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An anecdote set during the Cardinal Bernard Law Scandals in Boston

There’s a lovely neighborhood of Boston called Brighton (c.f. “Infinite Jest” - David Foster Wallace) home to the Cardinals Residence, Boston College and coincidentally WGBH, the public TV megalith.

It turns out that WGBH, aka Channel 2, wanted a bigger larger production complex. They started building one in 2001 at the foot of Market Street about a quarter mile from the home of His Eminence Bernard Law.

At the same time, the local and national news had picked up on the number of sexually deviant priests there were in the Archdiocese of Boston. Things were going poorly for Law for you see he’s a lier, a pederast, a criminal, an ephebophile… you get the picture. To be honest he inherited the problem but lets not fool ourselves; to him it was just he status quo and he was doing just fine, thanks.

Back to Channel 2… You’ve seen large construction sites. In their early stages they tend to surround themselves in cheap plywood fencing to keep out the riffraff. The new WGBH was no exception; there must have been 250 panels painted green along the corner of Market and North Beacon St.

In late summer 2002, little old Italian ladies, black dressed, bun haired devotees of of the Sacred Heart, clutching ancient rosaries, were calling Cardinal Law “Putz” on local TV. It was the beginning of a long bloody endgame.

Even so it came as a surprise one Monday morning, driving past the Channel 2 construction, to see each of the 250 green plywood panels neatly stenciled with the phrase “Bernie the Pimp”. Now the Roman Catholic Church, bless’em, were major endowers of WGBH when it was just getting started back in the 50’s so within a day the fence was painted over green again.

“Bernie the Pimp” crept back on the fence in less than a week. The fence was repainted but “Bernie the Pimp” reappeared within days. The third time they gave up and “Bernie the Pimp” festooned the WGBH green plywood fence where it remained until the spring; four months after Bernie packed his bags and snuck out of town in the middle of the night for safer, more deviant-friendly digs in Rome at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

The stencilers were never caught. The Archdiocese of Boston eventually paid out millions of dollars in fines and settlements to the children it abused. Brighton remains a quiet place, a tree lined retreat from urban sprawl. And that one act of stenciling “Bernie the Pimp” on 250 green panels stood out as a moment of sardonic humor and guerilla theater.

I wasn’t raised by nuns, so I don’t even have that much of a edukayshunal advantage–I was reading a post on bartcop.com about Hillary Clinton being un-electable, followed a link to “discuss it in the bartblog” and here I am but no way to identify where I should be discussing Hillary.

So I’m just gonna discuss her here: she’s not electable. I know plenty of people who are fed up enough with Republican rule after the nightmare we’ve all been living, but who would not in a thousand years vote for her. I don’t know why they hate her, but they hate her.

I personally don’t support her candidacy because I don’t believe dynasty is the answer to dynasty any more than I believe not taking a stand on anything but seeming hawkish and reaching out to the pro-life crowd makes her a leader of the opposition party. I wish Obama would run her ass right outta being considered and she could take her powerlust somewhere else. I want a democrat with some principles she hasn’t sold out.

I’m a lifelong Democrat, going back to the first presidential vote I cast for George McG. I haven’t ever voted for a Republican, knowingly (arguably, B. Clinton turned out to be an Eisenhower Republican, as he himself ruefully said to his cabine and staff).

I admit voting against Bill in the ‘92 Florida primary, preferring Jerry Brown’s more leftward positions, but voting for the conservative Paul Tsongas because he was the only chance to stop Bill’s candidacy. I figured the BFEE/Right Wing noise machine would destroy Bill in the general election because of the problems that did eventually harm his presidency and the party in a most grave way. I didn’t realize that Clinton was a genius, but more than that, probably the most gifted politician in my lifetime. I also had no idea that Bill may have been a junior partner in the BFEE, possibly (formerly) CIA, and etc.

As for HRC, her royal Clintoncy, all of the above applies, in spades. Except, while I think she may be even smarter than Bill, she hasn’t really shown herself the brilliant retail campaigner and genius political strategist that Bill was and thus used to overcome significant political baggage.

But I’ll say this.

One, very few if any early front runners get the nomination (discounting incumbants or VPs who seek the nomination). The high profiles get the early arrows, and get taken down, almost always. Howard Dean, Gary Hart, Edmund Muskie, Gene McCarthy, and more, all led the parade at one time, but didn’t get the nomination.

Secondly, HRC has such high negatives in the general population, probably higher than anyone who ever got the nomination did at this stage in their candidacies, maybe excepting Dick Nixon.

Lastly, the RW noise machine has a million line inches, a couple dozen books, and the entire ’90s to re-run as hate attacks on her. Not to mention a sizable percentage of Democratic strategists have already pronounced her candidacy doomed in the general election.

If a ‘maverick’ GOPer (think Chuck Hagel) gets the nomination, and comes out clearly against the war, HRC’s pro-war positions will lose her the election, but probably the primaries before then.