Predictably...

Globe columnist Brian McGrory has searched and searched and found Deval Patrick wanting.
It is not surprising, Humble Elias would in fact be shocked if McGrory or any of his moderate republican brethren on Morrissey Blvd started banging the pots for Patrick.
This raises however the question of just who Brian et al will be backing (if anyone) in this election?
Joanie Vennochi is a no brainer, she is all about swift and shallow running emotion, so look for her to come out for Healey at the first mild criticism of the Lt. Governor from Citizen Patrick. Joanie will get all indignant and cry for sisterhood united...it'll be hilarious to read believe me.
Scot Lehigh...is making ponderous measured and the usual objective noises now...but give him a few weeks to find the right moderate GOP strawman (or woman) to back. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict Lehigh will mark out for Crazy Christy...but that is a bit of mirthful speculation on my part.
Coming back to Brian McGrory, he fell for Romney's bullshit completely in 2002, so why shouldn't he fall for Kerry Healey's nonsense in 2006?

You see how it works with these people? "May the best moderate republican doofus win" or to put it more crudely, "we need a GOP camp follower to fix the problems created by sixteen years of republican dilettante rule."
Whether Deval wins or not, don't look for that cherished myth to fade away as far as the local punditariat is concerned.

I finally saw Crazy Christy's "controversial" animated TV advert last night...

I liked it, from a stylistic perspective of course, reminded Humble Elias of Bill Plympton's hand-drawn cartoons.
I suspect Mihos might realize a bounce in his polls between this ad and his aggressive debate performance. However to "seal the deal" in any other possible debates he seriously needs to stop shouting and use his "indoor voice".
For the moment though, he is eating into Healey's numbers and over the short term that is a good thing. If Mihos really starts to surge though, he'll start poaching on our cohorts and that might just might make this a tight three way race.
But a lot of factors have to break his way for that to happen.
New England has elected three independent governors in the last thirty years...so don't fool yourselves it could happen here.
Nonetheless, this is the twenty first century it is nigh impossible to govern without the support of a mass political party. A lot of noise can be made and some things accomplished but without an organized base and an experienced cadre of political appointees the so-called "independent" governor usually founders.
Christy Mihos as Governor would end up being a louder more ineffectual version of Romney, count on it.

Oh geez....MORE good news...

The god-damn Sumner is now crumbling away.
The conventional wisdom dictates, that this sort of situation plays to the advantages of the GOP with their lofty claims to managerial supercompetance.
Humble Elias wonder though, does anyone out there really trust a pipsqueak like Kerry Healey to tough out a heartbreaker like that?
What exactly has she done nigh these past four years to suggest that she has any managerial ability at all?
So far as I can see, her sole contribution to Big Dig oversight has been to make sure with her own lily white hands that the Viceroy has his orange safety vest on straight.

Citizen Jasper White?

The gubernatorial debate last night took a question from an "ordinary citizen" of the Commonwealth, a chef named Jasper White.
Is this the same Jasper White who rented office space to the Romney-Healey campaign in 2002? And kept a huge "Romney Healey in 2002" sign glowering over Route 2 for months the election?
Or do I have my facts wrong?
If so then trust Fox25 News and the Boston Herald to pick out GOP footsoldier out of a Commonwealth of some six million.

The Mermaid who would be Governor...

Apropos of tonight's gubernatorial debate on Fox25, who knew Kerry Healey was such a fervent pal of commercial fishermen in Massachusetts?
I'm sure she is regular dock rat down in Gloucester and New Bedford, recites "Rollicky Bill, the Sailor" from memory and gets so darned choked up whenever they play "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on the radio.
Yup...an old salt is our Lieutenant Governor.
Which is ironic because to look at her, you'd think she got seasick watching "Waterworld" on widescreen...but nope, per her debate performance tonight she is officially a old timey sailor of the ocean deep.

My ghod have you ever heard such rubbish in your life?
If asphalt spreaders were on anyone's electoral radar screen, Kerry Healey would've clumped into the studio in those five inch leather boots claiming she'd fought against excessive federal regulation of aspahlat spreaders all her life from the time she was a wee barbie at Harvard.

Big Debate Tonight

Humble Elias doubts it'll be a decisive encounter between Kerry-n-Deval owing to the presence of Crazy Christy and the Green-Rainbow candidate on the stage. But I'd watch whoever FOX 25 drafts to moderate, the Fox organization is hardly one given over to journalist objectivity and it's well known Rupert Murdoch is anxious to export the rightical chic style of the cable news outfit to the local affiliates.

