Howie Carr: Drunken state senator loses perk job
Sobriety test only thing Sen. Brady qualified for
The bad news is, state Sen. Michael Brady is no longer chairman of the Committee on Public Service, which apparently makes him the only state senator in Massachusetts who is not collecting a bloated “stipend” for some phony-baloney title.
The good news is, after being stripped of his $15,000-a-year title Thursday evening, Brady will now have more time to concentrate on such basic tasks as, say, learning how to recite the alphabet, and counting backwards from 60.
As we know from a Weymouth police report, those were among the mental tests the inebriated incumbent Democrat failed miserably in the wee small hours of the morning of March 25, 2018, after he was pulled over for a second offense OUI.
He has now been removed as chairman after a surprisingly candid report by the Senate Committee on Ethics “Concerning the Conduct of Sen. Michael D. Brady.”
I phoned Brady’s State House office Friday and left a message for him. Then, on a hunch, I decided to call his district office — his real district office, which is Joe Angelo’s Café, very conveniently located (for Brady) near the courthouse in downtown Brockton.
A nice lady answered the phone at Joe Angelo’s. I asked her if I could leave a message for Brady with my name and phone number, requesting the senator to call me whenever he staggered in.
“Just leave it on his barstool,” I said.
“He doesn’t have a particular barstool,” the woman said. “He just comes in and sits … wherever.”
Which is exactly why Brady now finds himself the lowest paid member of the state Senate at $66,257 a year. The Weymouth police report is quite amusing — and we’ll get to it — but first let’s check out what the Senate Committee on Ethics discovered about Brady’s lost weekend.
It all started with a “community celebration” in Brockton on a Friday afternoon that continued “until the dinner hour.”
“Sen. Brady’s account of what happened next was less clear.”
For reasons that will become … clear.
“Sen. Brady said he had to drive to Boston to pick someone up from Logan Airport. He tried to park in the North End, but could not find parking.”
I guess he passed on the cellphone parking lot most drivers use at the airport because parking is so convenient and easy to find in the North End. Back to the Senate report:
“He needed a restroom, so he drove to the State House and used the facilities there.”
Wonder if he stopped by his office in Room 416-A for additional provisions during his pit stop on Beacon Hill.
“He then stopped off nearby — he did not say where
— and ended up doing shots of whiskey with a ‘bunch of young people.’”
For the record, Brady is 57 years old.
“He left the bar and stopped at a store to get something to eat. He did not pick up anyone at the airport.”
Instead, he decided to drive home to Brockton, and was pulled over in Weymouth about 2 a.m. Officer Christopher Dangelo asked Brady for his license and registration. Brady instead handed him a card identifying himself as a state senator.
“The Committee asked whether Sen. Brady offered his card in an attempt to influence the field sobriety tests. Sen. Brady replied, ‘I don’t know.’”
One of the first events in the Sidewalk Olympics is the walk-a-straight-line competition. This is from Dangelo’s report:
“Once BRADY stepped out I immediately noticed he was unsteady on his feet and felt as if I had to guide him to the rear of his vehicle.”
Dangelo then asked the lawmaker how far he’d gotten in school.
“Community college,” Brady said, after which he got a hack job at the Lottery. What an extinguished career he’s had. What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of him.
Next competition: recite the alphabet. Hint: First letter A, last letter Z. Ready, set, go:
“BRADY slurred the letters together to get to H, I, J, repeated the letters H, I, J, gave Officer Hubbard and I a look of confusion, then stated Z. … In my opinion BRADY failed this test.”
Next, a math quiz. Brady was told to count backwards from 60 to 40.
“BRADY again started out slurring the numbers and counted from 60 to 50 but kept repeating numbers in the 40’s. BRADY then continued counting into the 30’s before he was finally stopped. … In my opinion BRADY failed this test.”
I’m going to call Joe Angelo’s Café this afternoon before Tom Brady takes the field and ask them to leave another note on the other Brady’s barstool, a line from an old country song:
“Drinkin’ doubles don’t make a party.”