Saturday, September 16, 2006

Undertaker v. Pixie Getting Dirty

It is to laugh a funereal laugh. I had no idea Robert J. Dello Russo was a funeral director when I wrote that he looked like one.

[This does bring up the question about whether one goes to mortician's school because one already has the mannerisms and mindset or do those come with the training?]

Today's Boston Globe has a related piece on the nastiness floating around this primary contest for Suffolk County Superior Court Clerk for Criminal Business.

Despite really insulting, low-brow ads and directs attacks on Tom Menino in the last Boston mayor's race, she plays the innocent here. While she is the only one standing to gain, she swears she has nothing to do with the current dirty tricks.

These include:
  • A man in a Richard Nixon mask leafleting the candidates' forum at English High this week. The flyers headlined NO CROOKS for Clerk of Court.
  • Someone trolling blogs, including this one, posting anti-Della Russo comments.
  • Rumors and anonymous blog comments dredging up Della Russo's sons' legal problems from 8 and 4 years ago.
  • Accusations that a charge -- of which he was acquitted -- that he knew a Cadillac he bought in 1981 was hot.
  • Allegations that he was lying about using his vacation time to conduct funerals on the side, hence double dipping.
Della Russo isn't entirely pure about this. As the article puts it, "His campaign, meanwhile, has mailed out literature that depicts Hennigan as a cartoon character with a shopping cart, saying she is just shopping for another public paycheck."

Not only does Hennigan deny any association with the dirty tricks, she claims her opponent is the negative one.

All the fuss about a well-paid, but nothing in particular (and probably pretty tedious) job is odd. As Acting Clerk Joe Rubino said, "It's absolutely outrageous. I've never seen anything like this before."

From what we've seen over the years, any campaign involving Hennigan is going to be nasty. She is highly competitive. He, on the other hand, is low-key and speaks in a quiet singsong. Maybe both of them have exhausted their venom for Tuesday's vote...or not.

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