DDS Furloughs: Where Are The Cost Savings?

Governor Patrick is taking some heat from the Social Security Administration for his recent directive to employees working for the Department of Developmental Services (DDS).

In a move that defies logic, Patrick has ordered 228 of the 272 DDS employees that review applications for federal disability benefits to take furloughs. Other state employees have been asked to take furloughs as a cost-saving measure, but these DDS employees are paid with federal funds. Not only is the state not saving any money, but the furloughs are sure to slow down the processing of requests from residents seeking federal assistance.

In an interview with the Boston Herald, U.S. Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue called Governor Patrick’s actions “incomprehensible.” Astrue noted that the average waiting period for an initial determination of eligibility has gone up “at an alarming rate” – from 82 days in 2008 to the current 96-day average – and also told the Herald he “cannot rule out legal action.”

So what does the Patrick Administration have to say about this? Spokesman Robert Bliss admitted to the Herald that the state won’t see any cost savings. Instead, he defended the Governor’s decision as an attempt to ensure the “equal treatment” of all state employees.

Today’s Local Headlines

I read the news today…

Oh, Just Shut Up

Gov. Patrick sticks his beak into the US Senate race.

Rudy Giuliani and Scott Brown arrived in the North End, and the crowd parted.

“Go, Scott, go!’’ they shouted. “Rudy! Rudy!’’

This pair of Republican stars – Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Brown, the suddenly ascendant GOP Senate hopeful – soaked up every last bit of the adulation.

“I’m used to being here with winning candidates,’’ Giuliani said, citing his visits to Boston for Republican governors such as Mitt Romney and William Weld. “I like campaigning here because, frankly, they feed me.’’

Giuliani is hoping to christen another victor this time, his presence yesterday underscoring the sudden national interest in Tuesday’s special US Senate election between Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley, the state’s attor ney general.

Several hours later, Coakley was surrounded by heavyweights from her party, with state and national Democrats seeking to rouse voters with red-meat attack lines portraying Brown as out of touch with Massachusetts and the future.

“You just have to decide whether you want us to be a tomorrow country or a yesterday country,’’ former president Bill Clinton told a packed banquet hall at the Fairmont Copley in downtown Boston, an event Coakley aides said drew 1,500 people. “You just have to decide if you want to pick the person who gets to shut America down.’’

Clinton, who is helping lead American relief efforts for Haiti, which has been ravaged by an earthquake, cast his dueling responsibilities yesterday as “two sides of the same coin’’ because they both illustrate the need for good governance.

Coakley, referencing a Brown TV ad showing him campaigning around the state in his GMC truck, drew a roar when she said, “Just because you’re driving around in a truck doesn’t mean you’re going in the right direction.’’

Coakley’s campaign rally, coming as polls indicate a tight race, drew an assortment of Democratic operatives, elected officials, and fans of the former president. The free event was held in the glitzy Grand Ballroom.

Senator John F. Kerry launched into an impassioned attack on Brown, calling him “silent Scott’’ for not raising his voice during President Bush’s administration, describing the 30-year National Guard member as “AWOL’’ when Bush proposed privatizing Social Security.

“For eight years, he was George Bush’s yes man, and now he wants to go to Washington and become [Senate Republican leader] Mitch McConnell’s no man,’’ Kerry said. “We’re not going to let it happen.’’

Democrats spoke in dire terms about the prospect of losing a Senate seat to a Massachusetts Republican for the first time since 1972, in a bid to galvanize the state’s Democratic Party establishment ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

“The voting here is going to determine the balance of power in America,’’ Kerry said

“We have a fight on our hands,’’ said Governor Deval Patrick. “We’re fighting . . . the same folks who made the mess we’re in.’’

Wrong, Governor. Scott Brown is fighting the folks who made the mess we’re in. And by God, he’s gonna win that fight this Tuesday.

UPDATE: More from the Boston Herald and Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: More from Politico.com, the Globe and the Herald.

Going Rogue II

Can’t Democrats all just get along?

The administration of Governor Deval Patrick, in a sharp disagreement with Patrick’s handpicked Senate appointee, said yesterday that it would be a mistake for President Obama to grant US Senator Paul G. Kirk Jr.’s request to delay federal approval of the Cape Wind project.

In a letter to Obama earlier this month, Kirk, who has largely shied away from divisive issues during his two months in office, urged the Obama administration to hold off on a decision until a federal panel can devise comprehensive guidelines for development in the nation’s waters. But officials from the Patrick administration said the governor strongly disagrees with Kirk’s request and urges quick approval. “After eight years of thorough review and as the world convenes shortly in Copenhagen to tackle climate change, the governor believes the time is now to move forward with this landmark clean energy project – the only offshore wind project that has the potential to be built in President Obama’s first term,’’ Patrick’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, Ian A. Bowles, said in a statement yesterday.

US Representative Edward J. Markey, who chairs a key congressional committee on energy independence and global warming, has, like Patrick, strongly backed Cape Wind. In a letter sent to the Obama administration on Nov. 9, three days before Kirk’s letter to the president, Markey urged the administration to approve Cape Wind before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Dec. 7.

Markey wrote that approving the project would “send a strong message to international negotiators about the United States’ commitment to developing sources of clean energy and reducing global warming pollution.’’

Supporters of Cape Wind criticized Kirk’s request as an attempt to delay further a project that has been repeatedly challenged in the Legislature, Congress, and the courts. Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind, which is developing the project, said he was confident that the Obama administration would reject Kirk’s request based on the president’s strong support for renewable energy projects.

UPDATE: From the Globe and the Wall Street Journal.

SECOND UPDATE: From the Boston Herald and the Daily Free Press.

THIRD UPDATE: More from CNN, the Globe and Herald.

No One Gives A Damn…

…what Mrs. Patrick thinks about the US Senate election!

Diane Patrick, the governor’s wife, issued an impassioned plea yesterday to elect US Representative Michael E. Capuano to the US Senate, but the congressman hedged when asked whether her support might help him against Attorney General Martha Coakley, the perceived front-runner and sole woman candidate.

“It’s more personal than anything else to me,’’ Capuano said of the endorsement. “I’ve said from day one, I’m not concerned about gender issues.’’

Although Governor Deval Patrick remains officially neutral in the four-way Democratic primary race, his wife called Capuano a “tenacious fighter’’ who would make a difference on the Senate floor.

“Mike is, number one, a brilliant strategist, and I don’t mean that in the sense of campaigning, but in the sense of getting the job done,’’ Patrick said at a campaign stop before about 150 people at the Dedham Community Theater. “What you see in Mike Capuano is what you get. He is the most genuine man I know.’’

The primary election, to be held Dec. 8, also includes political newcomers Stephen G. Pagliuca and Alan Khazei.

The endorsement by Diane Patrick, a law partner at Ropes & Gray, follows similar public support for Capuano from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Kitty Dukakis, the wife of former Massachusetts governor Michael S. Dukakis.

Capuano said he is “proud’’ to receive Patrick’s backing, which follows the congressman’s early support for her husband’s gubernatorial campaign. But when asked to rate its importance, Capuano replied, “I have no idea.’’

UPDATE: More from Howie Carr and Jeff Jacoby.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Boston Herald.

THIRD UPDATE: More from the Globe, Michael Graham, Holly Robichaud and the Herald.