Rosenberg Postmortem

Former Sen. Stanley Rosenberg walking by the Campus Pond at UMass Amherst, after speaking to students there, Dec. 7, 2017. (photo by statehouse news service)

As most people predicted, Amherst/Hamp State Senator Stan Rosenberg was forced out of office last week, the inevitable outcome of a sordid statehouse sex scandal involving his husband. Rosenberg's departure - combined with the February death of Northampton State Rep. Peter Kocot - means there will be no or only partial representation for the residents of 24 western Massachusetts cities and towns until January of 2019. What's interesting is how many people locally seemed caught by surprise by Rosenberg's fall.

The local media was largely to blame. While the Boston media (and locally yours truly) consistently described Rosenberg as the political equivalent of a dead man walking, the local media kept feeding the irrational fantasy that somehow Rosenberg was still politically viable. Such puff piece coverage, which consistently downplayed the seriousness of the mess Rosenberg was in, may even have influenced Rosenberg to wage a futile effort to seek re-election which unnecessarily prolonged the scandal itself, while increasing the damage to the State Senate's reputation and magnifying the humiliation of Rosenberg himself.

Back in early March, I wrote that "if the report about his husband's alleged misconduct is as damning as some suspect it will be, his Northampton senate seat may very well be wide open this fall." That turned out to be a completely accurate prediction, as Rosenberg was forced to resign less than 24 hours after the report was released.

But even if the local media distorted the extent of the scandal, that still doesn't explain why so many local voters were so loyal to Rosenberg. Certainly the Senator was never a friend to working people, whose paychecks he repeatedly assaulted throughout his more than three decade career. Stan Rosenberg never saw a tax increase he didn't like, and if he didn't see one, he was always quick to suggest one of his own. No person's paycheck was ever safe from reduction as long as Stanley Rosenberg was in the Statehouse.

He was also no friend to citizen democracy. Rosenberg was the Senate's most persistent critic of citizen ballot initiatives, claiming that voters had no business passing legislation by referendum since, well, Stan and his fellow legislators knew best. Despite his supposedly sterling progressive credentials, he was also small help to those who struggled for marijuana legalization over the years, joining the cause only at the last minute when it was inevitable legalization would pass. In the years when it would have taken courage to take a stand, he was silent.

Senator Stan's presidency was a dud, with no major legislation being guided through the chamber on his watch, with the exception of a massive pay raise for the legislators, which included a $45,000 raise for him personally. Rosenberg may have had a hard time getting legislation through the Senate, but Stan was always good at taking care of Stan. Now, of course, his pay from the legislature has fallen to zero, but the taxpayers will now step in to pay the fat pension he will get for his more than three decades of "service."

Rosenberg is the fourth of three prior legislative leaders to depart in disgrace, leaving advocates for good government speculating on ways to fix the statehouse culture of scandal, incompetence and greed. However, the solution is actually very simple. The rat's nest in Boston can only be successfully cleaned out when a majority of the voters of Massachusetts finally have the sense to vote a straight Republican ticket.

Speaking of over-rated politicians, going through some stuff the other day I came across this old photo of my Grandmother posing in front of the Capitol with the late Springfield Congressman Edward P. Boland.

I find it slightly amusing how Boland signed that picture, with the addition of the line "Member of Congress" under his name. What, was he afraid that my Grandma may have thought she was posing with the House Custodian? I detect a touch of insecurity in that addition, one perhaps to be expected from a legislator who was known by his colleagues as "The House Mouse." One of the most damning documents regarding Boland is to be found among the archives of The Diary of J. Wesley Miller, in this letter from activist Eamon O'Sullivan to local Democrat Party boss Judge Danny Keyes:

Dear Dan,

Regarding your comments in the paper about Congressman Boland, the famous writer H.L. Mencken once said, "History is an agreed upon pack of lies." Quite frankly I always thought Edward P. Boland lacked the testicular fortitude to be a leader. As a matter of fact it wasn't until near the end of his time in congress that he was involved in the so-called "Boland Amendment" which was poorly written and described at the time as "a piece of Swiss Cheese."

I remember reading the Boston Globe back in 1972 when they were writing about the various congressmen from Massachusetts. When it came to Congressman Boland the Globe Spotlight column had this to say: "We don't know anything good or bad about Edward P. Boland from the Second Congressional District. After twenty years of service to date he is a cipher and a nonentity in the U.S. Congress." As a matter of fact Boland's record was rather dull with him never taking a stand for or against any significant issue of his time.

I often told my late great mother that I couldn't understand why the Irish, although trapped and scarred by the limited Hungry Hill mentality, always voted for a man like Boland with no real stature as a leader or statesman. Whenever I encountered Boland he was always too much in a rush to talk and his public statements were rare and in most cases glittering generalities.

Boland's most significant failure was causing the closing of the Springfield Armory. I have handwritten letters from the late U.S. Speaker of the House John McCormack, a good friend of then President Lyndon Baines Johnson, telling how Boland's disastrous decision to back Edward M. Kennedy for U.S. Senate over Speaker McCormack's nephew Edward McCormack killed any chance that either Speaker McCormack or President Johnson would use their power to save the Armory. It was Mass Ways and Means Chairman Tony Scibelli and Edmond P. Garvey who partially salvaged the Armory by turning it into Springfield Technical Community College for which they received little help from Boland.

Judge Keyes, I recognize your life long friendship with Boland, but he was not highly respected in the U.S. Congress as you suggest, and it was well known locally that if you wanted something done in Washington you should contact our other Congressman Silvio O. Conte. We don't need anymore streets, statues or schools built or named after Boland. I find it interesting that his parents enrolled him at the public elementary Armory Street School instead of Our Lady of Hope. He may not have been academically inclined, but I concede he was still clever enough to fool the Irish.

Eddie

Every year around here we have a parade.

Photographer Bill Dwight captured Stan Rosenberg at the parade, which took place the day after his resignation became final.