Pagliuca and the B-word

If you read today's Globe write-up of Steve Pagliuca's US Senate campaign kickoff, you know that the former would-be Globe owner's past donations to Republicans--including Mitt Romney--are going to be a campaign issue:

Pagliuca said he had donated to and backed Romney’s candidacy out of personal loyalty, because Romney had hired him at Bain Capital in 1989 and was a personal friend. It was, he said, a “case of friendship coming before politics.’’ Pagliuca said he has always been a progressive Democrat, but he was a registered Republican in the 1990s and has donated to Republicans, including $5,000 to the state GOP.

“You have to be loyal to your friends,’’ Pagliuca, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics, told reporters at a press conference at the TD Garden’s Legends Club. He said he has donated $131,000 to Democratic candidates and committees, “10 times’’ more than what he has given to Republicans.

What you won't get from the Globe article, though, is the fact that Pagliuca also donated $1000 to George W. Bush in 1999, as well as $10,000 to Jay Lucas, a Republican would-be gubernatorial hopeful in New Hampshire, in 1998. 

Of these donations, I'd say the Bush gift--which has been noted by the Herald--most complicates Pagliuca's always-been-a-progressive-Dem narrative. Whether the press elides it or mentions it repeatedly, a la the Romney donation, or elides it in stead could have a big impact on Pagliuca's viability.