I'm going to just keep my mouth shut and my thoughts private here.

that gentleman. A mixed bag, to be sure.

He was good for BU but his politics were scary.

but is this the guy that had run-in with Howard Zinn?

The year Silber ran for Governor. I was working in a small town in W. Mass. The Dems there were having problems voting for him.

He lost, and basically never was heard from again, except on a few Boston TV channels for commentary for 2-3 years.

Bill Weld was much more socially liberal, and not that bad a Republican Governor, even Jesse Helms hated Weld and opposed his appointment for an Ambassadorship to Mexico or somewhere, was that under Clinton or Bush, I can't recall.

Silber was the closest to a Blue Dog Dem that Massachusetts ever came to. Somewhat socially liberal, but certainly no Dukakis.

I did it once. Never again. Silber was a DINO. I'm sorry for his family, but he was quite a nasty man.

He once insulted my friend Harry at a student/administration confrontation. Harry. a long time fencer, challenged Silber to a duel. Silber didn't have the guts to answer.

Wolf

Silber had little or nothing but hoopla to add to the transformation of the university.

A large, rather comparatively expensive university, less than 3 miles from Harvard, MIT, BC, New England Conservatory of Music, and several other prestigious private and a few public colleges, in a very academically oriented city, (Boston), it was inevitable that BU would gain a quality faculty and staff, and acquire real estate to make it a rather better-than-average private residential facility.

Silber had little to do with that. The university transformed itself in an age of growing universities in a city friendly to their growth.

It's got high rise dorms, majors that never existed back in my dark ages of learning, and it's all spiffy and active--and the neighborhood isn't the sort of place you want to hurry through anymore, preferably with a bicycle chain or some other implement of improvised protection.

I was over that way recently and was absolutely stunned at what they've done with the place and the surrounding environs. Even the once-crappy neighborhoods are full of thirty-somethings pushing strollers -- I was quite amazed.

....and there have been some doozys until Patrick came along.

But from what I've read so far, William Weld and Mitt Romney were more like Nelson Rockefeller than Rick Perry. Weld even endorsed Obama in 2008. And we all know how Romney overhauled health care in Mass. only to run for president and attack Obama for doing nearly the same thing nationally. How could a state with Ted Kennedy and John Kerry as senators and such a liberal reputation produce such incompetent Democrats to run for state governor?

From this list of Mass. governors, it seems that every 10-15 years the governor's seat shifts from blue to red.

Oh, if you wonder why former Mass. Speaker of the House Tom Finneran (D) got a morning show (2007-2012) on Boston right wing noise station WRKO (home of Howie Carr), it's because Finneran was a DLC/Third Way type as the Boston Phoenix described in 2003: "In a sense, Finneran has crafted his own version of former president Bill Clinton’s infamous "third way" in politics. In the past six years, Finneran has triangulated with a series of Republican governors and a wing of progressive Democrats who’ve dominated the state Senate under the leadership of former Senate president Tom Birmingham."

excuse for a "chief executive."

With the collusion of the legislature, a governor can look like a hero who gets shit done. Without the collusion of the legislature, he will look like a doorknob or one of those wedges that holds the door open--he's there, but so what? The legislature will still pass laws and continue on its merry way, overriding every veto that a "Governor No" (like rMoney) can slap down.

Romney was pretty well ignored when he tried to pull shit that the Beacon Hill gang didn't care for. Hell, he spent more time in NH than he did MA--plenty of State Troopers served more than their share of duty ferrying that asshole to his lake home in NH.

Also, MA is very pedestrian and backwards--and, bluntly, sexist-- in some ways--women are underrepresented in political life, and they have a hard time breaking certain glass ceilings (gubernatorial/senatorial, specifically).

Mark Roosevelt (lightweight, very Mondale-ish)

Scott Hoshbaugh (I pronounce his name Hoshbaugh, OK

Shannon O'Reilly (the incompetent nincompoop who allowed Mitt Romney in there)

Like saying "Conan O'Reilly"

She wasn't incompetent at all--she was outspent and exhausted. She didn't get help from the sexist bastards in her own party. Had the other women in the race not run (there were FOUR women on the gubernatorial ballot and only one man, Mittsy--nicely confusing for low-information voters) , she probably would have won in a squeaker, despite being outspent massively by rMoney. He ran an ad on TV every five fucking minutes. He spent many millions to get that job, and he viewed it solely as a stepping stone to national ambitions.

Do you realize she was the FIRST woman to EVER be elected to state-wide office on her own steam? In the 20th Century?

MA has a "sexist" problem--it needs to be acknowledged.


Characterizing her as an "incompetent nincompoop who allowed Mitt Romney in there" is just not accurate, it is viciously unfair, and I can't allow it to stand without a sharp and strong retort--particularly when you couldn't even be bothered to get her fucking name right.

I urge you to do a little research before you make cavalier comments like that.

I said it for you all

Good riddance to the asshole.

Bill Weld got my vote that year.