And with him, so did an integral part of Red Sox history.

John Henry famously told the listeners of “Felger and Mazz” back in 2011 that “Larry Lucchino runs the Red Sox.”

During the time Lucchino “ran the Red Sox,” the team won the World Series three times. In 2004, 2007 and 2013. They also lost Game 7 of the ALCS twice  – on the road – by a combined score of 9-6.

They were “The Other Dynasty.”

Lucchino became Red Sox president and CEO on Nov. 15, 2001. In the 14 seasons that followed under his administration, the Red Sox finished over .500 11 times and made the postseason in 7 seasons.

The Red Sox were 1,247-1,021 (.549) on Lucchino’s watch. Lucchino’s Red Sox won 95 or more games six times. They also finished last three times. Swing big. Miss big. The current Red Sox have finished last in 3 of the past 4 seasons playing the smallest ball possible.

More importantly, Lucchino’s Red Sox tried to win every inning. Every game. Every series. Every season.

Lucchino saw the cash-cow potential in Fenway Park and realized how its milk and honey could be used to finance the most successful MLB franchise during the first two decades of the 21st century.

Not soccer teams. NASCAR teams. Hockey teams. Or the PGA Tour.

And fans rewarded that passion with five seasons of more than 3 million in attendance during Lucchino’s time with the Red Sox, in addition to monstrous ratings on NESN and WEEI. Lucchino was raised in Pittsburgh and attended Yale Law School. But he got it when it came to the Red Sox and the once-unbreakable emotional relationship the team shared with its fan base.

Now that passion, too, has died on both sides of the equation.

Lucchino more so than any other person in the front office changed the historic trajectory of the Red Sox. Dan Duquette came close. But he never got the chance to finish the job.

There was never any concern about salary limitations, luxury taxes, or balancing the books for the Fenway Sports Group.

Lucchino was an OG Jedi Master. He gave us the “Evil Empire” and then oversaw the Red Sox team that blew up the Death Star 20 years ago. Nothing in the Bronx has been the same since. It got so bad they tore the place down four years later.

“The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America,” Lucchino quipped after the Yankees outbid the Red Sox and others for Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras in December 2002.

That non-deal, much like the non-deal that almost brought Alex Rodriguez to the Red Sox, turned out to be a blessing.

Still, the Red Sox never quit trying to get better under Lucchino.

Lucchino was a “killer” in the most non-violent sense of the word. His impact on baseball was clear before he arrived in Boston as part of John Henry’s ownership cabal. While the aloof Henry and his squishy Hollywood pal Tom Werner had the cash, Lucchino delivered the brains and guts of the operation.

Henry said as much in a statement issued by the team above his name Tuesday.

Lucchino “engineered the ideal conditions for championships wherever his path led him, and especially in Boston,” Henry said.

“Yet, perhaps his most enduring legacy lies in the remarkable people he helped assemble at the Red Sox, all of whom are a testament to his training, wisdom, and mentorship. Many of them continue to shape the organization today, carrying forward the same vigor, vitality, and cherished sayings that were hallmarks of Larry’s personality. Larry was a formidable opponent in any arena,” Henry added. “I was lucky enough to have had him in my corner for 14 years and to have called him a close friend for even longer. He was truly irreplaceable.”

Lucchino was president of the Baltimore Orioles when that team built Camden Yards, the first of its kind inner-city ballpark that has been the template of nearly every new MLB park since. He brought Theo Epstein with him to San Diego from Baltimore, and then to Boston.

Lucchino knew that spending and winning went hand-in-hand. And Lucchino knew enough to know what he didn’t know. It was Lucchino who saw enough potential in Epstein to make him Red Sox general manager at age 28.

Theo tried to warn the masses that 2010 was going to be a “bridge year.” Soon he felt enough heat from his boss and lifetime mentor to walk it back. The 2010 Red Sox fell short of the postseason and finished 89-73.

2011 was also a “bridge year” given how many Red Sox fans wanted to leap off the Tobin into an endless metaphorical bucket of chicken and beer after it was over.

The wreckage of baseball’s “Greatest Team Ever” in 2011 wrought the Bobby Valentine Error in 2012.

And just when it seemed the Red Sox franchise had ended its “Dynasty,” the 2013 season delivered a poignant triumph that no one who experienced it will ever forget.

The Red Sox begin their celebration of 2004 before Fenway Park Opening Day on Tuesday. Given the team’s solid start on the West Coast, the game should be sold out by the time fans will be asked to find their seats ahead of the pre-game ceremonies.

Raffy Devers and the Men of Mystery had baseball’s lowest team ERA (1.26) after their first five games. They only walked one opposing batter, granted the Oakland A’s are no longer an official MLB team. The Red Sox also opened 5-0 against the baseball run line (think point spread).

The team will honor the late Tim and Stacy Wakefield before Tuesday’s opener.

And now, Lucchino, sadly, will also be remembered posthumously for his success with the Red Sox.

The end of an era, indeed. In so many ways.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

While hundreds of veterans in Massachusetts struggle with homelessness, Healey picked the soldiers’ home property – which is deeded for use by veterans – for the latest shelter for the thousands of migrant families pouring into the state.

State officials argue that the building converted into migrant housing was vacant and slated to be demolished anyway, so they decided to use it for the migrant influx which is blowing a billion dollar a year hole in the state budget.

“Massachusetts has proven that we can take care of veterans and families experiencing homelessness in our state,” Secretary of Veterans Services Dr. Jon Santiago said in a statement. “While EOVS formerly operated the building slated for demolition, this project operates independently and will not impact the daily routines or services at the Massachusetts Veterans Home at Chelsea.

Really? They haven’t been doing a good job if you look at the number of homeless veterans – which stood at more than 500 one night last year.

Santiago — a former Democratic state rep — is supposed to make veterans his number one priority but clearly he’s more loyal to Healey than he is to our military heroes.

Healey and Santiago have their usual coat holders in the media to back them up, but the fact is the state could have used that vacant property at the soldiers’ home use for a number of uses for veterans, who need medical and mental health care as well as housing.

More than 100 migrant families are expected to move into the soldiers’ home property in the next month. Veterans were charged a fee to live there, but migrants will live there for free with all amenities like food and health care provided for free.

Massachusetts is facing a massive budget deficit to pay for migrants to live here, and officials admit they are pondering severe cuts to programs to prevent the state from going bankrupt.

With veterans now pushed aside, who will be next? Firefighters? Police? First responders? Towns and cities? The poor and middle class?

Healey, a Democratic first term governor, has been taking heat for her handling of the migrant crisis for months, and the conversion of the soldiers’ home is just the latest political debacle, judging by some of the response by Massachusetts residents.

In an attempt to control the damage, Healey announced last month that families will have to prove they have been looking for housing and jobs every month in order to stay at the shelters. The state Senate voted last month to limit the stay of migrants at shelters to nine months, with exceptions for pregnant women and people who are in job training programs.

This isn’t the first time Healey has chosen the migrants over veterans – the state turned several hotels near Gillette Stadium in Foxboro to migrant shelters, forcing out dozens of veterans and service members from their booked rooms for the Army-Navy football game.

The veterans had to fend for themselves after their rooms were canceled – and Healey and Santiago showed little interest in helping them.

The United Nations Security Council is made up of 15 members. It acts as an executive committee for presenting resolutions to the larger body. Any member of the Council may veto a resolution and it automatically fails.

The other day, the Council sponsored a resolution calling for a cease fire in Gaza.

The only benefit from that would be to grant Hamas time to reorganize and stunt Israel’s effort to eliminate this despicable terrorist organization.

Since the United States supports Israel in its effort to survive, it seemed clear that the Biden Administration’s response would be to exercise its veto and defeat the Resolution. Astonishingly, Biden abstained from voting. The result was 14-0 and the resolution passed. What in God’s name was Biden thinking to allow this to happen?

There’s an obvious answer. Biden is a political prisoner of the Progressives who hate Israel. He’s afraid of them. Very frankly, Biden didn’t have the courage to oppose them with a veto.

I hope that all voters remember this when the polls open on election day. Anyone who is disgusted by Biden because of this should.

Frank Olivieri

Wilmington

Impeachment

Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, sent a taunting tweet to the House Oversight Committee Chair, James Comer, apparently trying to intimidate the co-equal branch into not performing one of their core oversight roles enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

Sams’ tweet said “Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong…. This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal.”

Really? 20+ witnesses? Are they like the White House physician that skipped a mental acuity test for the first time in modern history and told us Joe Biden was mentally and physically fit? Or more like the 51 retired “Intelligence Leaders” who declared in October of 2020, during an election, that the Hunter Biden laptop story was a Russian disinformation operation?

Thanks, pal, but I think we the people will trust, but verify, as a far better president of ours once told us to do.

Nick McNulty

Windham, NH

Biden & Iran

President Joe Biden freed up $10 billion of frozen Iranian assets.  Iran supports terrorists by providing money to groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis.  Iran does not allow inspections of its nuclear energy facilities.  The mullahs chant, “Death to America” and are on friendly terms with Russia, China and North Korea.  Biden abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan against the advice of his generals and left behind $80 billion in weapons, ammunition and military hardware.

On the other hand, President Trump had strong sanctions on Iran and was crippling Iran’s economy.  Under Trump, the leading state-sponsored terrorist, Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani was killed with a pinpoint missile attack.  In 2014, Obama’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates, stated that, “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the last four decades.”  A failed foreign policy is nothing new for our commander-in-chief.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

A foul odor has plagued the state-of-the-art facility (“Our school smells like poop,” said Steven Benjamin, a middle school reading specialist and special education teacher, according to the Herald) all year long.

Teachers at the $73 million Roxbury facility have to work around the smell: A classroom door needs to be fully open at all times, an air purifier running with the ionizer on, and windows open. Class is held in the hallway, or relocated from a classroom that’s particularly offensive. Students spray perfume and Febreeze when they can stand to enter a particularly odiferous room.

The logical step is to call a plumber. Staffers say that custodial teams have tried onsite fixes, but when multiple rooms smell like a sewer pipe, you’re not looking at a simple clog. Benjamin noted that leaders have “communicated to facilities through the proper channels.”

And yet the olfactory ordeal continues and students and teachers suffer. Last week, Benjamin and two colleagues took the issue to a School Committee meeting, asking for help from district leaders.

Teachers shouldn’t have to be the ones to raise a stink about the stench. An entire school smelling to high heaven can’t be a secret, and if leadership knew, and facilities contacted, why didn’t the ball get rolling sooner?

School Committee Vice Chairman Michael O’Neill is calling for action to be taken as soon as possible, and the timeline in solving the issue to be expedited.

“I hope we’re going to get some very professional plumbers out to a (new) building – a matter of fact, let’s get the contractors who built the building out there – and find out what the heck is going on there,” he told Superintendent Mary Skipper.

While you’re at it, make sure there aren’t any overdue bills hanging around.

