The SJC giveth...

and the SJC taketh away.
Margaret Marshall and her posse have upheld the state's appalling application of a 1913 anti-miscegenation statute to retro-actively annul any out of state gay marriages contracted from citizens of states that explicitly forbid gay nuptials.
Got all that?
We are now officially in the business of annulling lawfully contracted marriages.
What a TRIUMPH for civil society.
My view of the matter is gruesomely simpleminded, if the SJC can annul gay marriages, jewish marriages, catholic marriages or civil marriages could easily be next.
Think about that.

Meanwhile our ne'er do well Governor Mitt Romney cheered this decision in a tone thick with arrogance and power lust.
Cheap two faced bastard, god I hope he gets his boney ass kicked in Iowa.

The Caninedate

The Globe reports that Christy Mihos has appointed his dog "Reagan' (You just knew he had a dog named Reagan) "canine outreach director" for his nascent independent bid for Governor.
Normally this is the sort of piffle that eases us through yet another dismal gubernatorial campaign, but in Crazy Christy's Case it is yet another signifier that something ain't right upstairs.
The man hasn't proposal one to deal with the Commonwealth's deindustrialization, depopulation and isolation in the Federal Union, but his DOG seems to have latched onto a good sinecure hasn't he?
Hell, why not solicit the endorsement of "Krypto the Superdog" off the Cartoon Network or for that fact Mihos could whistle stop the state using a rocketship!
He needs a Lieutenant Governor candidate?
Reagan is right there!
Loyal, friendly, telegenic.
The only other sensible candidate for the second spot might be his wife's garden gnome...but rumor is, he is a Chinese import.
Otherwise, the campaign is off to a demented start.

What is Brian McGrory's Problem?

Vis a vis yesterday's column in the Globe, how is it he can see right through the alleged character failings of Congressman Mike Capuano but yet remain blissfully ignorant of Governor Mitt Romney's ineptitude, mendacity and indecisiveness?
***
Why?
Because Brian is a true believer in the spurious notion (held in common by him, Scot Lehigh, Joanie the spiteful etc) that only a MODERATE REPUBLICAN can hold a rampant state legislature in check.
If no such MODERATE REPUBLICAN is available, then Brian McGrory Joanie Vennochi, Scot Lehigh etc will all simply ardently pretend that whatever insincere corrupt jerkoff the GOP has nominated for Governor is in fact a paragon of simpleminded moderation.
That is why Brian McGrory can go after Mike Capuano tooth and nail, because the narrative he is prepping for the fall goes like this:
"Since the dems include alleged sharpies like Mike Capuano in their ranks they cannot be trusted with executive power, therefore Our Only Hope is Crazy Christy Mihos, Andy Card or our nigh weightless & witless Lieutenant Governor."
This is the SAME damn story these yaps have all been peddling since 1990, now today in 2006 Massachusetts is depopulated, deindustrialized, overpriced and disrespected from one end of the Federal Union to the other.
The answer to all these festering problems from out Messrs McGrory, LeHigh and Vennochi is a loud chorus of "FOR GOD'S SAKE WE NEED MORE OF THE SAME!!!"

Card ist Kaput...

MSNBC et al are reporting that White House Chief of Staff Andy Card is resigning and being replaced by Josh Whozis from the Budget Office.
This might fuel a "Card for Governor" boomlet as Andy has been the secret man on horseback for the local GOP for nigh on twenty years now. Of course in all that time Andy has betrayed no real interest in the Office of Governor or Massachusetts preferring instead to mix up the drinks in Crawford Texas and Kennebunkport Maine. However things change, people develop new ambitions...if Mihos is crazy and Healey is a trivia yap, Andy might just be the answer to a Town GOP chairman's prayer.

Humble Elias doubts Andy will get in, he has no organization and most importantly no money to speak of. Then again there was a distant time in 2002 when Mitt Romney looked like a forlorn long shot.
At the very least there might be enough buzz around this notion to require a denial from the Ex White House Chief of Staff.

Capuano endorses Patrick...

The big news today izzat Congressman Mike Capuano has endorsed Deval Patrick for Governor. Given Mike's broadminded views on Gay Marriage and the limited nature of the gubernatorial field, there wasn't anywhere else he could go...unless he jumped in the race.
:)
But that ain't happening.
This is good news for Patrick who could use a few political bigfeet on the campaign letterhead at this point. Granted Patrick did extraordinarily well on caucus day but it was a victory writ large by Reilly's own bumbling in the lead up to the balloting. Patrick is doing well out there, but his victory is far from certain.

