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| How long is Mumbles 'stainable? |
| 2009-09-24 |
| HOWIE CARR This has got to be it for Mumbles - one more election, one more term. Forget that yesterday they weren't counting his votes, they were weighing them. Yes, he's going to win one final four-year term on Nov. 3, his fifth. But it's over. Mumbles looked exhausted yesterday. He looked old and fat, both of which he is. "One group sees a city that's broken," he said after voting. "I see a city that's, uh, makin' progress every day. I did those three debates with my col - my opponents and, uh, everything was bad about Boston." Lucky for Mumbles, the hope-and-change mantra appears to be on the fritz this year. You can't fool all of the people all of the time, as Sam Yoon found out the hard way. Keep the change, Sam. But Mumbles is 66 years old, and spending Sunday afternoon in his own neighborhood after another gruesome murder cannot be fun. Think how much worse it'll be - in every way - in four years. He's turning into Dapper O'Neil. The Dap hung on to his Council slot for a decade, maybe longer, after he peaked, but after a while he was just managing his own decline. Ditto, Mumbles. Like Macbeth, those he commands move only in command, nothing in love. "I feel great," he said, sounding not so great. "You know butter - a little butterflies you always do on election day, but we have a field organization that's ready to go to work to, uh, get the votes out. . . ." Mumbles, you can go out on your own terms, like the last four mayors did, or you can hang on and get taken out by some "little clerk," the way Curley was. I know, they say an incumbent mayor in Boston can't lose. Yeah, just like they said nobody from Southie could ever win citywide, or that Boston would never elect a guy whose last name name ended in a vowel. "I feel great," he said, sounding even less great than the last time he said was feeling great. "Uh, jus' continue work in the neighborhoods today. We're talkin' to the folks who do our recyclin' is the city o' Boston, creatin' jobs, sustainability in our city." Recycling. Yes, that's what Mumbles is all about these days. He's recycling himself. "That's what we're tryin' to do all the time is make sure we have create more jobs in Boston as a 'stainable city." Almost every single person Mumbles came up with in politics is gone - a few to the cemetery, most to the suburbs, or Florida. And by the end of the year, Yoon and Flaherty will be calling the moving trucks, too. That's the 'stainable city. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Hey Raj, we could always get Devvie in the Senate that would beat Mumbles in the Massaholia derby, no? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2009-09-24 08:49 |
| #2 Mumbles = Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Too much inside baseball. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-09-24 07:48 |
| #1 Mumbles for U.S. Senate! If that doesn't restore our claim as #1 state laughingstock, only Dukakis as interim U.S. Senator will. |
| Posted by: Raj 2009-09-24 07:46 |