Think About It

A brilliant column by Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe, in anticipation of today’s US Senate race.

Blue Hill Avenue runs like a vein through the city.

It stretches for 4 miles, from River Street in Mattapan to Dudley Street in Roxbury, and a little more than a year ago there was an Obama sign on every block. There were Obama signs in Mattapan barber shops, in the windows of the apartment buildings opposite Franklin Field and Franklin Park, in the restaurants of Grove Hall, in the bodegas near Jermaine Goffigan Park.

Fourteen months ago, there was a buzz on Blue Hill Ave. and the streets that run off it like caterpillar legs. This is the heart of the biggest minority community in the state, and the energy generated by the prospect of Barack Obama becoming president was palpable.

Yesterday, I drove the length of Blue Hill Ave. and counted exactly two Martha Coakley signs. One of them was on a fence next to the Roxbury Energy Gas station, on the corner of Moreland Street. The sign wasn’t properly fastened. It flapped in the wind, revealing a “Mike Flaherty for Mayor’’ sign underneath.

If Martha Coakley loses today, it won’t be because she didn’t put up enough signs on Blue Hill Ave. It’ll be because she failed to convince enough of the people who put up the Obama signs on Blue Hill Ave. and a lot of other avenues across Massachusetts that Obama’s ability to get anything done depends on her winning the election.

Blue Hill Avenue voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Blue Hill Avenue voted for Deval Patrick in 2006–”Together We Can” and “No Ordinary Leader” signs were in virtually every storefront in late-October and early-November of that year.

Think about that as you go into the voting booth today.

UPDATE: Please be sure to join us Tuesday for a special Election Night edition of The Notes on Blog Talk Radio beginning at 8:00pm EST. We will be joined by Stephanie Davis of RFC Radio and Paul Couturier of Blog Talk Radio. Plus, more from WBUR, the Globe and Herald.

The Maine Reason

Last week, Maine became the 31st state to reject a referendum that would have legalized gay marriage.

With 87 percent of precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote in a referendum that asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage that had passed the Legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

“The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation,” said Frank Schubert, the chief organizer for Stand for Marriage Maine, which lobbied for the repeal.

For the gay rights movement, which has gained a foothold in New England, it was a stinging defeat. Gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine, framing same-sex marriage as a matter of equality for all families in a campaign that used 8,000 volunteers to get out the message.

Five states have legalized gay marriage — Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote.

Portland resident Sarah Holman said she was torn, but decided — despite her conservative upbringing — to vote in favor of letting gays marry.

“They love and they have the right to love. And we can’t tell somebody how to love,” said Holman, 26.

Hold on a minute here…let’s get the record straight. This vote did not outlaw homosexuality, it only outlawed gay marriage. They are still free to love to each other.

While the gay marriage opponents claimed victory, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, held off conceding until early Wednesday, when he issued a statement vowing to continue to press the issue.

The fight for marriage equality will continue, he told supporters at the Holiday Inn ballroom, where a buffet table included a three-tiered wedding cake — with two grooms standing side by side, two brides standing side by side and the inscription: “We all do!”

And this is why you will never, ever, ever see gay marriage be voted on by the people, and not ushered in by a small handful of judges. The pro-gay marriage movement knows that gay marriage will not survive a vote by the people…and they will stop at nothing to keep you from voting on it.

But hey, if you want to keep electing people that choose to effectively put duct tape over your mouths, by all means…

Here We Go Again…

To hell with Beacon Hill!

Legislative leaders on Beacon Hill believe they have narrow majorities in both chambers to give Governor Deval Patrick the power to appoint an interim US senator, in a sign that the controversial measure may pass. But the bill must still survive Republican attempts to delay or kill it through parliamentary maneuvers.

In a key development, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, who has been publicly noncommittal, made a decision to back the proposal and was privately calling members yesterday to make the case. House vote-counters said support among lawmakers numbers in the mid-80s – more than enough in the 160-member body.

