Get Your Shocked Face Handy...

Probation lawyer: Gov aides pushed for jobs

Top staffers for Gov. Deval Patrick — who has repeatedly denied his office plays the Beacon Hill patronage game — lobbied for Probation Department job-seekers, the lawyer for embattled commissioner John J. O’Brien told the Herald yesterday in the latest bombshell development in the unfolding scandal.

O’Brien’s attorney, Paul Flavin, said two of Patrick’s former top-level advisers were among the aides who put in calls to O’Brien’s staffers to recommend job candidates. At least two applicants pushed by Patrick staffers landed probation jobs, Flavin said, including one woman who is an active probation officer in Boston.

I know, I know, it's shocking, shocking to find out that there's gambling patronage in this establishment administration. It's particularly chortle-worthy listening to them defend this - "oh, we just send over a list of recommendations, we don't campaign for anyone". Right. Like the list from the governor's office goes in the same pile as the list from Jim down the street. The really funny - and here when I say "funny" I of course mean "infuriating" - part is that the comments are all "Beacon Hill is corrupt? That's not news".

I really can't tell which is worse: Shrugging off the news that Beacon Hill is corrupt, or the fact that the entire MA legislature got returned to office en masse last month. Obviously we are getting the kind of government we deserve and support here in Massachusetts; why should the newspapers even bother covering it, right? We don't care that the governor is decrying patronage in one breath and then endorsing applicants for state jobs with the next - we just rehired him for four more years.

And yet they shake their heads and wonder why MA is losing population despite their best efforts to shore the numbers up with illegal immigrants...

That is all.