DAVID S. BERNSTEIN

Menino's mosque

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:26:34 GMT

The bizarre story behind the construction of Boston's most controversial building
Most locals concede that getting anything of substance accomplished in Boston is a Herculean task.

More on the Mosque:

>The PTech connection?
>Free pass on gay hatred?

Full coverage:
thephoenix.com/mosque

Most locals concede that getting anything of substance accomplished in Boston is a Herculean task. Residents have all but embraced the principle of civic inaction with a perverse kind of local pride. In the end, who you know is probably more important than what you are trying to do. And there is no doubt that little is accomplished without the approval and support of the mayor, Thomas M. Menino.

So it is with the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) near the intersection of Tremont Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Better known as the Roxbury mosque, the ISBCC has been in the works for more than 20 years. A few weeks ago it finally opened its doors for prayer — five years late, millions over budget, and still far from complete.

While the story of the building of the Roxbury mosque may not be worthy of a Hollywood epic, it does contain the stuff of a good television drama: community intrigue, religious conflict, media controversy, foreign money, suspicions of extremist ties, and once-cocksure public officials who have since retreated into a zone of silence.

Mayor Menino, in a fit of multicultural ecumenicalism, approved the sale of city-owned land to the mosque for the bargain basement — and still controversial — price of $175,000, plus the promise of in-kind services, including upkeep of nearby parks. The predictable uproar that arose in the wake of not only selling land well below market rates, but also selling it to a religious institution in contravention of the supposed separation of church and state, was supposed to be muffled by making the complex available for community use. But oops — that never happened.

The promised community facilities for non-congregant use still have not been built. An entire second phase of the project, meant to contain most of those functions, will not happen at all in the foreseeable future. The failure of the mosque project to conform to its original plans represents a broken promise between the mosque developers and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA).

The PTech connection?

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:11:50 GMT

Between late 2002 and early 2003, the now defunct Fleet Bank in Boston attracted the attention of federal anti-terrorist investigators.

Read more:
thephoenix.com/mosque

Between late 2002 and early 2003, the now defunct Fleet Bank in Boston attracted the attention of federal anti-terrorist investigators. The investigators were seeking to disrupt the flow of cash to Islamists suspected of plotting violence.

Over the course of three months, 20 Fleet Bank accounts were shut as part of that effort. One of those belonged to Aafia Siddiqui, a 1995 MIT graduate well-known among many in Greater Boston's Muslim community.

The Pakistan-born Siddiqui has since achieved international notoriety. Siddiqui was captured this summer in Afghanistan and was this week found mentally unfit for trial, where she faced a staggering array of charges. In plain language, those charges allege her to have been a kingpin of international terror finance. FBI Director Robert Mueller called Siddiqui an al-Qaeda operative. The CIA said her arrest was "the most significant capture in five years" of the war on terror.

Siddiqui's Boston ties, and the allegations that she was using Fleet Bank to finance and arm terrorists, made local headlines.

The identities of most of the other targeted Fleet customers remain unknown — except for reports that at least five of those accounts were held by employees of a small Boston-area software company called PTech. PTech itself was raided by federal authorities on suspicion of terrorist-funding ties in December 2002.

One PTech employee was very public about his allegations that federal investigators had shut down his and other PTech workers' accounts unfairly, and from purely anti-Arab motivations. He is Hassan Aljabri — now the president of the Roxbury mosque's board of directors.

Aljabri gave nearly $50,000 to the mosque between 2000 and 2002. He was one of several PTech employees who were actively involved with the mosque, including the company's CEO, who donated more than $10,000.

PTech's chief architect, Suheil Laher, is the long-serving Muslim chaplain at MIT. Although he holds no title with the Islamic Society of Boston or the Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS-Boston), Laher is active in both. He is also closely related by marriage to Anwar Kazmi, who has been the mosque's primary local fundraising coordinator, and Salma Kazmi, who until last year was the spokesperson and assistant director for the project.

Also working at PTech, as network administrator, was Saladin Ali-Salaam — son of Muhammad Ali-Salaam, the Boston Redevelopment Authority employee who played a key role in the mosque's development.

Timeline of events

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:57:41 GMT

How the ISBCC turned from a place of worship to a symbol of controversy

Free pass on gay hatred?

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:25:28 GMT

Turning a blind eye
Outside observers have been quick to criticize any signs of anti-Semitism connected to the new Roxbury mosque.

Read more:
thephoenix.com/mosque

Outside observers have been quick to criticize any signs of anti-Semitism connected to the new Roxbury mosque. But there has been little or no public comment about the virulent homophobia that can be found within the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) and the Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS-Boston) communities.

BU's Stephen Young surveyed 50 local ISB and MAS-Boston members for a just-published dissertation on the ISB. They were asked on a numerical scale how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the statement: "Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished." Rather than rejecting this extremist sentiment, the average response fell in the middle. The Arabs among those surveyed were most likely to agree.

