The no-blame game

During Deval Patrick’s first term in office his supporters didn’t just point fingers at Mitt Romney for problems Patrick inherited. They pointed at Paul Cellucci. And Bill Weld, too. After all, how many times did we hear that “16 years of Republican governors” had left the transportation system in shambles? That a 16-year legacy of tax cuts had deprived poor people and kids of needed services?

That’s why it is particularly rich to hear Patrick voice exasperation with Gov. Charlie Baker’s team, which frankly has been quite diplomatic about the problems they inherited.

Asked by reporters about being blamed for budget deficits, Patrick said yesterday he’s been “biting my tongue for some time now on that sort of thing.

“It’s what you hear. They’ve been in office now for whatever it is, a year and a half now,” he said after an event with Massachusetts delegates in Philadelphia. “Sooner or later, they’re going to take responsibility for the offices and responsibilities that they sought.”

Well, Gov: Does mopping up someone else’s mess count as taking responsibility?

If so that’s all the Baker team — with the aid of Patrick’s fellow Democrats in the Legislature, who shared the blame — has been doing since January 2015.

First there was a mid-year hole in the budget that was revealed by Patrick even before he left office. After Baker took over his team revealed that the $329 million deficit was likely more than twice that. He worked with the Legislature to close it, then a few months later had to do it all over again with the full-year budget.

When the winter of 2015 revealed the depth of the problems at the MBTA — and Patrick’s hand-picked administrator was muttering “Big Dig debt” anytime she was asked about it — the new administration had to fix that, too. There was more, of course. Hello, Health Connector?

Patrick and his team worked feverishly to frame his legacy, so we get why they’d bristle at even subtle criticism. There’s simply no denying they provided the fodder for it.