Shannon, hacks, insiders and nepotism: As Hub Blog has noted on several occasions, the state pension/stock market losses is a bogus story. The state’s pension fund was going to head south as long as the stock market fell in the same direction. So Romney’s latest TV commercial is simply wrong in substance. And the Eron connection is flimsy, at best, though nonetheless intriguing. But ... but Romney is not fundamentally wrong for taking jabs at O’Brien’s husband, R. Emmet Hayes, despite O’Brien’s pious protest yesterday that Romney was dragging her family into the campaign. The fact is: O’Brien’s family is an issue. She’s touted her family’s political pedigree as if her clan was the second coming of the Kennedy dynasty. Her husband, in particular, is a former state representative who turned his Beacon Hill connections into a lucrative lobbying practice. The list goes on and on of O’Brien’s relatives who are, or have been, on the public payroll. O’Brien views that political heritage with pride. Others view it with deep suspicion. And now comes this piece of news: Senate Majority Whip Robert E. Travaglini, D-East Boston, is now in line to become the next Senate president. Guess where Travaglini’s brother is working? Here’s the Herald’s blunt description: “Travaglini's brother, Michael, is O'Brien's top aide -- which, given her tight friendship with House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, would link the three branches of government by ties much deeper than mere politics.” Mitt was wrong to bring up O’Brien’s husband in the context of the state pension fund. But, let’s be clear: Romney is NOT wrong to make her husband and other cozy insiders an issue in the campaign. The incestuous Beacon Hill culture is sickening ... and it just keeps getting worse (read blog item below).  ¶ 9:16 AM