"These things are settled in Islam," says Talal Eid, an imam in Quincy who is considered relatively moderate. "No Muslim group is going to say, 'We are going to teach that it is okay for people to be gay and lesbian.' That is not going to happen."

City Councilor Chuck Turner of Roxbury equates the Koranic defense of homophobia to the Biblical interpretations used by Southerners against blacks — "all that Noah and Ham bullshit, that was a thin veil to justify their racism."

Yet Turner and other local leaders strongly supportive of gay rights — including Mayor Thomas Menino and State Senator Dianne Wilkerson — have said little to condemn the astonishing bigotry that's being taught at the Cambridge ISB, and that might well be expected to find its way into the Roxbury mosque.

These pols further back away from criticizing even what they recognize as wrong. "What right do we have to say to a religion, 'Your practices are not appropriate,' " says Turner, adding that political dialogue is where gay rights should be addressed.

But just as Southern churches' "Noah and Ham bullshit" fueled the success of Jim Crow oppression, fundamentalist religions' sermons against homosexuality have underpinned the recent political juggernaut against gays and lesbians.

Perhaps people would speak up more were they aware of the extent of the gay hatred, examples of which can be found on Web sites like islamonline.net. That Web site is one ISB leaders most frequently point members to for advice on Islamic questions, according to Young and others — and it is full of extraordinary, almost obsessive, condemnation of homosexuality.

Rise of the political bogeyman

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:51:17 GMT

Impotent on the issues, the GOP turns to scare tactics. Be afraid!
The Republicans appear headed to a second straight national pummeling, which will leave it marginalized in the federal government and an increasing number of state houses. Many party faithful are already noting the need for the GOP to move back toward the moderate center to survive. But the conservatives with microphones are heading down a very different path — and their followers, who now dominate the Republican Party, are going right with them.

America's 25 scariest conservatives: Who will hold the most sway over the right-wing message machine in 2009, and beyond? By David S. Bernstein.

On his evening-drive radio talk show, WTKK-FM’s Jay Severin recently advised his listeners on how to deal with a Barack Obama presidency, which he increasingly considers inevitable. Severin’s prescription: use any means available to hinder the administration’s ability to operate. Stay on the attack, with any and all complaints and accusations and protests, to gum up the works and prevent Obama and the Democratic-led Congress from accomplishing anything on their “radical,” “socialist” agenda.

“Our job is to undermine him in every possible legal way . . . undermine and destroy his political ability to govern or to have any hope of a successful administration,” Severin expounded on his blog, comparing the task to Colonial minutemen resisting King George. “Start destroying Barack Obama['s] political credibility . . . until he gets elected on November 4th, and, even harder, every day, every minute, and every second after.”

The Republican Party appears headed to a second straight national pummeling, which will leave it marginalized in the federal government and an increasing number of state houses, as well as out of the Oval Office. Many party faithful are already noting the need for the GOP to move back toward the moderate center to survive; to refocus on a reasonable policy agenda, rather than a series of absolutist beliefs and paranoid accusations.

As Severin’s comments indicate, the conservatives with microphones are heading down a very different path — and their followers, who now dominate the Republican Party, are going right with them.

Rush Limbaugh has proclaimed that a John McCain loss will prove the failure of “big-tent” conservativism, and demonstrate the need for greater ideological rigor. Sean Hannity has essentially proclaimed the upcoming election an ACORN-rigged illegitimacy. The most popular conservative Web sites, publications, and voices — National Review Online, Free Republic, Michelle Malkin — obsessively traffic in the most slanderous and crackpot Obama theories, from his supposed lack of US citizenship to William Ayers’s alleged ghost-authorship of Obama’s books.

None of this is new to Republican politics. Indeed, the Republican Party seems stuck in the 1970s, rallying the “silent majority,” as Richard Nixon called his voters in 1969, against the counterculture: radical Vietnam protesters (Ayers), subversive socialists (“spreading the wealth”), Black Power movements (Reverend Jeremiah Wright), permissive free-love advocates (“teaching sex to kindergarteners”), and abortionists (“partial-birth” procedure).

Wacko patrol: America's 25 scariest conservatives

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:49:03 GMT

The Phoenix ranks the individuals who will hold the most sway over the right-wing message machine in 2009, and beyond.
Imagine what will happen once the relatively sane folks now running the White House and the Republican National Committee pack up and go home?

The fire-breathing reactionaries already wield extraordinary influence on the right — imagine what will happen once the relatively sane folks now running the White House and the Republican National Committee pack up and go home? Here, the Phoenix ranks the individuals who will hold the most sway over the right-wing message machine in 2009, and beyond. You’ll recognize many, and wonder why others are missing. Bill O’Reilly, for example, doesn’t make our list, because he’s now more of a follower than a leader — when’s the last time he had an original thought, scary or otherwise?