This isn’t the first plumbing problem that Boston Public Schools has encountered. Last May, BPS was found to be stiffing a plumbing contractor on a $164,000 bill, racked up since 2018, as the Herald reported.  According to the Boston Finance Commission, district employees sought to resolve the issue by directing another vendor to pick up the tab. That fiscal finagling left the school district with a substantially larger bill of $189,162.

It also raised questions about how BPS does business with vendors. How do you rack up a plumbing bill for five years without payment?  And what effect does this have on future work?

The Boston Finance Commission addressed that in its report: “This transaction unnecessarily cost the taxpayers money that could have gone toward services for Boston Public School students, undermines the faith citizens have in their public officials, and will potentially cause vendors to question whether they should enter a working relationship with the City of Boston.”

What kind of rep does BPS having with plumbing contractors in light of the mega-bucks bill that went unpaid for years? Is that why work on the Dearborn STEM Academy’s problem is proceeding at a glacial pace?

Teachers, students and their parents deserve better. The BPS needs to get on this problem, stat. And maybe pay upfront.

You can beat the competition by working harder and finding better ways to serve the consumer by lowering prices or offering a better product.

Or you can lobby the government for favors, whether it’s a taxpayer subsidy or outlawing your competition.

Alas, we have seen hundreds of examples of businesses trying to get rich by using the power of the state instead of working to outperform the competition. Inefficient American sugar farmers keep out foreign competition through tariffs. Taxi lobbies work tirelessly to ban Uber or regulate it to death. Cronies use their friends in government to restrict their competition through job licensing. It takes a mere 300 hours of training to become an EMT and save lives. But it takes 1,600 hours — or a full year of work — to become a licensed hairdresser, as state boards of cosmetology lock down the industry.

The most recent example has come in the fantasy sports industry.

Recently, a handful of gaming commissions nationwide began classifying many of Americans’ favorite daily fantasy sports games as illegal gambling. They then sent cease-and-desist letters to fantasy sports operators, despite some of them telling the media last year that the same companies that offer the targeted games in question were valid and licensed.

The only thing that appears to have changed between now and then is that Big Gambling turned to dirty tricks and began lobbying to outlaw their competitors’ fantasy sports offerings.

DraftKings and FanDuel — the wealthiest, biggest and oldest fantasy sports operators — have turned to the power of the state instead of working on good old-fashioned business superiority to crush their competition.

Legal precedent indicates that to be a fantasy sports game (as opposed to a gambling operation), the game must be skill-based, based on the statistical performance of real-life sports players, and not hinged upon the performance of any one single athlete. DraftKings and FanDuel’s competitors meet all these criteria. That is why they have operated without a hitch for years.

Unfortunately, when it comes to politics, lobbying and cronyism can quickly replace legal precedent, common sense and fairness.

News reports have shown that some of the legislators, gaming commissioners and state attorneys general with whom DraftKings and FanDuel’s lobbyists have begun corresponding took near-immediate action against their fantasy competitors without a public investigation or hearing the other side of the story. This seeming complicity may work for DraftKings and FanDuel’s bottom line, but it does not work for consumer choice or the health of the market.

Super Bowl season showed just how passionate Americans are about their sports at the state and national levels. Daily fantasy sports have allowed 20% of adult Americans to engage even more closely with a beloved hobby. Fantasy games deserve to be left alone by lawmakers and regulators rather than to be bullied by the government on behalf of an anti-competitive duopoly.

Nikolai G. Wenzel is an economics professor who serves on the Board of Scholars of the Foundation for Economic Education/InsideSources

The bottom line was apparent from the outset. Whichever party controls the White House has used comparable money-raising gambits, which only means that there has been enough conduct that is depressing to go around. But there certainly was evidence aplenty that the Clinton campaign had engaged in fundraising that was smarmy, even if the smarm had a long bipartisan heritage.

One could regard the hearings as mere political theater, and it was in the Democrats’ interest to look at it just that way – and to urge America to do the same. One Democratic senator on the committee did not. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D, Conn) was neither a political novice nor a naïf, but he took the evidence presented by the Republicans of machinations that ranged between unsavory and shady very seriously. A loyal Democrat who did not place himself on a pedestal, Lieberman nevertheless regarded some of what came before the committee as a moral affront. He declined to whitewash the malodorous facts, or to pretend they didn’t exist.

One day, the committee’s Republican majority subpoenaed a businessman who, ever-so-coincidentally, had received administration approval for a lucrative energy contract contemporaneously with his massive contribution to the Democratic Party. During their questioning, the Democratic senators took turns evading the obvious issue: everything about the matter screamed three Latin words – quid pro quo.

All except one. When it was his turn to examine the witness, Lieberman walked the unhappy businessman through the timing of Democratic fundraisers’ solicitation of his contribution, the contribution, his company’s request for agency approval and the approval. Lieberman, who had once been Connecticut’s Attorney General, was soft-spoken about it, but unrelenting.

On the dais where the committee sat, just inches from where Lieberman was conducting his cross-examination, a Democratic senator leaned over to the Democrats’ counsel and whispered, with irritation, “What the hell is Joe doing?”

What the hell Joe was doing, of course, was the job of a public-spirited public servant who took his public service seriously. It was what earned him so much respect from Democrats and Republicans alike. Four hours before Lieberman died, a student at a school in Maine asked Republican Senator Susan Collins, herself the object of plenty of poison arrows from multiple directions, who she enjoyed working with the most during her career. It was Lieberman, she replied.

Lieberman was famously a man of faith, and he bonded quickly with others of faith, whatever that faith happened to be. Terry Segal, a close friend of Lieberman since their days together at Yale University, remembers that Lieberman wouldn’t go the Connecticut Democratic Party convention whose nomination for Attorney General he was seeking because it fell on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. “We said to him ‘You could lose!’” Segal recalls. “He said ‘Well, so what?’”

The recollections of a good, decent and unpretentious man flooded in after Lieberman’s death, and they were of a single piece. “He was always so gracious,” said Boston lawyer Keith Carroll, who was among Lieberman’s first interns when he was elected to the Senate in 1988. “All of his success never changed who he was.”

There were some, to be sure, who despised Lieberman because he rejected their policy prescriptions. “Joe Lieberman never got the war with Iran that he so desperately wanted,” posted Matt Duss, Bernie Sanders’ former foreign policy advisor, just hours after Lieberman’s death. Joe Lieberman would have just shaken his head at the lack of class. A pity that some people couldn’t be more like him.

Jeff Robbins is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast. He is also an attorney.

At the same time, though, reverberations from the deadly disaster at the important Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore will soon be felt in Massachusetts, no matter what Healey does.

You can bet, now that President Joe Biden has promised that the federal government will pay untold millions, or “the entire cost,” of a new Baltimore bridge, there will not be much, if any, money left over for two new Cape Cod bridges.

“We are going to stay with you as long as it takes,” Biden said to Baltimore politicians and residents following the collapse, which is what he once said to the Israelis.

While there is hardly any comparison to the economic importance of the two bridge sites, the Cape Cod bridges are vital to the economy of the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

But the port of Baltimore, now blocked by the collapsed bridge, leads the nation in automobile and truck imports, as well as being the main port for the export of coal, among other things.

The two Cape Cod bridges, the Sagamore and the Bourne, which are now almost 90 years old, are still standing, of course, but were declared “functionally obsolete” years ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which built, owns and maintains them.

It is estimated that it will cost some $4.2 billion to replace both. When and if they are replaced with two new bridges, they will be turned over to the state.

However, paying for the demolition and construction of two new bridges has been a bone of contention between the state and the federal government.

And matters will only get worse for Healey and Massachusetts now that Biden and political leaders—rightly so– deal with the Baltimore situation first.

Under a proposed pending deal—before the Baltimore bridge collapsed—the Healey administration agreed with federal officials on a plan to build the new $2.1 billion Sagamore Bridge first and the Bourne later.

Under the agreement the state will come up with $700 million and the Army Corps of Engineers with $600 million for a total of $1.3 billion. There was no mention of where the rest of the money would come from.

There is also the possibility that Biden will be defeated by Donlad Trump in November, a man Healey sued 100 times when he was president, and she was attorney general. She is now a campaign surrogate for Biden and attacks Trump regularly.

Unless Healey changes strategy the outlook for two new Cape Cod bridges is dismal.

What she could consider is building the new bridges the way the state built the Massachusetts Turnpike, its Boston extension and the Callahan Tunnel in the fifties and sixties.

Back then the state created the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and named William F. Callahan, a crusty but powerful bureaucrat who knew something about building roads.

Callahan, who at times seemed to have more power than the governor and Legislature combined, cut through opposition to the turnpike project as well as government red tape.

In the end he got the project done and named the Callahan Tunnel after his son U.S. Army Lt. William F. Callahan Jr. who was killed in Italy during the closing days of World War II.

But the key to the success of the project was that it was started and finished without raising taxes, using state cash or begging for federal funding.

The project was financed through the issuing of bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the Commonwealth as well as the imposing of tolls on drivers who use the turnpike and tunnel.

Healey should consider using the same method to build and pay for the bridges. If it worked for the Massachusetts Turnpike and it could work for the bridges.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

The MBTA has been running at deficits for years, now the recent article “Discount fares, Chinese-built cars on track” illustrates even more losses. Sixty thousand low-income riders will receive half-off tickets and passes. I understand low income and assistance but it just shows another loss. The contract with a Chinese company for new cars was updated, for huge losses and more time waiting. The T will now pay the company $148 million more…on a bid!? They will also forgive $90 million, and another $37 million in damages spelled out in the bid may be forgiven.

Why wasn’t there rebidding when the Chinese company defaulted? Are there any US companies who bid and were within $275million of the awarded company? Why aren’t these questions being raised for an agency hemorrhaging money away?

John Cerulli

Salem NH

Biden fundraising

Pull back the curtain and you will see why Biden had the biggest fundraising event in history. The total net worth of the top 1%, defined by the Fed as those with wealth over $11 million, increased by $2 trillion in the fourth quarter.  All of the gains for the elites came from their stock holdings.  Super rich Democrats love Biden, while working class Democrats struggle to put food on the table.

Biden couldn’t draw a crowd by headlining the event himself.  He had to share the stage with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and they were hawking photo shoots with the former presidents.  Second row seats were going for $500,000. Did anyone reading this attend the fundraiser?  I doubt it, because Bidenomics doesn’t work for working-class people.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

Baltimore bridge

t’s refreshing to hear that our governor has pledged to help Maryland Governor Wes Moore with support in the Key bridge disaster.  It’s great news to see intergovernmental cooperation between states. Now if Gov. Moore was a Republican, would Healey be so quick to offer him any kind of help? A huge tragedy has been taking place on our southern border, here in Massachusetts, Healey has only admonished Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump. When will Gov. Healey call and extend the same courtesy to Gov. Abbott? A tragedy has been occurring at our southern border for over 3 years and yet Gov. Healey hasn’t even attempted to extend any support or assistance to stop it.

Democrats help Democrats and Democrats suffer cognitive dissonance and continue to  blame Republicans, Trump and MAGA for the disaster on our southern border.

