Tucked inside the House energy bill is what industry folks call an adder, a special add-on fee paid by electric ratepayers to their utilities to compensate them for carrying out […]
National Politics
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Back Story
Weld’s views ‘developing’ on criminal justice reform
WHEN HE RAN for governor in Massachusetts 26 years ago, Republican Bill Weld cut a more moderate profile on many social issues than his Democratic opponent, John Silber – a […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
History and demagoguery
A raspy-voiced Hillary Clinton shared the news with supporters at Long Beach, California, rally as the word broke yesterday that the Associated Press tally of her pledged delegates and superdelegates […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Weld pledges fealty to Libertarian Party
It’s true Gary Johnson and William Weld struggled to become the Libertarian Party’s nominees for president and vice president in Orlando over the weekend, but that’s probably a good thing, […]
Posted inPolitics
MA congressional delegation itching for change
GOING INTO THE 2016 ELECTION, Republicans hold 246 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats have 188. For Massachusetts, with its nine-member, all-Democrat delegation, this is a very bad situation […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Is the media to blame for Trump?
It’s become almost accepted wisdom that the news media have fanned the flame of Donald Trump, basking in his click-bait commentary and covering his every move as if he was […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Warren’s end game
In a series of tweets and Facebook posts, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday pounded away at GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Borrowing a page from Trump’s rhetorical playbook, Warren […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
For GOP, is it sanity’s last stand?
They called it the second Super Tuesday, and it proved to be very good, if not super, for Hillary Clinton, who won four of five contests, with Missouri still too […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
For the record, Trump is a little off-base
Word leaked out several days ago a recent meeting Donald Trump held with the New York Times editorial board included assertions by the bombastic billionaire that what he’s saying on […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The GOP’s no-win proposition
Barney Frank once shared this bit of wisdom with a would-be candidate for a seat on the Boston City Council: You could lose or, even worse, you might win. For […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Clinton v. Trump: What they said and how they said it
Someone tuning in Tuesday night to the nation’s presidential race saw two frontrunners on television who couldn’t have been more different stylistically and politically. Hillary Clinton hosted a traditional campaign […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baker’s Trump problem
Charlie Baker, like the Republican Party nationally, doesn’t know what to do about Donald Trump. Like a runaway train, Trump increasingly seems like he’s headed for victory in today’s Super […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Black pols look to form Hillary’s firewall
The Massachusetts presidential primary is nearly two weeks off, but the Democratic battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders landed in front of the State House Wednesday morning, where minority […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
W. goes after you-know-who
It felt like a scene out of a Harry Potter novel on Monday in South Carolina. Former president George W. Bush tried to give a boost to his little brother’s […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Outsiders are in
New Hampshire voters did not deliver a shocker yesterday as much as they put an exclamation mark on the wacky ways of the 2016 presidential race. Donald Trump’s solid win […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Rubio tries not to break a sweat
Ever since Richard Nixon dabbed the sweat off his upper lip during his televised debate with John F. Kennedy in 1960, presidential campaigns have been about the optics and technology. While […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
We’re on to New Hampshire
Well, that will leave a mark on Donald Trump. The consensus front-runner right up until the first votes were cast is now leading from behind. The Iowa caucuses handed him a humbling […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Bloomberg news
There apparently can never be too many New York billionaires in the race for president. Or, at a minimum, one may not be enough. The weekend brought news that former […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Trump and The Surprise Doctrine
The Boston Globe’s Ideas section on Sunday offered a look at Donald Trump’s America. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot to it because Trump is so adept at talking in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Cruz in for a legal bruising
If money is the mother’s milk of politics, hypocrisy is what journalism runs on. That makes the speculation that Ted Cruz might not be eligible to serve as president under […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
It’s time to act on gun violence
THE REPUBLICANS WHO CONTROL CONGRESS Congress have had all the time in the world to do something about gun violence in America. I mean that. If the GOP spent a […]
Posted inThe Download
Trump jumps the shark
Has Donald Trump finally gone too far? In calling for a complete ban on all Muslims entering the United States, the bombastic businessman appears to have jumped the shark. Most, […]
Posted inOpinion
How to deal with the complexities of terrorism
I RETURNED FROM a recent business/pleasure trip to Europe to observe a nation nearly unhinged by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. The reaction to the Paris events, based in […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Warren: We can’t abandon Syrian refugees
OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS, millions of people have fled their homes in Syria, running for their lives. In recent months, the steady stream of refugees has been a flood […]