25) KATON DAWSON, CHAIR, SOUTH CAROLINA GOP
The right tried to get him to run for Senate against Republican Lindsay Graham this year. He’s your likely next RNC chair. Buckle up.

FBI nabs Wilkerson

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:22:08 GMT

Will the fallout involve other officials?
State senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of public corruption -- charges at a level far above and beyond any she has previously faced.

State senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of public corruption -- charges at a level far above and beyond any she has previously faced. The accusations, first reported by Channel 7 and outlined in a 32-page FBI affidavit [read the full affidavit here], offer a peek into how Wilkerson was allegedly able to manipulate the city and state government into granting favors for individual business owners and developers.

Wilkerson, who has a previous conviction for tax evasion, has faced other charges during her career, mostly related to the use of campaign funds. The Phoenix reports in its current issue on new allegations, involving Wilkerson’s relationship with a developer who provided her a mortgage, and her apparent failure to submit IRS reports for a non-profit organization she runs.

The affidavit for today’s arrest accuses Wilkerson of accepting cash bribes in exchange for helping first obtain a liquor license, and later to obtain designation as developer of a public parcel in Roxbury’s Crosstown section. The undercover operation began last year, and continued through Wilkerson’s filing of a direct-designation bill last week.

Wilkerson was reportedly arrested and led away in handcuffs this morning.

Undercover FBI agents recorded conversations and cash transactions during the investigation. Several stills of Wilkerson allegedly taking cash from an undercover agent were included with the unsealed affidavit; the Phoenix first published the images on its Web site [click here to see the images].

In all, the affidavit describes cash payments of $23,500 made directly to Wilkerson. None of the funds were reported as campaign contributions, it claims. After receiving one $1000 payment, Wilkerson went to Foxwoods casino, the affidavit alleges.

Other public officials may be implicated as well. The affidavit says that at one point Wilkerson suggested that a member of the House of Representatives and a Boston City Councilor should each be paid $1000 for their roles in obtaining the parcel designation. Those officials’ names were not disclosed in the affidavit.

Wilkerson, according to the charges, worked to obtain a liquor license for Dejavu, a nightclub planning to relocate to Roxbury. To do so, she pressured the Boston City Council in September 2007 to pass a home-rule petition to make additional licenses available, and helped orchestrate the approval of the petition in the state senate. She also allegedly held up senate approval of another home-rule petition — to raise the salaries of the Boston Liquor Board (BLB) members — until she received assurances that Dejavu would receive one of the new licenses.

Photos: Dianne Wilkerson nabbed

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:45:50 GMT

Public Corruption Squad of the FBI arrest State Senator Wilkerson on complaint of extortion and theft.

This morning, Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested on charges of attempted extortion and wire fraud after an 18-month investigation by the FBI. The FBI alleges that Wilkerson took bribes from $500 up to $10,000 (for a total of $ 23,500 ) to help secure a liquor license for the Roxbury nightclub Dejavu. The FBI also released photos – reproduced here – which it says shows Wilkerson accepting the bribes from a confidential FBI informant. The full FBI affidavit can be viewed here.

Read Ted Siefer's special to The Phoenix piece Dianne's Special Deal.

Travels with Sarah

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:56:33 GMT

As Palin tours New Hampshire, signs of Biblical calling, talent on the stump, and a shot at 2012
Apparently, the idea of Palin as the Queen Esther for our time has made it to New Hampshire.

I found the contraband signs in the damp grass. They had been rounded up and now lay in two piles by the opening in the chainlink fence where security and campaign officials had screened the 5000 or so people who came to see Sarah Palin speak at Salem High School’s Grant Field this past Wednesday, October 15. It was the third Palin rally in New Hampshire I had attended that day, and I knew that the security guards were keeping out more than just dangerous weapons — campaign staff was also filtering out signs, pins, and shirts that might, to a now highly attuned national audience, appear harsh or offensive.

So, while the crowd was still cheering Palin, who had finished her 30-minute speech and had begun signing autographs, I headed to that entrance and found about a dozen handmade cardboard signs. I don’t know whether other rejected slogans had already been removed, but most in these piles were pretty tame. The only potentially offensive phrase on one was “NOBAMA.” Another read “CONSERVATIVE WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS TOO.” “ACORN IS NUTS,” one claimed, while another, carefully lettered, declared “PALIN — BABIES GUNS JESUS.”

But the two most striking were adorned with Jewish stars. One read “PALIN — TRUE NORTH.” The other, “SARAH — FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS.”

That last phrase comes from chapter four of the Old Testament Book of Esther. Apparently, the idea of Palin as the Queen Esther for our time has made it to New Hampshire.