Mark Howland

Weymouth

Timeless adage

A long time ago, an elder from the Greatest Generation told me that “You can’t beat City Hall.” Now that I have become an elder, I can see that government is trying now to make that an absolute fact. If we allow that to become the absolute truth with our votes being negotiable to tax- and-spend politicians, then democracy will, or perhaps already has been lost.

Al DePaoli

Woburn

Congress just passed a $1.2 trillion measure to avert another government “shutdown.” Not surprisingly, it includes billions in pork backed by both Republican and Democratic members. The budget watchdog openthebooks.com counts about 1,400 spending initiatives that reek of bacon. Not a peep out of the president.

“It’s the Mary Poppins method of governing, where a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down, Adam Andrezejewski, CEO and founder of openthebooks.com, told The National Desk. “Congress needs a little bit of corruption to pass these massive spending bills.”

A previous budget deal — which dealt with six of the 12 appropriations bills that make up discretionary spending — contained nearly 6,000 earmarks at a cost of $12.7 billion, according to Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican.

Reason magazine’s Eric Boehm highlighted a handful of the most egregious examples of unnecessary federal spending, including $2.5 million for a kayaking facility in New Hampshire, $2.7 million for a bike path in a small West Virginia town and $3.5 million for the outfit that runs Detroit’s annual Thanksgiving parade.

A group backed by former Vice President Mike Pence also compiled a list of what it views as wasteful “woke” pork initiatives, including $1.1 million for “climate resilience and equity” in Massachusetts, $200 million for “gender equity and equality action” and $400,000 to a New Jersey company that provides “gender-affirming clothing.”

House Republicans in 2011 banned earmarks, but Democrats reversed that move a decade later. To be sure, members of both parties eagerly engage in filling the federal trough as a means of currying favor with voters during their perpetual re-election campaigns. Defenders of the process argue that a few billion here and a few billion there have little impact on a multitrillion-dollar spending plan. But that’s the mindset that drives the nation’s descent into oceans of red ink.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan vetoed an $88 billion — the number seems almost quaint today — highway and transportation spending bill, which he described as “budget-busting” and “unsound,” adding that “it represents a failure to exercise the discipline that is required to constrain federal spending, especially pork-barrel spending.” Congress, after two tries, mustered the votes to override the veto.

No president since then — Republican or Democrat — has exhibited similar resolve, and Biden will go along to get along. In the meantime, this president proposes $7 trillion annual budgets that depend on borrowing trillions more. Budget hawk, indeed.

Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service

Wherever we look these days, all kinds of hell is happening. Or just happened. Or may soon happen.

For Gaza’s 2 million-plus Palestinians, things are about as bad as things can get. Yet, a mind-boggling new poll just revealed most Gaza Palestinians are still clueless about who to blame for their misery that has shattered their lives.

Also: World leaders appear clueless about what, if anything, they can or should do about it.

A half century ago, Israel’s erudite diplomat, Abba Eban, famously quipped that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” But ever since Hamas so horrifically and brutally attacked Israeli families on Oct. 7, and fled with 253 hostages, it has been our world leaders who “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

There is a world of blame that must be shared. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres chose to be bizarrely even-handed and understanding even while condemning Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack. Infuriatingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can’t bring himself to show even a shred of sympathy for Gaza’s Palestinian civilians who have been trapped in war’s cruelty just as Israel’s families were in October.

For five months now, world leaders have missed this opportunity to accurately redefine the current hostage crisis by just calling it what it really is: a crisis of two peoples who are being held hostage by Hamas.
If this sounds a bit familiar, it’s because it is. I wrote about it last December, urging our leaders to recast how they describe Gaza’s reality. I urged our leaders to publicly discuss this hostage crisis as an effort to secure freedom for “not just one, but two different sets of hostages Hamas has simultaneously imprisoned in Gaza.”

Namely:

Israelis Held Hostage by Hamas: In October, Hamas killed 1,200 in Israel and kidnapped 253 hostages, including elderly and disabled. Today, according to Israel, Hamas still holds 130 hostages, including 33 bodies of hostages who are believed dead.

Palestinians Used as Hamas’ Human Shield Hostages: Long ago, Hamas began digging the tunnels under apartments, schools and hospitals – trapping hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians into unwittingly becoming human shield hostages.

And after their successful terrorist attacks in October, Hamas terrorists fled home to Gaza and hid beneath the civilians they were supposedly protecting. Hamas made sure Israel would have to kill thousands of innocent families under whom the terrorists cowered.

In fact, Hamas’ cruel attack goaded the Israelis just so Netanyahu would massively retaliate. And Netanyahu fell into Hamas’ trap. Hamas leaders knew masses of Gaza’s civilians would be the first to die.

Hamas didn’t care. Hamas’ weapons suppliers and trainers in Iran didn’t care either. They just wanted to goad Israel into killing innocent civilians while the world watched, month after month.

Iran hoped the world would see Israel killing innocent Arabs – so world condemnation would halt Saudi Arabian and Gulf state plans to normalize relations with Israel. We’ll see.

But Hamas and Iran got one gift they couldn’t have predicted. Those videos of dead, wounded, starving and orphaned Gazans sparked waves of antisemitism throughout the United States and Europe. That return of the hater may be forever.

Despite my December proposal and plea, the UN’s Guterres and other world leaders never got around to fully and truthfully pinning the blame for this crisis where it belonged – on Hamas. And their failure to lead has been devastating.

Sadly and sickeningly, 71% of Gaza’s Palestinians believe Hamas was correct in attacking Israel on Oct. 7, according to a poll conducted this month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. That’s way up from the group’s December poll in which 57% approved of the Hamas attack.

Perhaps you remember there were a couple of weeks in which the world saw streaming reports of Hamas atrocities committed against families in Israel that are as innocent as the terrorists’ own families back in Gaza. We saw and even some Gazans saw reports, photos and videos of Hamas terrorists killing parents in front of children, children in front of parents, babies in their cribs, violently raping women, mutilating bodies.

Remember, way back in October, the world saw a couple of weeks’ news about Hamas’ atrocities. And then five months of videos of Gaza’s human shield civilians tragically suffering the heart wrenching horrors of war.

Now this: 97% of Gaza and West Bank Palestinians who didn’t see those October news videos about Hamas’ atrocities believe the atrocities never even happened, that same poll showed. And a still huge 81% of those who saw the October news videos believe what they saw never happened.

Sometimes seeing is disbelieving.

Tribune News Service

The agency informed the Herald this past week that the heavily redacted 15 installments of Whitey’s dirty dealings already dropped in their public records “Vault” will be the last we see. Forever!

That can’t be tolerated. The Herald has 90 days to file an “administrative appeal,” and we fully intend to do so.

As we reported, the files posted in dribs and drabs are mostly run-of-the-mill mobster fare, with talk of loan sharking, horse race fixing, and ruthless gang rule. What about the rest? The agency’s contract with this devil must be made public. If the past is truly prologue, members of law enforcement must learn from the agency’s mistakes in dealing with depraved career killers.

Today’s Department of Justice has a spotty record regarding transparency. On one hand, it exceeded expectations when it exposed Rachael Rollins’s politicization of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.

Former U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling bravely launched a campaign against the ruthless MS-13 gang in New England, saving lives. But he didn’t prosecute former Gov. Charlie Baker’s son for allegedly groping a woman on a Boston-bound flight.

Now U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has a rare opportunity to overturn the FBI’s penchant for incestuous secrecy, overrule the G-men, and order the release of every memo on Bulger’s sordid life.

This is not a journalistic paper chase using the Freedom of Information Act for an academic exercise in the First Amendment. This won’t be made into a Hollywood flick with A-list actors pretending to be from Boston. This is all about the victims.

When the news broke this week that the FBI was dumping Bulger’s file in the trash, one of those loved ones left to grow old alone without her husband called the Herald to lament the end of this painful road.

“This makes me feel that anything new that might still come out won’t be shared with the victims,” said Mary Callahan, now in her 80s. “Maybe this means they don’t want to share that. It could be money we are owed. There’s 33 of us, when I last counted. I’m seeing this as the FBI telling all of us to ‘Go Away!'”

Mary’s accountant husband, John Callahan, was executed in South Florida on Bulger’s orders in 1982 — and the FBI played a central part.

John Callahan, the former president of World Jai Alai, was shot dead by John Martorano, one of Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was also a friend of his. Bulger wanted Callahan dead because the Boston businessman could implicate them in a 1981 slaying of another World Jai Alai executive.

Disgraced ex-FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 for wearing his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with Bulger in Boston to warn him of what John Callahan knew. Zip is now home in Massachusetts on a “compassionate release” from his Florida prison cell as he battles cancer.

The corrupt rabbit hole goes deeper.

We filed a public records request for Bulger’s FBI file soon after he was murdered in a West Virginia prison in 2018. The first installment was posted on July 8, 2021. The last one dropped on Oct. 3, 2022.

If that’s all we see, shame on the FBI.

Put another way, Iran sits at the center of two wars involving American allies – Ukraine and Israel – and its alliance with Russia, China, Syria, and North Korea in a new ‘axis of evil’ is a direct threat to the national security of the United States and our allies, but also to global peace and security. 

The budding relationship between these nations, including Iran’s proxy forces was made evident this month when the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, which have targeted dozens of commercial and military ships and effectively shuttered the Red Sea, announced that Russian and Chinese ships would be spared and can transit freely.

Indeed, Iran has continued selling drones to Russia for use against Ukraine in that war’s third year, and Tehran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah enabled the Oct. 7 attack and subsequent war, while turning Hezbollah into a terrorist group more heavily armed than dozens of countries. 

Further, in what is an existential threat to many countries in the Middle East, including American allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, IAEA inspectors remain barred from monitoring Iran’s nuclear program, which, according to AP reports, now has enough enriched uranium for at least three nuclear weapons, which, thanks to cooperation with North Korea, Iran may soon have the ability to put onto ballistic missiles aimed at Israel and the U.S. 

Likewise, Iranian commandos remain entrenched in Syria, ferrying Shia fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan to Damascus to prop up dictator Bashar Al-Assad and transport weapons to Hezbollah. Iranian oil also continues flowing to China in a mutually-beneficial economic agreement that provides Beijing with cheap energy and Iran with a way around international sanctions.

Plainly, to meet the threat posed by the Iranian regime, existing sanctions must be tightened, possibly even extended to countries and institutions which do business with Iran such as China and Qatar. 

Above all, the Mullahs in Tehran should be fully aware that if they continue their malign activities, they are risking a direct clash with the United States, including possible strikes on Iran’s energy or nuclear facilities, or even Iran’s spy ships in the Red Sea, which are suspected of providing the Houthis with intelligence and targeting information.

Historically, Iran has sought to test the limits of what the U.S. would allow, and unfortunately, our leaders have generally allowed the Islamic regime to do so. However, history has also made it clear that in the face of an American military response – such as former President Reagan’s decision to destroy a significant number of Iranian naval and energy assets – the regime backs down. 

Confronting Iran with anything less than a credible military threat risks allowing Iran – and its proxies – to soon be protected by a nuclear umbrella, and by that point, it may be too late to roll back Iranian forces. 