Kerry Healey, your friendly neighborhood ne'er do well...

Lieutenant Governor Barbie, who has never missed a meal and never made good in any position of trust and responsibility in her life, now proposes to become a rough tough crimefighter, or so her new commercials would have it.
Not fer nothing but, the crime rate has gone up in the Commonwealth nigh these last four years even as the Romney-Healey admin has stiffed cities and towns of local aid thus making it that much more difficult to hire new police officers.
As it is right now, there seems to be a heinous shooting every weekend somewhere in the state...don't really see Kerry Healey proposes much to combat the current spike in violent crime.
Mostly she seems to wanna spend money on restricting the use of cel-phones among teenagers.
If thats yer idea of being a rough tough crimefigher then there is your candidate.

One this you can say about Kerry Healey

(AKA "Lieutenant Governor Barbie")she is not gonna go quietly.
We are a mere three days into the campaign and she is already demanding Phil Johnston's resignation. By the time we get to Halloween she'll no doubt be screeching for the cancellation of the election on grounds of fairness.
Good ghod who in their right minds wants to listen to this amateur ne'er do well carrying on and on for four long years?

Friday Quote Blogging:

"I was a Liberal because everyone else was. The people chased the conservative candidate half a mile and threw him into a pond full of duckweed. People took politics seriously in those days. They used to begin to store up rotten eggs weeks before an election."
George Orwell Coming Up for Air 1939

NECN election night coverage notes...

Jim Braude is a smarmy git in extremis. He does however a gift for doggedly trying to put words in the mouth of his interviewee. He must've spent some ten minutes of precious congressionally regulated airtime on Tuesday trying get state democratic chairman Johnston to disavow negative advertising by independent PACs.

Meanwhile, poor old Jane "Jingle Money" Swift hasn't quite burned off the weight has she? Otherwise the former acting governor is a delight and a phenomenon, she STILL alibis for Kerry Healey, who is otherwise known as the little painted hussy who helped run Jane Swift out of office.
Jane was dense and petty but she has a bovine loyalty to those who abused and betrayed her.

How about that Joe Malone huh? Seven million bucks his cronies allegedly pocketed out of the treasurer's office and still he can't afford rogaine!
Honestly, Joe looks like an aging Dick Tracy antagonist..."Hammerhead" perhaps.
Joe buddy, listen to me, just shave it all off like Warren Tolman...the whole Il Duce look never gets old!

Humble Elias gives NECN credit for trying though, in these days of total vertical and horizontal integration it's hard to find any air time for Massachusetts pols both active & inactive. For that much, we should be grateful.

Meanwhile, lets hit the ground running today...

at least in respect of fundraising. Use the handy link provided and look for the "Contribute" button on the right hand side of the page.

Patrick Uber Alles...?

Big Pat romped to victory last night carrying every county in Massachusetts and racking up nigh on 50% of the vote.
Yee-haw!
Not bad for a kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Chicago.

Meanwhile, as predictable as an unloved season, Joanie Vennochi bitterly grouses about the democrats "drinking the kool-aid" last night.
This is pretty damn ironic given the fact that Joanie, Scot Lehigh, Brian McGrory et al have been swilling down Mitt Romney's kool-aid with gusto for four years now and been yelling for more up until quite recently.
How much you wanna bet Joanie wrote today's column over a month ago? If it is one thing that comes very easy to the allegedly liberal Boston Globe's current op-ediots, it is writing those ghastly "death of liberalism" pieces.
Steve Stark used to churn them out in his sleep quite literally.
If Humble Elias had to guess, I'd say that Joanie Vennochi will go all "rawk on sister-woman" for Kerry Healey come October. She'll sudden remember that they are both women and should stand in solidarity or some such egomaniacal drivel like that.
It'll be sick and sad to see, also hilarious as well.

Neverless as the nominee said last night, it is time for a change.

Chimes at Midnight Endorsement Recap:

In today's Massachusetts democratic primary:

For Governor: Deval Patrick Believe the hype this guy can shake things up and for the better. If not now then when, if not him then who?

For Lieutenant Governor: Tim Murray An experienced politician and an able individual. moving from Mayor of Worcester to the Lt. Governor's office is a natural step for Murray. Humble Elias looks to Murray to be an authentic voice for the perpetually embattled cities and towns of the Commonwealth.