Tom Reilly's general election numbers haven't moved since the Gabrieli-St.
Fleur debacle, he still beats Healey like a gong in either a two or three way race.
The man hasn't the charisma God gave Bob Newhart, but in a matchup between the trivial Kerry Healey and a nutjob like Christy Mihos...it is just possible they electorate will sigh roll their eyes and go for Reilly.
On the other hand, Patrick can charm the birds off the trees (I've seen him do it, trust me), how is Reilly supposed to get past that?
Meanwhile, Gabrieli a day late and a dollar short has surfaced and is making all the usual gubernatorial shrieks and bellows.
There is nothing like Massachusets in the spring when there is a Governor's race coming up.
Nothing.

Romney is in Rome

sucking up shamelessly to the Curia as Sean O'Malley gets his little red hat.
There is no love lost between Rome and the LDS when it comes to theology. Utah regards Rome as a corrupt dying oligarchy rife with child molesters, the Curia dismiss the LDS as a cult with an odd soft spot for polygamy.
But these days the RCC, the LDS, the Baptists etc all have a common political agenda at least in the USA and since catholics are the hot new general election constituency off the Viceroy goes to pay his respects to the Pope.
We can look forward to more of this as the GOP field coalesces in 2008. much praise for the church's anti abortion stance, utter silence on it's opposition to the electric chair.
The ability to pimp social issues with expert timing is a big part of the play for the catholic vote, witness Romney's wretched attempts to exempt the RCC the Commonwealth's adoption laws.

Meanwhile, according to Fox25 News, Kerry Healey is out of state as well, leaving Billy Galvin as acting Governor...unless of course, the Secretary of State gets a yen for NH scratch tickets then it's Tom Reilly.
I say before Kerry and Mitt get back just change the locks on the State House, it worked for Juan Peron after all.

The vast play of opinion within the conservative movement is illustrated by...

the current debate over an immigration bill.
Congressional Republicans (mindful of facing a restive electorate) simply want to deport 20% of the population at the point of a bayonet.
Whilst the President (ever the idealist) thinks we should get some work out of the WOGS before sending them home empty handed.

According to President Bush

US Troops may have to stay in Iraq well past the end of his second term in 2009. This airy announcement was part of the Adminstration's current propaganda offensive which amounts to trying to sound both defiant and upbeat on the subject of the Iraq war.
Otherwise, what we have here is an excellent example of the President's "petulant brat" style of management, create a whirlwind of debt, destruction and chaos and then wait for his successor to clean it all up.
Maybe we should be grateful, at least Bush implied that he intends to leave office in January 2009. With his presidential approval ratings mired in the thirties, the orb sceptre and Oil Crown of Texas must look mighty charmless right about now.

Still and all that, we ought to at least be addressing the dire fiscal consequences of the President's revenue saturnalia. How exactly we frame this for the fall campaign I do not know, but it is a necessary debate.

Yesterday in Cleveland,

under some hard questioning, the President tried to lie his way out of difficulties.
Specifically he said:

"I never said there was a direct connection between 9-11 and Saddam Hussein"

and on top of that howler: "I was always very careful NOT to say Saddam ordered the attack on America".
This is truly George Bush Jr. at his finest, craven, blusterly, proudm even arrogant about his evasions...and yet he is running from the triumphalism of 2003 like a rat in a firestorm.

Its simply disgraceful to be ruled by such mealy mouthed punks...it is.
These guys are a bunch of lowlifes nuff' said.
A Mussolini or a Juan Peron would at least have the courage of their delusions, not Bush though, he has seen his polls and piously whimpers about how carefully he parsed his words when lying his way to war.
Asshole...

Proposed Meme:

If Kerry Healey persists in her advocacy of making the "Judiciary more Accountable" (ergo putting the strong arm on the judges) then I think the attack line ought to note "The Lieutenant Governor Healey wants to put the JUDGES under the control of the POLITICIANS".
You just just here the earnest fussy little voices pushing this in a radio advert can't you?
"If Kerry Healey is such an EXPERT on Criminal Justice, then why does she want CONTROL over our Judges and Prosecutors"?
Big stentorian ominous voice with morbid background music.

"Kerry Healey, bad Ideas that are bad for Massachusetts".

Notes from a Recovering Irishman

With all due respect....

