By The Prowler on 6.16.08 @ 12:08AM
Obama's man resurrects Taxachusetts. Plus: Harried Harry.
HEY BIG SPENDER
Sen. John McCain has had to deal with liberal,
Republican former governor of Massachusetts Mitt
Romney; now Sen. Barack Obama has the
current liberal Democrat governor of Massachusetts to deal
with.
Gov. Deval Patrick, who early in the primary
season spurned his former mentor Bill Clinton and
endorsed Obama for the Democrat nomination, is seeking to raise his
national profile on Obama's coattails in hopes of a prime position
in his administration, say Massachusetts Democrat advisers.
"If he can get a senior post in an Obama administration, he'll
take it," says one state party political consultant. "Half of
Patrick's state administration is raising money so that they can
run to fill his seat."
Patrick has publicly denied an interest in leaving a job he has
held for a comparatively brief period of time. And it's -- to say
the least -- a remote possibility that he would be in line for a
vice presidential nod, as he had some of his advisers touting
several months ago.
Patrick, though, will be front and center with Obama on campaign
stops and fundraising events, though the governor's track record is
one that Obama probably wants to run away from.
Patrick has directed a state budget process that is weighed down
by deficits and spending, including a gubernatorial office budget
that jumped 80% in one year. Aides say the bulk of the increase is
for a "volunteer program" that will run out of the governor's
office. Some say it is a fund to pay out to friends and consultant
"volunteer" fees that they otherwise would not be able to receive
without a lengthy contract-approval process.
"Republicans will call it a slush fund, we [Democrats] call it a
discretionary fund," says another political consultant with ties to
Patrick. "Every governor in the country has stuff like this in
their budgets." Patrick is also spending money to open a
Washington, D.C. office for himself.
Meanwhile, he is proposing heavy tax increases on current
Massachusetts businesses, while offering tax breaks to attract new
businesses to the state. For example: a quarter million in tax
breaks for biotech and life sciences companies, which he will
announce when he travels out to San Diego in the next couple of
weeks.
All the while, Massachusetts localities are struggling with
budget shortfalls, with no help in sight from the state
government.
"We have local citizens time and again voting down budget
increases and expanded spending on things like schools and roads,
and we have a governor offering tax breaks to companies that will
just pour more money into places like Harvard," says a state party
official who has worked hard to oppose Patrick's budget and
profligate spending. "People haven't thrown around the term
Taxachusetts in a few years, but Patrick is doing a pretty job of
bringing back the nickname."
HUFFY HARRY
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters
recently that Sen. John McCain doesn't have the
temperament to be President of the United States. When pressed,
Reid said that McCain's temper was legendary in the Senate.
He might as well have been speaking about himself.
Reid's temper, according to Democrat aides in other offices,
tends to reveal itself most when he is not shown what he considers
to be the proper deference owed to the position he holds.
"It's almost never about policy, it's always about his feeling
slighted in some way. He always makes it personal, whether it's a
Senate colleague or a staffer," says a former Senate Democrat
leadership aide.
topics:
John McCain, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Bill Clinton, Business, NATO
