, the Herald and Globe.
Sock It To Me!
Good Lord, it’s come down to this.
How do you know it’s election season? When Governor Deval Patrick takes time out of his day to more or less encourage a bunch of high school students visiting the State House to vote for him.
Popping out of his fourth-floor office on Wednesday, Patrick went down to a third-floor hallway where the championship girls soccer team from Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton had gathered before they were honored on the House floor.
Patrick greeted the girls, and told them that state law allows them to register to vote as long as they will be 18 before the next election. He repeated a frequent refrain that citizens get the government they deserve, and if they don’t get involved, government will be run by “professionals’’ who may not have their best interests in mind.
If Massachusetts citizens get the government they deserve, then what have we done to deserve this?
UPDATE: More from the Globe and Herald.
SECOND UPDATE: From Red Mass Group, the Herald and Globe.
THIRD UPDATE: Charley Manning interviews Gov. Patrick. Plus, more from Holly Robichaud, the Herald and Globe.
Line in the Sand
Gov. Deval Patrick’s lightning fast reversal yesterday on a controversial $5 Registry of Motor Vehicles fee unveiled by the Herald was an election year bid by the struggling governor to prove he can be responsive to Bay State voters, said political analysts.
“There’s such a populist outrage against any new taxes or hidden taxes, he couldn’t take on another charge that he has a tin ear to the people,” said Boston University political professor Thomas Whalen.
Patrick halted the fee – and vowed to hand out refunds – only one day after the Herald reported his administration had quietly installed a $5 charge for customers who renew their license or registration with an RMV employee at a branch office or on the phone.
“I appreciate what the registrar and (transportation) secretary are trying to do, but we’re going to have to look for another way to do this because the pushback has been actually quite understandable,” Patrick said.
Critics branded the new charge, which even caught legislators by surprise, as a “backdoor” tax on the poor and elderly.
Patrick said yesterday he supports the move to encourage more RMV transactions online, but said he didn’t want to burden taxpayers during hard economic times. The fee will be rescinded as soon as possible.
“I think he knows he’s got to look a lot better,” said John C. Berg, a political professor at Suffolk University.
Patrick’s dismal showing in recent polls means “he’s got to campaign from now to the election if he’s going to convince voters he’s on their side,” Berg said.
RMV began charging the fee Monday for anyone who walked into a branch office to renew a license, a registration or request a duplicate license. Motorists who used mail, the Internet, or the automated phone system were not charged.
UPDATE: Please be sure to join us Wednesday night at 8:00pm EST for the latest edition of The Notes on Blog Talk Radio! Our guests will be authors Dr. Roy W. Spencer and Steven L. Pease. Plus, more from the Herald.
SECOND UPDATE: More from the AP, Herald and Globe.
THIRD UPDATE: More from the Herald, CNN.com and the AP.
This Guy Sucks
Is this not the unofficial end of Gov. Patrick’s tenure?
Gov. Deval Patrick is quietly whacking beleaguered Bay State motorists with a $5 fee to use Registry of Motor Vehicle branches to renew their licenses and registrations, outraging critics who say the “back-door tax” hits poor and elderly drivers the hardest.
The fee, which goes into effect today, comes on the heels of a $10 license renewal increase last year.
“In this economic climate we shouldn’t be nickel-and-diming people for mandated services,” said state Sen. Steve Baddour (D-Methuen), who co-chairs the Legislative Transportation Committee, and is planning to look into repealing the fee.
Republicans said residents ought to be able to walk in and use their RMV branches without penalty.
“This is a back-door tax that hits the poor and elderly the hardest,” said Tarah Donoghue, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Republican Party. “They can’t afford or don’t have Internet access and computers. The Patrick-Murray administration is burdening those people who can afford it the least.”
Customers will incur the new $5 fee if they speak with an RMV representative on the phone or go in to one of the 30 branches for the following services:
Renewing your driver’s license (except for the 10-year renewal required in person);
Getting a duplicate license or Massachusetts ID;
Renewing your registration; or
Requesting an attested driving record.
The fee won’t be charged for transactions completed online, by mail, or over the RMV’s automated phone system.
“We want to discourage people from going to the branches,” said Ann Dufresne, a spokeswoman for the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
UPDATE: More from NECN, the Herald and Wall Street Journal.
SECOND UPDATE: More from Michael Graham and the Herald.
THIRD UPDATE: Gov. Patrick changes his mind. More from Todd Feinburg.
