A mayoral debate from yesteryear
By Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe
October 18, 2005
I WAS OUT of town on Friday night and so didn't
get to hear part two of Boston Mayor Tom Menino's grudging concession
to the democratic process: his appearance with challenger Maura
Hennigan on WBZ radio.
Still, reading the coverage of the exchange, I think
I've figured out the mayor's goal. The closer the election gets,
the further back in time he wants to take the city.
Friday night was his attempt to revisit the days
of the Roosevelt administration.
A new New Deal? A contemporary Civilian Conservation Corps? A
modern WPA? No, that's not quite what I had in mind. As he tries
to avoid high-profile debates, Menino's strategy is to return
politics to the pre-TV era.
If the FDR years didn't quite predate the invention
of television, they were certainly before TV had become the nation's
dominant medium. In that slower, poorer, less technological era,
people might have been content to stay in on a Friday to listen
to their elected leader speaking to them on the Philco.
But things have changed a little in the last 60
or 70 years.
So what's next for Menino? The wily mayor will sit down tomorrow
with Hennigan for a campaign conversation with Globe columnist
Brian McGrory, who will then write about the exchange.
And after that? Odds are that no other joint appearances will
be agreed to, the mayor's camp says.
Oh, come on guys. You're better than that. Get creative.
For his next trick, the mayor could take us back to the age of
the silent screen. He could dress up as Charlie Chaplin and show
us, through political pantomime, just what he's done to improve
the city.
And then? Well, he and Hennigan could appear before
a troupe of troubadours, who could then travel to distant neighborhoods
and give us their coverage and analysis by song or chant. Something
along these lines, perhaps:
Debates, they are such silly stuffKing Tom says
that you don't careFor all this democratic fluffWhen your street
could have a fair.Three terms are simply not enoughFor this regal
mayor.Vote for Maura? Ha. A silly bluffHe knows that you don't
dare!Now, don't get me wrong. Good for WBZ radio's Paul Sullivan
and for McGrory for doing their part to inject some life into
this torpid campaign.
Still, those events and the Sept. 28 forum on WGBH
should not stand as the only candidate encounters of the mayoral
election.
So shame on the mayor for trying to use them to
avoid what this city really needs: Several prime-time TV debates
held on nights when interested Boston citizens might actually
tune in.
Public figures have been reluctant to criticize
the mayor for his antidemocratic behavior. Why? As one Menino
confidant once told me: ''He is a great friend and a terrible
enemy."
In many matters, Menino has a big heart and generous
instincts. But he's also insecure, petty, and incredibly thin-skinned,
and if you cross him, look out. Because people tend to like the
mayor and harbor doubts about Hennigan as a replacement, some
aren't willing to say what needs to be said: If Tom Menino can't
stand on the same stage with his challenger and explain himself
convincingly enough that Boston voters deem him the better candidate,
he shouldn't be asking for a fourth term.
Still, some close observers worry that a lack of
real debates will hurt the democratic process.
One is former Massachusetts attorney general Scott Harshbarger,
the Democratic Party's 1998 gubernatorial nominee and the erstwhile
president of Common Cause, one of the nation's leading good government
groups.
Menino looks like a shoo-in. Still, debates would energize the
civic life of the city and encourage citizen participation, Harshbarger
notes by e-mail.
''This is a real opportunity for the mayor to demonstrate
. . . political courage and leadership" by showing a willingness
''to stand and deliver, especially when it runs against the grain
of political and conventional wisdom," Harshbarger says.
''We will all lose if the mayor is unwilling to
seize this opportunity," he concludes. ''If he does, however,
he will merit again the widespread support and respect he will
receive, and our gratitude as well."
So what's it going to be, Mr. Mayor? Some real leadership?
Or more duck and cover? We're all waiting to see what you're made
of.