The Annual South Boston Saint Patrick's Day Breakfast (broadcast live on TV in all it's vulgar glory) has got to be the biggest gathering of hopeless windbags since the Scottish National Bagpipes Orchestra played the Wang Center.

Tom Reilly had the good sense to execute due diligence and slip out the door at 10:30am, for which he was mercilessly lampooned for the rest of the morning on live teevee.
Frankly, Reilly's decorous exit only raises his political props with Humble Elias. Hell if I was stuck in that hall with all the gaseous gubernatorial humor and smutty locker room jokes I'd a faked a seizure and called 911 long before 10:30am.
Oh well...

Happy (Belated) Saint Patrick's Day

Check out yesterday's Saint Paddy's Day Post if you wanna see how far off the deep end Channel Zero has gone.

Brian McGrory continues to edge off the Romney bandwagon

as evidenced by yesterday's column.
He has suddenly discovered that Mitt Romney that Disconnected Viceroy is somehow also a maladriot political control freak.
Brian has come pretty far for a guy who happily alibi'd for Romney back in 2002, (And who can still be counted on to casually slag Shannon O'Brien)....but look for him to become next liberal great white hope.
No, McGrory will futz around like this for a couple of months and if Christy Mihos hasn't been exposed as a raving maniac by then he'll come out banging his pots loud for the Old Milk Partei Candidate.
Trust me on this.

Top Down Shysterism

So anyway, Claude Allen, one of the President's top domestic policy lackey's got nailed for trying to defraud various Target stores via a phoney returned merchandize scam of the sort perpetrated by Junior High School girls at the Burlington Mall.
Well why not?
Allen's laughably childish scams with alleged thefts reaching five thousand dollars is but a micro version of the omnipotent frauds and chicanery imposed by Halliburton, Enron and Kellog, Brown and Root every day. hell some five billion dollars in US Currency can't be accounted for in Iraq. Not to mention the treble charges Halliburton has submitted as the trucker of choice for the US Armed Forces in Kuwait-Iraq.
Given all this, why WOULDN'T Allen steal?
Hell his boss stole two presidential elections in a row, whats the theft of five grand from a few chintzy Target's stores to compare with that??
And another thing...ever notice that when one of these yaps gets caught they are always described as a "fast rising star in the conservative movement"?
My God just about any snake handler or patent medicine sharper who gets off the plane at Dulles can enter DC as a "A Fast Rising Star in the Conservative Movement". The bar must be set awfully low to qualify.
Hell, chump changes crooks like Claude Allen can make it easy.
Watch for it, Allen will cop the inevitable plea bargain and will be back on the street as Fox News Commentator by the time the fall elections roll around, his fast rising stardom battered but intact.

Ugly Thought for the Day

Thanks to Carla J. Martin's witness-coaching we can look forward to Zacarias Moussaoui getting off with life in prison for his part in the destruction of World Trade Center. Which means, that from now until the day he dies, Moussaoui's release from jail will top the list of hijacker and kidnapper demands from here to Jakarta.
Thanks Carla...a pushier and more inept exemplar couldn't be found of the Praetorian Class' in action.

14.4%

that is the best the Viceroy can do in the so called "Hotline Straw Poll"?
Mittwit got topped by the national cat torturer and Capitol Hill Kleptocrat Bill Frist?
Yeeps!
For nigh on two years now, Romney has been pimping himself out Lulu on Navy pay Day and 14.4% is all the thanks he gets?
The Romneyans are spinning this as a moral victory since Mitt came in second, the reality is, that in Wowserdom he running twenty five points behind a religious fanatic and a notorious latah for the White House.
Romney had all the right moves, he defamed the Commonwealth like a good little turncoat...and yet he finishs far behind and out of the love.
Allen, McCain and the rest of those assholes had the good sense to steer clear and save their ribs for a straw poll that'll have some traction. Not Mitt, who knows how much he threw away for fourteen point four percent of the vote.
Straw polls this early in the season don't mean anything, Alan Cranston topped a bunch of them in 1984 before being frontlawned in the New Hampshire Primary.
You'd think Romney would get that...but no the damn fool thinks he can compete in the South.
Humble Elias suspects that political comity in this country has degenerated to such an appalling degree that no one from Massachusetts can get a fair hearing down in Wowserdom.
Well, we are about to find out is that thesis is true.

