Dems Line Up to Replace Cahill

Posted on July 8, 2009 by billmanzi

Democratic pols from all around the Commonwealth began to line up to run for Treasurer in light of Tim Cahill’s announcement that he was leaving the Democratic Party. Democratic power broker Steve Grossman, who has chaired both the State and national Democratic Party, declared himself in the fight yesterday. Grossman will bring a large rolodex of state and national figures whom he has helped over the years, as well as a huge fundraising network. Others looking to run include State Senator Mark Montigny, State Rep. Tom Conroy, Sheriff Michael Bellotti, the Treasurer of Plymouth County Tom O’Brien, Suzanne Bump, Secretary of Labor to Governor Patrick, and James Rooney, the E.D. of the Massachusetts Convention Authority. I am sure that others will also emerge. The bridges are now burning behind Cahill, leaving no doubt about where he must now go. Add the Treasurer’s race to the Governor’s race, and you have a real exciting political year coming up.

Posted in State News | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Lets Get Ready to Rumble- Cahill Switches to Unenrolled

Posted on July 6, 2009 by billmanzi

State Treasurer Tim Cahill has let it be known that he will switch his party affiliation to unenrolled from Democratic, setting up an independent bid for the Governor’s Office next year. Cahill has been the regular whipping boy of Democratic blogs, and was embarassed when he could not win a delegate slot at the Democratic National Convention, denied by state party regulars. And yes I understand that Cahill’s political operation let him down on the delegate matter, but that left a bitter taste in Cahill’s mouth. And the incessant pounding from the left has to leave him in serious doubt about his ability to garner 15% at a Democratic Convention. I understand the raw political calculus that goes into the Cahill decision, but lets cut the malarkey about him being “loved” by the Democratic Chair “while he is a Democrat”. He was in part pushed out, despite the “love” that Chairman Walsh professes. A bigger load of putrid smelling stuff is the Chairman’s notion that of course Cahill would have received the fifteen percent necessary for ballot access. From the Globe:

Walsh yesterday called Cahill ” a credible candidate for anything he would run for. As long as he’s a registered Democrat, I love him dearly.”

He said he believes Cahill would have no problem winning enough convention votes to run in a Democratic primary.

So what is the real effect of the Cahill gambit? His move now has to be seen as attempting to impact Charlie Baker’s decision on whether to run, which is supposedly due soon. My own thought is that with Cahill and Baker both in the race Governor Patrick has a clear path to victory. It is when the Republicans nominate a marginal candidate other than Baker that the Governor ought to start sweating. And if that happens then Cahill will have the potential to merge, for one election cycle, the center right against Patrick, and will have a clearly defined path to victory. Take a look at the Governor’s poll ratings amongst unenrolled voters, and that path for Cahill lights up like an airport runway at night. Cahill can still crash and burn, but there is a way to win. Kicking Cahill around in the most savage personal terms may be good sport, but complaining when he hits back seems like a big whine to me. And if Charlie Baker takes a pass there may be plenty to whine about!

Posted in State News, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Federer Rolls Into History

Posted on July 6, 2009 by billmanzi

Roger Federer once again engaged in a five set war at Wimbeldon, this time winning a marathon fifth set 16-14 and becoming the man with the most major titles ever, passing Pete Sampras with his fifteenth major. It was a great match that drew even non tennis fans by its sheer ferocity. Federer has a huge heart, and it showed in the second set tie breaker, where Roddick had four set points but could not put Federer down. Federer winning that second set saved the match for him, and the fifty aces he fired by Roddick didn’t hurt either. Andy Roddick played a great match and really showed heart as well. He just did not have the killer instinct that Roger Federer has.

Posted in Sports | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

California Dreamin

Posted on July 6, 2009 by billmanzi

The New York Times Sunday magazine had a pretty good story on the upcoming California governors race, looking at all of the candidates as well as Governor Schwarzenegger, and wondering why anyone would really want the job. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome got prominent play, as did the dysfunctional system that is California government. And with a $26 billion dollar deficit to close and the State issuing IOUs instead of cash California has reached a new level of governmental dysfunction. It is going to be a great political race, with some truly interesting characters likely to create reams of great copy. And with Arnold still around there is always going to be some great interactions that can make us smile. And he does not fail to amuse in this story. With the two sides locked in a bitter partisan struggle over closing the enormous budget gap Governor Schwarzenegger thought a “gift” to the Democratic leader of the State Senate might help move things along.

Even in the most desperate circumstances, when you might expect the two sides to make common cause, their attempts at working together are comical, or sad. In the middle of June, Schwarzenegger sent a melon-size sculpture of bull testicles to the leader of the Democratic-controlled senate, Darrell Steinberg, to encourage lawmakers to find the requisite fortitude to close the budget deficit. Not amused, Steinberg returned the “gift” to the governor.

