St Patrick's Day Breakfast—Lowell Edition

I had the honor of attending the Lowell version of the Patrick's Day Breakfast on Friday.♠  It was a fund raiser for The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell.  It was also a chance for Democratic Party Politicians to showcase themselves. The co-hosts were State Senator Eileen M Donoghue and City Manager Bernard F Lynch.♥ I had the honor of sitting at Table 34, The Ancient Order of Citizen Media.  Those present at the table include Jack Mitchell, Greg Page, Linda Bown, George Anthes, John Nappi, Marge Kelly, Paul Bellay, and John McDonough.  In fairness to others, we were not the only Citizen Media present, as Dick Howe was introduced (those introduced were current and former political personalities, including Casey Crane♦).

Before the festivities started someone raised a question as to the impact on Senate Democratic Nomination Candidate US Representative Stephen F Lynch of his being endorsed by State Representative David Nangle.  Speculation was that Representative Lynch might be disinvited to the Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention in Lowell this Summer.

The Breakfast enjoyed presentations by both Democratic Party candidates for the recently vacated John Kerry seat, now held by Senator Mo Cowan, our second Black Senator from the Commonwealth.  I liked Representative Lynch's talk over that of Representative Ed Markey.  Your mileage may vary.  I did think that the one Republican Party Candidate who showed, State Representative Dan Winslow gave a good speech, positive, humorous in moderation and tight (read short).  His best line was, noting he had been a judge in the local area, he recognized many faces in the audience.

Our Attorney General, and one time US Senate Candidate, and possible future Candidate for Governor, Martha Coakley,♣ during her time at the podium, listed women in our Commonwealth who have held high office, including herself, Senate President Murray, Auditor Suzanne Bump, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, Maggie Marshall.  It slipped her mind that we have had two female Lieutenant Governors and a female Governor.★  I will give this to Ms Coakley; she is no Carmen Ortiz.  A wannabe, but not the same quality of Prosecutor as Ms Ortiz, who brings to mind WHY we have a Bill of Rights.

Our Mayor, Patrick Ó Murphy, talked on for a long time, but then he had a long list of people to skewer.  A couple of times Co-host Donoghue started to stand up to help Mayor Murphy off the stage, but he kept on going, and going.  I will say this, he was dressed for the event—formal wear.  Sadly, some time during the festivities, as the Mayor left the podium, the sound of breaking glass could be distinctly heard.  Everything considered, I think the Mayor did OK.

As an aside, as I was leaving the parking garage and heading in to the Inn, I heard a woman say to the parking attendant that the Mayor's twin brother had tried to park in the spot reserved for the Mayor.  That could have created an awkward situation, forcing the Mayor to forage for his own spot out between the fire hydrants.

The three State Reps were fairly short.  Representative Tom (Tipper) Golden gave out his awards, the Golden Something or others.  Fortunately, he gave us the hint that they were named after him.  I missed that subtlety and appreciated the heads up.  Kevin Murphy gave the best talk.  Short and sweet, with good Irish references.  I do think there was a mention that he is not related to the other Murphy.  David Nangle did his telephone bit and even involved UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan.  He also did a slide show of him with famous Republicans, including himself with Jim Buba.  Representative Nangle's job was tough, in that he had to show he was a loyal member of the Democratic Party, while showing that he was not some lapdog to be called to heel.  Given the toughness of the job, I think he executed pretty well.

Then there was the hired comedian, Paul D'Angelo.★  Mr D'Angelo was funny and yet managed to remain out of the gutter.  He had just the right balance, and since he took from everyday life his humor had lessons in it.  One sketch involved an accused car thief.  It was noted that this particular thief had been arrested four times for car theft, which suggested he had boosted probably 100 cars in total.  The judge wanted to give him three years.  Mr D'Angelo pauses to note that a year in jail costs the taxpayers $50,000.  He then suggested that it might be cheaper to buy the thief a $15,000 Hyundai and call it even.  At that point Mr D'Angelo put his finger on a serious social problem.  Needless to say, I enjoyed Mr D'Angelo.

Somewhere in there was the Irish Step Dance, by the Celtic Company Dancers, DNE School of Dance.  Scanning the list of the young children who participated, one gets the picture of what it means to be Irish in America.  There was Mary Grabowski and Daphne Daldoumas and Kailey Gorski and the very Irish Megan with the very English last name of Whitney.  Being Irish in America is be to American and proud of a heritage that might be in the blood or just adopted, but real all the same.  Even if your surname is Krieger.

I enjoyed meeting up with old friends and meeting new people and the humor was, this year, on a fairly high level and even sometimes funny.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Frankly, this is not a closed event—my prime evidence is my attendance.  On the other hand, it is not a free event.  See next sentence in the first paragraph.
♥  Yes, that would be "Bernie" Lynch.
♦  Not to be confused with the late Casey Crane of Pierre, SD, who died in an automobile accident on 24 February.  Ms Crane, 31, the manager of the local Taco John's Drive Thru, left behind two young sons.

♣  Is it just my imagination that Columnist Howie Carr calls her Marsha Coakley?  Maybe an obscure reference to Prosecutor Marcia Clark.
★  She did manage to mention that on a recent weekend she was the acting Governor, Governor Patrick being on a junket, the Lieutenant Governor being in some other state and the Secretary of State likewise being absent from the state.
★  AKA former Assistant District Attorney Paul Murphy.  So, yes, he too recognized a number of people in the audience from his time in court.