Friday, January 13, 2006

Quick Hits

Every week there are items that pile up on my desk and my inbox that I either don't have enough time to talk about, or I don't feel that I have enough to say about. Starting today, I'm going to try and dump them all out on Friday so I can start the next week with a relatively clean slate. My hope is that it will be a blend of things I feel I should comment on, things that other people may have missed, and things that you folks feel should get a bigger audience. If there's anything on your mind, consider this an open thread, and comment away. As for me, here are this week's leftovers:

  • Lees to Retire: State Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees is retiring at the end of his term. That not only creates another open seat in the Senate, but will leave the remaining five Republicans to fight over who gets to be leader in the next session. The Springfield Republican has the text of his announcement.
  • Welcome to the Blogosphere: There's a new blog in town, Kerry Healey -- Out of Touch. So far, so good!
  • Immigrant tuition bill fails: Politics won out over compassion as the House defeated the bill that would have allowed undocumented students who graduated from in-state high schools to pay in-state tuition to UMass. Legislators voted overwhelmingly to neutralize this as a 2006 campaign issue rather than do right by hundreds of Bay State children.
  • John Bonifaz Speaks: The Progressive Blog's Charlie Gallo interviewed John Bonifaz, candidate for Secretary of the Commonwealth last week. The conversation is long, but well worth reading.
  • Patrick's Republic of Cambridge: The Cambridge Chronicle reports that Deval Patrick is out fundraising Tom Reilly by nearly five to one in that city.
  • What's In a Name Only?: The Herald says that Tom Reilly is a DINO, a Democrat in Name Only, because he has the audacity to want the economy to improve. The editors of the Right-Wing Human Events call Mitt Romney a RINO for his support of abortion rights (!) and because he made fun of Houston one time.
What else are people talking about?