Dan Dunn’s Podium

So on Tuesday Massachusetts will have its first open Senate election since 1984.  A 26 year wait, and this is the best crop of candidates we can come up with? Kinda depressing, if you ask me.
The candidate I’m most passionate about is Scott Brown – and why he should never be a US senator.
First and [...]

I was watching state Senator Galluccio’s legal problems as 2009 drew to a close, and I cynically was thinking to myself about how my post would be different if he made it to 2010 before he resigned.  And he did make it to 2010, making half of my lines obsolete.  Multiple arrests, multiple innocent victims [...]

I’ve been lazily watching the Boston Globe’s pursuit of Menino aide Michael J. Kineavy’s emails.  It was obvious from the start that the guy was violating state law – he was deleting emails that the law required be retained.  But it looked like more smoke than fire.  Yeah, he should be keeping the emails, I [...]

Ted Kennedy is dead, and that is all I have to say on the topic of Ted Kennedy.  But the questions of who will succeed him and how that person will be selected – now those are things I can write about.
The last time the Republicans won a Senate seat in Massachusetts was 1972: Edward [...]

Today former Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi was indicted for “conspiracy, honest services mail fraud, aiding and abetting, and honest services wire fraud” related to the awarding of a multi-million dollar contract to Cognos software. For most of us, this isn’t a shock.  The Globe has been writing investigative stories about this for a year [...]

My friends and I play a silly game online.  We send each other news headlines on instant messenger under the headline of “Real or Onion.”  To win, you have to fool your opponent into mis-classifying the headline.  ”Congressman Wants to Talk with Rodriguez” – it’s real, on nytimes.com right now.  ”Genetic  Experiment Goes Horribly Right” [...]

DiMasi is resigning as speaker and quitting the General Court entirely.  Good riddance.  I’d like to publicly admit that I was wrong when I wrote about DiMasi earlier this month.  I thought he’d only quit after his indictment.
I still think he’s going to be indicted.  I was wrong about the order of events.
Now all eyes turn [...]

On January 7th, the Democratic State Representatives of Massachusetts are going to choose the Speaker of the House for the ‘09-’10 session of the General Court.  The incumbent and presumed winner is Speaker Sal DiMasi.
Here’s the problem: The citizens of Massachusetts have witnessed a parade of scandal, corruption, and conspiracy from Mass Democrats.  Sal DiMasi [...]

The State House continues to underestimate the depth of its ethical quagmire.  A few of the current problems:

Two Sentators indicted this year
House Speaker DiMasi who won’t turn over documents to the Ethics Commission
Waiting for one or more State Representatives to be indicted in the Dejavu affair

Last week the state held an orientation for the newly-elected [...]

Sen. Dianne Wilkerson appeared in court today on charges that she’s been taking bribes.  She already lost the Democratic primary and has been running a last-gasp write-in effort to retain her seat.  This headline should finally sink her ship.
I’m not at all sorry to see her go.  I’ve been a critic of her for years. [...]