NYT Enters The (Dela)Hunt

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

The (Bill Dela)Hunt started with this Boston Globe piece on Saturday:

Delahunt, champion of wind project, now may profit from it

In Congress, he helped Hull secure $1.7m; as consultant, he’s in line for no-bid contract

As a congressman, William D. Delahunt helped Hull win $1.7 million in federal earmarks for an offshore energy program.

Now, a year after the Quincy Democrat left office, his new consulting firm stands to receive $72,000 from the same pot of money under a no-bid contract Hull has offered for strategic guidance on the project.

Cut to: Sunday’s New York Times.

Lobbyist Helps a Project He Financed in Congress

WASHINGTON — Soon after he retired last year as one of the leading liberals in Congress, former Representative William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts started his own lobbying firm with an office on the 16th floor of a Boston skyscraper. One of his first clients was a small coastal town that has agreed to pay him $15,000 a month for help in developing a wind energy project.

Amid the revolving door of congressmen-turned-lobbyists, there is nothing particularly remarkable about Mr. Delahunt’s transition, except for one thing. While in Congress, he personally earmarked $1.7 million for the same energy project.

According to the Globe, “both sides insist there is no conflict of interest.”

According to common sense, that’s nonsense.

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Mitt Romney Is Contagious

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Turns out Mitt Romney (R-Flip . . . Or Is It Flop?) is a carrier as well.

From Sunday’s Boston Herald (no link because the Herald website is a piece a crap) about Romney’s ham-handed response to calls that he release his tax returns:

Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for Romney, said the campaign won’t change anything based on the tax-return issue, and seemed to brush off scuttlebutt it will release his returns this week.

On the other hand (there’s always another hand with Romney – like Vishnu), consider this from The Detroit News:

Romney releases only one tax return

Okay then, if everybody is going to keep making such a big deal out of it, Mr. Romney will release his darn tax return. But only one. From 2010 and an estimate for 2011.

Then again, the Herald report said Stuart Stevens seemed to brush off the scuttlebutt that Romney would release his returns.

With Romney, it’s always about wiggle room. Even for his campaign operatives.

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Joe K3 Edition)

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

House of Kennedy golden (actually, red-headed) boy Joseph P. the Third is reportedly considering a run for the open Fourth Congressional District seat in Massachusetts, but the reports in the local dailies vary considerably in how they present his explorations.

From Saturday’s Boston Globe:

Kennedy is quiet on a run for Congress

MEDFORD — Joseph P. Kennedy III, the latest generation of the political dynasty to explore a run for public office, remained tight-lipped about a campaign for Congress as he emerged from his final day as a prosecutor in the Middlesex district attorney’s office yesterday.

“I’m going to take some time to get across the district, talk to some people, listen to their concerns, and see if I can do what it takes to put together a candidacy for what I expect to be a competitive primary and, hopefully, a general election,’’ he said.

From Saturday’s Boston Herald (under its “DUDE! The Kennedy Watch” banner):

Joe K3 ‘excited’ to get his feet wet in politics

He’s still living with his mother in Cambridge, but 31-year-old Joseph P. Kennedy III said he’ll move soon into the 4th Congressional District and begin charting a possible run for Barney Frank’s open seat.

“I’m excited for what’s next,” Kennedy said yesterday. “To be able to get out and explore a potential candidacy . . . I’m going to take some time to get across the district and try to talk to people and listen to their concerns and see if I can do what it takes to put together a candidacy in what I expect to be a very competitive primary, then hopefully a general election.”

Another smooth-talkin’ Kennedy, eh?

Regardless, gotta love a two-daily town.

P.S. No Herald link because its website is a Crash Browser Dummy.

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Boston Deadbeat Non-Profits Edition)

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Boston Mayor Tom Menino has lately been shaking down major tax-exempt institutions with his “payment in lieu of taxes,” or PILOT, program – with mixed results and mixed reviews.