Two quick shout outs:

"Tough Enough" is doing the Lord's work in recounting John McCain's many failings and sins on his way to campaign 2008.
The same goes for "Kerry Healey Out of Touch" for holding the Lieutenant Governor's feet to the fire in this election year.
What the blogosphere is good for, is concentrating itself on certain candidates & causes to a degree shunned by the alleged mainstream media. They aren't doing their job so the hard work of questioning John McCain's nigh papal infallibility or puncturing Kerry Healey's pretenses falls to us for better or worse.
Good luck guys.

Book burning circa 2006

the ugly facts can be found here

Ours is a feeling age, the right values or emotions are more important than the facts or toleration or due deference to the law.

John Kerry Surfaces...

In New Hampshire as usual.
He is also giving interviews to the Globe and hurling such thunderbolts as are available at George Bush and his 30% approval rating.

Seems like Kerry is in the race for 2008.
And what the hell, he has a fair shot at it.
Oh I know, you all hate him for losing in '04...I read all the popular sites on the internet, the very name "John Kerry" sparks venom equal to that spewed at Bush himself.
And of course, the smart money is all on Hillary in 2008, the Stirling Newberry's out there are all sighing, rolling their eyes and calling it for McCain in any match up with Mrs. Clinton.
Well what does Humble Elias know? Only that plenty smart people with very smart money indeed end up on relief.
Now, you don't hear much about it yet, but there are plenty of movers and shakers in the democratic party who are "uneasy" with the inevitability of Hillary C.
These are the same people who might end up with Kerry on the simple grounds that our Junior Senator is well funded, well known and not a dynast.
That is one scenario, and to be honest to win next time Kerry is gonna need a lot of luck and most of all an issue.
What that issue would be is pure conjecture at this point.
But Kerry is unafraid and unbowed and that at least is a start.
A lot is going to happen between now and 2008 and history laughs at those who think they've got the next election pegged.
Hell, John Edwards is out in the reeds polishing his accent and sharpening his claws.
If the democrats do well this fall, say retake one or more of the chambers of congress, that might fuel a boom for DNC Chair Howard Dean who'd be seen as an architect of victory.
If we have a good year, then the democratic governors are gonna want a piece of the action as well. The smart thing for them to do might be to coalesce early around one candidate as the GOP governors did in 200.
Bill Richardson for President?
Tom Vilsack?
Conversely, if the democrats can't overturn the GOP's control of congress, that may drive a few bigfoot Senators out onto the Presidential hustings. The sheer boredom of a perpetual minority status alone may get Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd into the '08 race.
John buddy, if you are reading this, forget for a moment, Bush, Cheney, McCain, Rove & Norquist and reflect on an issue. Something big something simple something they aren't getting from the current regime or anyone who yearns to succeed Bushco.
That is what is needed now.

Give the President credit

he has the ugly chutzpah of the Praetorian Class down pat. How else to explain his astonishing assertion that cutting Dubai out of the port security deal would slow Arab investment in the US economy?
Never mind the fact that the so called US economy is naught but an offshore bazaar for the exchange of Chinese gold to US Dollars...
No, this is a President who has blown tens of thousands of Shia and Sunni Iraqis sky frickin' high and yet remains cravenly worried about the good opinion and investment intentions of a bunch of corrupt merchant princelings in the United Arab Emirates.
If this isn't a perfect example of Praetorianism in action then what is??

If Aol.Com can be believed

the President's approval rating has hit a robust thirty percent. Down roughly four points since last month.
And to think, if this was Argentina, Bush would've fled to Montevideo by now his baggage groaning with gold bars.
A mere two point drop though, and GWB's popularity will be dead even with Richard Nixon circa August 1974, which is when, the trickster finally pissed blood, flopped over on his back and resigned.
Not that Bush is going anywhere...trust Humble Elias on this, America is stuck with Bush and his moral, political & intellectual bankruptcy til January 2006.

Thats a hard thing to wrap one's mind around, but it is nonetheless true, this is as good as it is gonna get until the winter of 2009.
Alas, that is the unique world historic significance of George Bush Junior, he has (in the words of the late Lenny Bruce) "a talent for making people vicious". Spiteful as a youth, insufferable and malevolent as a man and perfect wretch in public office, he has naught to offer but ill intentions (to paraphrase William S. Burroughs).
However, lets make a little pact with ourselves shall we?
To put forward a few solid concrete proposals this year.
Thats all, just some sensible practical ideas...regardless of the coming deluge of political calumny this fall.
Now more than ever, we must repair to the Oracle of Adlai Stevenson and promise no more and no less to "Talk Sense to the American People".

