Boy, it was sure good timing on Sal DiMasi's part to repay the loan he got from long-time friend and accountant Richard Vitale. Vitale could probably use the $178,000 leftover balance now that he has "retired" from the accounting firm he helped to found 30 years ago. “This has been in the works since last July. It was a perfect storm,” Vitale spokesman George Regan said. “He cashed out and a new partner was named to take over his accounts. That was his intention, to retire all along.” Wh...

Massachusetts Senate Republicans are graciously lending Deval Patrick a hand with the state's impending fiscal problems by promising to offer an amendment to that chamber's fiscal 2009 budget that would enable casino gambling. "We want to fortify the governor's efforts going forward if he intends to refile the bill in the new year," said Senator Michael Knapik, Republican of Westfield. "Plus, we need the money." Here's a sure thing: ain't going to make it. While senators of both political persua...

So much for Hillary Clinton savoring her West Virginia trashing of Barack Obama. The Illinois senator may have gotten the ultimate white man endorsement. John Edwards has held his counsel for quite awhile, looking to play kingmaker. It's highly doubtful he wants to play second banana on another national ticket. But by jumping on the Obama bandwagon they day after Clinton's West Virginia landslide, he has helped change the tone once again. You know Clinton was courting Edwards just as hard. His d...

The radio clicks on at 6 a.m. with the news of a Green Line derailment. I didn't really need to do more than mutter "Breda" and give thanks the day was nice so I wouldn't need to ride the Green Line Cattle Car, er, bus shuttle. And I can save the MBTA a lot of time and money. The derailment at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Chestnut Hill Avenue early this morning was caused by the last train of the night whipping through the turn at something approaching warp speed so the operator c...

A few months back, I wrote about the Republican Party's use of race as a wedge issue in presidential elections, a trend that had been foreseen by Lyndon Johnson after signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964. A conservative Republican from Arizona was running for president that year and lost, badly. But he became the first Republican to win the South, a fact that laid the foundations of a "Southern Strategy" that came of age in brutal fashion under Richard Nixon. At its core, the strategy was to use...

House Speaker Sal DiMasi has broken his silence about allegations swirling around him, his friends and his would-be successors. There's little doubt that he is outraged over the litany of problems that has led to his doorstep. "Like any of us, I do not control the conduct or actions of others," wrote DiMasi, without mentioning names or specific instances. "As elected officials, we in the Legislature are all subject to the unfortunate inclination of others to use our name without our knowledge or...

I normally don't bother with Dan Shaughnessy. In fact it took me years to figure out what CHB stands for. I saw his contrarian streak a long time ago. But as a native Clevelander (and a loyal, non-band wagon Celtics fan) I was drawn to his stuff recently -- especially Sunday's non-slap at the erstwhile Mistake on the Lake. So I started out on today's column, and made it no farther the fifth paragraph: The Celtics will be transported to the arena on a Duck Boat. The tour guide will tell them tha...

I don't know about Barbara Anderson, but repealing the Massachusetts income tax would mean real money in my pocket. A lot more than the 18 bucks she envisions getting. And a lot more than the 30 bucks that most folks would see from Hillary's gas tax holiday. And when you look at the people circulating and signing the petitions, you can't help but notice they are normal moms and dads -- no extra heads or limbs -- who are struggling to make ends as the economy goes south. Anderson's comments abou...

While we can argue endlessly about liberal versus conservative journalists and media bias, I am willing to give one point in that debate: journalists (pundits in particular) and Democrats tend to fight the last war. Case in point: Joan Vennochi's lament that Barack Obama is a politician (horrors!) who, now having been exposed by his former pastor will dissolve into a Dukakis-Kerry-like puddle of Jello when faced with the McCain Machine. Vennochi takes umbrage with Obama's shift in positions in a...

There's a theory in public relations that the best way to minimize coverage of bad news is to dump it late on a Friday afternoon. Fewer reporters may be paying attention and smaller, less well-read Saturday papers make it less likely that people will notice. The most glaring example I was involved with came in 1986, when Republican gubernatorial candidate Royall Switzler decided to take a sleepy Friday afternoon in June to call a news conference and tell the world he had kited his resume, claimi...

