Bulger's departure leaves Mitt in mess

by Thomas Keane Jr.
Friday, August 8, 2003

Bad news for Gov. Mitt Romney: Billy Bulger resigned.

Oh, the governor is putting a brave face on it. ``It's a positive development, positive for the students, positive for the university,'' he told reporters. His staffers have put out the public spin that Bulger's departure was a big win.

But privately, I imagine the air in the governor's office is turning blue with obscenities. Dadgummit, geewillikers, tarnation!

OK, make that air more like aquamarine.

Bulger was Romney's way out of a depressing fact that just over a half-year into the governor's four-year term is startlingly clear: No matter how great your passion or how powerful your principles, you can't do much unless you have a few legislators on your side.

Romney's Republican predecessors made the same discovery, one that led them to seek posts elsewhere. William Weld hoped to become U.S. senator or ambassador to Mexico. He got neither, so he ended up in New York. Paul Cellucci was luckier; George W. Bush named him ambassador to Canada. Jane Swift wasn't around long enough, but she too would have started looking.

Sure, Romney started his term with a bang, vowing to change government as we know it. He brought in Peter Nessen, secretary of administration and finance under Weld, to reform higher education. He lured Doug Foy from the Conservation Law Foundation to run a super-cabinet, one that presided over housing, environmental affairs and transportation. And, backed by analysis from the Monan Commission, he proposed wide-ranging changes in the judicial system.

And the result? The vaunted education reform package imploded and Nessen quietly left the administration. Foy is still around but he never got the job he was promised; the Legislature shot down the new secretariat. And while the judicial system changed a bit, the big stuff never happened; the absurd and expensive Boston Municipal Court, slated to go, is still around.

All of this happened because in the push and pull of lawmaking, Democrats consistently are able to steamroll the governor. For example, of 162 budget vetoes by Romney, the Legislature overrode him an astonishing 130 times.

And it's worse than that. Of the 32 budget vetoes that weren't overridden, the Legislature didn't care about 31; it didn't even bother voting on them. In only one case did a veto come up for a vote with the governor getting enough legislators to sustain it.

The problem, of course, is that there are virtually no Republicans in either the House or the Senate. In the House, there are but 23, while the number needed to sustain a veto is 54. In the Senate, there are only six Republicans; 14 are needed to stop an override.

In other words, Democrats can have their way whenever they want - and there is little the governor can do.

Little, but not nothing. In certain cases, governors can use their bully pulpit as a way to get the citizens all fired up. Legislators knew Romney could do that in the case of taxes, which is why they reluctantly held that line.

On the other hand, the bully pulpit threat is limited. Despite last November's referendum overwhelmingly approving a law reforming bilingual education, the Legislature simply went and amended it. It blithely ignored Romney's protests.

All of which brings us to the present moment and to Romney's predicament. Sure, he can travel the state pounding the podium on a few big issues, hoping to stir up the grassroots. Or he can make his peace with Speaker Thomas Finneran and Senate President Robert Travaglini, getting some crumbs but really ceding control of the agenda to the Legislature - much the way Swift, Cellucci and Weld (in the later years of his term) did.

Or he can get more Republicans elected.

That was the plan, until Billy Bulger went and messed it up.

Bulger was to be the lighting rod, the symbol of venal and corrupt Democrats. The Republican Party had figured it could use him as a wedge issue to defeat a few Democrats, revitalize the GOP and give Romney some desperately needed power in the Legislature.

With Bulger gone though, the animosity the Republicans had hoped to exploit will die away. What else is out there? Taxes? For the moment, Democrats appear smart enough not to hand that one to Romney. Bilingual education? Citizens voted for reforms, but in truth few understand the issue and even fewer really care.

So, imagine you're the governor. It's still a neat job with lots of ribbon cuttings and a cool office. But those vacations at Lake Winnipesaukee have to be looking more inviting. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you're beginning to wonder: Might George W. Bush be in need of another ambassador from Massachusetts?

Talk back to Tom Keane at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.