Regarding the latter, here’s the Boston Globe’s Saturday report:

Nonprofits boosting Boston’s coffers

Boston nonprofits have boosted their voluntary contributions to city government over the past six months by 24 percent, advancing a longstanding goal of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, despite the misgivings of some institutions.

Since July, the city has received $9.4 million from tax-exempt institutions such as colleges, hospitals, and museums, a substantial increase over last year’s pace, according to the mayor’s office.

By contrast, the Buzzkill – sorry, Boston – Herald says this:

Several institutions snub Hub on voluntary payments

More than a dozen colleges and other major tax-exempt institutions have thumbed their noses at Mayor Thomas M. Menino, refusing to shell out even a single dime in voluntary payments requested by the Hub to pay for their fair share of city services, a Herald review found.

The Herald piece later notes this: “All told, the city collected $16.7 million in PILOT payments for the first half of fiscal year 2012, but more than $2 million in requested payments have gone unpaid, according to city records.”

So, to summarize:

Boston Globe: Glass 8/9ths full.

Boston Herald: Glass 1/9th empty.

Gotta love a two-daily town.

P.S. No Herald link because its website is a Crash Browser Dummy.

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Dead Blogging The South Carolina GOP Primary Results

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Ads ‘n’ ends from the Palmetto State bakeoff:

• Pity the poor Republicans. They have two presidential candidates everyone  says can’t possibly be the nominee, and one candidate 75% say they don’t want as the nominee. Brokered convention, anyone?

• Newt Gingrich (R-Can You Hear Me Now?) Super PAC strategy: Mitt Romney = Barack Obama:

 

• Mitt Romney (R-Did Anyone Get the Number of That Truck?) concession speech strategy: Newt Gingrich = Barack Obama:

 

• Did South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson (R-You Lie!) really call NPR’s Audie Cornish “Natalie” for his entire interview with her? (The hardworking staff says: Yes he did.)

• Former Obama hack and current Priorities USA can’t-hack-it Bill Burton tells NPR: “For starters, Mitt Romney is a disaster.” Takes one to know one, eh Bill?

• Rick Santorum (R-The Caboose) spent the night struggling mightily to keep his head above water in the press pool.

• MSNBC’s primary coverage included an endless barrage of advertising from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act:

 

•  Sarah Palin on Fox News: Going forward, we should listen carefully to the candidates without that filter of the mainstream media or that filter of the Super PACs that are so negative.

Okay, then. So, in that good spirit Sarah always spreads . . .

• Newt Unfiltered:

Number of times he said “Callista and I”: 4.

(And how does this roll off the tongue: “First Lady Callista Gingrich.” Is it just us, or does she look like something out of a Tim Burton film when she turns to her right?)

Smart move: Praising his rivals by name. Made it seem like he already had the nomination.

Good: American exceptionalism, Federalist Papers, best paycheck president in American history.

Bad: Washington and New York elites, Saul Alinsky (think he got many hits on Google last night?), most effective food stamp president in American history.

Final verdict: A measured, smart, generous victory speech . . . until it wasn’t.

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Sony Is The Resident Evil In Movie Trailer

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

From the Sneak ADtack! Product Placement Patrol

Jon Bershad of Mediaite is in high dudgeon over a new Resident Evil trailer that takes product placement to new lows.

Worst Product Placement Ever?: The New Resident Evil Trailer Is Basically Just A Sony Ad

In the age of the DVR and the ability to skip any commercial we want, corporations have been quick to go full force into something that’s been brewing for a while; product integration. We see it absolutely everywhere. And, as much as I hate it, I respect that this is just the world we now live in. However, this morning I saw some product placement so blatant, so repulsive, it left me screaming at my computer. Then I realized that I worked for a website and I can turn my screaming into words and post it somewhere.

Anyway, the thing that made me so upset was the new trailer for the upcoming Resident Evil movie. A trailer which literally begins with a 30 second commercial for Sony products.

The offending trailer:

 

 

Bershad passes judgment in this way:

 I don’t think there’s ever been anything this blatant and, if we didn’t at least try to register our disgust at the corporations consuming every aspect of our lives now, then we really don’t have any right to complain about it in the future. Of course, in the future, a post like this would get me shot by the Sony police or something so whatever.

