Subscribe
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Anthony DeGregorio on Sandy Hook Was Good for Business
- Maurice T. Cunningham on Sandy Hook Was Good for Business
- Philip F. Filosa on Sandy Hook Was Good for Business
- Nancy Frank on Ed and Cooter: Just a couple of “Good Ole Boys.”
- Headlines for Wednesday, May 15, 2013 » MASSterList on How will Obama’s “scandals” impact the MA Senate race?
Archives
Categories
Blogroll
- Beacon Hill Institute
- Commonwealth Magazine
- Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Ideas Matter!
- Larry Becker's 270 Electoral Votes Blog
- Mass Benchmarks
- Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center
- Massachusetts Taxpayers Association
- MassInc
- New England Economic Partnership
- New England Journal of Political Science
- Pioneer Institute
- Pollways
- The Invisible Primary
- The Martin Institute
- The Math of Politics
- The Mischiefs of Faction
- The Monkey Cage
- WickedLocal.com/Politics
Meta
Tag Archives: Martha Coakley
Irish Pols 2, Puritan Prosecutors 0
Lost in the wake of the Marathon bombing and the senate race was John O’Brien’s good news-bad news week. The good news for the former Probation commissioner was he was found not guilty of bribery charges brought in the state court. The bad news was a superseding indictment in federal court charging him with seventeen counts of bribery.
In the realm of political culture, is this just another case of Puritan prosecutors like Carmen Ortiz and Martha Coakley attacking Irish politicians like John O’Brien and Tim Cahill?
Politics as Unusual as Boston Stays Strong
The campaign and most everything having to do with politics is in suspension so pulling together a coherent substantive post from me is suspended too. There are a few things to be said and then a return to normality including blogging I hope, by Tuesday. So here I go with an odd media question, a message from Abraham Lincoln, unknown-unknowns, and a brief return to politics (but not criminality) as usual.
Lynch and the Anti-Obamacare Massachusetts Democrats
Congressman Stephen Lynch finds himself in some unusual company in having opposed Obamacare. Let’s not forget that Democratic Party 2010 senate nominee Attorney General Martha Coakley and her main primary opponent Congressman Michael Capuano both pledged to kill the Affordable Care Act.
Prosecutions: High Profile, Low Return
I published an article The Crimes and Punishments of Michael McLaughlin in CommonWealth Magazine the other day that I hope you will read. Here are some key points and additions to it.
One aspect of the case I find very troubling is that the Office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz traded a recommendation of no time or minimal time for McLaughlin because he is willing to offer evidence, apparently about illegal fund-raising practices involving Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray. That is pretty standard stuff for a prosecutor’s office, to trade a lighter sentence in exchange for a bigger fish. But here is my problem, as stated in The Crimes and Punishments of Michael McLaughlin:
When asked by US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock what McLaughlin’s motive was, the assistant US attorney replied, “It was money.” Contrast the outcome here with what the late Aaron Swartz was facing from Ortiz’s office: six months in prison for making public academic papers. His motive was free access to information, not to score pelf. Apparently greed is good. Alas, Swartz had no pol to trade.
This is justice?
Policy Learning in the Cahill Case
A few small items caught my eye on the Boston Globe’s story today Cahill to pay $100,000 to settle case.
First was there policy learning in this case? Policy learning is a change of thinking in a relevant community about a policy. In that sense I would be confident that Attorney General Martha Coakley has succeeded in persuading politicians that running state funded television ads touting one’s credentials during an election is no longer acceptable conduct (it had been for years).
Known-Unknowns in the Special Senate Election
Recently I’ve enjoyed writing about known-knowns and unknown-unknowns as they might influence the coming special senate election for John Kerry’s seat. Today I’m thinking about known-unknowns – the things we know we don’t know. I don’t guarantee any of these speculations will actually happen either; I’m a political scientist, not Jean Dixon.
Unknown Unknowns in Massachusetts Elections
On Tuesday in Senate Special: Do We Know the Known-Knowns? I recounted how the Democrats had no candidate against the unbeatable Senator Scott Brown until the Republicans obliged by refusing to confirm Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Board. I called that act of political charity a “random act of kindness.” I purposely chose the word random.
Senate Special: Do We Know the Known-Knowns?
Since all things being equal a Democrat should always beat a Republican in Massachusetts, each of the MassPoliticsProfs had varying levels of bemusement at the Democrats’ inability to field a decent candidate against Senator Scott Brown until his Republican senatorial colleagues gift-wrapped Elizabeth Warren for the Democrats. Talk about your random acts of kindness!
The things we know we know should favor the Democrats in the upcoming special senate election — right? And the known-unknowns may but need not favor a Democrat, and the unknown-unkowns – like 2010’s Black Swan event – may upset all expectations. I’ve gotten very interested in the things we don’t see coming.
Curse of the AG’s office
Last spring, I noted that it’s not easy being Attorney General, particularly if you are interested in moving on to higher office. Can Martha Coakley beat the curse of the AG?
If you put that question to a jury, I suspect they’d deadlock.
Coakley v. Cahill Culture Clash
So was Attorney General Martha Coakley’s decision to indict former State Treasurer Tim Cahill for allegedly using Lottery ads to enhance his gubernatorial campaign a good or a poor decision? Our opinion on that should not depend on yesterday’s inconclusive outcome. Nonetheless at least some of the twelve jurors failed to see the criminal menace in Cahill’s actions that Coakley insists is there.