As I wrote three months ago, immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, President Biden’s efforts to deter Iran and their proxies began as admirable. The president ordered an unprecedented large show of force  – the deployment of two aircraft carrier strike groups into the Mediterranean Sea – and explicitly warned Iran and its proxies not to even think about taking advantage of Oct. 7 to widen the war. 

Yet, nearly six months later, Iran’s free hand to cause chaos remains intact. Its Hezbollah allies have continued launching rockets into Northern Israel, American forces in the region have been subjected to hundreds of attacks, and the Houthis recently doubled down on their threat to target any ship in the Red Sea.

It is easy to understand why Iran feels they can sow disorder without any fear of a direct clash with the United States. Biden has repeatedly failed to establish any semblance of deterrence vis-à-vis Iran, including his latest approval of a sanctions waiver granting Tehran access to $10 billion, and according to one former CENTCOM official, the president has consistently denied military leaders’ plans to hit Iran where it would “really inflict pain” and “send a message.”

At this point, it is legitimate to wonder not what Biden’s red line is, that if crossed, would invite an American military response, but if a red line exists at all. 

Importantly, this is not to advocate for preemptive strikes on Iran or the start of another war in the Middle East, however, Biden’s consistent refusal to even threaten military action directly against Iran is a deafeningly loud message to Tehran that they have a free hand to continue sowing chaos. 

Moreover, with slightly more than seven months before the presidential election, and the left-flank of Biden’s own party in open revolt over his support for Israel, the chances that the White House takes a tougher stance towards Iran shrinks every day, no matter Tehran’s role as the main protagonist of the chaos engulfing the Middle East. 

That said, it is more likely that Biden will only further retreat from his initial support of Israel and increase his pursuit of diplomacy with the regime in Tehran, following the misguided belief that if he appeases Iran, attacks on commercial shipping will end, American troops will no longer be targeted, and if the war in Gaza does not end, at least it will be contained. 

Ultimately, while diplomacy should always be the first – and second – option before military strikes, unless the administration is clear eyed about Iran’s efforts, and is equally clear that further strikes by Iran or its proxy forces will invite a devastating response from the U.S., Iran will have no reason to cease their targeting of American forces, attacks on Israel and Ukraine, or its support of terrorism around the world. 

Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.

Your editorial of March 26 decrying the constant judicial delays in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev capital punishment case, in which he was sentenced to death and is still kicking around, very much alive, in a federal supermax prison, is completely understandable. After all, the foul and cowardly deed was done in 2013, more than a decade ago.

However, when dealing with capital punishment, and with all of the horrendous crimes for which defendants are sentenced to death, cooler heads should prevail. There is a systemic problem with the death penalty. Our criminal justice system is flawed, along with all human institutions. Errors are made. While it is true that the Boston Marathon bombing has resulted in one of the most clearly accurate and well-deserved convictions in recent memory, the problem is systemic: If capital punishment is inflicted, it is virtually certain that an innocent person will eventually be executed. The National Innocence Project has uncovered many cases of unfairness or even unlawfulness is capital cases, and recently even discovered the case of an innocent man who was executed. I was not surprised, as it was inevitable.

Harvey A. Silverglate

Cambridge

Right to shelter

Our governor and legislators are placing blame on the federal government. There is plenty of blame to go around, but they need to look themselves in the mirror and realize a good portion of the Massachusetts immigration issues are caused or exacerbated by their own actions, or lack of action.

They won’t change or clarify the Right to Shelter Law (which was originally put in place for homeless Massachusetts citizens) and have not even thought about creating Massachusetts’ own laws to limit immigration to legal immigration. Meaning laws like we used to have when people waited their turn to come here legally, prepared to work and had a clear path to citizenship.

Instead, they offer migrants free housing, free medical, driver’s licenses, breaks on education and then they limit the information our RMV can give out to law enforcement!

Now our taxes will be going up to support a situation which by no measure is sustainable. Costing this state alone almost $1B a year! They are bankrupting our state. If they are worried people have been leaving, just wait…

Right now,  more migrants are coming into this country every four days than we have citizens in most towns. No other country would allow this.

Where is the common sense?

I do not blame the immigrants — why wouldn’t they come?? Anyone in their situation would. I do blame our state AND federal government for allowing our borders to be overrun, for the increase in crime in our cities, towns and schools and for the undermining of our police and justice systems.

Stop the blame game and use the laws we have or change them as needed to get control of our state back before it is too lat. Then collaborate with other states to force the federal government to close our borders and bring back the immigration laws that worked.

Joan Gonfrade

Ashland

And indeed it was traditional, in the Kennedy meaning of the phrase, which is to say rape accusations, cruelty and epic drunkenness, not to mention entitlement and depravity of the sort that characterized the entire squalid life of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

But before recounting Ted Kennedy’s lost Easter weekend, consider that his fondest dream, our worst nightmare, is finally on the verge of being realized.

I refer, of course, to the fundamental transformation of America into a Third World hellhole.

Indeed, here in Fat Boy’s home state, it’s probably already too late to turn it around. There are too many illegals, too many flophouses, too many working-class Americans fleeing in horror and disgust at what the Democrats have wrought.

Until 1965, the U.S. was a relatively tranquil, First World nation where almost everyone worked and spoke the same language. Everything was under control.

Then Ted Kennedy sponsored something called the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, and nothing has ever been the same since.

Here is what Teddy said about his sinister scheme to import millions of foreign freeloaders into the U.S.

“Our cities,” he lied, “will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.”

No, it’s more like five million.

“The ethnic mix of this country will not be upset,” he continued lying about his bill. “It will not relax the standards of admission.”

The Lyin’, er, Lion of the Senate then said that the immigrants would not be coming from “the most deprived areas of Asia and Africa.”

Are you sure about that, Senator?

Too bad he can’t ask his old constituents who live near the Holiday Inn in Marlborough, or the Comfort Inn in Rockland, or the Clarion Hotel in Taunton or…

This accelerating catastrophe is not all on Ted Kennedy, but it started with his insane 1965 immigration bill.

At this point, can we stipulate that Easter Sunday is supposed to be not just a holiday, but also a holy day? But not so much for the Kennedys, apparently.

As you may recall, his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, was charged with raping a young single mother at the family’s North End mansion in the early-morning hours of Easter Saturday 1991.

Ted et al. had spent Good Friday tying one on, all day long. It all came out in the pre-trial depositions of the help at the mansion.

Before noon, the senior senator enjoyed a few daiquiris, then switched to wine with lunch. Mid-afternoon it was back to booze — Scotch, perhaps? Before dinner, more daiquiris, followed by “three or four” more bottles of wine at dinner.

One of the staff was asked under oath to describe Teddy’s demeanor at dinner.

“Very talkative,” she said.

Ted himself was asked later if he continued drinking after dinner.

“I may have,” he said. “I don’t have a clear recollection.”

It was, after all, a traditional Easter weekend for the Kennedys.

He then awakened his nephew, Willie Smith, and his son Patches, the 24-year-old state rep, who were already sleeping it off.

They drove into town to Au Bar, where Ted switched back to Chivas on the rocks. They picked up some young women and headed back to the mansion, where the alleged rape took place.

Ted’s crapulous demeanor after 20+ drinks was later described by the woman Patches had hit on. His date was alternately described as an “heiress” or a “waitress,” depending on your tabloid of choice.

“He was kinda wobbling,” she said. “Ted had a really weird look on his face. He was just there, without pants. I freaked out. I said, ‘I gotta go. This is getting really weird.’”

Easter Weekend with the Kennedys.

By Easter Sunday it was clear Willie was going to be charged with something. Ted and his son Patches, not long out of rehab for his cocaine addiction, headed off to the High Mass at St. Edward.

But it was packed, SRO, so father and son had a better idea. Continuing their weekend-long bat, they stumbled around the corner to a popular gin mill on Royal Poinciana.

On the holiest day on the Christian calendar, they began running their bar tab at 10:48 a.m. Hey, it was afternoon somewhere. Their credit-card charges were later introduced as evidence at their kinsman’s rape trial in West Palm.

Ted started with a little hair of the dog — a bullshot, vodka and beef consommé, with a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Then he switched to screwdrivers — everybody needs their Vitamin C, after all.

Patches, the recovering addict, opted for a Long Island iced tea. Under oath the bartender recalled those ingredients — “vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, sour mix and a splash of Coke.”

Another customer overheard snatches of the Kennedys’ conversation:

“Well, she’s going to say it was rape…”

Ted paid the bill at 11:40 and he and Patches headed back to the mansion, where they had lamb and… champagne. Another family tradition. The local cops came by later and asked where Willie and the senator was. The help lied and said they’d already fled.

Then the Kennedys had dinner.

“That was the night they opened some champagne,” the staffer recalled. “And it was a little celebration because it was Easter and —”

No member of the family had been accused of raping anybody for almost 36 hours.

After the traditional Easter weekend, Willie was arrested and suddenly jokes about America’s First Family were acceptable in state-run media. David Letterman ran Top 10 lists about what was Overheard at Kennedy Family Weekends.

“Has anyone seen Uncle Ted’s pants?”

“Hooray — here comes the Chivas truck!”

Ted finally addressed the scandal six weeks later, at an outdoor press conference at MIT. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen someone walk into an open-air foyer and suddenly the great outdoors reeked of booze. He needed a haircut and his suit was about three sizes too small.

Fat Boy began screaming:

“I WAS NOT TOLD EVER, EVER WAS TOLD —” hands shaking, he calmed down as he continued, “—that the Palm Beach Police wanted to speak to me about an alleged incident of Willie Smith raping some girl —”

Some girl.

In the end, Willie was acquitted. Ted went right on being Ted to the very end. But he’s been sober now almost 15 years — he died in August 2009.

On this Easter Sunday, consider Ted Kennedy and what he’s done to all of us Americans who work for a living, on behalf of the “migrants.”

Teddy never worked a day in his worthless life, and now most of the new undocumented Democrats he’s responsible for allowing in determined to follow in his footsteps.

Professional courtesy, I guess you could call Ted’s dream.

Order Howie’s books, “Kennedy Babylon: Vols. 1 and 2,” at howiecarrshow.com.

This is the Wutopia that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu wants, her vision to transform the city.

Mayors like Kevin White, Ray Flynn and Tom Menino helped build Boston, and she could be presiding over its dismantling.

Wu is overseeing a commercial decline unlike any the city has seen in recent memory, with over a billion dollar hole in the budget due to declining tax revenues. And bike lanes don’t generate revenue.

Her response? Shut out the business community and titans of industry and raise taxes.

The ultra-progressive circle of advisers she’s surrounded herself with figures Wu won the mayor’s office without business leaders’ help, so why reach out to them now?

Her proposal to raise the commercial tax rate beyond the current limit was met with stiff opposition by business leaders and could get a chilly reception on Beacon Hill, but so what?

Between the commercial tax hike and new restrictions on fossil fuels, it’s making it difficult for major new development.

