What else will Wall Street's millions buy: how about a former drunken ex mayor

LP - It good to have the endorsement of the career hard drinking career politician. I'm sure the Republican electorate believes strongly in career politicians and it is something that Scott Brown hopes to grow into, now that he's moved his wife Gail Huff off of making all his commercials for him. There is no sign as to when Curt Schilling will make his appearance again. I have heard he's been tied up with some business dealings in Rhode Island. Now let's meet Scott Brown's newest advocate and for god sake can somebody get him a well paying job in the private sector.

This what the Boston Phoenix wrote about the former governor.


At 58, the old warrior is saddling up to run for governor, apparently for the worst of reasons: having failed to secure a high-paying, high-profile private sector job (he was even snubbed for the athletic director's post at Northeastern University), he can't think of anything better to do.

Even before last Friday, his chances of actually winning the governor's office had been rated as slim. And now he's been whacked out by his old friends at the Boston Globe, a paper that endorsed him twice, that provided him not just with ideological support but also with drinking buddies during those long nights at Doyle's and J.J. Foley's.

The story, by Walter Robinson, Kate Zernike, and David Marcus -- headlined FLYNN AT THE VATICAN: HIS MAYORAL STYLE DIDN'T CUT IT -- was devastating. Much of the post-publication buzz has focused on revelations concerning Flynn's drinking; but about two-thirds of the piece was devoted to establishing that, during his final year as ambassador, he virtually ceased working. Numerous sources were quoted, both by name and anonymously, to the effect that Flynn became increasingly out of touch and isolated, rarely coming to the embassy office and spending vast amounts of time in Rome's Irish pubs.
Although the questions about Flynn's once-inspiring work ethic were surely new, his drinking is the oldest of stories among political and media insiders. The difference is that editors today -- whether at the Globe or any other news organization -- are far less inclined than they were in the past to keep such knowledge to themselves. This shift is especially telling at the Globe, which, until recent years, had a reputation for protecting its favorites, allowing national media to break stories about Senator Ted Kennedy's debauchery or to poke holes in former governor Michael Dukakis's record.

Flynn's reaction has been to deny everything, and to accuse the Globe of coming after him because he's working-class, Irish, and Catholic. It is a ridiculous allegation, of course. Boston has been run by Irish Catholics for most of this century. The editor of the Globe, Matt Storin, is an Irish Catholic with a modest middle-class background. But such class-warfare demogaguery has always been one of Flynn's stocks in trade. He hoists like a shield his concern for "working-class families," a phrase that pops up in his lexicon with the same approximate frequency that it does in Marx's Das Kapital.

A demagogue needs a villain, and Flynn, for the moment, has settled on Globe publisher Ben Taylor, whom the ex-mayor has variously referred to during the past week as a polo-watching, penthouse-dwelling, chablis-sipping, brie-nibbling elitist.

...Meanwhile, Flynn's performance in office was deteriorating. Arguably an outstanding mayor in his first two terms, he displayed indifference and boredom during his third. He fought for the right to appoint the school committee, then shocked supporters by loading it up with cronies. The police department, run by his childhood friend Mickey Roache (now a popular city councilor), was beset by corruption and incompetence. Thus, when Bill Clinton tapped Flynn for the ambassadorship to the Vatican in 1993, the appointment was met by many in the city with genuine excitement for Flynn, combined with relief that he was finally leaving.

Flynn's triumph, though, quickly turned to tragedy and farce. A former aide, Douglas deRusha, was convicted of embezzling more than $200,000 from Flynn's campaign and was sent to prison. A trusted associate, Joe Fisher, went to prison for corruption. Attorney General Scott Harshbarger -- now the frontrunner for the office Flynn intends to seek -- investigated Flynn, a probe that ended inconclusively. Flynn was also hit by accusations that he was too political and raw to be an ambassador (he was reprimanded twice by the State Department for speaking out of turn). And his son Ray Jr. was battling substance abuse problems.

Flynn considered running for governor in 1994, but decided against it in the face of rapidly dropping poll numbers. A headline in the Sunday Globe Focus section that spring read: ONCE MASSACHUSETTS' MOST POPULAR POLITICIAN, RAY FLYNN IS NOW ITS FAVORITE POLITICAL JOKE.

...Robinson insists that doing in Ray Flynn was the last thing on his mind when he saw Flynn, on August 6, weaving on Hanover Street in the North End, drunkenly hailing him and insisting that he and a friend join him for a drink.

"My role at the time was simply to get him off the street, because he was making a fool of himself," Robinson says, adding that he called a Flynn "acolyte" and told him: "This is a serious problem."

The full story: http://bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/97/10/09/GLOBE_VS_RAY_FLYNN_2.html