Decaf chimes in...

The Boston Herald scoops the whole town today with the following quote from the current Governor of Massachusetts:

Biz-savvy gov: Merger is `real shame' for workers
By Ann E. Donlan
Saturday, January 29, 2005

Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] slammed the blockbuster merger of Boston razor giant Gillette Co. with Procter & Gamble yesterday, calling the $57 billion stock deal a ``real shame.''
``I understand that there are going to be a lot of job losses. That's very unfortunate,'' he told reporters. ``I wish I had the power to prevent this acquisition from occurring. I don't.''

Whooo-weeee!!!! Dig that fiery populist rhetoric....man Mitt is just shaking his pinky finger in fury at the "malefactors of great wealth", isn't he?
Is Humble Elias the only commentator who sees an odd degree of irony at work here? Mitt Romney, the archetypical ideological colonialist, denouncing the remorseless corporate colonization of Massachusetts? The Chimes at Midnight doesn't understand his attitude....if Massachusetts is but a political thralldom of out-of-state wowsers and small government fanatics, why shouldn't it become a franchise-heavy business satrapy as well? In terms of modern conservative dogma, the one follows the other. Suddenly though,Romney offers up a tinny sounding dissent.
The answer is simple, Gillette owns a huge facility in South Boston and Mitt wishes to make some inroads among urban blue color cohorts. Given the atomized and demoralized nature of the American underclass, Romney probably thinks he can buy their loyalty on the cheap with the usual hot air-hey it works for the suburban independents so there is precedent there.
There are other benefits to be derived from this situation beyond grabbing off a few votes in Southie. The GOP's lucrative "moderate racket" is built on windy pronouncements that will never have to be acted upon in any way. Op-Ed columnists are unusually vulnerable to these types of effusions, being themselves wishy washy middle-of-the-road republicans themselves they tend to see moderation even where none exists. Therefore look for Mitt to revive his bona fides as a toothy moderate in the eyes of Scot Lehigh and the like all at the cost of one short quote in the Saturday paper.

Not a bad investment all told.

Sick
Demented
Typical,,,