David Leonhardt explains it as simply and clearly as I’ve seen.
Category: Politics
The trouble with federal plea bargains
My friend and occasional collaborator Harvey Silverglate has a terrific commentary in the Boston Globe on the plea deal reached by federal prosecutors with Joseph Lally in the corruption case against former Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi.
Lally, a former associate of DiMasi’s, received quite a goody bag in return for his plea: a two- to three-year prison sentence, compared to the nine he might have gotten if he’d gone to trial and been found guilty, as well as the right to keep his home and $30,000 in savings.
“But leniency comes at a price,” Silverglate observes. “Lally has agreed to provide testimony that will help prosecutors. The dog gets the bone only if it performs the trick.”
Here’s what I wrote in the Guardian about Silverglate’s book, “Three Felonies a Day,” which painstakingly documents numerous examples of overreach and abuse by federal prosecutors.
As the case against DiMasi continues to unfold, I’ll be watching for objective, documentary evidence regarding his guilt or innocence.
Photo (cc) by Amy and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
The dictator’s last stand
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, speaking on Libyan state television. (Via Global Voices Online, which is compiling tweets about his speech.)
Obama’s solid State of the Union address
In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that President Obama’s State of the Union address was aimed at the public rather than the pundits — and that early returns suggest that he succeeded by emphasizing what keeps middle-class families awake at night.
R.I. governor bans state employees from talk radio
In case you missed it, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has banned state employees from appearing on commercial talk radio (public radio is OK). He’s already had to modify his stance: the ban is apparently inoperative if there’s an emergency.
In a puckish response, a Republican politico, John Loughlin, has decided to boycott Rhode Island’s public radio station, WRNI, although Loughlin hastens to add it’s “nothing personal.”
Back when he was a U.S. senator, Chafee always struck me as clueless but harmless. He’s still clueless.
Talking about the Tucson shootings
I’ll be on “The Emily Rooney Show” today from noon to 1 p.m. (WGBH Radio, 89.7 FM) with Emily and Wendy Kaminer to talk about the Tucson shootings.
Times lets Palin aide lie about gunsight map
The New York Times today fails to call a Sarah Palin spokeswoman on what has all the appearances of a flat-out lie.
In a story on the political fallout of the weekend carnage in Tucson that claimed the lives of six people and left U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gravely injured, Times reporters Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg tell us that Palin adviser Rebecca Mansour denied that those were gunsights on Palin’s infamous map identifying House Democrats she had targeted for defeat. Zeleny and Rutenberg write of Mansour’s appearance on a conservative radio talk show:
Ms. Mansour said that the cross hairs, in fact, were not meant to be an allusion to guns, and agreed with her interviewer’s reference to them as “surveyors symbols.” Aides to Ms. Palin did not respond to interview requests on Sunday.
Yet we already knew otherwise on Sunday, as a Talking Points Memo reader dug up a tweet purportedly written by Palin herself referring to the map symbols in explicitly gun-oriented terms. Palin or her designated tweeter wrote:
Remember months ago “bullseye” icon used 2 target the 20 Obamacare-lovin’ incumbent seats? We won 18 of 20 (90% success rate;T’aint bad)
And let’s not forget that those symbols turned red whenever one of the targeted Democrats went down — just like surveyors symbols, eh?
Few people are blaming Palin for the actions of Jared Lee Loughner, who has been charged with the Saturday shootings. Loughner appears to have been motivated by mental illness rather than politics. Still, Palin’s map was mind-blowingly irresponsible, as Giffords herself said some months ago. This should mark the end of Palin’s public career as anything other than a sideshow freak, much as Ann Coulter all but disappeared after she mocked 9/11 widows. Are the media really going to let Palin and her minions get away with this?
Traditional journalism is incredibly uncomfortable when given proof that someone is flat-out lying. But that’s no excuse for the Times’ ignoring the fact that there was already proof Mansour was lying — or, at best, was incredibly uninformed about her boss’ intentions.
Murder, politics and mental illness
One day in 1993, when I was managing editor of the Boston Phoenix, I received a letter from a man named David Taber, who claimed that the CIA and his father had conspired to implant a computer chip in his brain so they could monitor his thoughts. Such letters are not as unusual as you might suppose; what made this one stand out was that it was well-written enough that it took me a couple of pages to realize the writer was mentally ill.