The theory has been around since before John McCain picked Palin in late August — it was circulating on religious Christian blogs in early June when news outlets reported that she was on McCain’s short list. After the announcement, it picked up steam — particularly after it was reported that Palin, at the suggestion of her pastor, had, upon becoming governor of Alaska, patterned herself after Queen Esther.

Soon after the Republican National Convention, an e-mail went viral in conservative Christian circles, in which Pastor Mark Arnold claimed to have found himself next to Palin at a rally in his hometown of Lebanon, Ohio. According to the account, Arnold came face-to-face with Palin, and God spoke through him, telling the governor that “God wants you to know that you are a present-day Esther. . . . Keep your eyes on God and know that He has chosen you to reign!”

City Hall domino effect

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:51:26 GMT

Sam Yoon starts the MayorMania
Political prospects are being reassessed inside the rumor-hungry walls of City Hall, all because of an invitation to a party 3000 miles away.

Political prospects are being reassessed inside the rumor-hungry walls of City Hall, all because of an invitation to a party 3000 miles away.

A fundraiser for At-Large City Councilor Sam Yoon in Northern California was pitched by its hosts as a way to help elect Yoon “first Asian-American mayor of Boston.” One of the organizers posted the invite with those words to his personal blog, where it soon came to the attention of the Boston media.

Yoon fueled the fire by issuing a conspicuous non-denial — which he continues to stand by. “I haven’t made a decision,” he tells the Phoenix.

Some City Council insiders are convinced that Yoon has indeed decided to launch a mayoral bid. That complicates matters for fellow citywide councilor Michael Flaherty, who is widely believed to be planning his own campaign for mayor. Those same sources say Flaherty will run regardless of Yoon’s decision — though it would certainly affect his campaign strategy, and perhaps the timing of his final decision and announcement.

If Yoon and Flaherty both do take the plunge, that would create two openings among the four at-large seats — heightening interest in what is already likely to be an active City Council race.

Two candidates have announced their bids for next year’s at-large contest: Republican Doug Bennett, who works at the Suffolk criminal clerk’s office, and Haitian community organizer Jean-Claude Sanon. At least two others — Felix Arroyo Jr. and Tomas Gonzalez — are rumored to be considering campaigns. Meanwhile, the mayoral intrigue may be one contributing factor in district councilor Michael Ross having apparently lined up the votes needed to secure the presidency of the council next year.

The Phoenix has learned from several sources, including two councilors, that Ross has — at least for the moment — secured the necessary seven votes to succeed Maureen Feeney as leader of the 13-member body.

A rule adopted by the Council this past year, which limits councilors to two consecutive years as president, bars Feeney from retaining her post. Feeney has supported Steve Murphy to succeed her, with backing from Mayor Tom Menino, according to several sources. But Yoon and Flaherty are supporting Ross, say sources — some of whom speculate that the two mayoral hopefuls may believe the relatively independent Ross will give them a more open platform to conduct high-profile hearings critical of Menino’s administration. Others close to Ross strongly deny any such arrangement. (Yoon would not confirm for the Phoenix whether he has committed his vote, or to whom.)

Financial fallout

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:40:05 GMT

The devastating wall street crisis has a potential silver lining — if you’re a Massachusetts politician looking for a foothold
The current US financial disaster will roil Massachusetts residents in myriad ways.

FREEFALL WINDFALL: Will Tim Cahill benefit politically from the economic crisis?

The current US financial disaster will roil Massachusetts residents in myriad ways. But while most of us worry about our jobs, our mortgages, and our heating oil, rest assured that some in the state are thinking hard about how all of this will affect their political careers.

Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill, for example, has been keeping a significantly high profile in recent weeks, doing on-air interviews with NECN and giving quotes to almost every publication in the area. That’s no shocker — in a massive financial crisis, the guy handling the state’s billions figures to have something useful to say.

But it’s hard not to see Cahill’s ubiquity as at least partly political. Cahill, a Democrat, is much rumored to be mulling a run for governor — against Deval Patrick in 2010, or sooner if Patrick heads to Washington as part of a Barack Obama administration. “Tim Cahill hasn’t been too shy about what his ambitions are,” says one close State House observer.

Of anyone in the state, Cahill arguably has the most to gain — or lose — politically from the subprime-mortgage catastrophe that has devastated both Wall Street and the US economy. He could be seen as the one who guided the state through rocky shoals, or as the guy in charge of the patient when it started to flat line.

The last treasurer who ran for governor — Shannon O’Brien in 2002 — was pilloried for the poor performance of the state pension fund after 9/11. “[Mitt] Romney basically blamed me for the stock-market crash,” says O’Brien. “You can be doing the best job in the world, and they’re only going to see the latest numbers.”

A cynic, then, might suggest that Cahill is trying to proactively ensure that he comes through this as a hero, rather than a goat. He made sure it was widely reported, for example, that he had to go through hoops to secure funds for the state’s local-aid payments at the end of September. He told that story both to illustrate the need for congressional action and to cast himself as the man whose expert action saved towns from ruin.

