Deval Patrick, unable to tolerate criticism of close friend, Barak Obama - photo Boston.com
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrickwas using “rhetorical flourish” when he described Republican lawmakers as “bordering on sedition”. The story, which broke in the Boston Globe yesterday, reported the remark made at a Suffolk University forum. Suffolk University is a pollster than often leans left – 8% of respondents in all polls taken are from the university participate in Massachusetts polls, which may skew polls. (See marginals of Mass. Governor’s race here .) Patrick, who was White House advisor, David Axelrod’s, “Test” for the Obama 2008 national campaign, down to the slogan “Yes, We Can”, was elected in 2006. He is noted in the article as a close friend to the President.
The Globe’s follow-up is an apology piece for Patrick:
Geoffrey R. Stone, a former dean of the University of Chicago Law School, said sedition “doesn’t even really exist as a legal concept anymore’’ since the Supreme Court has found both the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Sedition Act of 1918 unconstitutional. Those laws, he said, once allowed the government to jail critics who “cast the government into contempt or disrepute with malice, which means without a good motive.’’
Stone said he suspects Patrick was using the term “in a very conventional sense,’’ to describe critics who constantly attack the president, rather than engage in “serious and honest criticism.’’
“If you take that definition of sedition, then Patrick probably is accurate,’’ Stone said.
Patrick, who is up for reelection this November, faces challenges from Republican, Charles Baker (www.charliebaker2010.com) and Democrat turned Independent Tim Cahill wwwtimforgovenor.com Cahill, is a former member of the Patrick administration. Baker, who recently began his statewide campaign, has been criticized by the Patrick administration for allowing a third party to run attack ads against Cahill. The Globe and other Massachusetts daily newspapers ran the Patrick criticism of Baker as the headliner, while covering the gubernatorial candidate’s campaign kickoff. It is apparent that the Globe, regardless of reality, defends Patrick on all fronts.
The term “sedition” although arcane by some measures, is still widely used, as is “treason” - which one can imagine was also running through Patrick’s mind before using the less incendiary word in describing what he calls “partisanship” coming from the Republican side of the aisle. Apparently, if one does not agree with the Obama administration (or the Patrick administration locally), one is guilty of “sedition” or an "incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority." (Merriam Webster).
Patrick had better get ready to attack the three major news networks who are just now beginning to show signs of criticism of the President , ABC, CBS and NBC all ran somewhat critical pieces on the Presidents slow response to the BP oil spill in the gulf.
Meanwhile, Congress is planning to raise taxes on oil four time the current assessment “just in case” the party responsible for an oil spill in the future can’t afford to clean it up. Additionally, Rasmussen polling suggests that Obama’s approval nationwide is at 44%, with only 25% of those polled “strongly approving” of the Presidents job performance. With unemployment levels expected to remain the same through the next year, the economic crisis in Europe and the U.S. bailout of Greece, and the fact that the Democrat controlled Congress is running without a fixed budget one can imagine that those numbers will fall further, and Patrick will have to use much stronger language in the future in order to defend the President. When one feels compelled to use language that is “arcane” so to speak, it is a clear sign of desperation – giving those on the ground in Massachusetts a virtual “front row” seat to the depths to which Patrick can sink.
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