You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.
That was the joke last week as Secretary of State Matt Brown’s fundraising tricks caught up with him quite publicly. P&J like Matt, but raising money on what appeared to be less than desirable circumstances with the Democratic parties of Maine, Massachusetts, and Hawaii was a huge gaffe. And while Brown (who is now “reorganizing” his staff) did the right thing in giving the donations back — well, in the case of Hawaii, they demanded the money back when the facts surfaced — the buck stops on his desk.
The other preposterous thing was the claim by his campaign spokesman, Matt Burgess (Brown’s initial duck-and-cover from the press was another faux pas), that the criticism in this matter by our old friend, Sheldon Whitehouse, was simply a politically motivated attack. Wrong. When you screw up, admit it. Sheldon’s remarks were well justified. Oh, and one final piece of advice for Matt. When you send out a spokesman to do the dirty work, make sure he doesn’t sound like a mezzo-soprano on the airwaves.
Have a nice day, Urinal reporters
P&J can only imagine Urinal employees’ delight at the news that Richard Decherd, chairman and chief executive of the Belo Corporation, received a $475,000 bonus for 2005.
With the BeloJo giving up almost all of its local bureaus around the state as a cost-cutting measure, it must be gratifying to see this Texas twit get nearly a half-million bucks for stripping Belo’s Rhode Island paper even closer to the bone. Oh, and did we mention how Decherd also received 59,500 restricted stock units? Ken Lay must be green with envy.
Not to put too fine a point on the misery, but P&J were told a story about a year ago by a New York Times staffer — a former Urinal reporter — who appealed to an editor at the Times, a former Rhode Islander, to do something to help out, such as having the Times buy the BeloJo. The response was that there was no need to do this, since the BeloJo was sinking so fast at the hands of poor little rich boy Decherd that the Boston Globe would soon be Little Rhody’s organ of record, and the Times already owned the Globe.
Can you say, “absentee ownership,” boys and girls? Sleep tight, Michael P. Metcalf.
Once a chucklehead . . .
Former WHJJ talk-show savant John DePetro, now spewing his inanities on WRKO radio, recently infuriated women in the Boston area by essentially saying that Imette St. Guillen, the young woman whose rape and murder in New York City has received national attention, was asking for it by being out late partying. DePetro, in all his deranged wisdom, claimed St. Guillen was “asking for trouble” by being out in the wee hours, and that she and other women must use “common sense.”
Good thinking, John. Why should women be allowed to go out drinking at late hours in Manhattan? How else could they try to find a psycho who would murder them? Most Vo Dilunduhs already knew this pipsqueak has the sense of a brick wall.