On the other hand...

regardless of his lack of name recognition, Reed Hillman is better qualified to run for Lt. Governor than was Kerry Healey in 2002.

Humble Elias finds that grimly ironic.

At least Hillman isn't a spoiled suburban brat whose husband is trying to buy her the governorship.

That is a HUGE leap in qualifications.

The Boston Globe raises some interesting issues in respect of Hillman's tenure as a Colonel of the State Police in today's Metro section. I'd link to it, but alas Blogger only grudgingly accepts the MacIntosh Operating System.
Speaking of links, DO check out "Kerry Healey Out of Touch" they've been blogging on the whole matter of the GOP Lt. Governor nomination like sonsabitches.
Da link is below...

Boston.com reports

that Kerry Healey has settled on one Reed Hillman as her nominee for Lieutenant Governor. Hillman is a former state rep, state police Commander and a nominee for US Marshal so I read.
Otherwise, I don't know the man from a cord of wood. Seems like a nonentity has been selected to run with a militant mediocrity.
Much I suppose could be made of the man's law enforcement bona fides, which is strange because Kerry Healey's sole qualification for public office in 2002 was a pair of criminal justice monographs she wrote for Abt Associates.
Kerry Healey need shoring up on the whole crime issue?
Seems odd.

One last good and juicy rumor...

How about Brad Card for Lieutenant Governor? Y'know Andy Card the White House Chief of Staff's moocherella little brother? Brad would make a great running mate for Kerry Healey.
Why?
From what I can tell, he needs the work.

Okay that was mean, but seriously Brad has an impeccable political pedigree and strong desire to get his mits deep into GOP politics, really ANY GOP politics will do!
Granted he was last seen sniffing around the republican congressional primary in New Hampshire, but if it is one thing 2002 has taught us, izzat details like this can be fixed up with no worries.
I say the Massachusetts GOP should start importing ringers from the Granite State en masse. The republican party is too robust up there (Much akin to the Bay State's dems) its take forever to work your way up to some juicy public sinecure. If a few of the lean and hungry ones (like Brad say) came down here they could be campaigning free and clear for PAYING statewide jobs right away.

Of course it is, cynical, malicious and low...but it is an midterm election they may as well start up with it all now as later.

The Lieutenant Gubernatorial Sweepstakes...

Gwan over to "Kerry Healey: Out of Touch" for proper odds on all the yaps, dubs, freaks, chimps, wimps, gimps and sundry weirdos La Healey is conjuring with as a running mate.
I'd offer a hotlink but now that I'm a gentleman of leisure, this blog is updated from my Mac at home which blogger only grudgingly supports.

The pickin's are slim over on the other side Lt. Governor-wise mah friends.
Pete Blute is a drunken nut, Scott Brown a charmless nonentity with a daughter currently more famous than he, Dan Grabauskas is gay and ALL his hard work may been blown sky high if the MBTA goes on strike...Mihos is wallowing in a fugue state, whilst Wayne Budd and Ralph Martin having said no to Tom Reilly are too sensible to light out for destruction- Junction at the side of Kerry Healey.
At this point, who is left? Ayla Brown's best pal from Homeroom? Steve Pierce? A golem made of Frank Hatch's unquiet clay?
I'd throw Jay Severin onto the pile, but alas he is not a Massachusetts resident...which didn't stop Romney in 2002 but who thinks lightning can strike twice eh?
Kerry Healey has been tacking leftwards these last few weeks in a feeble half hearted way...but thats been forced on her as there is no room on the right in the Commonwealth given the deep spiritual and political isolation of our profoundly confused and conservative viceregal governor.
And so on she prattles about the morning after pill and other fortuitous bromides.

Humble Elias' gut is, it'll be Brown as colorless and underwhelming as he is, Scott has little baggage and a sweetly notorious daughter who is on her way to Boston College if she doesn't land a recording contract.
The notion that Brown's candidacy leaves a state senate seat to be defended hold little water. The State GOP has been pretty much a flag of convenience and a fund raising PO box for decades now, selling out the legislative wing of the party to hold onto the corner office is an old established ritual. Besides, just how long can Brown hold onto his seat anyway? Two terms three?
Better to take a flyer with Kerry Healey and if it all goes to smash he can lay some claim to a statewide nomination two or four years from now.

In bygone eras when mighty men and women strode the earth, crap like this would qualify Brown as little more than a court jester at the tables of Valhalla, but in these debased times its a ticket to ride high wide and handsome.

