Monday, July 11, 2005

Mitt Recycles Some Hacks

Last week, Governor Mitt Romney appointed some familiar faces to three open cabinet positions. The Boston Herald has the story of our new Secretary of Administration and Finance, Thomas Trimarco. Those with long memories will recall that Trimarco was Joe Malone's top aide at the same time Treasury Department workers under him were stealing nearly $10 million from the Massachusetts State Treasury. While Trimarco was never charged with any wrongdoing, he was ostensibly one of the people involved in minding the proverbial hen-house. Team Romney had this to say about the appointment (from the Herald):

Romney spokeswoman Julie Teer said Trimarco's past position played no role in the governor's decision to appoint him to run Administration and Finance, replacing outgoing chief Eric Kriss.
That sounds like a pretty good racket to me. I'm sure there are a lot of other people in Massachusetts who would love it if they could apply for new jobs without any consideration for their performance in past positions. Heck, Romney himself would probably rather people didn't consider his performance as governor when America decides whether or not to hire him as President in 2008.

In addition to Trimarco, Romney appointed Tim Murphy, his current policy director, to be the new state Secretary of Health and Human Services. You may remember Murphy from the controversy he stirred up in May where he implied that the solution to the healthcare crisis was to have hospitals be more aggressive when collecting payments. He is widely considered the architect behind Romney's new "Insure yourself or else!" health care proposal. At least with this appointment we can expect job growth in the repo and bill collection fields.

Along with those two, Acting Department of Conservation and Recreation Stephen Pritchard got a promotion to Secretary of Environmental Affairs a few months after donating the maximum amount to Romney's reelection fund. Remember folks, correlation does not imply causation!