Deval Patrick Thinks You Are Stupid

When Joe the Plumber asked Barack Obama a tough question, Barack Obama attacked Joe the Plumber.

The citizens of the Commonwealth are complaining about Pike toll increases, Bechtel Parsons getting a $30 million parking garage contract, the Turnpike Authority giving out raises, all this while Massachusetts is losing jobs and trying to impose a gas tax hike, and Deval Patrick is calling us cynics, and stupid.

Enough with the “cheap shots,” said Gov. Deval Patrick, complaining again about media coverage and blaming criticism of his proposals on “cynicism.”

Oh yeah? Enough with the whining, countered a couple of critics.

Patrick was at Suffolk University to mark the state’s No. 1 ranking in a national survey of economic competitiveness when he made his remarks.

“We are awash in cynicism in the commonwealth, but the cynical are not smart; they’re just pretending to be,” Patrick said. “The truth is, we’ve got big problems, and we better start thinking big about the solutions. Ideological purity from the left or the right, in times like these, is like trying to put a Band-Aid on a broken bone.”

He wouldn’t say who he was talking about. Some pols have criticized Patrick’s proposal to abolish the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and other plans out of the Corner Office have been tossed back and forth on talk radio and in the opinion pages. GOP political consultant Holly Robichaud and state GOP party chair Barney Keller said Patrick has been his own worst enemy, citing unkept promises, such as lowering property taxes and adding 1,000 new cops.

Governor Patrick, GO SCREW! Who do you think you are calling stupid? Take a long, hard look in the mirror buddy, because staring back at you is the face of a man who will undoubtedly go down in Massachusetts history as the worst governor…ever. Go screw, Governor. We are tired of your broken promises.

If you are fed up with Deval Patrick and these cockamamie plans to jack up the Pike tolls while the Turnpike Authority is giving out raises, and Beacon Hill schemes to raise our taxes, think about attending the ‘Stop The Pike Hike’ Rally on December 3rd. For more information on the rally, visit stopthepikehike.org.

More on this story at Deval Patrick Watch.

Déjà vu, Sort Of…

Governor Deval Patrick has this idea to “dismantle the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and cut all tolls west of Route 128 except at two state border crossings,” reports the Boston Herald.

Under the plan, expected to be unveiled later this week, Turnpike operations west of Route 128 would be folded into the Massachusetts Highway Department. Operations within Route 128, the so-called Metropolitan Highway System, would be folded into the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Massport already runs the Mystic Tobin Bridge and tunnels leading to and from Logan International Airport.

The plan is an attempt to improve efficiency and try to mollify public complaints amid talk of toll hikes necessary to repair aging infrastructure and pay off the debt of the nearly $15 billion Central Artery project, said the officials, both of whom demanded anonymity in advance of the governor’s formal announcement.

One said dismantling the Pike “would keep a promise to the taxpayers,” especially western Massachusetts drivers who have complained about being saddled with Big Dig costs despite long-broken promises that Pike tolls would be eliminated once the roadway’s original construction bonds were paid off.

According to the plan, tolls likely will be raised inside Route 128, whose drivers make the most use of the Central Artery and its underground system of highways and airport connections. One proposal discussed by the Turnpike board in September called for raising tunnel tolls by $5, from $3.50 to $8.50, and increasing tolls at the Allston-Brighton Turnpike interchange by $1, to $2.25.

Toll booths outside Route 128 will be eliminated, except in West Stockbridge near the New York border and in Sturbridge, close to Connecticut where Interstate 84 meets the Pike. Drivers in passenger cars have not had to pay tolls between Exit 1, in West Stockbridge, and Exit 6, in Springfield, since 1997.

The change would extend the non-tolling area from Exit 7, in Ludlow, through Weston and on to Exit 15 in Newton, where tolls currently are paid only by westbound drivers. It also would drop tolls not only on passenger cars but commercial vehicles in that zone.

I know I’ve heard this idea before…but where?

Oh, wait, now I remember…

[Turnpike] Board member Mary Connaughton, who was appointed by former Gov. Mitt Romney, said the plan “sounded very much like what Gov. Romney proposed two years ago.”

Amazing.

The Price of Broken Promises: $657,000,000.00

So what happened to that property tax relief Deval Patrick promised? I must have missed the promised tax relief because now the Democrat-controlled legislature is on the verge of increasing taxes by nearly two-thirds of a billion dollars. 

In response to this, MassGOP Executive Director Rob Willington made the following statement, “This Tax Bill should be renamed to “An Act To Cripple the Economy of the Commonwealth.” The people of Massachusetts don’t need more taxes, they need lower taxes and less government. Instead of raising taxes, Governor Patrick should explain why he hasn’t delivered the property tax relief that Candidate Patrick promised.”

Does anyone support Deval Patrick anymore? He’s just a constant flow of broken promises.

The Audacity of False Hope

This morning, volunteers for Barack Obama were handing out reminders for an Obama rally tonight on Boston Common. Deval’s endorsement of Obama came as shock to many, but I knew it was coming. Sure, Deval was in the Clinton administration, but Obama has reincarnated Deval’s campaign, almost verbatim, in his quest for the presidency.

But, does Obama really want to be doing public appearances with Deval? Deval’s campaign may have been about “hope” but his governorship has been full of scandal, broken promises and politics as usual. The more Obama associates himself with Deval, the more people will that Obama’s message of “hope” would only realize itself as false hope.

In fact, the mirror-imaging of Deval’s gubernatorial campaign to Obama’s presidential campaign is disturbing. As the Boston Globe noted earlier this year:

” ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’ — just words,” Patrick said at a rally in Roxbury right before Election Day. “ ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just words. . . . ‘I have a dream’ — just words. They’re all just words.”

The crowd erupted as it got Patrick’s point about the power of language. But perhaps no one at the rally understood the point better than Barack Obama, who had joined him on stage that night.

Not five months later, Obama, his presidential campaign gaining steam, had this to say about legendary Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky in The New Republic: “Sometimes the tendency in community organizing of the sort done by Alinsky was to downplay the power of words and of ideas when in fact ideas and words are pretty powerful. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ Those are just words. ‘I have a dream.’ Just words.”

There are quite a few other examples, some shown in this graphic from the Globe.

Even former MassDem Chairman Phil Johnston said after Obama spoke at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in Washington in February that, “We all said that we could have closed our eyes when Obama spoke [and] it could have been Deval.”

As Deval Patrick’s governorship has shown, being anything like him is hardly anything to aspire to.

We Told You So…

Deval Patrick’s first weeks as governor of Massachusetts have been… undeniable lousy for him. Broken promises and reports of his reckless disregard for our tax dollars should have those who voted for him scratching their heads and thinking “We made a big mistake.”

Sadly, the devoted Deval Patrick shills are giving him a pass.