Sorry Ma'am, why don't you try for that other lifeboat just over the horizon?

In her current Boston Globe column Joanie Vennochi said among other things, the following:

"Liberals raised as Catholics refuse to accept this reality. We think we can be prochoice, pro-gay marriage , pro-gay adoption, and in favor of married and female priests and still call ourselves Catholic. The people who make the rules say we don't meet the criteria."

Ehhhh what is this "we" shit white woman??

Joanie, you can't be enrolling yourself in the Liberal Legion after the election cycle you've just had.

Nope sorry.

Others may be taken by your sudden burst of high minded anti-clericalism, but Humble Elias cryeth foul!
Where were you when John Kerry was being all but run out of the congregation by the Bishops in 2004?
C'mon Joanie pull those columns, you might've hissed and recoiled a bit over it, but mostly you just cut JK dead.
Now suddenly the bishops have you and yours in the cross-hairs and so thus Joanie demands action??

You just don't get to call our players cowards traitors and bullies like a demented cheerleader and then think someone is gonna make room for you in the last life boat as the SS Vatican plunges into the Stygian depths.
No...sorry dat ain't happening.
I'm sure you are just dyin' with worry for liberal catholics after having done your queenly best to run over with a steamroller the candidate of all liberal catholics in the 2004 election.
Joanie please for your own sake, flip over to the GOP I'm told the process is painless, then you can scream like a stuck pig all you like.
Save for strange columns like this, you walk talk and think like a freeper and it is long past due that someone said as much simply & plainly.

Cause' frankly, I don't wanna be on the same side as you.
I'm willing to put up with everyone from Billy Galvin out to Gore Vidal...but you Joanie you got (in the words of the late Lenny Bruce) "A talent for making people vicious".
I'm real sorry that ther RCC has abandoned you, they've been abandoning a lot of people for a long time and and they will continue to do so until Benny da Pope gets his tight airless pseudo-protestant congregation goin'.
It is cold out there dog-paddling in the middle of the ocean, I should know that is where you left me circa November 2004.
you wanna get picked up? just swallow your pride and give Ray Flynn and William Donohue a shout.
You belong with them, you've got the "I hate John Kerry" bona fides, they'll take you in.
Maybe.

Oliver Goldsmith, Poet and Blogger:

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey
Where wealth acculmulates and men decay"

The Deserted Village, 1770

The way things are going...

Kerry Healey should perhaps drop all plans to run with State Senator Scott Brown and instead open negotiations with his daughter Ayla the "American Idle" contestant. Yup the value of the GOP Nominations for Governor and Lieutenant Governor have fallen that low.
Seriously, Ayla has name recognition,a good "youth" demographic, a committed fan base (per the front page of Today's Globe) and is as qualified as Healey was in 2002 to be Lieutenant Governor of this glorious Commonwealth.

Frankly at this point, Ayla Brown may be Kerry Healey's only hope. The HEaley campaign could commission a decorous pop song for Ayla to sing at every whistlestop...something catchy about low income taxes and no pot holes.

Humbl Elias wonders though, with the race officially becoming a rambunctious threesome today, is The Lieutenant Governor's rich sleazy husband still willing to bet the house and their retirement so to speak on his wife's latest harebrained political scheme?

If I have readers then I must offers apologies...

as some of you might recall I got laid off a week or so ago thus I've been updating on a very erratic schedule. I know some of you have gotten used to it going up by 12:30 pm EST at the latest, but for once Humble Elias personal life is getting in the way.

Hope to have thing squared away soonest.

Mihos is in as an Independent...

or so claims Boston.com.

The value of the GOP nomination for Governor just dropped a good thirty percent. It would seem that Kerry Healey has failed the first test of politics, keeping a clear field all the way to the goal post. She hasn't been able to keep Boss Mihos from bolting the ruins of the State GOP and now naught but havoc will be the result.

A lot of democrats are no doubt rejoicing about this, I'd advise them to think twice and start updating their lists of ones and twos.

Mihos is an arrogant misogynistic bastard and a bit of a flake, but he understands too well the power of money welded to a promise of "protection" from the allegedly rampant state legislature. He need only 34% of the vote to win if things break his way.

on the other hand, if the race does come down to a test of turnout, there the democrats have an advantage...precinct captains, lists, willing foot soldiers etc. So lets not take this a gift, Mihos could mean big trouble for us in every way.