Great stuff from the Governator. A race to watch, and a pretty good read from the Times!

Read the Sunday Magazine story here.

Posted in National News | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Happy 4th From President Obama

Posted on July 4, 2009 by billmanzi

The President spends his weekly address wishing the nation a happy 4th and talking about the need for change. Is the status quo acceptable? Happy 4th of July!

Posted in National News | Tagged | 1 Comment

Was it Something I Said? Palin Resigns.

Posted on July 3, 2009 by billmanzi

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave a rambling farewell to the Governor’s Office, announcing that she would not be a candidate for re-election in 2010 and also announcing that she was stepping down as Governor effective July 26th. Left unanswered was the critical question of who would now be watching the Russians over the Bering Strait in her absence. Ah, the national security nightmare. John Weaver got right to the heart of the matter: From the Washington Post:

“We’ve seen a lot of nutty behavior from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of that,” said John Weaver, a longtime friend and confidant of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the party’s presidential nominee in 2008 whose of selection of Palin catapulted the first-term Alaska governor to national prominence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/player/wpniplayer_viral.swf?thisObj=fo815511&vid=070309-1v_title

Posted in National News | Tagged | 4 Comments

Beatle Juice Concert Postponed to Sunday

Posted on July 3, 2009 by billmanzi

The Beatle Juice concert scheduled for tonight at 6:00 p.m. at Nicholson Stadium has been postponed to Sunday at 6:00 p.m due to the threat of t-storms. They are a great band, and I hope to see you there.

Posted in Methuen | Tagged | 2 Comments

Methuen Readiness Center

Posted on July 3, 2009 by billmanzi

I was pleased to participate in the groundbreaking for the Methuen Readiness Center recently. We had Major General Joseph C. Carter, the Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard on hand, as well as Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and Lt. Governor Tim Murray. The project has moved along due to the great work of Congresswoman Tsongas, who has secured $22 million dollars of federal money for this Readiness Center. This is a great project for Methuen, and will make effective use of the site of the Armory on Lowell Street.

Read the Tribune story here.

Posted in Methuen | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Republicans Slug it Out Over Sarah

Posted on July 2, 2009 by billmanzi

How could I resist! The Vanity Fair article detailing the train wreck that was the Vice Presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin has triggered some rather heated exchanges amongst the operational wing of the McCain camp and the neo-cons who were along for the ride. Bill Kristol got it all started with an attack on Steve Schmidt, who was the McCain campaign guru, essentially accusing him of being a source for the Vanity Fair piece. From Politico:

Kristol cited a passage in Purdum’s piece in which “some top aides” were said to worry about the Alaska governor’s “mental state” and the prospect that the Alaska governor may be suffering from post-partum depression following the birth of her son Trig. “In fact, one aide who raised this possibility in the course of trashing Palin’s mental state to others in the McCain-Palin campaign was Steve Schmidt,” Kristol wrote.

Whoa there Bill. Schmidt fired back a hard one, invoking Kristol’s expert handling of former VP Dan Quayle. Can you spell potato(e)?

“I’m sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign.”

“After all, his management of [former Vice President] Dan Quayle’s public image as his chief of staff is still something that takes your breath away,” Schmidt continued. “His attack on me is categorically false.”

And Kristol ally and neo-con stalwart Randy Scheunemann (who we wrote about after Pat Buchanan exposed his ties to foreign governments) piled on Schmidt as well.

“Steve Schmidt has a congenital aversion to the truth,” Scheunemann said. “On two separate and distinct occasions, he speculated about about Governor Palin having post-partum depression, and on the second he threatened that if more negative publicity about the handling of Governor Palin emerged that he would leak his speculation [about post-partum depression] to the press. It was like meeting Tony Soprano.”

The Politico article is a great read, and has brought to light extreme bitterness by Bill Kristol over Schmidt’s firing of Scheunemann, who allegedly leaked to Kristol himself. Schmidt is a first rate political operative, and I thought that before he attacked Kristol. And Sarah, as I have said before, is the gift that keeps on giving.

Read the Politico story here.

Bill Kristol’s Blog at the Weekly Standard is here.

Read the Vanity Fair Article here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Methuen’s FY2010 Budget

Posted on July 2, 2009 by billmanzi

I have posted the FY2010 Municipal Budget for the City of Methuen in pdf format. This budget achieves balance without layoffs and includes nine one year agreements with all city side unions. All managers took a one time ten percent wage cut, and all unions took cuts in wages and benefits equaling ten percent.

fy-2010-city-of-methuen-budget

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment