If you’re the governor of Massachusetts, and you think it would be a good idea to put the state treasurer on the casino-gambling board that you propose to create, wouldn’t you let him know before you file legislation to that effect?
Not if you’re Deval Patrick, who apparently didn’t tell State Treasurer Tim Cahill about his plans. Despite being a casino supporter, Cahill immediately walked away from the offer. “I don’t think it’s a good business model to have elected officials as part of the oversight process,” he told the Boston Globe’s Andrea Estes.
Patrick also didn’t tell State Auditor Joe DeNucci that he wants him to serve on the board. But apparently that’s OK with DeNooch.
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Anonymous
Ahhhh, the life of blogger. You don’t have to worry about little facts like how to spell someone’s name correctly.It’s DeNucci, which is easily checked. Doesn’t it call into question everything else you write? Or is this what you’re teaching your students at Northeastern? Write first, worry about facts later…
Dan Kennedy
Now fixed. But what a strange comment. You will find misspelled names in the paper every day. Would you say, “Ahhhh, the life of a reporter”? For the record, I don’t like misspelling names. Occasionally it happens.
Steve
Anon 8:56 – Dan is on the record with his adamant stance against misspelling names.But what I don’t understand is Cahill’s stance against elected officials being in an oversight role on casinos. Isn’t it better to have someone directly accountable to voters than to have appointees doing the oversight?The vast sums of money involved allow the oversight positions to become tempting opportunities for corruption. Won’t elected officials be more visible and more likely to be above board than appointees?
Anonymous
Anon. 8:56 – Like you, I choose to post anonymously here. But if I were going to be such a snarky little jerk about spelling in a blog, I’d feel obligated to identify myself so that others could proof my body of work.Ya know?So you evidently don’t share DK’s views on the casino plan. Address the substance.
Peter Porcupine
Steve – your comment is very intelligent, and demonstrates why it is incompatible with state business models.GamblePort will be staffed with unelected favorites – except for DeNooch, who may or may not have been awakened to hear the news. He will, however, fit right in with the rest of the Board, due to his lack of financial training, other than counting purses in the prize ring.We do not LIKE even the token voter accountability at the Bacon Hill level – we like Ports and Authorities, with shaky lines of command and responsibility.Deval has yet to convince me he may yet be able to ‘work’ with the Democratic Legislature, if he cannot grasp such a basic tenet of organization there.
Anonymous
Either I’m doing something wrong, my system is screwed up, or you just don’t dig my comments. This is the fourth, and last, time I’ll try to post.Anyway, as I’ve tried to say in the past, I’m a lefty who really wants to like Deval Patrick. The problem is, he doesn’t seem to do even a modicum of homework before his grand plans. Casino gambling? Competitive car insurance? You name it and it seems that, in one or two news cycles after one of his pronouncements, some key detail that wasn’t thought of emerges.
Dan Kennedy
Anon 12:16: You may be doing something wrong. This is the first time I’ve seen this comment.
O-FISH-L
What’s up with the sudden but large chasm between Deval Patrick and Tim Cahill?Wasn’t Cahill one of the earliest big-name MA Democrats to back Patrick in his run for Governor? Doesn’t Patrick employ in key roles Doug Rubin and Mike Morris, former top aides to Cahill?Why then is there such a lack of communication between Patrick and Cahill and why isn’t anybody reporting on it? As a Republican, I’m thrilled with the on-going bungling by the Patrick administration, but this is really getting strange.
Steve
Dan and 12:16 – It might be the word verification thing. It times out. If you take a non-trivial amount of time entering your comment, then enter the word verification word, the word verification doesn’t “take”.(It also may have something to do with commenting anonymously.)I have started to do a 2-step in commenting. Type my comment, hit “preview” without entering a word verification word, and *then* entering the word at the next prompt (and since I do this “quickly enough”, the word verification succeeds without timing out).
Anonymous
Anon. 12:16 – Sometimes you have to go through the “word verification” thing more than once here. You can tell if it’s necessary by scrolling to the very top of the comment window and checking for a message that says your comment has been submitted. If no message, scroll down and enter the code again. Your comment will stay in the dialog box until you’re successful.
Dan Kennedy
Why then is there such a lack of communication between Patrick and Cahill and why isn’t anybody reporting on it?Hmmm … uh, Fish, what do you call a front-page story in the Globe?
Anonymous
Adding to anon 12:16 – Why am I not shocked to hear that Patrick’s casino plans and others are full of grand promises in the begining but full of oversights and neglect on important details? Isn’t that exactly what his campaign was full of? Promise the moon and we’ll worry about the specifics later.I always thought it was unfortunate he won the Democratic nomination and now I know it.Hey, at least for me personally as a gay man, he helped shorten the legal battle over the gay marriage issue.
parsimonious
So, Cahill doesn’t want it. How about substituting the Inspector General (he has subpoena powers), in his place on the Board ?
Peter Porcupine
The IG WOULD fit in with the unelected zeitgeist….
O-FISH-L
At 1:14 PM, Dan said: “Hmmm … uh, Fish, what do you call a front-page story in the Globe?”Dan – Unless I’m missing something, the Globe piece contains no specifics about the growing political disconnect between Patrick and Cahill, who less than a year ago forged a winning Democrat alliance. That rift deserves an in-depth story in and of itself. After receiving early, crucial support from Cahill and recruting at least two top Cahill aides (Rubin and Morris) presumably with Cahill’s blessing, now neither Patrick nor those aides can pick-up the phone to inform Cahill what’s going on? Enquiring minds would love to know, what the hell is happening between these two former allies? How deep is the rift? When did it start? Why did it start? Where’s it headed? Is it just on the casino issue or are there deeper problems? Is this the beginning of Cahill v. Patrick in 2009?My point at 12:55 was that the rift deserves a story of its own, ’tis all.
Anonymous
Fact is, I do agree with Dan’s position on casinos, but he continually hurts the cause by getting simple facts wrong, like the spelling of the STATE AUDITOR’S names.
Dan Kennedy
Well, that’s quite a statement. I made a mistake today, but I’ll put my record of spelling people’s names right up against anyone’s. “Continually … getting simple facts wrong”? Do tell. I don’t see you citing anything.I’ll tell you one difference between blogging and writing for publication, since you brought it up with your first comment. I’ve never written for publication without having an editor improve it. When you blog, your readers are your editors.No, I don’t want to be continually screwing up, but if I can improve a post because of a reader’s input, well, that’s just another reason why the Internet is better than print.
Gladys Kravitz
Dan, I beleive the first comment to this blog was made by none other than Middleboro’s ‘VegasVal’, though she goes by many names. (I know the real one.) Everything is personal, and every miniscule fault is armeggedon – and it’s all your fault. Welcome to my world.I don’t know whether I should be sad or cheered that I can now recognize people by their posting style. (sigh)
jamesgarnerisgod
Thanks for the posting help … actually, I was referring to not having seen previous posts on other subjects, but your points (as the kids would say, all y’alls points) are well-taken.So, instead of posting anonymously, I’ll post pseudonymously.