Matt Amorello ready for his close-up in 'Animal Senate'

The life and times of once-mighty, Matt Amorello

by Howie Carr
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010

Fat Matt Amorello apparently forgot the timeless advice Dean Wormer imparted to Flounder in the old movie “Animal House.”

“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

Please, try not to let this latest arrest destroy your faith in the sobriety of the Massachusetts state Senate. After all, until Saturday morning around 2 in Haverhill, it had been 23 days since an ex-solon had found himself behind bars for drunkenness.

When you’re busted for OUI, you’re supposed to cop to where you had your last drink. For these crapulous senators, they’re going to have to add another question: What was the last toothpaste that you used?

Harvey’s Bristol Gleam? Michelob Ultra Brite?

And Fat Matt’s still only 52 years old - three long years away from being able to apply for even a relative pittance of a state pension. It was a couple of years ago that a heartless judge ordered the former $223,000-a-year boss of the Big Dig to get a job.

What was it his lovely wife Charlotte said back in late 2008 about her estranged husband’s public-sector work ethic: “(He) has made minimal efforts, if any, to find gainful employment.”

Charlotte, a retired Massport hackette, had run up $132,000 on a credit card. They were $17,000 behind on the mortgage.

When he ran the Turnpike, Fat Matt insisted on being called “Mr. Chairman.” He had framed photographs of himself on every wall in his posh digs at 10 Park. He paid a young coatholder from Worcester $80,000 a year to go downstairs every afternoon and get him a large frozen chocolate yogurt.

Times have certainly changed since 1990. That was when Fat Matt was first elected to the Senate after running a sticker primary campaign to get on the ballot as a Republican “reformer.”

At the Pike he put on maybe 80 pounds, grew a goatee and three chins, and became such a shameless hack that the Democratic Legislature was willing to go to the mat with Gov. Mitt Romney to keep him on as boss of the Turnpike to do their bidding. By that point, Fat Matt had no other career options. Bet now he wishes he’d passed the bar exam, not to mention whatever bar he was drinking at Friday night.

But Fat Matt’s luck ran out a long time ago. In 2008 he had his house in Wenham listed for $675,000. The bank foreclosed on it this year. And so he was swerving around Haverhill in the wee small hours of the morning, apparently playing demolition derby near, of all places, a Dairy Queen.

There’s a lesson here. To paraphrase Willie and Waylon, Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be state senators.

It was in 2006 of the fatal Big Dig tunnel collapse
that killed a woman, which led then-Gov. Mitt Romney to
demand the firing of then-Pike Chief Matt Amorello. The
photo above shows both individuals touring the horrific site.
(File photo)



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