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.

Arrogance

Human Events on Sen. Kennedy and Gov. Patrick.

You have to hand it to Democrats when it comes to how to fill a Senate vacancy: they have been downright shameless, at least in recent years.

Last week, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) made headlines when he wrote leaders of the Massachusetts legislature urging them to change state law and permit Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint a senator when a seat becomes vacant.

“I am now writing about an issue that concerns me deeply, the continuity of representation for Massachusetts should a vacancy occur,” wrote the 77-year-old Kennedy, in a poignant recognition of his battle with the same type of brain tumor which claimed the life of columnist Bob Novak last week. Underscoring his strong support for popular election of senators, the ailing Kennedy added, “I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.”

In calling for the legislature to give the power of appointing a senator to Democratic Gov. Patrick, Kennedy was calling on them to reverse the law enacted in 2004 by the legislature (then, as now, overwhelmingly Democratic) that took away that power from then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican.

As polls showed John Kerry either leading or close to being elected President in the summer of ’04, the legislature changed the law that allowed a governor to appoint a replacement senator, who would serve until the next regular election. As John Fund recalled in the Wall Street Journal last week, “Senator Kennedy made two direct appeals to the state senate’s president to revive the stalled bill, including a phone call to his home over a weekend.” The calls helped move the bill, which removed the governor’s power to appoint a senator and instead provided a “snap election” in five months. Romney vetoed the measure, but the legislature passed it over his veto.

Such a change was self-serving for Kennedy and the Democrats in 2004. Changing the law again and after such a short time would be even more self-serving.

UPDATE: From Daniel J. Flynn, Patriot Games Media, and Red Mass Group.

SECOND UPDATE: From Human Events, Boston Herald, Gayle Fee, CQPolitics.com, Holly Robichaud, RealClearPolitics.com and WBZ.

Titanic

Has Gov. Patrick hit an iceberg? And if he loses next year, will the hearts of progressives go on?

Governor Deval Patrick, in his first detailed comments on a Globe poll showing that he is struggling politically, told reporters yesterday that he was dismayed by the numbers but that they were the price he paid for making difficult decisions.

“I’m not happy about the poll,’’ Patrick said. “Who would be? But I also appreciate – and I think most people in the public do – that we have nothing but tough choices in front of us right now and those choices affect people, whether they are cuts, or reforms, or what have you. And because we aren’t running from those hard questions and tough choices, people are going to be sometimes upset.’’

Patrick, who faces budget problems that are likely to worsen, said he expects people’s frustration with the state of the economy to hurt his poll numbers.

“Campaigns are about explaining what we’ve done, and more importantly where we’re going, and we’ll have an opportunity in the campaign to do just that,’’ he said. “And the people will have an opportunity to choose whether they want to go forward or go backward.’’

Asked whether he regretted signing a nearly $1 billion boost in state taxes, the bulk of which take effect Saturday, he said: “I think it was the right fiscal decision. I did it reluctantly, but not without [ensuring] that members of the public wouldn’t be paying for the same old, same old.’’

“The reelection will come,’’ he continued. “We have an opportunity through the campaign to explain why we make the judgments we do, how difficult the decisions are before us all, not only state government.’’

The poll, which was conducted for the Globe by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, found that public confidence in Patrick had dropped dramatically and that he is running behind or even with his prospective rivals in next year’s race.

UPDATE: From Michael Graham, Andrea Estes, Matt Collette, Hillary Chabot, State House News Service, NECN and the Boston Herald.

SECOND UPDATE: More from Politico.com, Massachusetts Matters, Red Mass Group, Boston Globe and Boston Herald.

Patrick Aims To “Reform” CORI

Just over halfway into his term, Governor Deval Patrick has filed legislation that will lead to “reforming” the CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information).

Gov. Deval Patrick is filing legislation to tighten access to criminal records, a step he says will help ex-offenders make a new start.

The bill would eliminate access to what Patrick describes as “stale records” of those released from prison who have shown that they aren’t likely to commit new crimes.

Patrick said the bill would make it easier for ex-offenders to apply for a job and find a place to live. They would also be alerted when someone is reviewing their records and have the right to contest the records’ accuracy.

Prisoner advocates say the steps will reform the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information system, known as CORI.

Business groups say it will make it harder for them to learn about prospective employees.

It makes you wonder whose side the Governor is on.

Public Enemies

Michele McPhee vs. Gov. Patrick.

So, Deval Patrick wants lawmakers on Beacon Hill to “speak the truth” about the Bay State’s grim financial outlook.

Okay, Governor, let’s speak the truth. The truth is that within days of taking office, Patrick attempted to appoint a campaign fundraiser to the $75,000-a-year job of working as a personal secretary for his wife Diane.

That ill thought out plan was barely scuttled when he picked out a fancy Cadillac, and told the press that he was forced to upgrade the governor’s ride because Ford no longer made the Crown Vic — which of course was not even close to the truth.

Then there was the $55,000 upgrade to his office, courtesy of the taxpayer, and the unrelenting junkets, including one to China that cost us $250,000. While he was in the Orient, Patrick picked out an office in Beijing. That’s right. Beijing.

Right now, we are paying rent on office space in China, and you will be happy to hear that, “in addition to the state’s Beijing office, Massachusetts will maintain a satellite contact office in Shanghai,’’ according to the state’s own press release. What a relief.

We also pay for an office for Patrick in Washington D.C. — just in case he decides to go on an interview for a shot at a seat on the Supreme Court.

Then, of course, there are the patronage appointments that do not end. First his neighbor landed a $120,000-a-year job that never existed before. Then there was the Marian Walsh debacle. Between those two incidents — which I would argue are bordering Mafia-like corruption — there were other campaign contributors and Patrick supporters rewarded with contracts and jobs.

UPDATE: More from Holly Robichaud, the Globe, Herald and USA Today.

SECOND UPDATE: From Jon Keller, the Globe and the Herald.

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

FOURTH UPDATE: From the Herald and Holly Robichaud.