WITH BARACK OBAMA LIKELY headed to the Democratic nomination, it's time again to check in on Obama's secret-sharer of rhetoric and other political stylings, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. As a neophyte politician, Patrick rode a wave of hope into Beacon Hill's corner office, just as Obama is trying to do on a national level.
When we last left the Patrick story some six weeks ago, Patrick's popularity was plummeting, his legislative agenda lay in ruin, and he was in the process of redefining the phrase "ineffective executive" for generations to come. Since then, believe it or not, things have only gotten worse for the Commonwealth's beleaguered regent.
Last week, Patrick's signature legislative initiative bit the dust in humiliating fashion as the Massachusetts House defeated his proposed bill for three resort casinos by the not exactly nail-biting margin of 108-46. The fact that Patrick's own party controls roughly 80 percent of the legislature compounded the loss's embarrassment. But in Patrick's defense, the rout of the bill wasn't nearly as embarrassing as the fact that something so shabby as state sponsored casino gambling had become the signature issue of a man who ran on "hope."
The magnitude of the trouncing indicates how well Patrick has made friends and influenced people on Beacon Hill. Patrick and his minions were quick to blame House Speaker Sal DiMasi for the debacle, accusing the Speaker of engaging in ghastly politics-of-yesterday techniques like arm twisting.
DiMasi is a character. Talking like an extra from The Departed, he seems
like he's been around forever on Beacon Hill cutting deals and making life difficult for his political opponents. DiMasi relishes political operating and, unlike Politics of Hope practitioners, has never publicly deemed legislative wrangling an unfortunate anachronism. Given the demise of Patrick's casino bill, it seems like Patrick and DiMasi have developed a personal working relationship that won't be particularly salubrious for the Patrick agenda. Or it wouldn't be salubrious for the Patrick agenda if the governor had one.
One odd note about the DiMasi/Patrick mash-up over the casinos is that the backroom dealer, not the purportedly noble reformer, held the moral high ground. Patrick stood before the voters 16 months before his casino bill went down to defeat. If he wanted the public's support for such a measure, he could have campaigned for it. Alas, Patrick never mentioned what was to become his signature item on the campaign trail, apparently too busy offering platitudes of hope. In spite of its liberal politics and a plague of libertine Kennedys, Massachusetts retains a strong puritanical streak. DiMasi and the other legislators did the people's business well in keeping their government out of the gaming business.
APPARENTLY NOT CONTENT with merely a humiliating legislative rebuke, Patrick went out of his way to exacerbate his embarrassment with an oddly timed day trip to New York City. On the day the House voted on his signature measure, you probably would have expected Deval Patrick to fight for his bill with every ounce of devotion in true Politics of Hope fashion. Au contraire. Deval Patrick opted to pursue a very personal agenda that day.
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