Patrick has signaled privately that he’d like to sign the bill by Friday and make an appointment within days, possibly having an interim senator in place by next week.

But in the other chamber, Senate President Therese Murray has remained far more reserved in her support, talking with senators but not advocating for the change, according to Senate sources.

One high-ranking Senate official familiar with the vote count said the numbers are there for passage – but narrowly. It is that chamber that Republican Richard Tisei, the Senate minority leader, will try to table the bill with the hopes of delaying it beyond its usefulness, or shaming Democrats who are on the fence over to his side.

“The fact that they think this is going to move like a knife through a stick of butter – that this is going to be a ‘shazamm’ bill that goes through – well, it’s not,’’ Tisei said in an interview last night. “We’re going to slow it down.’’

Republicans don’t oppose the concept of an interim senator, but they think it’s unfair for Democrats to change the law for this appointment.

Murray and DeLeo both declined to comment last night.

UPDATE: Please be sure to listen to The Notes Wednesday night at 8:00pm EST on Blog Talk Radio! Plus, more from Howie Carr, Scot Lehigh and the Globe.

Outside Interference

Mr. President, please leave our electoral process alone!

President Obama pushed Massachusetts lawmakers yesterday to rewrite a 2004 election law and allow Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim senator to fill Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat, casting himself into a tight debate whose outcome, participants said, is largely unknowable.

Meanwhile, Senate President Therese Murray, who has been quiet on the proposal, said after a three-hour Democratic caucus that the heckling Obama received during a congressional address Wednesday might have influenced state legislators to support the temporary appointment, motivated by hopes for federal health care legislation.

Still, Senate and House members said the levels of support for the proposal remained unclear, despite consistent pressure from Washington Democrats that increased yesterday with Obama asking supporters to call their legislators and lobby for the bill’s passage.

Obama’s political operation, Organizing for America, called the empty Massachusetts seat, which would give Senate Democrats a 60th seat and probably prevent a Republican filibuster, “a needed vote in favor of real health reform.’’

“We need to make sure that Governor Patrick can appoint an interim senator until a special election can be held,’’ the group said.

Republicans said Obama’s involvement, after weeks of public neutrality, is proof that Democrats are motivated by politics rather than good government.

UPDATE: From the Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: More from Politico, Boston Herald and the Boston Business Journal.

THIRD UPDATE: From Joan Vennochi.

Crime In The North Shore

A couple fathers in North Shore cities have been making headlines this week, and not in a good way.

The first being the Beverly man who tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife, mother-in-law and young daughter.

The FBI and a “Crips” gang member cracked a vile murder-for-hire plot hatched by a Beverly man who wanted a cold-blooded killer to execute his wife, mother-in-law and 7-year-old daughter, according to an FBI affidavit.

“I would like an open casket for my daughter,” John Orlowski, 49, of Beverly allegedly said in an FBI-taped meeting with the Crips informant. The phony hit man then suggested he fire a .45-caliber bullet into the girl’s chest, and Orlowski allegedly agreed.

Orlowski was charged yesterday with using interstate commerce with the intent that a murder be committed, and remained in custody pending his appearance tomorrow in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

And next, a double-murder suicide in Saugus.

A Saugus man killed his wife and their mentally disabled adult son yesterday afternoon in their home, then called the cops before killing himself in the quiet Avalon Bay apartment complex off Route 1, authorities said.

Police received a 911 call to 2818 Founders Way at 2:15 p.m., apparently from Peter A. Allouise Jr., 60. They arrived to find the bodies of Allouise, his wife, Ann Marie Allouise, 55, and their son Peter M. Allouise, 26, Essex County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Steven O’Connell said.

One has to wonder that if these men were so unhappy as to want to kill their wives and children, how come they didn’t do what most deadbeat dads do and just hit the road, or get a divorce?

Both stories are reminiscent of the Entwistle story almost a year and half ago.