Just when I thought I was out, THEY PULL ME BACK INNNNNN !!

Therese Murray:
Gov. Patrick should sign bill
and ‘declare victory’

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By Jim O’Sullivan / State House News Service
Sunday, August 1, 2010 - Added 44 minutes ago
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Senate President Therese Murray advised Gov. Deval Patrick on Sunday to sign the gambling bill lawmakers sent him late Saturday night and declare a “great victory” because, she said, the legislation allows the governor to sanction resort casinos while blocking the racetrack slot machines he opposes.

 Murray said Patrick should capitalize on a clause in the bill that she and other senators believe leaves the verdict on racinos to a regulatory commission controlled by the governor, a premise Patrick questioned Sunday while urging lawmakers to ratify a three-casino, no-racino amendment he plans to send them.


Murray, who has said senators would likely not vote to return for a special session when they could address the amendment, said Patrick should instead sign the bill into law.
“I think he can declare victory, with the way it’s set up,” Murray told the News Service during a telephone interview.


“I just think they should’ve jumped on it and said this is great,” Murray said.


Speaker Robert DeLeo’s office declined to say whether the speaker had been aware of the prospect that, despite a fierce and draining push to guarantee multiple racinos through the bill, the decision would instead be left in the coming years to an outside commission over which the Legislature wields no official authority.


Murray said she had not spoken to DeLeo about the controversial clause, which leaves in doubt the slots question by using less forceful language in drawing the parameters of the commission’s authority.


She said the Senate’s lead conferee, Senate President Pro Tempore Stanley Rosenberg, had been in touch with Patrick chief of staff Arthur Bernard and senior gambling policy adviser Stanley McGee about details of the bill, talking to Bernard about the commission empowerment language Saturday morning, the morning after the conference report was filed. Hours later, the House and Senate quickly gave the bill final approval.

The bill gives one commission appointment each to the governor, the attorney general and the treasurer, with the remaining two appointed with approval of an unspecified combination of two of the appointing authorities. The governor would appoint the commission’s chair. Patrick on Sunday said it was “disingenuous” to say that the bill would “allow me to influence the commission,” according to the Boston Globe.


Murray said Patrick would be able to steer the regulatory commission. “He really in effect gets to control it,” she said.

Asked about Murray’s comments, Patrick communications director Kyle Sullivan said in an email, “The bottom line is this bill allows for no-bid slot licenses for track owners and the Governor only has one guaranteed appointment to the commission out of five members.”


Both Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley are Democrats. Treasurer Timothy Cahill is an Independent running against Patrick for governor.


DeLeo spokesman Seth Gitell said the conference committee report was “consistent with the language engrossed in the House.”


In a dramatic speech Saturday night, DeLeo said the House was ready to override Patrick’s possible veto and restore two racinos open to bid among the state’s four racetracks. Two of those tracks, Suffolk Downs and Wonderland, have formed a joint venture with the intent of earning a casino license.


The racinos’ chances are dicier in the Senate, where less support for the slots facilities exists than in the House. Murray said Saturday the Senate does not currently have the votes to return for the formal session necessary to address Patrick’s actions on the bill. If lawmakers do not address an amendment, the bill would die.


Kathleen Conley Norbut, head of the anti-gambling group United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, said Sunday that Patrick should block passage of the bill, saying his “choices will be to side with the deep-pocketed casino bosses, their high-powered lobbyists and the predatory gambling culture they are peddling or to truly be the ‘different kind of leader’ we elected.”

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Sure looks like a way out, if you want the Governor to "hold cheap his manhood" as Shakespeare said in Henry V. If this doesn't sound like someone who knows they won't be able to override the veto if that's what Deval Patrick decides to do I don't know what does. If I'm talking to Deval today, I'm telling him, "No way , you are THE MAN....your dogs come to you!"

Governor Patrick will look strong during the election, not weak or anti-jobs.  The state's economy is growing at twice the national average.  Only garden spots like Fall River are suffering hideously. And neither will he be responsible for an explosion of vice the likes of which Massachusetts has never before seen.

No, Senate President Murray lost three democrats who are staunchly against the Casino Bill, period! This canard of the "loophole" is the equivalent of the serpent offering the apple from the tree in the Garden of Eden. For some really feral reason my insides are yelling "Don't fall for it Deval, don't do it!". The whole thing just doesn't feel right. It doesn't sound like the Governor has a monopoly of power to control the issue. The House and Senate both decide the budgets for the Treasurer and Attorney General, if push comes to shove, as it will most assuredly  if we are talking about that paragon of congenial compromise, Speakah DeLeo. That's how the Governor could easily be trumped into having to swallow slots, by being on the losing end of a 3-2 or 4-1 vote. Now THAT would be a real crippling blow to his prestige and power.

If I'm the governor, I stand pat. Don't budge an inch Deval. You made it quite clear what you would approve and why. It's DeLeo and Murray who screwed the pooch on this one. DeLeo's greed and underhanded, back room deal making with race track owners is the entire cause for this mess, not Governor Patrick. And trust me, if organized labor is dumb enough to back Baker the republican for Governor over Patrick in a fit of pique over the situation, they'll soon learn a very nasty lesson about just how much real republicans in MA hate unions!

 I was all ready to pay off my bet, too! Not so fast. If my friend is reading this, what I think we just saw was the beginnings of a real compromise between the parties to this issue. Like Micheal Corleone said in Godfather III, "Just when I thought I was out, THEY PULL ME BACK IN!!!!!.

And to my friend....just in case the worst happens....make mine cherry coke...  :-)