Wu is spinning the proposed tax hike as a tax cut for residents, arguing the late Mayor Tom Menino did the same thing when he was in charge.

She talks about “re-imagining” the city, jacks up greens fees at the city’s two historic golf courses so they’re less affordable for average residents, and shells out grants only to her various progressive causes.

The attempt to compare Wu’s tax hikes with Menino’s is not valid, critics argue, because the city’s empty downtown has never seen the decline it faces now.

And though Menino was criticized for his heavy-handed tactics, he was always accessible to most business leaders.

Business leaders say Wu is taking the city down a dangerous path toward self-destruction the way some other cities have imploded.

“This is a time unlike any other in the last 30 years, and piling more financial burdens on a struggling industry is no solution at all,” Greg Vasi, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board said. “We are deeply concerned that increasing commercial tax rates to recoup lost revenue will only take us closer to the urban doom loop being seen in many other American cities.”

And if the economy starts to go south, it’s only a matter of time before it affects Boston’s great institutions like hospitals and universities.

Wu’s plan to re-imagine Boston comes as she’s scored a string of policy and political victories.

A year and a half before the next Boston mayoral election, there are no challengers and serious questions about who would be foolhardy enough to take on the job.

Despite the heavy scrutiny Wu has been under in her first term, no one from the right has stepped forward to become a voice of the opposition.

Is she unbeatable? Will she just glide into another term – if she even runs again?

With all the criticism the progressive darling Wu gets, she still has a huge swath of support in liberal neighborhoods throughout the city.

She’s made some major missteps, like trying to move the O’Bryant School from Roxbury to white West Roxbury, and holding a segregated Christmas party, but there’s no indication those mistakes are big enough to stop her re-election chances.

The question is what will Boston look like when she leaves?

Donald Trump should challenge Joe Biden to a round of golf instead, eighteen holes, head-to-head, match play, mano a mano, winner take all — or almost all.

There would still be an election, of course. But surely the winner of the golfing tournament, called the Presidential Save Democracy Open, would surely have an edge going down the stretch or fairway.

Or it could be called the Geezer Golf Open since Trump is 77 and Biden is 81.

Either way, the idea of the two elderly golfing presidents facing off against each other surfaced after Biden mocked Trump for bragging about winning two club championships at the International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, which Trump happens to own.

“I won both,” Trump trumpeted.

Biden snidely commented, “Congratulations, Donald. Quite the accomplishment.”

This led golfing critics to sarcastically ask, “If you can’t win playing at a golf club you own, where can you win?

What was left out of the story was that critics said that Trump won those club trophies playing by himself.

Trump, who plays golf all the time at one of the golf clubs he owns, is no duffer, though.

“Duffer,” a derogatory golf label, is a name he would reserve for Biden — like “Sleepy Joe” and “Crooked Joe.” Now Trump would call him “Duffer Joe.”

Besides, Biden does not play nearly enough golf as Trump, except when Hunter Biden needs him to fill out a foursome of business partners with no one around to shout “fore.”

Of course, there would have to be certain rules agreed upon, like the site of the match, before the event could be held.

The pair could play at the neutral and iconic Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., where the Master’s Tournament is played annually.

Trump would be safe there since it is outside of Fulton County, where troubled District Attorney Fani Willis is trying to prosecute him on election interference charges.

However, given Willis’ bizarre testimony and unusual prosecutorial behavior, it is more likely that she will be standing trial before Trump does.

Another rule concerns the use of golf carts and who drives them. While professional golfers and their caddies walk the course, you cannot expect Trump and Biden to follow suit. Biden can barely make it to his helicopter.

The course, after all, hitting from the back tees is 7,475 yards or 4.25 miles long. It is shorter hitting from the ladies tees.

And while the older Biden could request to hit from the ladies’ tees, it is something that Trump would never agree with, let alone hit from them himself, despite risking the women’s vote. It is a macho thing.

Also, you cannot expect that Trump and Biden would agree to ride in the same golf cart, squabbling over who would do the driving. So, they would need separate carts, not only for themselves, but for the horde of Secret Service agents dressed as golfers who would provide security and fetch lost balls from the woods.

Since critics have accused both of cheating at the game, monitors would be on the lookout for “foot shots.” That is when a golfer uses his foot instead of a club to get the golf ball out of the rough and onto the fairway.

Golfing and political lore have it that it was the favorite shot of presidential golfers Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and no one dared call them out.

While Biden may appear to be at a disadvantage, it would be mistaken to sell him short. Golf is a mental as well as a physical game, and a golfer’s mental state and psychological outlook are as important as his putter.

All Biden has to do to rattle Trump is to show up at Augusta in his Whitey Bulger look-alike outfit.

The outfit has Biden decked out in an eerie-looking imitation of the late South Boston psychopath and killer Whitey Bulger, complete with a bomber jacket, aviator sunglasses, slicked hair, and menacing s look. Check the photos,

That would scare the bejesus out of anybody.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

The first time someone asked my pronouns, I wanted to respond, “What and why?” I became aware there were far more pronouns than I learned in English class.

I saw a man in a skirt one day, and after he held the door for me, I reflexively said, “Thank you, sir.” Then I wondered if I had just offended the person.

I’ve known parents who describe their children as nonbinary, yet I thought all children were either boys or girls. And I could never keep up with the ever-changing string of letters after LGBTQ. What in the world is LGBTQIA2S+?  — It meant lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or gender expansive, queer and/or questioning, intersex, asexual and two-spirit. What?

Like Rip Van Winkle, I had slept through a revolution and awakened to a new world of gender identities and sexual orientations. They were always there, of course, but until recently, people weren’t as free to express themselves.

While I had heard about gender-related controversies, I didn’t pay attention, because they didn’t relate to me — puberty blockers, gendered bathroom debates, who could play on which sports teams, whether same-sex parents could serve on the school board, banning books with characters in nontraditional gender roles or threatening doctors and hospitals for performing gender-affirming care.

These new issues had little connection to what I had learned in school and church, where the choices were binary, right, and wrong. We didn’t allow same-sex marriage or the ordination of gay clergy. We asked questions such as, “Can you christen or baptize a child with same-sex parents, or would that be condoning the parents’ activity? What roles can gay members play or not play in the church?”

Discussions I’ve had with evangelical Christians on this topic include one man who said that his pastor, who led a church of more than 200 congregants, had boasted that he didn’t know any gay or lesbian people. The person responded, “What does that say about you?” A woman shared that her best friend, who she’d grown up with in the church, had come out as a lesbian but still believed the same Christian doctrines.

Cornel West has highlighted the hypocrisy of Black churches which often preach against being gay while overlooking their gay choir director or minister of music.

I still didn’t “get it” until I saw a video about a group of white, evangelical, lesbian and gay Christians. They testified about accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and said they still believed the Bible was the Word of God. When I heard their stories, along with the pain in their voices as they pleaded to be accepted, I thought, “Who am I to judge another person’s faith and Christian testimony?”

I went to hear a Black queer pastor preach at a traditional Black church. expecting to experience something different than a typical Black church service. But there was no difference. Same gospel hymns, same Biblical sermon.

But many conservative Christians just can’t get there.

In one study, Christian parents who learned that their children were gay described feelings of loss as well as shock, shame, anger, fear, and concern. They also experienced strained relationships with their children. One parent’s initial response was to ask why her daughter would make “that kind of choice” and “want to be like that.”

Many Christians have chosen the nurture side in the nature-versus-nurture debate because they believe that it’s what the Bible teaches. This leads to problems when their children come out as gay, transgender, or any other nontraditional identity. Parents of such children can’t help but think it has something to do with them, thinking it’s their fault, or their child’s way of rebelling against their teaching, or an effort by their child to make their lives miserable. Parents, it has nothing to do with you.

A Christian family had two sons who became priests. One a Catholic, and the other Episcopal because the Episcopal church allowed the ordination of gay men. The parents should be happy that both sons were committed to serving God.

In 2020, a study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute found that almost half of LGBTQ adults in the United States considered themselves religious, with 27% saying they were moderately religious and 20% claiming to be highly religious.

The church ought to be the leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Hate crimes are up against those in the LBGQT+ community (increasing more than 19% in 2022 over 2021, according to the FBI), often at the hands of Christian groups. How is that an expression of God’s love? A 2020 Southern Poverty Law Center report noted that most of the growth in new anti-LGBTQ hate groups comes from grassroots churches.

Do I long for the days when people were either male or female or straight or gay? No. I can’t imagine not being able to be all God made me to be or having to hide who I truly am. I am more than willing to go through a learning curve and some confusion so that others can be their authentic selves.

My worship experience wouldn’t be diminished if those who are not straight males or females were granted admittance, but my experience of heaven would certainly be diminished if they were excluded. I would know that people who wanted and deserved to be there were missing because of how God created them.

I am fortunate to be a member of two congregations, Temple Beth Elohim and Reservoir Church, that accept everyone. At Reservoir Church their theme is “Everyone is welcome, without exception, to discover the love of God, the joy of living, and the gift of community.” Awakening can be a little disorienting at first, but it’s better than remaining asleep to the changes taking place all around us.

Ed Gaskin is Executive Director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.

Major retailers such as Target and Walmart have replaced many checkout lanes with self-checkout kiosks. With customers doing most of the work, the company saves money. One employee can watch over four to six self-checkouts.

As The Street recently reported, this has created its own set of problems. It’s easier for people to leave the store without paying for items. In the hustle-and-bustle, shoppers can “overlook” paying for an expensive item. As a result, Dollar General has gotten rid of this option in some locations. Target is limiting how many items you can scan in self-checkout lanes. Walmart is limiting some checkout lanes to members of its Walmart+ program.

Problems with self-checkout aren’t the only issue Target and Walmart have in common. In recent years, both released high-profile announcements touting increases to starting worker pay.

“Target raising its starting wage to $15 an hour,” The Washington Post reported in June 2020. In 2022, Target raised “its minimum wage to as much as $24 an hour” based on location, NPR noted. In 2021, Walmart boosted pay for the average worker to $15 an hour in 2021, according to the New York Post.

As labor costs rise, self-checkout becomes a more attractive option. If a store loses $30 an hour from theft, but saves $60 an hour in labor costs, that’s a net financial win. In addition, companies likely believe they’ll be able to take other steps to prevent shrinkage. But once those checkout jobs are gone, they’re unlikely to return. If that is a result of a labor shortage driving up wages, it’s less of a concern. There are unintended consequences if it results from a government mandate.

This should be a warning sign to activists in the “Fight for $15” campaign. They have indeed seen many successes. But higher minimum wages haven’t cured poverty, so they now push for even higher stricter mandates. On its website, the campaign celebrates California passing a $20 an hour minimum wage for fast-food workers. Author Rick Wartzman, part of the 2003 Pulitzer-prize-winning Los Angeles Times team that investigated Walmart, wants a $20 an hour federal minimum wage. Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee from California called for a $50 an hour minimum wage while running for U.S. Senate.

Be careful what you wish for. California fast-food restaurants are already cutting hours and raising prices. And the experience of Target and Walmart show that higher labor costs make automation ever more affordable and desirable. Robots still work for $0 an hour.

Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service

Which wasn’t surprising — the president genuinely loves his car. And why not? It’s a thing of beauty and, for its time, was a splendid feat of engineering.

A paradox of the Biden’s administration is that the old-school car enthusiast is — in the name of saving the planet — waging a war on the internal-combustion-engine cars that he so admires and that have helped define American life over the last 100 years.

The internal-combustion-engine automobile ranks as one of the modern world’s most transformative innovations. Prior to the advent of trains, travel by land was an absolute misery, even for the wealthy and privileged. Then, the car, in effect, took the train and put it in the hands of individuals.

It was a revolutionary leap ahead for personal freedom and mobility. It changed where we live (catalyzing the growth of the suburbs) and how we work (making it easier to commute). It obviously made it possible to go more places and gave rise to new types of businesses catering to a newly foot-loose population, including motels and fast-food restaurants.

The Biden administration’s push to get people into electric vehicles is running directly into the chief advantage of internal-combustion-engine cars, which is the sheer convenience.

One area of resistance to electric vehicles is “range anxiety,” or the fear that an electric vehicle will run out of its charge. That’s often exaggerated; electric cars have acquired more range now, and most people aren’t driving 300 miles in a single trip. Nevertheless, there are reasonable concerns about the ability to find a charging station and how long it will take to recharge compared to filling up at a gas station.

Gas stations already exist (about 145,000 of them with a million gas pumps), and no one had to subsidize their creation. Making charging stations available on a comparable scale will present formidable obstacles. As Mark Mills of the National Center for Energy Analytics points out in a paper on electric cars, transporting the large amounts of energy at the necessary scale using electric energy via wires and transformers is much more expensive than doing it with oil via pipelines and tanks. Equipping stations with the super-chargers necessary to make charging somewhat rapid — but still slower than gassing up — will require “a grid power demand comparable to a small town or steel mill.”

This isn’t to say electric cars aren’t attractive to some consumers, especially those with their own garages for overnight charging and with the resources to spend on a fun, interesting second or third car.

An all-electric-car future is very far off, though, and internal-combustion-engine automobiles aren’t embarrassing artifacts of the past. Their cost, convenience, reliability and size make them hugely appealing.

Joe Biden’s corvette is now an antique, but the basic technology is as important, and as incredibly user-friendly, as ever.

Rich Lowry is editor in chief of the National Review

I say that only to establish my credentials to comment on the accelerating collapse of Boston NPR – National Panhandler Radio.

A couple of days ago, it was WBUR announcing buyouts, which are inevitably followed by layoffs.

Now it’s WGBH declaring that it too is facing “headwinds,” and here are two facts that illustrate just how dire their financial jeopardy is.

WGBH has 850 employees – 850!

Jim Braude, the “executive editor” and talk-show host, made $470,855 in 2021.

And Braude was only the fifth highest-paid employee at the station that year.

What’s happening at the local whine-and-cheese outlets was described perfectly in one of Ernest Hemingway’s early novels:

“How did you go bankrupt?”

“Two ways,” Hemingway’s hero replied. “Gradually, then suddenly.”

WBUR and WGBH appear to be entering phase two.

Panhandler radio is now confronting the same problems as the rest of mass media – it’s not nearly as “mass” as it used to be.

The reality is, the old WGBH business model of tote bags and umbrellas is no longer viable. You don’t need to pledge $39 a month to get your daily dose of Democrat agitprop, delivered by pampered twits with posh British accents.

The downfall of NPR is being portrayed as a tragedy, and it is – at least for Gov. Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu.

Where will they now go for their slobbering monthly softball interviews if the 74-year-old half-million-dollar man and his about-to-turn-70 sob-sister sidekick have to finally dodder off to NPR’s version of Marion Manor?

Like everyone else, WGBH and WBUR were caught flatfooted by the new technology, but WGBH even more so, I believe.

They had Channel 2, with Ken Burns and all the rest of those paralyzing snore-mongers.

They also figured, hey, we got the kids’ stuff — Sesame Street and Arthur. People will always love us. First cable wrecked that monopoly, and since then the internet has decimated cable.

YouTube is where it’s at now. Just ask Ms. Rachel.

Over the last five years or so, what has WGBH done to adjust to the new reality?

They dropped the “W” from WGBH, so it’s now “GBH.” And er, that’s about it.

Once upon a time, both radio stations provided services you couldn’t get in most of the United States – good jazz and classical music programming. Hell, Boston even had a commercial classical music station.

Those may be niche formats, but some of us liked having a jazz alternative – Tony Cennamo on WBUR, for one, as well as Eric Jackson on WGBH, which also had a weekend blues show. All those quirky public-radio shows, and so many more, faded away – gradually, then suddenly.

Both stations morphed into 21st century versions of the old Radio Moscow, only instead of venerating Uncle Joe Stalin, they worship Uncle Joe Biden.

It worked, for a while, until it didn’t. Now, who needs ‘em? You can get your Democrat agitprop anywhere – MSNBC, CNN, any of the alphabet networks. And now George Soros is buying bust-out commercial radio stations like WEEI. It’s a fire sale out there.

The same problems are faced by the unreadable, news-free alt-left newspapers.

If you subscribe to the New York Times, why do you need The Washington Post? It’s the same damn crap, in every last one of them. They don’t even cover local news anymore.

State-run media are hemorrhaging money, across the board. The WaPo lost $100 million last year. The list of failed media ventures just this year is too lengthy to list.

Cable TV is circling the drain as well – the only thing keeping MSDNC out of NPR’s dire straits is the fact that millions of aging cable subscribers haven’t yet figured out how to cut the cord and still keep their Internet service from Comcast.

It’s weird, isn’t it, how all these Democrat operatives with press passes who’ve been telling us how marvelously well Bidenomics is working are now getting laid off… by the thousands.

As for my back story, I worked briefly for Channel 2, when they had something called The Ten O’Clock News. I was on, I think, once a week, with a 2-3 minute taped package. I chased hacks around the State House, mainly, just like I’d done on the commercial TV channels.

Channel 2 was my first experience at a “non-profit.”

It was a total departure from life at Channel 7. Getting whacked at Channel 7 was like a mob hit – two in the hat, then your body was dumped in the trunk of a rented car and left in the long-term parking lot at Logan.

At Channel 2, when an intern left, after six weeks, the Beautiful People would throw a giant farewell party – catered food from Joyce Chen, top-shelf booze, party favors etc.

Everything on the arm.

Anyway, when I started appearing on Channel 2, every trust-funded pampered puke at the Globe went crazy. After all, it was their television station.

Finally one of the bow-tied bum kissers wrote a column suggesting that WGBH patrons begin a boycott until my blasphemous presence was banished from the hallowed halls of Channel 2.

He only recommended withholding a quarter or so, until I was fired, but WGBH got the message.

I was gone within a week.

So much for their vaunted journalistic independence. A couple of years later, the newscast decided to investigate the Bulger crime family. That lasted right up until the moment WGBH had to go to the State House to renew its annual one-day liquor license for the big soiree that brought in even more cash than the umbrellas and the tote bags.

That liquor license had to be approved by the legislature. Guess who was the president of the state Senate?

Goodbye, 10 O’Clock News.

All these years later, what can do WGBH and WBUR do now? It’s too late to go back to jazz or classical. Streaming ended that option long ago.

Maybe they could sell out to the snake-chuckers, as we called them — the Christian broadcasters. EMF bought a failed Boston “alt-rock” station, maybe they could use a couple more worthless local pinko outlets.

Or perhaps the two dying NPR signals could merge, the way they used to do with fading morning and evening newspapers.

Would Soros be interested in two more acquisitions? Combine and then move them to the WEEI stick – another famous-long-ago station now running on fumes.

By the way, when I left corporate radio a decade ago, a local show on Channel 2 predicted that my career was over. That ridiculous show has long since been canceled, unlike me.

Now the stations themselves are reeling. I’m still hanging in there, relishing the schadenfreude of the decline and fall of National Panhandler Radio.

It is not enough to succeed, as they say. Others must fail.

But as Boston’s swath of unoccupied commercial buildings pose an ominous tax revenue shortfall of $1 billion, Mayor Michelle Wu is grabbing a shovel.

As the Herald reported, Wu rolled out an “emergency law” to allow Boston to begin increasing property taxes on businesses beyond the state limit next year.

The mayor’s home rule petition, if approved by the City Council and state lawmakers, would provide a statewide option allowing municipalities to shift more of the tax burden from residents to businesses, exceeding the state cap of 175% up to 200% in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.

Wu cited the city budget’s heavy reliance on property taxes, which contribute three-quarters of annual revenue, most of which comes from commercial property.

There is a large downside, however. When tax rates are raised on commercial properties, “that further depresses the value of those properties which are already in distress,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said Tuesday.

“So over the long term, with approximate values going down, we actually collect less in future property taxes as well,” Horowitz said.

The domino effect would continue. As the state’s website notes in an explanation of Property Assessments, Valuation, & Taxation in Commercial Real Estate, “A tax shift has been moving from residential to commercial/industrial properties. These taxes are passed through to the tenants and can make one town more expensive to operate a business vs. another town. Can place a commercial building at a disadvantage in certain towns.”

Why would a company lease office space in Boston with the specter of higher rents on the horizon because of tax increases? With an added speed bump to attracting lessees, building owners face continued loss of income, while still having to maintain and repair their property.

Consider too the retail stores and other operations that are part of mixed-use office and retail space. A location with a lot of foot traffic is great, but if the rent’s too damn high, it’s a wash.

Wu’s move does nothing to bring office buildings in Boston back to full strength, nor does it create an environment in which businesses flock to the city to set up shop.

The mayor is trying to protect residents from higher taxes, which is laudable. But the revenue stream should not be limited to commercial and residential properties.

There is also the potential cash cow of tax-exempt properties, so designated because they’re characterized as nonprofit charitable organizations. On the heels of reports that costs at Wellesley College, Boston University, Tufts and Yale will hit $90,000 per year this fall, it’s hard to get on board with letting them skip property taxes.

The Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, in which such entities volunteer payments to the city, is being revisited by the City Council, as it should. Boston can’t afford to give some property owners a free pass.

Nor can it afford the economic consequences of upping the tax burden on commercial properties still struggling to come back from the pandemic.

The city needs to unearth a better solution.

History is proof (according to Roper for Public Opinion Research). It tells us that since 2000, Black women have given Republicans approximately 8% of their vote – with a high of 12% and a low of 4%. Former President Barack Obama averaged 94%. Democrats such as Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and President Joe Biden together also averaged around 90%. Trump hit the highest mark for a Republican – 12% in the last election.

But, with the white women vote nearly evenly split, one could argue that the Black women vote could decide the upcoming presidential election. Even if they stay home on Election Day, Biden loses.

In politics those who object to this standard of Democrat support risk being ostracized. Their political ambitions would be thwarted.

If you are a Democratic elected official that spouts racist remarks, then you are tolerated by this base. Want examples?

