As Janis Joplin wailed, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” One look at the unchained president and his similarly unshackled good pal, the Massachusetts governor, and you’d have to say there is truth in song.

A throw-away line by Gov. Deval Patrick, when he introduced Steve Tompkins to replace new Public Safety Secretary Andrea Cabral as Suffolk County sheriff, says it all about having no governor (pun intended) on his words and actions.

“It’s a political job,” Patrick told reporters as he announced the appointment of the one-time Cabral spokesman. “So the folks that are criticizing it as a political hire, tell them they’re right.”

Would anyone with an eye on another term in office utter such a thing? And doesn’t his budget proposal with the concomitant revenue production give force to his claim to not covet a higher political office? Is a Massachusetts tax-and-spend liberal going to garner the majority of electoral votes?

With less than two years remaining in his lame-duck term, Patrick’s budget is clearly a reflection of the liberal ethos he’s occasionally flashed but rarely governed with. Patrick unapologetically unveiled the $34.8 billion spending plan yesterday along with a tax rewrite that hikes the income tax, doubles the personal exemption, reduces some deductions, and lower the sales tax, all changes that will benefit lower- and middle-income families while shifting the burden to the wealthy.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page argues that Patrick’s tax gambit is the bill coming due for Mitt Romney’s universal health care efforts. The Herald isn’t pleased, either. Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, the director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, says Patrick’s tax plan smacks of the most famous of wealth redistributors, Robin Hood.

Glaeser says it’s wise to increase investments in areas such as education but says transportation infrastructure costs should fall to those who most benefit by them, through tolls or fare increases. Glaeser argues the “progressive” changes in the tax code could trigger a flight from the state of upper income taxpayers and businesses that would be far more devastating than the benefits of savings through the shifts.

If all this sounds familiar, all one has to do is look south to Washington where Patrick’s close friend and ally is thumping his own progressive chest and letting loose the liberal beast from within. Once content to find the middle ground and move however much it took to get Republicans to help govern, Obama drew a line in the sand, indicating “Here. No further.” Gun control, entitlements, social safety nets, immigration, and civil rights all were placed on the agenda by the liberated president who has nothing holding him back. His full-throated embrace of gay rights, especially in a presidential inaugural address, was nothing less than mind-boggling.

“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” Try to wrap your head around those words coming from Obama I at any point. But the tougher talk – combined with election results that sent a message to the GOP that the hard right is no more desired than the extreme left – has already produced results for Obama: the House voted to lift the debt ceiling for three months to avoid a showdown with the newly muscled president.

Neither Patrick nor Obama were ever big on stumping for Democrats in their own campaigns, and in most cases weren’t welcome. It’s unclear how much help beyond the true believers in their respective legislative bodies will help carry the gonfalon. All one has to do is replay Patrick’s State of the Commonwealth speech last week and see House Speaker Robert DeLeo sit on his hands while others in the House chamber politely applauded when Patrick talked about increased taxes.

But anyone who thinks the ideology that dare not speak its name –liberalism – was forever stuffed away in a closet, it’s time to recalculate.

–JACK SULLIVAN

Beacon Hill

Gov. Deval Patrick is proposing to cap the state film tax credit,

The Cape Cod Times scans Patrick’s “wish list” and concludes that once the Legislature is done with it, the tax hikes will be more realistic.

Massachusetts lawmakers file legislation that would provide public access to information about Level 1 sex offenders, the Globe reports. A court rules an Indiana law barring sex offenders from using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is unconstitutional, the Indianapolis Star reports.

Municipal Matters

Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua’s tardy campaign finance reports raise more questions about campaign events for which he reports no expenses, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

The site of General Electric’s “factory of the future” in Lynn is poised to become a Market Basket supermarket, the Item reports.

Hingham officials are mulling their next move in their fight against Chapter 40B after the state Housing Appeal Committee rejected the town’s claim that it already meets the mandated affordable housing minimum that would exempt it from the law. (What Brian McGrory wouldn’t give to shed his new editor’s hat for a day for a cameo column offering.)

A Somerville developer proposes a $45 million project in downtown Salem, the Salem News reports.

The interim business manager of the Marblehead Schools resigned after being arrested for operating under the influence and carrying a loaded gun, the Item reports.

Stoughton selectmen voted unanimously to raise fees for using the town’s recreation fields.

Cambridge’s planning board moves to put a temporary hold on medical marijuana dispensaries.

National Politics/Washington

The Pentagon is lifting its ban on women serving in combat, the Associated Press reports.

Senate Democrats confront doubts at home on changing the nation’s gun laws, the New York Times reports.

US Rep. Niki Tsongas presses Air Force generals on how they will change a culture that led to a series of sexual assaults against trainees, the Associated Press reports (via Lowell Sun).

While Patrick is trying to hike the Massachusetts income tax by a percentage point, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback wants to eliminate that state’s income tax, the New York Times reports.

Public union membership drops again in 2012, Governing reports.

The Atlantic draws a straight line from Virginia’s efforts to apportion Electoral College votes by congressional district to poll taxes and literacy tests: “If the GOP can’t convince enough people to win, it will rig the rules so that certain people matter less than others.”

Elections

Time’s Joe Klein offers an interesting take on President Obama’s inauguration speech.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal plans a speech to explain why the GOP’s “Washington-centric” focus on the country’s problems won’t work. Oh, and to better position himself for 2016.

Business/Economy

Two new towers, including a 50-story building that would be among the tallest in Boston, are poised to rise alongside the Christian Science Plaza in the Back Bay.

Education

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman will hold a meeting today with students and faculty where she is expected to disclose a multimillion dollar deficit for the school just halfway through the fiscal year. The school has already cut faculty travel grants and food expenses and some faculty members say there is a $15 million budget hole, which administration officials dispute.

Health Care

WBUR reports on the risks — and rewards — of growing up gaming.

Creditors try to claw back $21 million in salaries the owners of a now-bankrupt Framingham pharmacy sucked out of the company during its last days. The company is at the center of a deadly meningitis outbreak.

Transportation

MassDOT warns drivers about breakdown-lane travel in certain areas that have a new, fourth travel lane.

Panama City-based Copa Airlines plans to start Logan Airport’s first nonstop service to Central or or South America with daily service to Panama City.

Energy/Environment

Social service agency leaders say people who rely on low-income fuel assistance, which is already spread thin, will likely run out of money before winter’s end, especially with the deep freeze now engulfing the region.

Criminal Justice

More questions surface in the case involving the death of 1-year-old Rehma Sabir, as evidence emerges that she suffered bone fractures some weeks or months before her death.

Disgraced former Chelsea Housing Authority chief Michael McLaughlin was charged yesterday with four federal felony counts of deliberating concealing his inflated salary from state and federal regulators. The Globe says the charges were filed in adocument that is usually used when a defendant has agreed to plead guilty.

Media

A court case against mugshot websites raises First Amendment issues, the Nieman Journalism Lab reports.

Donald Trump threatens to try buying the New York Times.