For Secretary of State: William Galvin. You may not like Billy personally and certainly like Humble Elias you may not accord with all his political views but he never ran out on the party and voted for Nader did he? This is more than Galvin's challenger Jon Bonifaz can say.
Thay we must engage in an honest dialogue with the greens and other independent progressives is a given, but that does give Jon Bonifaz leave to parachute into the democratic primary and start himself up at the top of the political food chain.
Moreoever Billy has sown himself a good corporate steward and has kept the paper ballot here in the Commonwealth. He is heartily endorsed for re-nomination.

For State Senate: 4th Middlesex: Robert Havern III Bob is faced by one Joanne Gonsalves a Bonfiaz style challenger in today's primary. Humble Elias urges all democratic voters in our district to stick by Bob Havern today, he is experienced and a work-horse not a show horse. He is also backing Patrick if that moves anyone out there.

Anyway go vote, my precinct booked 49 ballots total by 7:41am EST.

Former Massachusetts Governor Ed King has passed away

So reads Boston.com.
In earlier times I was wont to speak harshly about the former governor, most because of his switch to the GOP in 1985. However my Uncles used to run into him all the time and as a person he was good folks with no low habits.
My thoughts are with his family today.

For Governor in the Massachusetts Democratic Primary...

The Chimes at Midnight heartily endorses the candidacy of Deval Patrick.
Humble Elias comes to this decision after long reflection, as he has said to his friends many times over the last several months everyone he likes is "either dead or out of the game".
However all facetiousness aside, the state is misgoverned, mismanaged and suffers from a dearth of talent at all levels.
The great and abiding need here is for a change, the candidate who best embodies that diresome necessity is Deval Patrick. He is articulate, he is passionate, he proposes new policies to thwart our current stagnation and he wants to lead.
This is not to degrade Misters Gabrieli and Reilly they are able men, if either is nominated Humble Elias will bang the pots loudly on their behalf, but are they the change-agents we need?
This endorsement though, does come with a few helpful warnings; the fall campaign will doubtlessly go the gutter route very quickly cheered on by the usual a-holes in the local media. Citizen Patrick will have to generate some tough and honest answers to the coming attacks in the areas of taxes, "illegal immigration" and gay marriage. He cannot take anything for granted least of all the willingness of Kerry Healey's cabal to play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules.

But as far as the Chimes at Midnight is concerned, I can vote for the other guys or I can vote one last time to overthrow destiny?
The choice therefore this time is simple:
Deval Patrick for Governor!

Note to the Laity:

There will be an official "Chimes at Midnight" endorsement in the democratic gubernatorial primary tomorrow.

On the last Sunday before a

democratic gubernatorial primary that may well decide the fate of Massachusetts for years to come, Joanie Vennochi takes time out to confirm she really is a rudderless spiteful yap.
On the subject of Kerry Healey's anti-Gabrieli adverts Joanie has this to say: "Shortly before primary day, Kerry Healey launched a silly & dishonest attack ad at Chris Gabrieli..."

Silly and dishonest?
Woo hoo dig Madame Retaliation down on Morrissey Boulevard!

Good grief where was this anger and outrage when the Swift Boats Vets went gunning for John Kerry??
As I recall, Joanie spent that whole month in a delirious spin alternately squealing that Kerry was both wimp and bully.
Yipes.

What can we learn from this?
Only that Joan Vennochi is a tedious unreliable hack in extremis. Sure she is angry today but odds are whoever we nominate on Tuesday won't meet her very high and inexplicable personal standards and she'll be sniping mightily at the democrats by Halloween.
Well...she hasn't burned any bridges to Mihos yet, so maybe we will get lucky and Joanie will mark out hard for Crazy Christy.

As long as she forgets about us, the only thing worse than having Joanie against you is having Joanie on your side.

Kerry Healey parachutes into the democratic gubernatorial primary...