Cahill also has been criticizing the Patrick administration, and the state legislature, all year. He blasted the budget they passed this summer as unaffordable — which now looks prophetic, as Patrick seeks to strip hundreds of millions from it through “9C” emergency cuts. He further criticized the numerous bond bills enacted this year as potentially overloading the state’s debt.

Granite up for grabs

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:32:45 GMT

Why McCain, Obama, and their supporters are swooping down on New Hampshire
Presidential candidates and their surrogates spend most of their time in high-population, close-contest areas.

‘All’ for none
This year, for the first time, New Hampshire voters will not be able to vote a straight party-line ballot in one motion. The state banned “straight-ticket voting” in July, which will force voters to fill in their ballots in each race — previously, they have had the option of filling in an “all Democrats” or “all Republicans” oval at the top. Roughly a quarter of all voters in the state used the straight-ticket option in 2006.

Both parties are claiming that the change will help them. Democrats say that, historically, straight-ticket voting has helped Republicans. GOP sources point out that, in 2006, thanks to intense anti-Republican anger, most straight-ticket voting was Democratic.

Presidential candidates and their surrogates spend most of their time in high-population, close-contest areas, swinging quickly on runs through Minnesota-Wisconsin-Iowa, for example, or Michigan-Ohio-Pennsylvania. But in the past week, Barack Obama, John McCain, and Joe Biden went out of their way to visit New Hampshire, a small prize far removed from any other 2008 electoral contest.

There is no big secret to the gush of interest in the Granite State, which has affixed itself to the short list of presidential battlegrounds. Had Al Gore received just 7000 more votes in New Hampshire eight years ago, he would have received the state’s four electoral votes — and there would have been no President George W. Bush.

The past two presidential contests went late into election night, as states tallied their razor-thin margins with the fate of the free world in the balance. With national polls again showing a dead heat, and electoral-college projections similarly neck-and-neck, it is very possible that a few votes in one state could again make the difference.

But not knowing which state — of at least a dozen close battlegrounds, according to analysts — holds that key, campaigns are going all out for every last possible vote, in all of them. They are fighting with street-by-street urgency not only in Florida and Ohio, but in Virginia, and Colorado, and, yes, in little New Hampshire.

“New Hampshire is obviously very important,” says top Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod, in Concord this past Friday evening with his candidate. “It’s a state we have to keep a strong focus on.”

The homeland is officially secure

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:48:55 GMT

Vicente Lebron freed
After being locked up by federal authorities for three months, Either/Orchestra percussionist Vicente Lebron was released this past Thursday.

The enthusiasm gap

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:53:53 GMT

This election, with Obama having stoked pennant fever in Denver, it is the Dems who have cornered the excitement market
The selection of gun-shooting, anti-abortion, creationist, doctrinaire conservative Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee has finally got the GOP’s conservative base excited.

The selection of gun-shooting, anti-abortion, creationist, doctrinaire conservative Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee has finally got the GOP’s conservative base excited. The right-wing talk-show hosts and religious leaders who had been lukewarm over McCain — and fearful that he really might put Senator Joe Lieberman on the ticket — are beside themselves with glee.

Once again, as in 2000 and 2004, the Republican base will get fired up for November. Conservative religious groups will distribute fliers about abortion, homosexuals, and atheism. Evangelical churches will run busses to the polling places. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will warn, hour after hour, of the impending socialistic state of Barack Obama, and the inevitable nuclear attack on American soil.

Palin is part of McCain’s attempt to reclaim the Republican advantage in party-base enthusiasm, an edge which arguably won the past two presidential elections for the GOP. This year, that advantage was seen as heavily favoring the Democrats.

But not only has McCain started to energize his conservatives, fervor was also waning in recent weeks among Democrats, due to in-fighting, uncertainty, and tightening poll numbers — to the point that Democrats arriving in Denver this past week for their national convention seemed surprisingly nervous about the election, and noticeably cautious in their enthusiasm.

Like Red Sox fans in the 86 years of darkness, Democratic insiders bear the scars of past broken hearts, from times when they previously let themselves believe that their time had come — only to see victory elude them like a ground ball between the legs of Al Gore and John Kerry.

To mix Red Sox metaphors, it is as though they have come to expect that Karl Rove lurks in the batter’s box like Bucky Dent, always ready to drive one over the Green Monster and beat them in the end.

Obama needs his base — the delegates and party activists in Denver — to believe again that this is, really, the year his party’s dreams will come to fruition. He needs them to believe, so that they will be passionate speakers on his behalf back in their home states; so that they will fill his coffers with money; so that they will spend endless hours registering voters, making phone calls, and doing all the grunt work of the national campaign — in short, so that the enthusiasm gap this time works in the Democrats’ favor.

