Looking to 2020, From Massachusetts

For John, BLUF:  Not a one of them inspires me with confidence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Could there really be five Mass. politicians running against Trump in 2020?

From The Boston Globe, by Ms Annie Linskey 06 April 2018.

Here is the lede plus one and a half:

President Trump’s unconventional presidency has shattered all kinds of norms, but there’s one very local tradition that he seems to be reviving:  Massachusetts presidential ambitions.

Massachusetts voters had only tenuous ties to the 2016 presidential crop — Hillary Clinton graduated from Wellesley College, and Bernie Sanders hails from neighboring Vermont.  Now, thanks in part to the president’s deep unpopularity here, there’s a quintet of notable figures from the state showing up on political forecasters’ lists of possible 2020 contenders.

Count them: Senator Elizabeth Warren.  Former governor Deval Patrick.  Representative Seth Moulton.  Even former secretary of state John Kerry and Representative Joe Kennedy III are often named.

It is the second paragraph that seems strange and lacking in insight  Ms Linskey seems to think that if the collective we of Eastern Massachusetts doesn't like someone, nobody likes that person.  She should read some of Reporter Salena Zito's stuff.

Who knows?  Maybe the Wellesley College graduate will run again, sort of like a Democratic Party version of Governor Harold Stassen.  It would work for me.

Regards  —  Cliff

Adding to a Long List

For John, BLUF:  Deval for President?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Robbins: Deval Patrick has clearest path to 2020 nomination

That would be Boston Attorney Jeff Robbins, who is former US Delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.  An OpEd in The Boston Herald, 16 November 2017.

Here is the lede plus one:

With Democrats claiming victory in the 2017 elections and Donald Trump’s approval ratings mired in the mid-30s, political chatter has turned predictably to 2020 and who could, or should, be the Democrats’ presidential nominee.

The chatter has intensified with Joe Biden’s book tour; in Massachusetts, the buzz hovers over U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.

But the Massachusetts resident who may have the clearest path to the nomination is one who has kept a low profile: former Gov. Deval Patrick.  If he wants the nomination — and so far he shows little lust for the limelight — Patrick would have certain distinct advantages over other potential candidates.

I am not seeing it, but considering other names that have been put forward, it is not totally unreasonable.  On the other hand, if folks think that President Trump won't run in 2020, or be a pushover in that race, they might be surprised, again.  Just saying….

Hat tip to MASSterList.

Regards  —  Cliff

State Budgets and Deficits

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Former Paul A Volcker is worried about how the individual states are dealing with their future liabilities, like pension funds.  Here is his ideas as reported by Ms Mary Williams Walsh in The New York Times—"Volcker Sees Hidden Peril in State Budgets".

Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman widely credited with taming inflation in the 1980s, has found what he considers a new economic scourge to battle:  shoddy state budgets that he contends push costs into the future for other generations of taxpayers to pay.

When the states live beyond their means in this way, Mr. Volcker said on Monday, their budgets may seem balanced every year, but they are in fact piling up hidden mountains of unpaid bills.  The invisible mountains grow bigger every year and eventually become crushing — something that seems to be happening in several states this summer as lawmakers find themselves at a loss to close their deficits.

“The never-ending sense of crisis leads to stop-and-go funding of vital programs,” Mr. Volcker said in his first report on state finances since establishing the Volcker Alliance, a foundation devoted to rebuilding public trust in government at the federal, state and local levels.

I commented on someone's Facebook page that I thought our Commonwealth was headed in the proper direction.  I noted how I was concerned that Mr Volcker might be pushing us in the direction of a more uniform way of doing business across the fruited plain and that such a thing would undermine what makes the United States different, our test lab of different ideas, the individual States.  I suggested we didn't want to end up like France, for example.

Now comes The Boston Herald, with an article by Reporter Joe Battenfeld, "Hidden junket funds:  How Deval Patrick secretly diverted millions to off-budget accounts".

Former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts that paid for a $1.35 million trade junket tab, bloated advertising contracts, and a deal with a federally subsidized tourism venture backed by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a Herald investigation has found.

The maneuver to fatten the hidden “trust” 

accounts with millions from state quasi-public agencies allowed Patrick to skirt the state Legislature and evade state budget cutbacks during the recession, the Herald found.

PDF:  Tracking ex-gov.'s money stash

State lawmakers never approved the funding plan, and it’s not clear who even knew about it, but it is clear who orchestrated the end-around the budget and got state agencies to contribute.

“The (Patrick) administration asked us to,” said Katie Hauser, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which kicked in the largest amount to the trusts, $23.5 million.

Senator Harry Reid?  The man who, on the floor of the US Senate, lied about Governor Mitt Romney?♠  That Harry Reid?

Hat tip to an unnamed Facebook friend.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.  —Proverbs 6:16–19

Eric Holder Going

For John, BLUF:  As I have said before, General Holder has been a big disappointment to me.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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On the radio a little while ago I heard that Us Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning.  He will leave the office once his replacement is on the job, per The Boston Globe.

WASHINGTON — Eric Holder, who served as the public face of the Obama administration’s legal fight against terrorism and weighed in on issues of racial fairness, is resigning after six years on the job. He is the nation’s first black attorney general.

The White House said that President Barack Obama would announce Holder’s departure later Thursday and that Holder planned to remain at the Justice Department until his successor was in place.

White House officials said Obama had not made a final decision on a replacement for Holder, who was one of the most progressive voices in his Cabinet. A Justice Department official said Holder finalized his plans in a meeting with the president over the Labor Day weekend.

I wonder what the Reporters Nedra Pickler and Jim Kuhnhenn meant by the phrase "one of the most progressive voice" of President Obama's appointees?

On a sad note, our Commonwealth Governor, Deval Patrick, has said he is not in the running.♥  That means we will not get to see the succession process play out.  I think that would have been interesting.  Maybe the office would have just been declared vacant and left that way until January of 2015.

Regards  —  Cliff

♥  On the other hand, when the President calls, one responds.