with a blistering attack advert against Chris Gabrieli that labels him a "tycoon" and accuses him to profiting from proposed state sponsored stem cell research.
Waaaalllllll sheee-it!
Didn't Kerry Healey marry herself a tycoon?
Didn't that same tycoon try to rook the state for a one million dollar tax credit for his own company?
Isn't the shadowy Lex Luthorish Sean Healey simply trying to BUY the governorship for his shallow insubstantial wife?
Lt. Governor Barbie sure has a lot of nerve doesn't she?
Kerry Healey may not be willing to shake Dick Cheney's dessicated hand at Logan, but she'll damn well campaign like Karl Rove won't she?
Humble Elias suspects people read this blog, maybe people with connections to other people who knows?
So I think it behooves Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick and all three democratic candidates for Lt. Governor to see this as naught but a preview of how Kerry Healey intends to run this fall...make patently psychotic accusations, run for the gutter like a rat in a firestorm and spend money lavishly.
So let me be blunt, Chris, Tom, Deval are yuh listenin'?
Whoever is nominated next week you had better damn well have a plan to counter this style of campaigning...
The worst thing you can do is to ignore it or pretend that the electorate wants to hear about the issues.
They do wanna hear about the issues, but first yer gonna have prove that you can take the fight to Kerry Healey.
Healey can be beaten and beaten soundly but she has to be taken seriously, the nominee will have to run flat outlike he is eight points down from primary night on.
Hope someone out there is listening...

Da Herald was being passed out gratis at Alewife

Station yesterday as part of some promotion.
Having read it pretty thoroughly on a slo-ow train ride to South Station I can safely say that Howie Carr's column would be a lot funnier if it was simply howled thru a feeding grate from out a padded cell.
He was in full snark about the slack indolent life of a pampered illegal immigrant. Apparently, Howie doesn't get the memos anymore, illegal immigration went off the radar screen last week when congress declined further action on the issue.
But hey if Howie wants to travel the country crammed into the back of a tractor trailer with dozens of other hungry desperate folk...hey more power to him.

And in other news, fear not there will be a Chimes at Midnight Gubernatorial Endorsement on Monday September 18th.

Chasing Healey

Apparently a coalition of labor groups and sundry activists have started running commercials critical of Lt. Governor Barbie.
All Humble Elias can say is, it is about gawd-damn time.
Kerry Healey has been getting a free ride for some six months now as she tours various GOP barbeques while her own Lt. Governor candidate has apparently revived the art of hitchhiking.
The woman is a trivial yap in every way. She has never held a position of any accountability in her entire life, she was a part timer at Abt Associates (where she made little discernable impact in her area of expertise)and is conspicuously drawing on her husband's fortune run for Governor.
Moreover it is a sad comment on Massachusetts politics that a distinctly third rate amateur such as Kerry Healey need only show up hit her mark, denounce the state lege and toady up to the independents to win.
All this at a time when the Big Dig is falling to pieces, the roads of the Commonwealth are a lunar ruin and public transport runs a pace competitive with the encroachments of senility.
So hell yeah, if it takes a bunch of unions with fat money to highlight Kerry Healey's numerous shortcomings then I'm all for it.
She should feel some heat before the primary...

Romney is a Fraud

has briefly resurfaced to endorse Chris Gabrieli for Governor.
He makes some compelling arguments....and yes we are getting down to the wire on the Chimes at Midnight's endorsement as well.

Ahhhhhh...where is Paul Tsongas when I need him??

Romney is a Fraud

has briefly resurfaced to endorse Chris Gabrieli for Governor.
He makes some compelling arguments....and yes we are getting down to the wire on the Chimes at Midnight's endorsement as well.

Ahhhhhh...where is Paul Tsongas when I need him??

ITEM!

She is Little Miss Republican now...nice moderate window dressing for the partei of praetorianism. Maybe she is a little too moderate y'know.
Any truth to the rumors she voted for Al Gore in the year 2000?

Ditching the Veep

It was noted in passing in Saturday's Globe that when Vice President Dick Cheney arrived at Logan Airport for his Back Bay Fundraiser, he was greeted not by Governor Romney or Lt. Governor Healey but by some schnook of a state rep from Shrewsbury.
The reasons for this uncommon double-snub are not hard to divine, Cheney's approval rating hovers around the Ernst Stavro Blofeld level. Romney and Healey don't agree on much but they are both committed to no having their pictures in the paper shaking hands with a much loathed political gargoyle.
If there are conservatives and republicans reading this blog, then listen up, Romney may be sucking up to you now, but see how he treats your incumbent VP!?
If Cheney was somehow up in the polls, Mitt Romney would've happily kissed the Veep's
Hush Puppies on live TV.
Because that is what Mitt believes in most fervently, what is good for Romney is very a very good thing indeed hence pride, loyalty and dignity are strictly for dorks and losers.
Mitt Romney bills himself as a man's man type conservative of profound freeper principles, but in reality he is a cold opportunistic selfish prick who'd nark on his own grandmother if it made him the first Mormon President of the USA.
That constitutes his true beliefs in total...movement conservatives ought to recall this when it becomes time to vote in New Hampshire.
As for the equally absent Kerry Healey, she is a cheap lackey whose husband very much wants to buy her the governorship for reasons Humble Elias cannot begin to fathom.
Thus being a lackey, if Romney is a no show, Kerry Healey is a no show as well. In her case the snub will be sold as a moderate's modest refusal to hobnob with a controversial national conservative, but again in reality she is just being churlish and somewhat disloyal.
Simple as that.

