Earlier today I noticed that Paul Cellucci had endorsed Jon Golnik, the Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District. I remember two things about Paul Cellucci. At the Lowell Memorial Auditorium back in 1998 during a gubernatorial debate, when Scott Harshbarger raised doubts about the “Big Dig”, Cellucci pounded the podium and bellowed “The Big Dig is on time and on budget.” Historians have difficulty judging which of those two assertions was the bigger lie. My second memory of Cellucci is how, after being elected governor, he quit on the people of Massachusetts and took the patronage position of ambassador to Canada, leaving us with Jane Swift as governor. Cellucci stayed in Canada for long enough to have a Molsen and fill his rolodex with contacts which he’s spent every moment since lobbying on behalf of corporate America. So congratulations to the Golnik campaign for snagging the support of such a – - “statesman” as Mr. Cellucci.
Cellucci’s finance guy for the Big Dig debacle, of course, was none other than current Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker. Baker learned one thing from Cellucci: if you deny involvement in the Big Dig long enough and loudly enough, people might start believing you. But Baker deserves mention today because of his embrace of another quitter: Paul Loscocco. Loscocco is a former Republican state representative who agreed long ago to be Tim Cahill’s running mate in his “independent” quest for the governorship.
Last week Loscocco quit on Cahill and columnists David Bernstein and Dan Kennedy have done a good job of outlining the nefariousness of that move. Back in 2008, Loscocco had been involved in the John McCain presidential campaign. Using his connections from that endeavor, Loscocco convinced Cahill to bring on a couple of “consultants” from the McCain juggernaut. Their performance was predictable: they milked Cahill of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees while sabotaging his campaign from within. Finally on the eve of last week’s visit by John McCain to headline a fundraiser for Charlie Baker, these consultants get Loscocco to stab Cahill in the back just in time to appear on stage at the fundraiser so McCain can label him “a man of principle.” You can’t make this stuff up. The dupe Loscocco admits to the media he’d “be open to a position in a Baker administration” which was so odious and so obviously a disclosure of the backroom deal that the Baker damage control team had to rush out a release today assuring us that there will be no place for Loscocco in a Baker administration. Of course not, who would ever trust a traitor like that.
Loyalty is an admirable trait that transcends ideology. Paul Loscocco quit on Tim Cahill. Paul Cellucci quit on the citizens of Massachusetts. It those are the kind of people Charlie Baker and Jon Golnik want endorsing them, they can have them.
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