Cash warfare

Carpet bombing remains an effective tool of warfare, as Mitt Romney's blitz of Newt Gingrich proves. And if anyone ever had any doubt, cash, not issues, will determine who sits in the Oval Office next year.

While Barack Obama may draw some hope about a sharply divided GOP emerging from the primaries, the obscene amounts of cash already spent -- and the millions more lining up on both sides -- suggests the 2012 general election will not be decided on either Main Street or Wall Street but on Madison Avenue and its clones across the nation.

It's a particularly hazardous prospect for Obama, because Romney has shown no compunction for attack -- whether the tools are the realities of the Gingrich speakership and beyond or the fantasies of twisting Obama's words and beliefs. The Romney team has clearly shown truth will not be an impediment to their quest.

The insidious nature of the role of cash is magnified by the fact two people -- Sheldon and Miriam Adelson -- hold the key to the direction of the primary. The have already bankrolled Gingrich to the tune of $10 million -- forget the legalities of the money going to a SuperPAC that Gingrich has no legally has no control over. When they say no mas, so will Newt, and not one moment sooner.

And it has been clear from Day One that the Right is prepared to spend whatever it takes to defeat Obama.

Not that the president is entering the general election unarmed. Reports suggest he is preparing a $1 billion war chest to take on the attackers.

Maybe the goal of the presidential campaign is to single-highhandedly revive the economy -- at least for advertising agencies and media outlets.

We are already seeing the worst the Citizens United decision has to offer -- and its only February. The biggest losers ahead are not only the candidates -- but civility and ultimately the truth.

Act II

Boston Mayor Tom Menino has dropped the first shoe in the inevitable move toward a broader solution to MBTApocalypse.

It's been clear since transit officials first announced a Draconian plan of fare hikes and service cuts that they were angling for a higher authority, like the Legislature, to step into the fray. The school of thought no doubt recalls that lawmakers got them into the mess, at least partially, by saddling them with Big Dig debt in 2000.

It was equally obvious the idea of extra money on the sales tax or, heaven forbid, the gasoline tax, would spark outrage outside the MBTA district. But never let it be said Menino lacks for the courage that comes from asking people outside the capital city to pitch in.

“I understand the difficult decisions facing the MBTA. Many administrations have simply passed the buck,’’ Menino wrote to state Secretary of Transportation Richard A. Davey, copying in the governor, Senate president, House speaker, and Boston lawmakers. “However, riders should not be forced to shoulder the entire weight of this debt.’’

Davey, as he has been throughout this staged drama, was non-committal.

"At this point, [we] are trying to offer solutions that are in our toolbox. Revenues from the state side do not seem to be forthcoming, in large part because there are significant budget pressures on the state as well..."

The audience for this play really numbers just three people: Deval Patrick, Robert DeLeo and Therese Murray. The governor has been on record in the past for a gas tax to help pay not just for the T but the entire, crumbling transportation infrastructure. DeLeo opposed it, opting instead for the 1.25 percent hike in the sales tax. Murray has kept her views largely to herself.

The regular tableau of riders at hearings warning of personal chaos is part of the script designed to open, if not change minds. But the sweeteners must reach beyond the T's service area to convince folks in Charlton and Northampton and Pittsfield that they should care.

That's where the gas tax comes in -- again. There remains a vast backlog of rotten roads and buckling bridges across the commonwealth, projects that were, to be fair, deferred to pay for the Boston Big Dig (financial) boondoggle. They are not receiving the attention they need either.

Because times are still tough, no elected official looking for continued employment -- or certain of his or her prospects -- is going to call for higher taxes. So we see the traditional slow motion dance of presenting a problem, creating angst and building a groundswell for action.

Davey is already telegraphing the final act:

“We do need a broader solution,’’ Davey said. “No doubt about it.’’

The 140-character campaign (II)

The New York Times, the Gray Lady of Mainstream Journalism, has discovered what the rest of us have know for awhile: Twitter has shoved civil discourse in this nation into the gutter.

Once upon a time, in the heyday of Theodore White and Johnny Apple, political campaigns were lengthy narratives to be dispensed in thoughtful daily doses by the boys on the bus. With the rise of TV, that slowly began to fade into 40-second sound bites, then 10-second sound bites until we reached the point today of the 140-character instant attack.

Twitter has rightfully been hailed as a voice of democracy, a key component of the Arab Spring. But less attention has been paid to the corrosive downside -- on display in American politics today.

It's a perverse tribute to today's political operative to acknowledge the venom and misinformation that can be harnessed in such tight quarters. Combined with the explosion of attack ads financed by unfettered corporate cash, Twitter has contributed to a cheapening of already coarse campaign "discourse."

The solution? That's perhaps the most frightening thought of all. I'm open to suggestions.

I object!

Hey Newt, I know Massachusetts liberals. and I am here to tell you Mitt Romney is not one of us.

The fast-and-loose-with the facts Republican primary season is grinding on and Newt Gingrich was paying a visit to Fantasy Land on Sunday, letting loose with a couple of whoppers that typify the unhinged basis of what passes for debate in 2012. First:

“I am, in fact, the legitimate heir to the Republican movement -- not some liberal from Massachusetts,” Gingrich told a sprawling crowd of hundreds at a strip mall parking lot in this enclave of senior communities.

We know Republicans have managed to turn the word liberal into a synonym for "devil incarnate." But seriously. Trying to apply it to a man almost universally scorned in the Massachusetts progressive community cries out for a visit from Politifact and consideration for its Lie of the Year.

