Cat Got My Tongue?
What’s the matter, BTL? How come you’re not crowing about the drubbing President Obama took in the elections yesterday? Republican governors winning in Virginia and… wait for it… New Jersey.
Where’s the victory dance?
No victory dance here. More like a funeral march. Not just because our clown of a mayor won his fifth term (a likable clown, I admit), but because a corrupt city councilor, caught on film accepting a bribe, won reelection with 60% of the vote:
Councilor Chuck Turner has said for months that voters would look past his federal indictment and grant him another term, and last night the five-term Roxbury councilor got his vindication: a 20-point blowout over challenger Carlos “Tony’’ Henriquez.
“It’s significant that I was reelected, but the real significance is that our community did not fall for the hype,’’ Turner, standing on a chair, told a crowd of about 50 campaign supporters who gathered at his district office in Dudley Square and chanted “Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!’’
He then ticked off a series of news media endorsements for Henriquez - from the Globe, the Herald, the Phoenix, and the South End News - as he proclaimed, to broad applause, “The people of Roxbury said, ‘The hell with you!’ ’’
…
Turner, 69, was indicted last year on charges that he accepted $1,000 in cash in exchange for helping a nightclub win a liquor license. Turner has strongly denied the charges, pointing to his beat-up Mazda and his modest home as evidence that he does not live a high-end lifestyle.
…
A dozen voters interviewed yesterday afternoon at the Orchard Gardens Community Center in Roxbury were almost evenly divided between Turner and Henriquez. Those who supported Turner either did not believe the charges against him, did not care about them, or thought they should be overlooked.
…
In his speech at his district office, Turner cited the victories of other City Council candidates of color as an indication of a new direction in Boston. “Martin [Luther King Jr.] said I’m not going to be there with you, but I know you’re going to get to the mountaintop,’’ he said. “I don’t think this is arrogant, but I think we’re on the mountaintop.’’
Why, because there’s a pot of gold there?
Is there anything sicker and sadder than a corrupt, slimy, opportunist wrapping himself in the mantle of a hero? Has the legacy of MLK really been so degraded that a crooked hack can celebrate a meaningless election by exploiting the historic and resonant words King spoke prophesying his own death?
Enjoy, citizens of Virginia and New Jersey, you have much to celebrate. Me, I’m going to drape my house with black bunting.