[Update: I didn't even realize that yesterday, WaPo's Steven Pearlstein wrote that liberals fighting for the public option are like the French defending the Maginot Line. Man, these Third Reich analogies are infectious! (Although in Pearlstein's case, I'm a bit unclear about who the Nazis are -- Blue Dog Democrats?]
Funny, I don't remember it being so warm here. Anyway, I'm back and seem to have missed a few things:
--The Globe, apparently through a Freedom of Information Act request for 'emails making Aloisi and/or Grabauskas look like horse's asses,' got some insider back-and-forth from the Great Massachusetts Transportation Debacle. To me, they help confirm that Dan G. deserves an award for best political maneuvering of the year. Can there be much question that throughout this mess he was carefully plotting a way to get out before his position became directly answerable to the Gov (under new transportation reform), and without the headline being "Grabauskas leaves T as big a mess as he found it; clearly RMV was the limit of his ability"? On the other hand, did Aloisi really need to confirm our suspicions of his temperment by comparing Grabauskas's moves to the Nazi invasion of Poland?
--Of course, that was not the most offensive invocation of Nazis in local politics during my absence. That honor goes to Crazed, Ill-Informed Lunatic who went (out of her congressional district, it would seem) with an Obama-as-Hitler sign, to tell a Jewish, homosexual congressman that he supports a Nazi policy. Really, you'd have to work pretty hard to be more offensive than that. Oddly, the Herald reported the incident as a voter taking Frank to task over Obama's health-care plan. Yeah, that's not what that was.
--Speaking of national health care reform, it appears that nearly all parties have finally agreed on something: that any version of the legislation that is not exactly what they personally favor would be a disaster of epic proportion. It may be useful to note that we were at this point in Massachusetts not long before finally passing our health care reform. Or, perhaps it would not be useful to note that.
--A new poll says
that Deval Patrick's popularity is falling faster than the French under
Panzer attack in 1940 -- not surprising, I suppose, seeing how he hates little kids and dances around singing the Heatmeister song as they succumb to hyperthermia. And yet, same poll shows 19%-approval Patrick running even for re-election, which once again begs the question: How much must Patrick suck to lose next November?
--While I'm wondering how the public views Patrick's challengers as even less appealing than the guy they've decided they don't like... did I miss somewhere Tim Cahill's response to the court's rejection of the class-action call for an injunction against the state's use of toll funds? Cahill had urged the state to quickly settle that suit on account of the havoc it could cause, which sure looks like super-stupid advice given what's happened. Perhaps while I was away I didn't catch his explanation of why it was smart.
--Locally, there's apparently some story involving mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty, his father, and a beach house in need of repair. I'm sure it's an important story, with great relevance to the campaign, but I'm not really sure of the details on account of a medical condition that makes my eyes glaze over when people with vacation homes worth well over a half-million dollars complain that something might be threatening their property values.
--Finally... Did theGlobe really go top-front-page with news that Massachusetts will likely lose a congressional seat after the 2010 Census? Haven't we all known that for several years? Man, if that's been passing as news around here, it's a good thing I'm back -- providing truth amid the propaganda machine, like Radio London broadcasting into German-occupied France!
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