Thursday, March 26, 2009
To be or not to be Duke II? That is the question
And another question: If Deval is Duke II (the man who thinks he had to adapt to Beacon Hill’s business-as-usual culture), does that make Tim Cahill the Ed King Lite?
BTW -- Hub Blog is not totally buying into the poll numbers. Deval’s popularity is clearly down. You can feel it in the air. But projecting that out to the 2010 elections is something else. An incumbent governor is still an incumbent governor. The Deval-Duke comparison can be taken only so far.* The Duke was ambushed by the hack-nominee King in ’78. Deval isn’t facing an ambush. He sees it coming – and he’s trying to thwart any inter-party threat before it takes shape, partly by morphing into an alleged ‘pragmatic’ Duke II. So far so good as far as Deval-Duke comparisons go. But ’78 isn’t the same as ’08. Suburban voters are more powerful. Independents are more powerful. The old lunch-bucket Democrats have lost clout. The Old Irish Guard is fading away. Deval is facing still-formidable remnants of the old guard. But it’s nothing compared to what the Duke faced. The Duke didn’t have a more powerful independent/suburban base to fall back on. Deval does. But he’s blowing it by playing footsie with the hacks – and he’s therefore, ironically, risking a repeat of a Duke-King scenario that he (or his team of advisers) is trying to avoid.
* For those who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, here’s the history lesson/mythology: The naive and liberal Duke gets elected governor in ’74. He proceeds to piss off the permanent hackerama/bureaucracy. He loses his ’78 reelection bid in a stunning Democratic-primary upset to the Bad King of Massport (then and now the hackerama of all hackeramas, despite today’s attention on the Pike and MBTA). Duke plots his comeback. He triumphantly returns as a more ‘pragmatic’ Democrat. He makes a truce with hacks. The you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-your-back Hack-Progressive Alliance is born. Little known/acknowledged/understood part of the tale: Duke II later morphs into Duke III when he all but gives the keys of government to Billy and the Boys while he’s off running for president. The state is grossed out, ushering in 16 straight years of Republican dominance of the corner office. The End.
Update -- Wayne seems to think Cahill might run as an Independent. Maybe Ed King Lite sees the modern political landscape more clearly than Deval. ... Wayne also thinks this is a golden opportunity for Republicans. That’d be true if Massachusetts Republicans weren’t Massachusetts Republicans.
And another question: If Deval is Duke II (the man who thinks he had to adapt to Beacon Hill’s business-as-usual culture), does that make Tim Cahill the Ed King Lite?
BTW -- Hub Blog is not totally buying into the poll numbers. Deval’s popularity is clearly down. You can feel it in the air. But projecting that out to the 2010 elections is something else. An incumbent governor is still an incumbent governor. The Deval-Duke comparison can be taken only so far.* The Duke was ambushed by the hack-nominee King in ’78. Deval isn’t facing an ambush. He sees it coming – and he’s trying to thwart any inter-party threat before it takes shape, partly by morphing into an alleged ‘pragmatic’ Duke II. So far so good as far as Deval-Duke comparisons go. But ’78 isn’t the same as ’08. Suburban voters are more powerful. Independents are more powerful. The old lunch-bucket Democrats have lost clout. The Old Irish Guard is fading away. Deval is facing still-formidable remnants of the old guard. But it’s nothing compared to what the Duke faced. The Duke didn’t have a more powerful independent/suburban base to fall back on. Deval does. But he’s blowing it by playing footsie with the hacks – and he’s therefore, ironically, risking a repeat of a Duke-King scenario that he (or his team of advisers) is trying to avoid.
* For those who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, here’s the history lesson/mythology: The naive and liberal Duke gets elected governor in ’74. He proceeds to piss off the permanent hackerama/bureaucracy. He loses his ’78 reelection bid in a stunning Democratic-primary upset to the Bad King of Massport (then and now the hackerama of all hackeramas, despite today’s attention on the Pike and MBTA). Duke plots his comeback. He triumphantly returns as a more ‘pragmatic’ Democrat. He makes a truce with hacks. The you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-your-back Hack-Progressive Alliance is born. Little known/acknowledged/understood part of the tale: Duke II later morphs into Duke III when he all but gives the keys of government to Billy and the Boys while he’s off running for president. The state is grossed out, ushering in 16 straight years of Republican dominance of the corner office. The End.
Update -- Wayne seems to think Cahill might run as an Independent. Maybe Ed King Lite sees the modern political landscape more clearly than Deval. ... Wayne also thinks this is a golden opportunity for Republicans. That’d be true if Massachusetts Republicans weren’t Massachusetts Republicans.
