'Hurtful voters bewilder reps...

Article 6-11-09

So why don't pols do something in favor of voters?

by Michael Graham
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009

Boo hoo hoo.

The Beacon Hill Boys are - to quote Rep. Denis Guyer of Dalton in the Boston Globe-Democrat - “shocked” to discover that the public thinks they’re a bunch of incompetent crooks. According to Guyer, passing motorists are flipping him the bird.

Other legislators are puzzled by a flood of angry e-mails and phone calls after their vote to save the “hack holidays” of Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day. They’re assailed in appearances with complaints about expected toll and tax hikes.

Voters are outraged, and our legislators don’t know why. They’re hurt, confused. As longtime Rep. David Flynn put it: “The pressure is quite severe from constituents. And it’s only natural to try and blame someone.”

Note that phrase “try and blame someone.”

Not “hold us responsible,” but “try and blame.” This is the same Rep. Flynn who joined with fellow Democrats to overwhelmingly return Sal DiMoney to the speaker’s chair in January. The same Democrats who gave the sales tax hike a veto-proof majority. And now they complain that they’re being turned into scapegoats as we voters randomly assign blame?

Massachusetts Democrats remind me of the drunk who smoked two packs a day and spent his spare time in a brothel. One day he goes to the doctor and, after his exam, the doctor says “You’ve got lung cancer, cirrhosis, and the clap.”

The drunk looks toward heaven and cries, “Why did this happen to me?”

Why? We just watched the third House speaker in a row indicted by the feds; a shameless vote to save the $5 million worth of “hack holidays”; and a legislative committee reviewing the ethics bill promptly threw out the press and met in secret.

All in the same week. And you can’t fathom why we might be a tad annoyed?

This wouldn’t be so bad if our full-time, salaried legislators could sneak in some real work between ripoffs. But they don’t.

It’s no secret the state has a problem with elderly drivers. In fact, last week also saw a plague of seniors crashing their Town Cars into buildings, bike riders and even a somber gathering of war veterans.

But even as the bodies fly and store fronts shatter, our lawmakers refuse to discuss, much less pass, reasonable new testing requirements for seniors.

When it comes to protecting government workers and union perks, Beacon Hill will bear any burden and pay any price (with our money, of course).

If these low-rent government grifters had the decency to at least be embarrassed by their actions, it wouldn’t be so annoying. But they aren’t. They honestly think they’re doing a good job.

“We’re doing the important work that the people send us to Beacon Hill to do,” said Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick) in response to the Sal DiMoney indictment.

Work? What “work”? It’s still possible in Massachusetts to legally give a cash “gift” to a state senator. A 95-year-old can renew her driver’s license without a test. The country’s worst-run toll road is still threatening a toll hike. And the Legislature is trying to charge us a sales tax on the tax we’ve already paid when we buy beer and wine. Literally a “tax” tax.

And you guys on Beacon Hill are bothered when voters flip you the bird? You’re lucky they aren’t flipping over your car.