Thursday, July 14, 2005

Portrait of Mitt With Stick

There was something about Scot Lehigh's column yesterday (pointed out by Chimes at Midnight) that bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I saw walking GOP talking point Charley Manning on Monday's Greater Boston (which I had on Tivo). Lehigh, as it turns out was echoing Manning, who I then recalled said something similar to the following (from Lehigh's column) when Governor Romney's self-progress report came out a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, lawmakers who have groused that Romney is a CEO who won't share credit should be pleased to see that the glossy "progress report" he recently released features both Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Sal DiMasi on the cover.
Now Lehigh, as did Manning, failed to mention that Romney is also in both of those pictures. In fact, there is only one picture in the whole 23 page report that contains a politician unaccompanied by either Governor Mitt Romney or his lieutenant, Kerry Healey. Still, the presence of a Manning talking point (and near as I can tell, every word that Manning utters is a talking point) in a Lehigh column confirms to me that Lehigh is getting faxes from state GOP hacks and is proudly disseminating them to the public as his own thoughts.

Of course, it could just be a coincidence. Still, I have to think that if you're going to talk about a picture in that progress report, the one to talk about is this one:
Portait of Romney With Stick
I don't know what it is about this photo that I find so compelling. Maybe it's that we're supposed to get the impression that Romney was cleaning up the river all by himself, without messing up his perfectly coifed hair or designer jeans. Maybe it's that his attention is not on the errant stick he rescued from the banks of the Charles but rather he is staring vacantly in the distance, trying in vain to make out the promised land of conservative voters who live beyond Massachusetts' borders. Of course, what it looks like to me is that he's ready to play fetch with his lapdog, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Care to share your thoughts?