Of greater relevance is this piece of unbridled hypocrisy:

“I have an opponent with money power, and we need people power to offset money power,” he said.

Perhaps you should read the "elite" media Newt. Or at least check your own campaign accounts.

Of Kevin and Mitt

They were as stylistically different as night and day. The visionary Boston pol and the Michigan-born businessman. One had a passion, the other a checklist.

What they shared was an overwhelming political ambition and a desire to play on the national spotlight. And for one fleeting moment, they pass each other on the stage they both craved.

Kevin Hagan White and Willard Mitt Romney shared little politically other than having their ambitions thwarted (at least for a time) by Edward Moore Kennedy. White stood watch as Boston struggled to climb out of its parochial past -- sliding backward a bit over the busing nightmare that defined his epitaph outside Massachusetts.

The visible monuments to White are quite real: Quincy Market, Copley Place and the Back Bay. Yet he was a man who ironically led more in a style similar to Romney than to his own hands-on successors Ray Flynn and Tom Menino.

White nurtured a generation of politicians and functionaries -- Barney Frank, Fred Salvucci, Peter Meade to name three. Romney? Does Eric Fehrnstrom count? I guess so since White did bring us George Regan.

The world will little know nor long remember the direct impact Romney had on Massachusetts during his one term as governor. Many saw it for what it was at the time: a way station on the road to the White House he has trod since midway through that one term.

True, neither White nor Romney was afraid to take the reins in his hands directly when times demanded: White when anger in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination threatened to burn American cities; Romney when the roof of the Ted Williams Tunnel came crashing down.

It will not be their accomplishments that many will recall, but rather the intangibles that separate the men: White, the loner in love with his city; Romney, the man who strapped a dog carrier onto his car roof during a family trip to Canada.

Two men who grew up in political families and sought to follow in the family business -- whether they admit it or not. White has a clear legacy and a statue to mark that passage. It's doubtful we will be building monuments to Mitt.

But Romney may yet have the last laugh, a chance to fulfill the ultimate goal that eluded White.

Seriously?

War. Foreclosures. Income inequality. And the political press thinks a staged campaign stunt by an Arizona governor is news.

Even when there's proof it was all hype.

Politico offers us a story about Barack Obama looking to redress a "months-old insult" in a book by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer confronting her on an Arizona tarmac.

Funny, but from my vantage point, the finger-wagging governor is doing the confronting. And a Republican Arizona mayor agrees.

But in our 24-7-365 conflict-obsessed media, everything gets blown up into scandals, especially when it involves Barack Obama. Look no farther than Bruins goalie Tim Thomas' decision to put the "i" in team and steal the thunder from his teammates White House honors.

No wonder the media is right down there with politicians on the public love list.

(Washington Post photo)

Hedging his bets

Mitt Romney is the 0.0001 percent, as the outpouring of details from just two years of taxes show.

The latest look at the Romney investment portfolio show he is what the Globe calls an "aggressive" investor in hedge funds, funneling upwards of $100 million into those mysterious accounts must of the public know are available only to institutional investors and the super-rich. And whose manipulation or occasional collapses can trigger worldwide financial problems.

The tax returns have shattered the image Romney has tried to cultivate as a down-to-earth family guy who has been successful but not really different from average Americans. The give lie to his pathetic claims to being unemployed or fearing a pink slip.

The hedge fund investments point out the gap, as Joshua Dorner, an official with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington group that has been critical of Romney’s low tax rate, tells the Globe. Romney's investments are:

“a special loophole enjoyed only by private equity and hedge fund managers.’’

The Romney campaign correctly points out they pay all the taxes required by law and the investments are in a blind trust over which they have no control.

Not the point though. It's clear the Romneys just try to play average Americans on TV. The reality is Romney is among the very class of people who helped to dig America's financial hole and who have escaped responsibility for their actions.

Think things will change for the better under a Romney presidency? You may want to hedge that bet.

Messed up priorities

Millionaires drop cash on candidates like candy, while elected officials look to tax candy to pay the bills. How did our priorities get so messed up?

While our nation slowly, slowly emerges from the depths of a Great Recession triggered by lax government oversight, governors are looking in every nook and cranny to find ways to pay for services that are necessary and/or expected -- without the resources to pay for them.

Patrick administration budget chief Jay Gonzalez told the Globe Massachusetts the state will never again be able to pay for the level of services it provided before the recession, citing long-term debts, including $40 billion in unfunded liability for current and future state and municipal retiree health benefits.

To close the gap, Deval Patrick is asking to extend the 6.25 percent sales tax to candy and soda, raise cigarette taxes again and make water bottles subject to the bottle law. In other words, nickle and dime people, many of whom are already stretched to the limit.

In part because it's a safe election year assumption have no stomach for a broader, fairer proposal. After all, this is a nation that steadfastly refuses to ask millionaires to pay their fair share toward the common good.

But millionaires have no compunction about dropping obscene amounts of cash to buy, er, support their favorite candidates.

Exactly what are Sheldon and Miriam Adelson getting in their $10 million purchase of, er, investment in Newt Gingrich? GOP critics may ask the same question about the $23.7 million George Soros dropped on Democrats in 2004.

Guesstimates are Barack Obama may raise upwards of $1 billion to defend the White House against the attack of plutocrats who have already bought and paid for Congress and are driving it ever farther away from dealing with the root causes of the recession -- the mortgage scandal, two credit card wars and massive tax cuts for their financial backers.

Meanwhile, kids are being asked to dig deeper in the pockets for a candy bar or a can of soda.

How did we go so far off the rails?