Opening-night jitters

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:07:14 GMT

The DNC’s primary colors
The Democratic National Convention started off with a strange vibe that might be summed up in one word: restraint.

HIDE THE PRIDE: As Michelle Obama addressed the Democratic National Convention Monday night, many in the crowd admitted to holding back their emotions in an effort to sell Barack Obama as a candidate who transcends race.

DENVER — The Democratic National Convention started off with a strange vibe that might be summed up in one word: restraint. Much is being pent-up here; emotions are being held in check.

One obvious aspect of this comes from the Clinton-Obama rift, which is real, though generally misunderstood. In truth, there are two very separate issues that have been conflated: the reticence of many Hillary Clinton voters to commit to pulling the lever for Barack Obama, and the inner tensions among the elites, insiders, and activists.

The first is politically important but not extraordinary, and has little to do with the mood here in Denver. Remember that millions of people who are not particularly party-oriented took part in the super-hyped Clinton-Obama primaries; many millions voted for Clinton for reasons that do not transfer readily to Obama. The vast majority will ultimately vote for him (some 80 percent already say they will), but many will not; the same would have been true had any other Democrat emerged from that race. (And the same is true among Republicans for McCain.)

But what’s affecting Democrats in Denver is quite different, and as old as politics. Politics is a game of alliances and power, which can have very crass effects on the psyche that — at the risk of sounding psycho-analytical — often gets masked with self-righteousness, self-pity, and/or misdirected anger. Four years on, for example, some Massachusetts political players are now able to talk (privately) about how much they had, despite themselves, mentally already packed their bags for the inevitable jobs waiting for them in and around a John Kerry administration; and how long the disappointment and finger-pointing distressed them and their political relationships.

In simplified terms, a lot of that is going on with the Clinton camp right now, and it has people on all sides walking on eggshells. Many Obama delegates, and even many former Clinton supporters, are outraged at the concessions being made to Hillary and Bill — but they won’t be caught dead saying so on the record. Clinton delegates are biting their tongues as well, aware that every display of support for their preferred candidate will be seen as sabotage, and will hurt the party’s chances of winning in November.

Live from Denver

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:45:42 GMT

Election 2008: Real-time updates from the Democratic National Convention

Regular readers of this blog know that we welcome "guest hosts" to offer their thoughts. Please feel free to submit to the host (me!) at any time.

Here are Matthew Sawh's thoughts on the first night of the convention:

The First Night: What Pundits Missed

Convention analysts all over the television and internet have been quick to criticize the relatively tame proceedings of the first night. Such coverage misses a crucial distinction: Barack Obama generally wins 80% of self-identified Democrats, John McCain has recently brought his GOP numbers to about 86% of self-identified Republicans. In other words, this is a convention targeted at Democrats, NOT Independents. The media has (again) followed the 2000 and 2004 playbook wherein Gore and Kerry had to win over independent voters and structured their conventions accordingly with Gore's appeals to moral clarity and Kerry's invocation of his service.

Now, it is more than possible that the undecided voter of 2000 or, 2004 has, in 2008, accepted the nominal ‘Democrat’ label but has not yet accepted Obama as their own. This is a valid possibility and meshes with the polling which shows a ten-point generic Democratic congressional lead.

Here is where it gets interesting though: Are these new Democrats cut from the cloth of independents? OR, Are they (as Team Obama projects) new, first-time registered voters of key Democratic leaning-constituencies? Naturally, a little bit of both (with more than a dash of Clintonites).

In that context, the choice to have a tribute to Teddy and, to do some retooling of Michelle Obama's image makes very good sense.

Teddy:

No great public policy issue has been untouched by Teddy. If Obama's goal is to rev-up turnout and, it operates on the assumption that they are largely benefiting from first-time voters, who better than Teddy? Rasmussen Reports has him listed as being seen as a liberal by 70% of the nation. Meanwhile, a recent Annenberg Survey notes that 34% of 18-29 year olds called themselves 'liberal or very liberal' as compared to only 25% of those aged 45-64.

Kennedy as the remaining brother of Camelot bridges the divide between those two gaps for several reasons. First, his ties to the first Catholic president. Second, he reminds the Hillary voters of their youth and, in so doing, softens them up and makes them more receptive to Obama's key message of change by undercutting the most salient criticism leveled about him by Clinton: his inexperience. Third, younger Americans who support Obama remember Teddy as the man who bucked the Clintons and, in so doing, garnered much respect.

The Problem:

Women on the verge

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:54:34 GMT

Clinton die-hards have created a new-girls’ network bent on remedying decades of sexism by putting women in elected office
At next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Hillary Clinton’s delegates will get just about everything they’ve wanted — aside from the nomination of their candidate, of course.