Two things:

First, this does seem less like product integration (which it technically is) than a Sony TV spot grafted onto a trailer for Resident Evil: Retribution. Sort of a Minotaur ad (Minotad?).

Second, if you want to see that Sony police future fleshed out, read George Saunders’ short story My Flamboyant Grandson. Fabulous stuff.

Originally posted on the Newer! Improveder! Sneak ADtack!

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Quote o’ the Day (Clean Gene Edition)

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

From Matt Labash’s lively Occupy New Hampshire Primary piece in the current Weekly Standard:

[A septuagenerian Occupier] puts a nice capper on the evening and, indeed, on the whole New Hampshire primary experience: “It’s like Senator Eugene McCarthy used to say, ‘Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.’ ”

Smart.

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Who Is Taylor Wells?

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

So out of the blue this pops up in the top lefthand corner of Page One of Friday’s Boston Herald:

Huh?

Do we know a Wells at the Herald? It’s clearly not Jonathan Wells, former ace reporter for the feisty local tabloid. So let’s go to P.2:

Lessons abound in teacher sex scandal

What do you do when you discover your daughter’s science teacher is an accused child molester?

Add to that allegations David Ettlinger, 34, may be linked to a massive Louisiana child pornography ring. My 7-year-old was a student in Ettlinger’s class at the Underwood School in Newton — until he was arrested this week.

Every day I write about how to spin things to the positive. One might ask, “How, Taylor, do you spin this to the positive?”

Rightly so.

So . . .

Then comes this tag:

Read Taylor’s “Best Life Ever” blog on bostonherald.com

Okay, then. Now we know: Taylor Wells is a blogger who’s been housed on the Herald’s website for the past whatever months.

That’s the beauty of the Herald: It can just parachute in anyone it wants to, because by definition there’s no rhyme or reason to the tabloid “mosaic press,” whose content Marshall McLuhan said is united “only by its dateline.”

Okay, then.

But wait . . .

Campaign Outsider Bitter Recrimination (pat. pending):

There’s no link to the P. 2 Herald piece here because the bleeping Herald site has bleeping crashed my laptop bleeping five times in the past bleeping 20 minutes.

Message: Bleep the Herald.

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Correction o’ the Day (Abolish The Leap Second Edition)

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

From Friday’s New York Times:

FRONT PAGE

Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about disagreement among countries over whether to abolish the leap second omitted an element of the leap year cycle. The leap year adds a day to February in a familiar four-year cycle, as the article noted — except in century years not divisible by 400. Thus, although 2000 was a leap year, 2100 will not be. The article also misidentified, in some editions, the point at which noon would strike at sunrise if the leap second is eliminated. That depends on the rate at which the Earth’s spin slows down, which is not precisely predictable. Whatever the timing, the event would occur many thousands of years from now, but probably not “more than 100,000 years from now.”

That’s a relief, eh? Check back with us in 99,999 years.

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Dead Blogging The GOP’s Umpteenth Presidential Primary Debate

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff only caught bits and pieces of last night’s CNN Republican presidential bakeoff in South Carolina so . . . only bits and pieces:

• Between the candidate intros and the singing of the national anthem, CNN completed the transformation of presidential debates into sporting events.

• CNN moderator John King got totally mugged, yeah?

• Debate 101: Never lead with the most controversial issue. Let it hang, like the sword of Damocles, over the proceedings until they start to lag.

Then drop it.

• Newt Gingrich has his impersonation of “Newt Gingrinch” down pat, doesn’t he?

• Mitt Romney’s to-do list: Come up with better answers for Bain record, abortion record, Romneycare record.

Broken record.

• Big shoutout to Rick Santorum for defending intellectual property rights.

• John King Gets Mugged II: Bullied by audience into letting Ron Paul deliver a borderline-incoherent statement on abortion rights.

• GOP presidential candidates: We beg you, in the words of Rick Santorum, Stop It!

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