ALSO INSIDE
Paying the tab on lavish lifestyle
Howie Carr: Gov. Baker skips key Republican events
Gov. James Michael Curley used to complain that it was tiresome work, posing as a reformer. His successor, Charlie Baker, feels the same way about posing — as a Republican.
Which is why Tall Deval has basically decided not to do it anymore. Consider Saturday — in the morning he flew to Nantucket to meet Vice President Mike Pence at the airport. Pence was on the island for a $2,800-a-head GOP fundraiser.
Do you think Tall Deval went to the event? Hell, no. His daily schedule always includes a notation about whether events are open to the press. His grip ‘n’ greet with Pence was CLOSED.
Remember, Tall Deval is a publicity hog who invites photogs to the opening of … an envelope. If they can’t make it, his staff emails out pictures to the media.
But Saturday, forget about it. Then, Tall Deval was supposed to attend a fundraiser for the Republican state committee in Gloucester last night. But Friday, in a fit of pique, he decided to blow it off. He was angry that the state GOP chairman, Jim Lyons, had decided to blow the lid off the out-of-control bills that Tall Deval’s minions have been running up these last two years on the party’s dime.
Bottom line: The only event Tall Deval would less rather attend than a Republican cocktail party is an MBTA derailment, of which he has two or three to choose from every week.
At the state committee, Tall Deval’s hacks have squandered astonishing amounts, not on winning elections, but on their own lavish lifestyles — $102,836.78 on meals in 2017-18 alone, not to mention $164,000 on the parking garage across Merrimac Street from party headquarters, more than a half-million on “polling,” and untold hundreds of thousands more on “consultants.”
“And yet there wasn’t a dime to give to my campaign?” said one defeated GOP candidate Friday.
Tall Deval’s crew of RINOs practically lived at local steak houses, dropping $23,414.51 in 24 visits to The Capital Grille and another $3,782.37 on 11 meals at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Smith & Wollensky was another favorite destination — $2,725.61 in five visits. The hungry hacks also spent $2,474.84 during seven visits to Grill 23 & Bar and another $2,450.19 on nine meals at Del Frisco’s.
Ever hear of The Breakers in Palm Beach? Bob Kraft has a $10 million condo there. A glass of house wine costs $40 in the seacounty food bar.
Of course, cost is no object if you’re spending other people’s money. The GOP hacks dropped more than $2,000 at The Breakers. While in Palm Beach, they’d also dine at The Colony ($823.77), or stroll down Royal Poinciana Way to Cucina ($350.53).
This wild spending spree was presided over by Kirsten Hughes, who was state party chairwoman. She’s now the $137,000-a-year “special sheriff” at the Norfolk County jail, up to her same old tricks, wasting other people’s money, this time the taxpayers’.
Taking a moment out from puffing on her Parliament Lights, Hughes just approved a whole series of almost 20% raises for hacks.
Stephen Randall went from $97,730 to $115,000, Kristin Connolly from $97,730 to $117,000, and Robert Dillon from $99,497 to $115,000.
Seems like an awful lot for three payroll Charlies who never even went to college, although the flack for the hack sheriff Gerry McDermott assured me it’s not a problem:
“As a result of their pay increases, these three individuals have also committed to pursuing additional certifications and credentials to further their professional development in their respective areas of expertise.”
That’s a relief. Did I mention another GOP hack who works down there in Dedham with Kirsten? His name is Greg Casey, a former Scott Brown payroll patriot. Casey was hired for his $97,000-a-year hack job moments after Tall Deval appointed Gerry McDermott, a former Boston city councilor, sheriff last December. McDermott’s old job: working in Scott Brown’s U.S. Senate office, right beside Greg Casey.
McDermott is Tall Deval’s favorite kind of Republican: he’s really a Democrat, just faking it as a Republican.
Meanwhile, Hughes fires up another coffin nail and wonders if Tall Deval is still going to nominate her for that open clerk-magistrate’s job in the Stoughton District Court.
If she does get the nomination, which of her million-dollar spending sprees do you suppose the governor’s councilors will grill her on first — the one at the state committee last year, or the current one that’s ongoing at the Dedham jail?
Back in the day, the aforementioned Gov. Curley used to call the Governor’s Council a “hock shop.” Gov. Tall Deval better bring lots of bright and shiny baubles to the council if he wants them to rubber-stamp a hack as clueless as Kirsten Hughes.