At next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Hillary Clinton’s delegates will get just about everything they’ve wanted — aside from the nomination of their candidate, of course. Barack Obama has agreed to let them officially cast their votes for Clinton on an open ballot, rather than have the delegates nominate him by acclimation, as is often done when the other candidates have conceded. He has also given prime speaking slots to both Bill and Hillary, and agreed to concessions in the party platform that include an implicit acknowledgement of sexism during the primary battle (without assigning any specific blame).

Tsongas vs. Donoghue
This past year’s election of Niki Tsongas to US Congress was a triumph of gender politics — and a blueprint of how women can co-opt the locker-room style long practiced by Bay State boys.

“When the rumors started about Marty Meehan leaving, the phones of the women’s network were lighting up across Massachusetts — that this was our chance," says Jesse Mermell, Brookline selectman and former executive director of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus.

There were plenty of good women in the district, including several state senators and former Lowell mayor Eileen Donoghue. But only Tsongas, widow of former US Senator Paul Tsongas, had what matters to the back-room party insiders: personal connections, fundraising ability, and general-election name recognition.

So, well before the campaigns even started, the state’s most influential women began lining up the party apparatus behind Tsongas — and convincing other women not to run.

Donoghue ran anyway, but she was — just like the three men in the primary race — up against the state’s Democratic political machinery. Even EMILY’s List, a national organization supporting women candidates, actively raised money for Tsongas to beat another woman. It might not have been nice, or dainty, but the end result was a woman heading to Washington.

That should satisfy the 19 pledged Clinton delegates from Massachusetts — particularly the 14 women in that group, for whom the ability to register their vote next Thursday for a fellow female has come to symbolize both the progress and challenges of women in politics.

But when they come back home at the end of the week, they will return to a state that remains, for all its progressive reputation, a throwback when it comes to gender politics. Compared with other states that have seen far more advancement, Massachusetts is still a back-slapping man’s world, where women make up less than a quarter of the state legislature, a handful of mayors, and a small (though increasing) minority of back-room players such as staff, campaign managers, fundraisers, and lobbyists. Over the past 20 years, the number of women in Congress more than tripled, from 24 to 91 — while in Massachusetts the number stayed at zero until this past year.

The underdog

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:28:52 GMT

Sara Orozco thinks she can beat all-American GOP superstar Scott Brown. Can she convince anyone else?
Sara Orozco and Scott Brown, total opposites, are perfect candidates for a State Senate district with political bipolar disorder.

K.Bonami

Sara Orozco and Scott Brown, total opposites, are perfect candidates for a State Senate district with political bipolar disorder. Challenger Orozco comes from the northern part of the Bristol, Norfolk, and Middlesex district, where liberal communities such as Wellesley and Needham elect lefty Democratic state reps like Alice Peisch and Lida Harkins. Incumbent Scott Brown comes from the south, where rock-solid conservative bastions like Wrentham and Attleboro send three of the state’s few Republicans to the House of Representatives.

The two candidates are, like the two parts of their district, ideologically split on almost every issue. With such a clear-cut distinction, in one of the few competitive races in the state, you might imagine that Democrats and progressive groups would have Orozco near the top of their list of priority causes.

That’s starting to happen, but slowly. They realize how high the stakes are — Democrats would dearly love to deal a deathblow to Brown’s political career, which many see leading to a run for governor or US Senate. But so far, many remain unconvinced that Orozco, a lesbian Cuban-American psychologist who has never held public office, has any real chance of knocking off the state’s current GOP poster boy.

She is up against an all-American incumbent straight out of central casting. Brown is tall and model-handsome (he in fact did model at one time), with the best head of hair in the State House. He is married to WCVB-TV reporter Gail Huff, with two daughters — one of whom starred on the Noble & Greenough basketball squad (and currently plays for Boston College) and was an American Idol finalist. Brown is involved in everything good and clean-cut, from the Wrentham Lions Club to the USA Triathlon Federation. He is a crusader against sex offenders, for which he has received recognition from the US Chamber of Commerce. For chrissakes, he was unavailable for interviews this past week because he was serving his National Guard duty — how all-American can you get?

Orozco is not from central casting — she is more of an indie-film character. A first-generation American born and raised in Miami, daughter of a Kmart employee and a cement-factory worker, she worked her way from nothing to a Harvard Medical School academic appointment, and eventually her own psychology practice. She is a breast-cancer survivor. She is a single mother of twin nine-year-old boys from her 12-year relationship with another woman — which ended in divorce two years after they finally achieved the right to marry.

Will race enter the race?

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:52:47 GMT

Dianne Wilkerson and Sonia Chang-Díaz don’t talk about the racial split in their Senate showdown, but it’s likely to make its mark
Two years ago, when Dianne Wilkerson inexplicably failed to submit the necessary signatures to get her name on the Democratic primary ballot for re-election as state senator, a 28-year-old upstart seized the opportunity.

