In Case You Missed It!
Bad Form For Reformer
Bad Form For Reformer
"This affair was a telling glimpse into the inner workings of the Patrick administration. And the truth is, what it revealed was not pretty. The machinations were ridiculous. The attempts to justify paying her top dollar were pathetic, and the outright lying about how it all came to pass was nauseating."- Adrian Walker, The Boston Globe, 4/3/09
Bad Form For Reformer
The Boston Globe, 4/3/09
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist
The more I hear politicians tell me that I am cynical the more cynical I risk becoming.
State Senator Marian Walsh invoked the new favorite term of scorn in stepping down from the post she never held at the Health and Educational Facilities Authority. In a cynical world, she lectured, people reach cynical and mean conclusions about the motives of wonderful public servants like her.
Her patron, Governor Deval Patrick, has long ascribed cynicism to anyone who wonders about some of his more curious decisions. A cynic, apparently, is anyone who doesn't recognize the brilliance of his every decision.
This fiasco was like Christmas for cynics. First, the governor appoints a crony - pardon me, an "early supporter" - to a job that has to be redefined for her to appear qualified. The administration spins a series of tales, all of them now discredited, about how Walsh came to be HEFA's ideal savior. As the tales unravel, the public predictably rebels. I would call the public reaction sensible, not cynical.
If Walsh had any grace or common sense, she would have resigned long before she did. A real friend - as opposed to a political ally - would have concluded long before Walsh did that she was causing her friend more trouble than this appointment was worth.
But both she and the governor apparently concluded that this was just another storm they could ride out. Not true.
It was painful, at the governor's town hall meeting last week, to listen to his attempt to justify this appointment. The best he could manage, in the end, was that Walsh was a good person who would be judged by her performance.
The thing is, nobody ever said she wasn't a good person. Frankly, I have no idea whether she is a good person. I just know no one ever made a halfway persuasive argument for why she should be placed in this long-vacant job, for a ridiculous amount of money.
This affair was a telling glimpse into the inner workings of the Patrick administration. And the truth is, what it revealed was not pretty. The machinations were ridiculous. The attempts to justify paying her top dollar were pathetic, and the outright lying about how it all came to pass was nauseating. (E-mail can be a devastating thing.)
Oddly, the governor still thinks they just should have handled it better, as if the substance of the move itself wasn't part of the problem. He also made the giggle-inducing comment that if HEFA doesn't straighten up, he will just send over another "change agent." To which the only response is: How much will you try to pay that person?
Patrick, like other governors before him, is understandably upset about barely-accountable authorities that have helped make a mess of transportation and other issues. But he will have a far harder time now selling himself as a change agent, to use his term. He will regret turning reform into a punch line.
In truth, the notion that HEFA was a hotbed of problems was never asserted, as far as I can tell, until Walsh wanted a job. Suddenly, it lacked transparency, was inefficient and duplicative.
When the $175,000 the administration wanted to pay Walsh prompted outrage, it was suddenly time to review all those out-of-control salaries at the authorities. I'm cynical enough not to hold my breath waiting for anyone's salary to get reduced.
Supposedly this is all trivial, just a bump on the road for the administration. Perhaps it will turn out to be that.
But the part of this that isn't trivial is the march it represents away from the values he espoused during the campaign. A year ago, Patrick was being bashed for refusing to "get" the State House; now it seems he has absorbed its culture to a fault.
At the risk of sounding cynical, it is more than a little dispiriting to see him become the embodiment of everything he proclaimed to oppose.
Click Here For The Article Link
|