Joanie sez "Gabrieli = Romney"

In her column appearing in today's Boston Sunday Globe Joan Vennochi makes the argument that in the end Chris Gabrieli's game plan much resembles the one implemented by Mitt Romney in 2002.
She further speculates that if business whizbang Willard Mitt Romney couldn't tame the government, what chance will Chris Gabrieli have?
Hmmmm....seems to me that I made most of the argument already...specifically in my August 27th post.
Waaaal...I dunno I'm inclined to give Joanie a pass on this one, given the cash-heavy, tv-advert dependent nature of the Gabrieli campaign this summer, I'm sure that more than a few people saw the comparisons on this one.

Meanwhile the Globe endorsed Patrick this morning, can't say what effect that will have on the outcome of the primary, the Globe doesn't have it's old timey big foot anymore.

Meanwhile over in Somerville

The Bad Poets Society goes all up this Sunday. The people behind this event are pretty off beat but I've usually attended in years past and have always had a good time.
And what the hell, Jimmy Tingle a good friends to democrats and democratic causes is reading the opening poem.

ABC grovels...

At the jackboots of the Praetorian Class. This whole 9-11 docudrama mishaugas isn't hard to figure out, it seems that every two years right on the eve of the election some major media stakeholder feels the need to make kowtow to the GOP.
The answer to that is equally simple, the republican dominated congress (despite it's lip service to rugged individualism and the sanctity of the free market) has made it clear that it expects proper servility from the media conglomerates as the price for de-regulation and a wide open field for the big boys.
Therefore a paradox presents itself, even as News Corp, ABC-Disney, CBS et al become bigger and more profitable, they are simultaneously bound up in a servile relationship with a GOP dominated congress.
Normally size, wealth and power put you beyond the reach of government supervision, but in George Bush's America we have the worst of both worlds, an intrusive corrupt regulatory government and a "free market" dominated by a few bloated conglomerates.
With so much riding on the continued beneficence of the current administration, it is a wonder that ABC doesn't blame Bill Clinton for hurricane Katrina and the death of Steve Irwin.
Well, what is to be done?
At the moment nothing except register our outrage, CBS caved in to pressure from the right over their miniseries about Ronald Reagan, but for the moment Disney-ABC is standing a lonely iconclastic watch against political correctness, blah blah blaaah!
You all know the cliches they spout when they want to lick the asses of praetorianism.
However if we do well this fall, I would hope that someone in congress in the right position would make things hot for Disney, Murdoch etc when the time comes.
Really honestly a malevolent memory is the only thing they people understand.

Former Iranian President Khatami is going to speak at Harvard this weekend

and predictably, Mitt Romney is just outraged about it.
So much so that the Governor has denied state police protection to the former Iranian President whom Romney's pollsters have gleefully branded as a terrorist.
Well, it is the old story once again, Khatami has been on the schedule for a while at the JFK School, but the dictates of kowtowing to out of state wowsers demand that the Viceroy refrain from speaking out until the very last minute.
The denial of state police coverage was a nice churlish touch though, the very essence of stunt driven superficial governance.
Humble Elias could point out that while the governor opportunistically rants and raves for the cameras, the roads and bridges of the Commonwealth fall into disrepair and our public transport systems are groaning under new stresses and strains.
Any one of a number of neglected issues come to mind quite frankly, the list is long and yet Romney ignores them all in his lust for good ink above the fold.
No, forget all that, instead I'll just suggest that Romney is a passive aggressive nerd of the first rank.
I mean, if he really thinks Khatami is a terrorist, then why not have him arrested at Logan?
Do something really daring Mitt...take a real stand like a good little freeper.
Or at least run up to Khatami, kick the guy in the shins and run away bawling like a schoolgirl...
Something, anything but this nerdy spiteful weak-kneed response "Well you can't have staties protecting you SO THERE!!"
Just for the record incomparably worse people have come to this country to speak...Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev (who made all sorts of diresome nuclear threats at the UN), Idi Amin but most of the ass-holes rated police protection...I mean shit even a serial killer gets a bulletproof vest and security detail.
Ahhhh but this is Romney we are talking about, passive aggressive nerds aren't known for their mastery of the grand gesture after all.

