In a political period passed by, that state consultant bagged for drunken driving on Beacon Hill the opposite day — or night time — might need gotten a break.
Watertown state rep. John Garden would possibly even have walked had he not hit one other automotive – and had not the problem change into so essential.
However the “don’t you understand who I’m?” protection doesn’t reduce it the way in which it did again within the day. There have been no cameras on each nook or cell telephones in each pocket again then.
And in the present day’s political mantra of “No person is above the regulation” was hardly heard within the good outdated days of Beacon Hill politics, which had been extra outdated than good, relying in your viewpoint.
The late Kevin White, the flamboyant and charismatic mayor of Boston for 16 years, (1968-1984), made certain the Boston cops took excellent care of members of the Legislature throughout late night time periods after they had been hitting the bars.
The Boston cops, he stated, had been “good to those reps. They by no means pinch them.”
That being the case, White anticipated the Legislature to reciprocate when he filed laws affecting Boston.
White, who died in 2012 at age 82, thought and acted huge to make Boston a world class metropolis.
And he additionally went top quality — at taxpayer’s expense, in fact — which led me again then to label him Kevin DeLuxe, the Mayor of America.
I additionally known as him the China Clipper after he barred me from masking his journey to Communist China, which had simply opened to American guests.
He acquired even with me for that, however that’s one other story.
He was the final Boston politician with swagger.
So far as the State Home is anxious, White anticipated the Legislature to move legal guidelines that benefited Boston, the town he ran for 4 typically turbulent phrases.
When the Legislature didn’t succumb to his requests, or calls for, White — not like politically right Boston Mayor Michelle Wu — known as them ingrates and “a bunch of stiffs.”
That’s what he did when the Legislature initially killed his sweeping 1981 tax reform invoice that may have supplied raises for Boston cops and firefighters.
“Boston has been good to those outdoors reps,” he instructed me for a column I wrote, which is included in my 1983 e-book “Pols & Politics.”
“They arrive in right here, they park, they stay, they eat, they go to the Celtics. They do very effectively. They’re seldom arrested.”
Boston cops, he stated, took care of legislators “after they get stiff (drunk).”
When the Legislature dumps on Wu, because it did when her proposal to shift extra house property taxes to enterprise went down in flames, she simply takes it.
Not White. He attacked the Legislature till he acquired his manner, particularly on the pay increase invoice. “I’ve acquired each buddy of each rep parked on Beacon Hill, however I don’t thoughts. What I thoughts is after they go after the town and don’t give it a good shot.
“They need to take the entire goddamn capital and transfer it to Springfield, for all I care.”
He additionally cautioned that if he didn’t get his manner, the times of Boston cops giving wobbly legislators “broad latitude” could be a factor of the previous.
“If I had been the police I’d do my obligation,” he warned darkly.
The Legislature finally handed his invoice and White apologized to Speaker Tom McGee for calling legislators “stiffs.”
“However the reps, they know I‘m proper,” he added.
There was a ingesting tradition again then on the State Home that not exists in the identical manner in the present day.
Again then the Golden Dome Pub (now the twenty first Modification) on Bowdoin Avenue beside the State Home was so crowded nightly with ingesting legislators, lobbyists and reporters that it might have doubled as a raucous legislative listening to room.
One senator from western Massachusetts, along with his Rolls- Royce parked outdoors the pub, recurrently ordered two Manhattans for the highway. He, nonetheless, had a driver.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas will be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
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