A Democratic sitting congresswoman’s campaign referred to her Black male Republican challenger as “Curious George,” a reference to the monkey in a children’s book. The challenger’s name was also George, but he was not a monkey. She, a Black woman, won her re-election, narrowly.

Recently, a sitting white Democratic congressman seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate referred to a political adversary who happened to be a Black man as a “jigaboo.” Yes, that is a racist term comparable to the “N-word.” And the white politician does not feel he should be judged poorly by Black people either, especially Black women. The wannabe U.S. Senator voiced his comments at a Congressional Committee meeting in a manner that would convince anyone listening that he has used the term and worse words before to describe Black people.

In both instances, if a Republican member of Congress sunk to such levels, they would be forced to resign or the voters would “retire” them.

I cannot explain why such a high percentage of Black women vote Democrat. Only the abortion issue comes to mind. Maybe that is why Democrats are attempting to make the abortion issue their top one this election cycle.

What is noteworthy is that Black women seem to accept racist comments and hurtful acts by Democrats constantly, even when it can hurt their own children.

As another example, let us examine a major issue like education. Black women seem “OK” with their children going to segregated schools. In many states, schools are more racially segregated today than when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were alive.

Sadly, those involved in the 1960s Civil Rights movement suffered and died to racially desegregate America, especially its schools. All the “big named” Civil Rights legends fought for “this right.” Future Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall advocated for “this right.” And the historic Brown vs. the Board of Education declared “this right.” Yet, for Black women it seems “OK” because prominent Democrats say so. They merely follow their leaders.

The Democrats’ accomplice in denying education freedom – school choice – is the de facto pro-segregation teachers’ union, the National Education Association being the largest and one of the most powerful in Washington, DC. The teacher’s union has fought for decades to deny Black women the right to choose the schools they see fit for their children to attend. Remarkably Black women seem to be “all right” with their children being stuck in poor performing or even failing schools.

During my time as a congressman, the teachers’ union used mandatory dues from their millions of members to help fuel their de facto pro-segregation practices. I and other Republicans have fought for decades for school choice, magnet schools, charter schools and any other programs that would give parents options.

The teachers’ union gives nearly every dollar of their millions in federal campaign contributions to Democratic candidates and incumbents including their best allies – Black elected officials.

I am baffled as to why Black women concede to having their children attend poor performing schools instead of demanding the financial support to exercise school choice.

Ironically, a quick check of where prominent Democratic elected officials – Black and white – have sent their children for elementary and secondary schools would show that Democratic leaders exercise their “school choice” rights. But, these same folks deny that same right to their constituents. For decades they have been blocking “school choice” for Black children.

There is no greater hypocrisy in modern day politics, and it is aided and abetted by the liberal media. If Republicans were “blocking” Black children from going to white schools, they would be called racists.

This is reminiscent of the 1960s racial segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s efforts. He literally stood in front of the entrance of the University of Alabama to “block” Black people from entering the white university.

There is truly no logic to this hateful comparison.

Maybe, just maybe, this could be the year that Black men give Republicans an unprecedented (at least in recent decades) lift in elections. They realize that repeatedly hitting their heads against the wall while expecting a different result makes absolutely no sense.

But, let us not forget Biden’s infamous claim in an interview with Charlamagne tha God. Biden said: “If you, as a Black man, have to think about who you are going to vote for, you ain’t Black.” (Thank you, Mr. Biden, for in one sentence setting back race relations for a generation. In a Democracy, we should not encourage or reinforce monolithic tendencies in a group per politics.)

Democrats realize that they cannot win presidential elections without nearly every possible Black vote. And for Black women, if you are a Democratic elected official, you can do no wrong.

Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New England’s first Black member of the House. Host: podcast “We Speak Frankly.” @GaryFranks/Tribune News Service

It’s hard to overstate the bridge’s importance, particularly for the automobile industry. In addition to handling 11 million vehicles per year, it provided a vital way for trucks to access the Port of Baltimore while avoiding the dense city core. The impact on the region will be felt for months, if not years.

The question is, what now?

President Joe Biden has said that the federal government would foot the entire bill for rebuilding the bridge and demanded that Congress make it happen.

While the collapse came as a surprise, nobody should be surprised that Biden’s immediate response was to call for more federal spending.
Since taking office, Biden has signed trillions of dollars of spending increases into law and imposed more than $700 billion of additional costs through administrative decisions.

This reckless approach to budgeting has whipped up inflation and driven the gross national debt to $34.6 trillion – about $265,000 for every household in the country.

Fortunately, it’s possible for Washington to help Maryland rebuild the bridge without driving the nation deeper into debt.

First, all officials must be clear that the cost of rebuilding should mostly or entirely fall on the owners and operators of the ship, even if the incident was purely accidental. While litigation on such an important matter could take time to resolve, taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for the cost of a privately caused disaster.

Second, there’s no need for Congress to authorize new funding to begin the process of clearing the channel and rebuilding the bridge. In 2021, Congress passed a five-year, $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, the largest portion of which is devoted to roads and bridges.

Rather than simply adding to the long-term debt, Congress has many options to repurpose funds from the 2021 bill, including:

Canceling the administration’s $3.1 billion grant to California’s wildly dysfunctional high-speed rail project.

Pulling forward highway and bridge funds from allocations for 2025 and 2026 so they are available for the project starting in 2024.

Then, if the federal or state government receive payment once litigation is settled, the proceeds could either be used to reduce the federal deficit or put back into infrastructure funds.

Congress and the administration can help reconstruction further by cutting burdensome red tape that adds delays and costs to federally funded projects.

These include mandates on labor, material procurement, shipping, port dredging, environmental reviews and even diversity and equity. Washington has a longstanding bad habit of responding to every piece of bad news by reaching for Uncle Sam’s credit card. However, with federal finances quickly approaching a point of no return, responsible governance means looking for prudent solutions.

David Ditch is a senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation’s Hermann Center for the Federal Budget/Tribune News Service

Any attempt to invoke the 14th Amendment would likely trigger an outcry from voters who backed Trump, plunging the country into political turmoil.

Leaders of the party in Congress of course are now denying they’ll use the emergency tactic – a sure sign they will do it if necessary.

“We’re not election deniers,” U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said. “This is about the ballot box. So this is about democracy, and the voters get to decide.”

Democrats will never admit they are considering the fail-safe tactic to circumvent the will of the voters, but you can be sure they will not rule out any means to disqualify the former president.

“I think that it’s divisive to raise it at this point,” Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said.

The key phrase there is “at this point.” Who knows how desperate Democrats will be if Trump wins the popular and Electoral College vote?

The Supreme Court ruling allowing Trump to stay on the ballot in Colorado and other states left it to Congress to enforce the insurrection clause.

It would take a two-thirds vote of the joint session of Congress to keep Trump out, which is why Democrats are so keen on winning as many House and Senate seats as possible this fall. With a strong majority of Congress in their pocket, Democrats may be emboldened to use the strategy to block Trump.

A lawyer from Colorado during arguments before the Supreme Court said if the court would not disqualify Trump then the question of his eligibility “could come back with a vengeance” – a reference to when Congress meets to certify the election.

Democrats could invoke their powers to refuse to certify Trump’s win based on the 14th Amendment, arguing that he led an insurrection on Jan. 6.

Section 3 of the Amendment bans current and former federal, state and military officials  who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country from holding office again.

It was that clause that triggered partisan Democrats in Colorado, Maine and other states to keep Trump off the primary ballot – an effort that failed because of the Supreme Court.

But party leaders in Congress don’t want to admit that Trump could beat Joe Biden, so for now they are dismissing disqualifying him post-election with a vote.

“Any creating expectations that there is an alternative to beating Trump at the ballot box, I think, is a source of false hope and potentially detracts from our very necessary efforts to beat him there,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told Roll Call.

But Democratic voters may feel differently if Trump wins, and look to Congress to hit the panic button and do whatever is necessary to keep the former president from serving another term.

A nation in which officials abuse the legal system is a nation less reliant on law and order than tricks and disorder, which is what we got when the Democrat Letitia James, attorney general of New York, sued Trump for fraud in misleading lenders about how much his assets were worth. The thing is that the banks absolutely knew what they were doing, did not lose a penny and in fact made millions in their loans to this cherished head of a rejuvenating New York City real estate empire and upswinging golf courses.

But none of that halted the attorney general’s legal case exalted by a weird, obviously prejudiced, jury-replacing judge who decided Trump owed the government  —  the government, not the banks  — $454 million in quickly paid cash and the right of government agents to temporarily manage his businesses in return for a supposed kind of financial cheating that never cheated anyone out of anything.

Well, the consequence looked like financial disarray, campaign crashes, a business future far less shining than Trump and his sons had anticipated, and quite likely ego damage except that an appeals court said nope. It reduced the cash payment to $175 million that Trump could easily pay while thus obtaining opportunities to wrestle again with James through appeal courts and maybe make her do the complaining this time out.

He has also just made a deal with his social media company apparently increasing his net worth to maybe $5.6 billion from less than half of that, although good days are not exactly here again. He goes to trial April 15 for supposedly disguising $130,000 in campaign money paid to a sex actress to keep her from doing what she does, talk about their years-old encounter.

Here is nothing new, of course.  At the very start of his own presidency, there was this alleged Russian collusion causing overreaching, confused bureaucrats to disrupt Trump administrative actions for two years despite the fact that nothing like that existed except in the Hillary Clinton campaign. We had two congressional impeachment efforts, including one meant to evict Trump from office when he no longer held office. This ultra-obvious Democratic farce was intended to misuse a constitutional clause saying that those who were evicted could also be prohibited from running again and that assumed congressional literacy.

It’s not that Trump is innocent of multiple and outrageous misdoings but that Democrats are determined to squash him even if it means hitting him with four trials and an absurd 91 felony indictments and thereby imprisoning democracy.

Tribune News Service

A swagger stick could help, perhaps. It gives the holder an immense sense of confidence and authority as British military officers of the past could attest. The 24-inch rattan swagger stick in the hands of British officers was a hallmark of the empire’s rule in India for 200 years.

It was also carried by World War II Army General George S. Patton. It went along with the two pistols he carried, one of which was a .357
magnum revolver with an ivory handle.

It was the swagger stick, along with his leadership qualities, which
gave him stature. He was so fearsome whacking a stalled tank with his
swagger stick that the U.S. troops he commanded were in awe of him, let alone the German army.

But for Healey, wielding a swagger stick could give people the wrong impression.

So, she should go for the swagger without the stick.

Some people are naturally born with swagger, like Donald Trump, who has it in abundance. It is why progressives, who hate swagger, hate Trump.

Others must work to acquire it, while others never do, like Joe Biden, no matter how hard they try.

But swagger and the swagger stick are gone. Progressive have made swagger a crime.

Had Healey shown some swagger she would have told the Boston Globe to go pound sand when it whined about her not divulging a four-day personal trip to Puerto Rico on a weekend in February.

At first, Healey did show some spine when she said, “My personal life is my personal life.”