Am I the only person in the Commonwealth who laughs

out loud whenever Jeff Jacoby starts ranting and raving about the perils of theocrats and theocracy?
Good Ghod but if Jeff could press a button and install a witchburning wowser like Gary Bauer or Pastor John Hagee into an American Pontificate he'd do it without blinking an eye.
Otherwise, Jeff has his boxers in a twist because Harvard has invited Iran's former President Khatami to give a talk...this somehow constitutes appeasement of Iran in Jeff's fevered imagination hence all the screeching about theocracy.
So who is he to spite the Iranian Mullahs who lord it over Iran thanks to their pious death grip on the franchise?
Hell they've only implemented the cherished political dreams of Grover Norquist and his piratical crew!
Hell the Mullah's are nothing but the GOP's teachers in this respect.

Jeff is the biggest apologist for religious sectarian politics in the Northeast.
The slightest criticism of the preaching of blatant GOP politics from the pulpit and Jeff starts howling like a red headed stepchild.
Thats the only thing we have to keep uppermost in our minds.

Anyway, lets face facts, the news is so bad from out of Iraq that even Jeff can't puit a gladsome face on it anymore. Hence this pre-emptive screed against pro-Iranian academics or whatnot.

I'm certainly not above trading in malicious rumors of

antisemitism on the part of certain seniro executive personalities.
:)

However lets face facts shall we? If charges of rampant stupidity haven't barred Bush from office, then why should his "The Jews are going to hell" rap damage his prospects?
At this point, the wise citizen heaves a big sigh and lets a feeling of awful Bushian deja vu' run it's course.

Taxes...won-derful...

Looks like Chris, Tom & Deval are gearing up to end the primary campaign in a nice old fashioned democratic bloodbath over the issue of the income tax. Well that is just great, why don't we just HAND Kerry Healey a nice easy issue for the fall campaign on a silver platter and with a fresh muffin basket as well!
It ought to be axiomatic after four straight guberatorial losses that taxes are nothing anyone should be talking about when Labor Day rolls around.
Ah but the whole guberatorial crew is deep in the throes of that dreaded tropical fever known as "wanta-win"...all sorts of self destructive demagoguery will be indulged between now and the primary all of which will do naught but accrue to the benefit of that smug moocher, Kerry Healey.
Very well then, the Chimes at Midnight hardly casts a giant shadow over the process, Humble Elias can't stop anyone from doing what they feel they MUST do to win.
I can however gently suggestive to the state party that they ought to be formulating a vigorous and simple response to what is now going to be Kerry Healey's inevitable fall offensive on the subject of taxation.
I'd start with the fact that Kerry Healey's boss Mitt Romney raised $750 million dollars off of fee increases over the last four years...where was the Lieutenant Governor when the average car-owner, hunter and whatnot was being shaken down by the Viceroy's bureaucracy?

Phil if yer reading this, we need a response, better start crafting it now, and it had better be good...the state GOP is a wan wasted bunch but they can play that tax-paranoia thing like a klezmer virtuoso.

Martha Coakley for President

You heard it here second...okay third after Universal Hub.

Seriously though, the bane of Massachusetts politics is the dreaded Virus Potomacus...in my lifetime a variety of locals both Republican and Democrat have dreamt of summering at Camp David. Some have acted on that dream, some have not, but it is a curiously long list for a small state (with a big heart) jammed as it is against the ocean deep.
Among others there was:

John Volpe (Badly wanted to be Nixon's VP in '68)
Teddy Kennedy (Nuff' said true believer)
Mike Dukakis
Paul Tsongas
Bill Weld (You KNOW he wanted the Senate in 1996 as a stepping stone to glory...)
John Kerry (don't close that book yet kids)
Mitt Romney...
There are others as well...and no doubt more to come.
Martha if you are (somehow) reading this, avoid this dreaded viral infection at all costs!
It is nothing but woe and misery.

Stupid is as stupid governs

Governor Romney has reiterated his "firm" opposition to stem cell research likening it to something out of "The Matrix".
WE can safely file this next to his "firm" opposition to increasing state fees and his "firm" prochoice bona fides.
As for that "Matrix" metaphor, all Humble Elias can say is this, we suffer when the ruling classes try to wallow in the pop culture zeitgeist. We get patronized, and they end up looking like fools.
Ah well a few more months and Mitt is Barnstead New Hampshire's problem...Sweet Thought!