ROUND TWO: State Senator Dianne Wilkerson (left) and challenger Sonia Chang-Díaz (right) are again fighting to represent the Second Suffolk district. Their platforms are almost identical — will race be a deciding factor?

Two years ago, when Dianne Wilkerson inexplicably failed to submit the necessary signatures to get her name on the Democratic primary ballot for re-election as state senator, a 28-year-old upstart seized the opportunity. With both candidates running as write-ins, Sonia Chang-Díaz ultimately came within 700 votes of ousting Wilkerson from the Boston district she has represented since 1993.

Chang-Díaz is trying again this year, and your view of her chances depends largely on which candidate’s 2006 post-election spin you believe.

Some observers say that contest was close only because Wilkerson was then at her lowest ebb of popularity: the ballot-access flub seemed to punctuate a substantial history of allegations, oversights, and improprieties. But if voters re-elected her then, this pro-Wilkerson thinking goes, they will surely do so by a wider margin two scandal-free years later, against the same opponent.

Others argue that, despite the result, a substantial majority of voters rejected Wilkerson at the voting booth in 2006 — that she survived only because Chang-Díaz, an unknown, last-minute write-in challenger, was unable to get her name and stickers to enough of the electorate on Election Day. Chang-Díaz would have won easily, according to this interpretation, had she been able to reach just a small percentage of the 12,000-plus people who showed up at the polls to vote in the gubernatorial primary yet cast no vote for State Senate. If so, then in 2008, with both candidates’ names on the ballot, the anti-Wilkerson majority should carry the day.

A spokesperson for the Wilkerson campaign tells the Phoenix that its data supports the first assumption, and a Wilkerson re-election. A source with the Chang-Díaz campaign, however, says its polling conforms with the latter theory, and is corroborated by plenty of anecdotal evidence.

Voters are entering election season ready to replace Wilkerson, says Chang-Díaz’s camp. That could easily change once Wilkerson starts publicly making the case about what she has done with the two years they granted her last time around.

Perhaps more important, the careful, by-the-numbers analyses obscure an obvious racial dynamic: in ’06, black voters in the district went overwhelmingly for Wilkerson (who is herself black), while white voters resoundingly rejected her.

Does Boston hate the BPD?

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:37:19 GMT

A secret survey shows just how low the Boston Police Department’s reputation had sunk two years ago. Is the mayor listening?
When Kathleen O’Toole served as Boston police commissioner, from early 2004 through mid 2006, she and Mayor Thomas Menino seemed in constant denial of the spiraling violence and shocking police scandals that were roiling the city.

At least snow is under control!
The BPD isn’t the only city function that has lost public confidence. Asked for their level of satisfaction with city services, respondents to the 2006 Boston Public Safety Survey gave the lowest ratings in the survey’s 10-year history to the fire department, trash removal, park maintenance, taxi service, and traffic maintenance. Of 12 categories, the only ones scoring higher in 2006 than in 1997 were elderly support and snow removal.

Previous coverage of the Boston Police Department

Framed? The Boston Police investigation of Stephan Cowans led to a wrongful conviction. Was it incompetent — or corrupt? By David S. Bernstein.

Righting a staggering wrong: It is time for the US Attorney to investigate how and why the Boston police wrongfully convicted Stephan Cowans. The Phoenix editorial.

Truth, justice — or the Boston way: Boston’s taxpayers just coughed up another multimillion-dollar check for a wrongful conviction, without being told what was done wrong. By David S. Bernstein.

$50 million worth of mistakes: Legal claims are costing the city millions of dollars a year. Is it a random blip or a sign of a badly run government? By David S. Bernstein.

The worst homicide squad in the country: The Boston Police Department doesn’t catch killers, so the killing keeps getting worse. By David S. Bernstein.

Where's the evidence? Boston’s homicide detectives keep finding evidence they didn’t even know they had. What else is lost in the disarray of the BPD? By David S. Bernstein.

The jig is up: After a string of wrongful-conviction revelations, and anger over the acquittal of an alleged killer, the Stephan Cowans case further erodes trust in the criminal-justice system. By David S. Bernstein.

Blind Spots: A spate of wrongful convictions has convinced Suffolk County DA Dan Conley and Boston Police commissioner Kathleen O’Toole to reform how the police use eyewitness evidence. While they’re at it, they should reopen these three cases. By David S. Bernstein.

When Kathleen O’Toole served as Boston police commissioner, from early 2004 through mid 2006, she and Mayor Thomas Menino seemed in constant denial of the spiraling violence and shocking police scandals that were roiling the city. Calls for more police officers, greater resources, and more targeted programs were rebuffed. Atrocious arrest and conviction rates were blamed on lack of citizen assistance. Misconduct — ranging from wrongful convictions, to corruption charges, to the fatal pepper-gun shooting of Victoria Snelgrove during the 2004 World Series celebration — were shrugged off or blamed on others.