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Pin the Tail on the Donkey!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Pin the Tail on the Donkey!

Will Aloisi or Patrick Earn 'DoW' Honors? Read On! 

You might have thought this week’s “Donkey of the Week” would be the very obvious choice of Jim Aloisi, the discredited Secretary of Transportation. After all, he was secretly pushing fare hikes while telling another tale to legislators, according to a series of emails brought to light yesterday by the Boston Globe.

But let’s not kid ourselves. The biggest “Donkey of the Week” is…Governor Deval Patrick. We'd even go so far as to say he's the “Alpha Donkey.”

For weeks now Patrick and Aloisi have been engaging in barnyard behavior and trying to place the blame for T fare hikes on Dan Grabauskas, the ousted general manager of the MBTA.

We all know Aloisi was following the “Alpha Donkey” by trying to raise fares and get rid of Grabauskas. And no one believed Patrick when he hee-hawed over the size of the severance package required to oust Grabauskas. The A.D. wanted him gone, at any price.

Only after his hoof was once again caught in the feed bucket did the “Alpha Donkey” pull the plug on the MBTA fare hikes. He should also pull the plug on Aloisi.

But he won't. 

The “Alpha Donkey” is as stubborn as a mule and cannot see this is going as well as the Marian Walsh appointment.

It’s clear that Governor Patrick is playing a clumsy political blame game at taxpayers’ expense. What a Donkey…

The Boston Herald editorialized on Governor Patrick’s political blame game: “The Patrick administration’s clumsy effort to rewrite MBTA history yesterday blew up right in its face. And responsibility for a future fare hike now rests, appropriately, with the team that publicly stated the need for it. Yes, it was all a bit strange, this effort over the last few weeks by Gov. Deval Patrick and his team to place the blame for a looming fare hike at the ousted general manager’s feet…Still the governor insisted on citing the fare hike as one of the signs of ex-GM Dan Grabauskas’ managerial incompetence…Now, we know a fare hike was not the administration’s first choice. But ever since his hope of raising the state gas tax up to 27 cents per gallon was laughed off by the Legislature in favor of a smaller sales tax hike, Aloisi made it clear the T would need another other source of funding to avoid going bankrupt and the fare hike was proceeding apace. So to have Patrick and Aloisi pushing this “Don’t look at us, it was Dan’s fault” defense is simply insulting.” (“Truth about the T,” Boston Herald, 8/12/09)

The Lowell Sun editorialized how taxpayers got a “raw deal” just so Governor Patrick could settle a “political score” and come out looking good: “Here we go again. Gov. Deval Patrick has successfully directed his henchmen to get rid of Daniel A. Grabauskas…Today, Grabauskas is reluctantly cashing a big check from the financially troubled agency -- $327,487 -- in a settlement that paves the way for Patrick to hire his own man to the high-profile post. With Patrick's track record, all Democrat political contributors and neighbors are eligible. Grabauskas' ouster is harder to swallow. He was not a political hack…Many state officials believed that Grabauskas was doing a good job. What bothers us most: If Grabauskas wasn't doing his job properly, he should have been fired for poor performance. Instead, Patrick and Aloisi have engineered a $327,484 golden parachute for Grabauskas at a time when the state can least afford it. While Grabauskas may or may not have been treated fairly, that question is no longer the point. The real point is that taxpayers got a raw deal just so the Patrick administration could settle a political score.” (“Raw Deal,” Lowell Sun, 8/11/09)

Even Democrat Senator Steve Baddour cited the Governor as playing politics at taxpayers’ expense: "The public interest has not been well-served. It is discouraging beyond words to watch the governor and the soon-to-be-abolished MBTA board spend their time trying to settle a political score at taxpayers' expense when we have so many serious matters that need focus." (Boston Globe, 8/7/09)

Opinion columnists in both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald cited the Patrick Administration as lying: “Has anyone else noticed that the Patrick administration’s nose seems to be growing? Now, I’m loath to say that the administration is fibbing to us, so let me put this as diplomatically as possible. The available evidence could easily lead a skeptic to suspect we are being asked to believe things that don’t necessarily comport with the truth…After a clumsy political coup, Team Patrick has tried to portray itself as trying to save MBTA riders from a fare hike that newly ousted general manager Dan Grabauskas wanted to forge ahead with. But as Andrea Estes and Matt Viser wrote in yesterday’s Globe, the facts are somewhat different.” (“On T fare issue, the truth is left stranded, Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe, 8/12/09)

“How can you tell if Gov. Deval Patrick and his top coatholders are lying? Their lips are moving. Once again, Jim Aloisi, the career hack and Transportation secretary, is caught speaking with forked tongue. “He’s my guy,” Deval said after one of Aloisi’s earlier blow-ups…At the very least, Aloisi should be packed off to a meeting of E-mailers Anonymous. Why would he first fire and then try to pin the proposed T fare increase on Dan Grabauskas? Especially when Grabauskas was sitting on a smoking gun - an e-mail exchange in which he tells Aloisi that there’s no need for a fare increase on the MBTA this year…This time, though, he [Aloisi] was caught red-handed, which is why his flack yesterday had to say it would be “counterproductive” to respond to, uh, the truth. In other words, we’re busted…On Monday, Deval even followed up his transportation secretary’s lies with his own Aloisi. The governor was asked if any of his minions were pushing for the fare increase, he replied, “No.” Liar, liar, pants on fire…After the first time Aloisi got caught, Deval brushed off the controversies as “trivial.” Is that how you’d describe your coatholders lies about proposed fare increases at the MBTA, Governor - trivial?” (“Jim Aloisi’s Lies a Tangled Web, Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 8/12/09)

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