More Healey hypocrisy

While the Herald slams Deval Patrick for the second day in a row with what essentially is the same story about hot tuna and squishy basketballs, the Globe offers two striking examples of Kerry Healey’s hypocrisy. They’re on the front page, but you have to go to the jump to grasp the extent of it.

First, Andrea Estes reports that Patrick raised about $20,000 at a fundraiser hosted by O’Neill and Associates, which lobbies on behalf of Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the Big Dig project manager. It appears that Patrick guaranteed himself the worst of both worlds in agreeing to this event. He asked that no Big Dig contractors be invited, lest he soil himself with their tainted money. But by letting O’Neill organize it, he gets the bad headlines anyway.

But let me call your attention to this striking passage:

O’Neill and Associates raises money for many political candidates, mostly Democrats. Earlier this year, firm officials said, O’Neill and Associates held a fund-raiser for Patrick’s Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. According to Ann Murphy, a former aide to Governor Mitt Romney who now works at O’Neill and Associates, about two-dozen people attended the February fund-raiser….

Healey’s campaign slammed Patrick yesterday for using O’Neill and Associates.

Asked about Healey’s fund-raiser at the O’Neill firm, a Healey spokesman refused to address her event.

“It’s another example where Deval Patrick claims he’s an outsider, but is following the insider playbook to a tee,” said Tim O’Brien, Healey’s campaign manager.

My next example is a story by Frank Phillips on Healey’s half-dozen or so votes to limit access to criminal records in 2000 to 2002, when she served on the Criminal History Systems Board. Healey, of course, has been attacking Patrick for taking exactly the same position. Thus Phillips’ reporting exposes a top layer of hypocrisy that should be clear to everyone.

But it’s worse than that, because, underneath the hypocritical crust is a gooey filling of still more hypocrisy:

Late yesterday, Healey’s campaign released a statement to the Globe saying her “experience on the board gave her a firsthand look at how the CORI [Criminal Offender Record Information] system does not serve the best interests of employers.”

“Based on the nature of her position to uphold CORI laws, the lieutenant governor became aware of the need for change within the system and that criminal records must be made more available to employers,” said Laura Nicoll, her campaign spokesperson. “Deval Patrick still doesn’t get it. He wants to hide this information from employers.”

But her actions on the board appear to contradict her public statements.

Deval Patrick? Hmmm … Kerry Healey actually voted to hide information from employers. Now we are to believe that she wouldn’t.

So she changed her mind? That seems to be what Nicoll is saying, but she doesn’t come right out and say it. It wouldn’t do for Healey to admit that she was for keeping the records of criminals secret before she was against it. Meanwhile, she attacks Patrick for holding precisely the same position that she did — a position that she actually got a chance to act on, at least when she bothered to show up to board meetings. (Phillips also reports that her attendance was spotty.)

Thus does Healey demonstrate her deep understanding of how the news media work. If you’re prominent enough, and a major-party candidate for governor surely is, then you can say literally anything and the media will report it.

The better reporters, such as Phillips and Estes, will make some attempt to put your statements in context, but it doesn’t matter. The key to success is to keep those sound bites coming. Those are far more likely to penetrate the public consciousness than the hedges and qualifications. That’s B4 stuff, and who reads that?