Not long after that, Taber showed up at the Phoenix, looking for me, in order to discuss when we might publish his letter. I couldn’t be found, and didn’t know about his visit until after a colleague had talked him into leaving.
And then, within a few weeks, Taber walked into an elementary school in the Southeastern Massachusetts town of Acushnet, took hostages and murdered the school nurse.* Unfortunately, I had discarded his letter.
It’s because of that experience — and, frankly, because of common sense — that I’m put off by those who are trying to politicize yesterday’s carnage in Arizona, which included the attempted murder of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of federal judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl, Christina Green.
The suspected shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, appears to be very mentally ill. If you haven’t seen this video yet, take a look. I was especially struck by this Loughner statement: “I’m able to control every belief and religion by being the mind controller!” That kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
Now, by no means do I want to let anyone off the hook. I was appalled to learn that Giffords’ district was among those targeted on Sarah Palin’s truly demented gunsight map. I hope yesterday will bring the whole Palin phenomenon to a long-overdue end. And I scarcely know where to begin with this piece of incendiary garbage.
As Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said, careless rhetoric can have consequences. But that rhetoric did not create Jared Loughner. If he hadn’t gone after Congresswoman Giffords, he might have gunned down a school nurse instead.
*After posting this earlier today, I searched the Boston Globe’s archives and found a story published on April 17, 1993, that reported the details of Taber’s rampage in Acushnet. I’ve updated this post to include what I learned in that article.
Best wishes to Paul Cellucci
Media Nation pauses this morning in order to offer its best wishes to former governor Paul Cellucci, who announced last week that he is suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
I dug up this profile of Cellucci that I wrote for the Boston Phoenix in 1997. It’s a lot harsher than I remember; it came out at a time when Cellucci’s political fortunes seemed to be at a low ebb. But I distinctly remember being impressed with what a good guy Cellucci was (and is), friendly and down-to-earth with everyone he met.
Going back even further, I recall covering a debate between him and then-Democratic state senator Dick Kraus in 1988 at the Arlington public-access studio. Cellucci was a Republican state senator from Hudson at the time, and he and Kraus were acting as surrogates for presidential candidates George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. I remember being impressed with Cellucci and Kraus’ substantive, civil discussion.
Cellucci was a big deal at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. My then-Phoenix colleague Seth Gitell (now spokesman for Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo) and I were assigned to stay at the same hotel as the Massachusetts delegates — and, as it turned out, George W. Bush was staying there, too, which at the time was taken as a sign of Cellucci’s close ties to the Bush family. It didn’t hurt that Cellucci was a friend of Andrew Card, who would become Bush’s first-term chief of staff.
Cellucci also threw the party of the week, a great outdoor affair at what I believe was the 9th Street Italian Market. (Seth will correct me if I’m wrong.) At one point we were hit with a downpour, and Seth, the Boston Globe’s Joanna Weiss and I sought shelter under an awning.
Cellucci’s reward — the ambassadorship to Canada — may have fallen short of his hopes, but he served without complaint.
Lou Gehrig’s is a devastating illness, but may Cellucci nevertheless enjoy as long and healthy a life as is possible with that diagnosis.
Herald exclusive: Democrat says Republican could lose
In today’s episode of “Let’s Play Editor,” you receive an entirely predictable op-ed from a prominent Democratic political consultant who writes that Republican Sen. Scott Brown could lose in 2012. What do you do?
- Write a polite rejection letter to the consultant and hope it won’t affect his willingness to return your calls.
- Curry favor with the consultant by publishing his piece on the op-ed page, secure in the knowledge that no one will read it.
- Blast the piece all over the front page, label it an “exclusive” and slap a headline on it pronouncing Brown to be “THE NEXT COAKLEY.”
If you’re Herald editor Joe Sciacca, then the answer is #3. Although Rubin’s affiliation is disclosed, today’s front page will make me pause the next time I criticize the tabloid for allowing Republican operative Howie Carr to rip Democrats.