Want to know why the Massachusetts Republican Party is starting to resemble a dinosaur? How about legislation aimed at helping to sell more cigarettes? A Republican-sponsored amendment stuck inside the Massachusetts Senate's corporate tax reform law would eliminate a minimum pricing law tacked on in 1945. Opponents say it would negate the cost of the $1 per pack planned cigarette tax increase and keep prices on a par with butts sold in New Hampshire. Helping the convenience stores along the bord...

Everything seemed pretty normal on Comm. Ave. tonight as a strolled up to a sub shop to grab a sandwich while Mrs. OL was working late. The only thing that seemed unusual was the street cleaner making endless passes on a street that is usually neglected. That and the six TV satellite trucks parked on the median to the service road and across the way in front of Comm. Ave Associates. At least there wasn't an SUV still in the window. It appears Timothy Newton is about to become a three-time loser....

Just when you think Deval Patrick may have turned a corner and figured out how not to run his administration into the ground, he comes up with a doozy. Patrick told the Brookline Chamber of Commerce that ideas killed in one legislative session can often resurface in another -- pointing to casino gambling as an example. That is true. But a word to the wise, don't be the source of the legislation. The depth of opposition to the idea goes beyond the arms that may or may not have been twisted by Spe...

I don't get it. Voters in one town vote a $6.2 million tax increase and the Globe gives it a full story. The Massachusetts Senate follows the House's lead and passes a nearly $500 million plan raising cigarette taxes and closing corporate tax loopholes and it gets buried at the bottom of a briefs package. One tax increase affecting one town is more significant? Editors would probably argue that this is something voters did and it's final -- the House and Senate still have to work out their diffe...

These Tuesdays are starting to get boring. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are offering up the National Democratic Beat Your Brains Out Tour, careening from state to state, trading charges and jabs and victories. Not a pretty sight. Obama should have quelled a lot of his recent, new found critics with a resounding 56-42 victory over Clinton in North Carolina, while holding her to 51-49 in Indiana. Time and delegates are getting short and the Obama performances should put to rest concerns about...

Soaring gasoline prices are giving Smilin' Dan Grabauskas a chance of a lifetime. Let's hope he's up to the task. It's now official: MBTA ridership is up 6.2 percent since the first of the year. Soaring fuel prices and scarce and expensive parking have combined to push people on buses and subways like never before. Well, some buses. Yes, the T has an obligation to serve communities that otherwise might be isolated. And they actually appear to be trying to keep better track of where buses actuall...

Let's start with a basic fact: the pundits have been wrong on virtually everything this campaign season. Otherwise we would be looking at a Fred Thompson-Hillary Clinton showdown in November. There is no question that the furor over Jeremiah Wright has slowed Barack Obama's march to the Democratic nomination. And there's also no question that a certain percentage of the American population would never vote for him -- or Clinton -- based in their race or gender. But the latest CBS News-New York ...

The Cleveland Indians hat goes away for the next two weeks. No Cleveland sport paraphernalia until the Celtics and the Cavaliers finish their business. Don't want anyone to mistake where the loyalties are here. The Green survived a series that should never have been as tough as it turned out to be. Call it a character builder. Or a playoff challenge for a team that doesn't have a whole lot of playoff experience as a unit. Or a team that didn't face a lot of challenges all year. It remains mystif...

If only Smilin' Dan Grabauskas was as good at running the MBTA as coming up with excuses as why the system is a mess. That's the major conclusion I draw from the MBTA general manager's recent emergence from his underground bunker to deal with the local media. The most recent -- and best -- examination of the state of public transportation can be found in this week's Phoenix. In a series of stories that range from subway art and Green Line Gropers to dealing with leaky tunnels and hungry unions, ...

Wow, wasn't it just last month that Deval Patrick was finished and the Celtics were a mortal lock on No. 17? Today, the C's and House Speaker Sal DiMasi both stand on the precipice of elimination. And I like KG's chances a lot better than Sal's. The House wrapped what has to be one of their most turbulent weeks in its history by passing a budget $210 million richer than when it started while watching leadership machinations result in one lawmaker taking to the microphone to say she was threatene...