But Healey quickly folded after the paper beat her up. Any swagger she had disappeared.

And as though ‘fessing up to a crime, she revealed that she had gone to Puerto Rico with her partner Joanna Lydgate.  And she won’t do it again without telling the press — as if anybody cares.

Healey would have gained a respect had she whacked her desk with a swagger stick and stood up for her right to privacy, instead of simply caving in.

But that would have taken real swagger, which has all but been erased from Massachusetts politics.

The last Boston politician with swagger was the late Mayor Kevin White (1968-1984) and he didn’t need a stick. He just naturally swaggered around at City Hall or at the lavishly furnished Parkman House where he loved to hang out. Not for nothing did we call him the Mayor of America.

Charismatic Attorney General Frank Bellotti, (1975-1987), had swagger. Even the people he sent to prison were in awe of him.

Former Senate President William Bulger of South Boston had so much swagger that he ruled the Senate unchallenged for 18 years (1978-1996) as a king. He believed in one man rule a long as he was the one man.

Democrat Gov. Deval Patrick (2007-2015) had swagger but was shrewd enough to conceal it beneath a veil of charm and humility.  He could charm a dog off a meat wagon, as they used to say in the Swagger Era. He should have been Joe Biden’s 2020 running mate.

Swagger came so naturally to Republican Gov. Bill Weld (1991-1997) that people assumed he was born with it, which he probably was. He could share a “green guy” (a Heineken) with a reporter or dive fully clothed into the Charles River on a hot day and come up smiling.

Bring back swagger.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Shapiro was speaking of the time-honored practice of double-dipping, in which former public employees collect pensions while also receiving paychecks from current jobs, as State House News reported.

State law limits how much public retirees can work and earn from another public sector job, but those caps are “primarily enforced through a self-monitored honor system,” Shapiro’s office found.

Hefty paycheck double dipping is a bit of a tradition in Massachusetts, like the opening of the Swan Boats, or the delivery of Boston’s Christmas tree from Nova Scotia. The “self-monitored honor system” works well for those who indulge in the practice until they wind up on the pages of the Boston Herald.

In 2021, the Herald wrote of a state employee who pulled down $134,299 working two jobs — one for the MBTA and the other for MassDOT.

Payroll data from the Comptroller’s Office listed Carl Breneus of Boston as a “full-time” “repairer” at the MBTA  at $81,952 annual base pay. He also earned a paycheck at the Department of Transportation that year as a “full-time” janitor with a base pay listed at $52,347.

The Herald also reported that year on one John Hersey, who worked at both the MBTA and Denver’s transit agency during the height of the pandemic. He earned a combined salary of $220,000-plus, Rocky Mountain State officials confirmed.

“He was not authorized to engage in outside employment,” Pauletta Tonilas, assistant general manager at RTD Denver, said. “It’s discouraging. … We have a code of ethics and ask our employees to follow it.”

We have an honor system. And this is what we get.

These two cases are far from isolated, there have been many more such double dippers covered in the Herald for years. Many, many more.

“No single agency tracks post-retirement earnings of public retirees. Earnings cap calculations are complicated and individual to each retiree,” Shapiro wrote in a letter to Beacon Hill leaders alongside his office’s report. “Oversight is inconsistent, and in some cases, non-existent. Enforcement is reactive, mostly directed at the most egregious cases. Penalties for exceeding the earnings cap are minimal. This should not be the case for the Commonwealth’s retirement system, which is a billion-dollar enterprise.”

Should not, but is. And we applaud Shapiro’s calling out the laxness of earning limit oversight.

Shapiro’s report made recommendations to fix the problem, including having lawmakers create a financial penalty for retirees. It also called on the Legislature to bulk up enforcement of the existing limits, either by creating a new standalone agency or empowering the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission.

Good luck with that. This is the same Legislature that’s fighting tooth and nail to keep Auditor Diana DiZoglio from having a peek at the books. House Speaker Ron Mariano has been so successful at shutting DiZoglio out, he could work as a consultant to the Border Patrol.

A job here and employment elsewhere simultaneously – that’s how Bay State public employees make it (twice) in Massachusetts.

If you don’t believe William Shakespeare, just ask Charlie Baker and his hack pal Bennett Walsh.

They’re not even dead, and yet their evil lives on… and on… and on.

Yesterday, Bennett Walsh was in court in Northampton, pleading guilty to negligence in the deaths of 76 veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers Home when he was superintendent there during COVID back in 2020.

Seventy-six people dead, and Walsh gets no jail time. It’s great to be a Democrat, isn’t it?

Walsh was incompetent, but let’s face it, he was a fall guy. He was just doing what hacks do, looking for a no-heavy-lifting job for $122,000 a year, behind which comes the pension.

I blame this fiasco more on the failed Republican governor Dementia Joe called “Charlie Parker.”

Walsh is now disgraced, but the fool who put him in position to kill 76 veterans has not been inconvenienced in the least by the catastrophe he created.

In fact, Charlie Parker is now running the NCAA, into the ground, for a cool $3.5 million a year.

Talk about failing upwards.

We all understand that Charlie Parker had 1,950 reasons for appointing Bennett Walsh to the job he had zero qualifications for – and all of them had George Washington’s portrait engraved on them.

Before the nationwide search, Walsh handed Baker $950, as well as another $1,000 to Baker’s lieutenant governor, Karyn “Pay to Play” Polito.

But that’s just the cost of doing business in the hackerama. The more embarrassing problem for Baker is, he flat-out lied about his relationship with Walsh after all the veterans died.

In June 2020, Baker denied even knowing Walsh.

“I can tell you,” he said at a news conference, “that the first time I ever met him or talked to him was when we swore him in.”

Baker couldn’t deny that, because his office had released a photograph of Baker with Walsh taken in the Corner Office.

It’s part of the rogue’s gallery of reprobates Charlie was snapped with, among them jailbird ex-rep David Nangle (Bureau of Prisons #01227-509) and thieving ex-Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia (BOP #01205-138).

But Baker denied ever speaking to Walsh before the swearing-in, right up to the moment he was confronted with logs proving that he had indeed spoken with him, for about a half hour.

“I forgot,” Baker lied.

I wish I could forget… that Charlie Parker ever was ever the governor of Massachusetts.

But this is the hackerama, under both parties. Most of the payroll patriots who get jobs for whatever reason (contributions, DEI, blood relations, sleeping with the governor, etc.) don’t actually end up killing anyone.

But for some jobs, even in state government, you need to hire at least a semi-qualified candidate. Life and death jobs would fall under this category, or so it would seem.

Walsh comes from a hack Democrat family in Hampden County. His mother was on the Springfield School Committee. His uncle, William Bennett, was the longtime district attorney, succeeding a guy who used to pal around with local wise guys named Skyball and Big Nose and Baba.

Bennett retired in January 2011, and has since been collecting a kiss in the mail of $7,206 a month. But he took time out from his golden years to negotiate this wrist slap for his nephew.

At least since Bill Weld, the Republican playbook in Massachusetts has been to take care of old-line Democrat hack families in the big cities. In Boston it was the Connollys and the Flahertys, and later the McDermotts and the Goldens.

In Quincy, headquarters of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the Republicans winked as the Newport Avenue offices were stuffed full of Quincy and Braintree Democrat layabouts.

Of course that didn’t work out so well for those seven ex-Marines who were killed up in the New Hampshire by an alien who should have had his MA driver’s license pulled.

In the Holyoke disaster, Walsh wasn’t the only patsy for the Parker-Polito administration. They’d put in a veterans’ secretary named Francisco Urena – a Lawrence guy, outreach to a different group of Democrats, ethnically and geographically.

Urena got whacked too. But there was a big civil lawsuit coming up, so he got parked at Mass Development as “deputy director of military initiatives.” Took a $29,000 pay cut, but any port in a storm.

Once the lawsuit was settled – for $56 million – and Charlie was safely ensconced in Indianapolis, Urena was gone from the state payroll.

Last I heard he had a job at the airport in Lawrence, and his old boss at MassDev, rotund ex-Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera, is said to be nosing around for a new sinecure at UMass.

Hey, Rivera used to work, if that’s the proper word, for Marty Meehan when the $684,917-a-year UMass president was a Congressman. Rivera started with Marty, now he can maybe finish with him. One thing we know for sure, none of these people are ever going to get a real job.

As Thomas Jefferson said of the federal bureaucracy more than 200 years ago:

“Vacancies by death are few, by resignation never.”

And vacancies by firing come even less often than by resignation. Unless 76 people die on your watch.

And even then, you don’t go to jail. Meanwhile, the soldiers’ home on the other side of the state, in Chelsea, is now being repurposed as a flophouse for illegal aliens.

What could possibly go wrong?

It’s the hackerama.

(Order Howie’s new book, “Paper Boy: Read All About It!” at howiecarrshow.com or amazon.com.)

Gov. Maura Healey aimed to reassure Massachusetts residents Tuesday by declaring that bridges here are regularly inspected and “up to date.”

“I want to make sure that we are having a conversation to make sure that all of our protocols are where they need to be and that we are doing everything we can to assure the safety of our ports and our bridges,” the governor said on Boston Public Radio on WGBH.

Baltimore’s Key Bridge passed inspection in May 2022, but there was concern with one of its columns, CBS News reported.

Ben Schafer, professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told CBS News that most bridges in the U.S. fall in the “fair” range, as did the Key. But, he said, the massive ship – not the condition of the Key Bridge – is likely to blame for its collapse.

None of that is comforting.

Especially when our own Sagamore and Bourne bridges have been deemed structurally deficient and in need of replacement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The cost of replacing the 91-year-old spans? North of $4.5 billion, as the Herald reported.

It’s not like state leaders haven’t been trying raise the cash.

The state’s congressional delegation managed to crowbar $722 million out of the feds over the past four months, $350 million of which was signed into law this month by President Biden. The state has committed at least $700 million toward rebuilding the bridges.

The delegation reminded Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in  a recent letter that there is still an outstanding Bridge Investment Program grant application for $1.072 billion waiting on approval.

They could also remind the Biden administration that it is better to get ahead of a problem than it is to tell his people “to move heaven and earth” to respond to a disaster, as the president vowed Tuesday “to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible.”

Ships have hit the Sagamore and Bourne bridges. A cruise ship clipped the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge in 2016. Damage was limited to scraped paint, but as cruise ships get bigger and bigger, the likelihood of accidental contact is bound to increase.

The last thing anyone needs is for a cruise ship to “Storrow” in the Cape Cod Canal.

The Massachusetts delegation stressed the support it has given Biden in the past as a way to grease the skids for the $1B grant’s release. “We worked hard to pass President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to provide historic opportunities to fund critical infrastructure projects across the United States” they wrote.

But this is an election year, and Biden has a 20 point lead over Trump already in the Bay State. The lawmakers will deliver for Biden again, and he knows it. We don’t have the cudgel of an “uncommitted” bloc of voters to sway the president.

If the glacial pace of federal funding to assist Massachusetts with our migrant influx is any indication, help from D.C. will be coming on a very slow boat.