Friday, April 02, 2010

Cowardly DeLeo


What's worse as a speaker of the house, a pol on the take or an arrogant incompetent? Think. Think. Think.

We've seen quite a bit of the former here in Massachusetts. Now we get to deal with the imperious fool-in-chief Robert A. DeLeo. Mr. Speaker (maybe that should Master and Lord Speaker) DeLeo developed and squatted on a massive casino gambling proposal for months and sprang it on the General Court once he figured he had the votes.

The joke on the rest of us is that he won't allow public hearings on this bill that would fundamentally and permanently alter our lives. Like the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, he may not have a heart. That decision suggests he may be short on brains as well.

This is the same MA House that queered every revenue proposal Gov. Deval Patrick brought forward for two years. Now it thinks that the outrageous promises of wealth the casino industry has made will be our way out of recession problems. We need only look at Louisiana, New Jersey and other states where those promises have destroyed the local economies and made only the gambling companies richer.

Even if enough legislators buy into the fantasy, doing this without letting the public scream, pontificate and stomp feet is dumb, dumber, dumbest. What was that Bugs Bunny so often said, "I got a baaaaad feeling about this!"?

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1 comment:

Ryan said...

Regardless of whether or not DeLeo has done anything illegal, I can't fathom a more corrupt process to push his special-interest ideas.

And this after all that "reform" we did.

State government needs to clean up the Speaker's office now, or we'll never have the faith of the people that government can be a force of good in the world. This has to be the #1 priority of citizens that want good and responsible government in the days ahead -- this sort of process cannot be allowed to stand.