Beacon Hill’s 7 brave souls
Posted in: Accomplishments, Articles, Updates on 10/18/2009 | No Comments
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist | October 18, 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/18/beacon_hills_7_brave_souls?mode=PF
Say you’re one of the 135 Democratic legislators who voted to keep Sal DiMasi as House speaker back in January. Right now, you’ve got to be feeling even chumpier than usual, which hardly seemed possible until a few days ago.
After all, how much dumber could you look? On Jan. 7, you reelected DiMasi, even though you knew about his shady connections to a software firm that won millions in state contracts. You did it because he brought you back from legislative Siberia, or because he shared your priorities, or because you didn’t want to risk his wrath.
Whatever the reason, you stuck out your neck for him. And three weeks later, he stuck it to you by resigning. Then he got indicted on federal corruption charges, which made you look like even bigger dopes. The whole thing was fading from voters’ memories until Tuesday, when the feds added extortion charges to the mess. When it comes to other shoes dropping, this guy is Imelda Marcos.
Man, that must hurt. And I’m not going to add to your pain.
Instead, I want to pay tribute to a tiny group of Democrats you must envy these days. They’re the seven who said no to Sal: Representatives Cory Atkins, Jennifer Callahan, Thomas Calter, Stephen Canessa, John Quinn, Thomas Stanley, and David Torrisi. All of them had backed DiMasi in the past, but they refused to hold their noses and vote yes in January, even though they knew it could cost them dearly. They thought backing DiMasi would bring the entire House into disrepute. They were right.
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