Deval Patrick Watch: No Rookie Mistake

« The War At Home | Main | No Kidding: Official Seeking Favor Was Deval Donor »

March 06, 2007

No Rookie Mistake

Governor Deval Patrick, who was criticized during the gubernatorial campaign for his involvement with a controversial subprime mortgage lender, called a top official at Citigroup, former US Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, two weeks ago to intercede on behalf of the owners of Ameriquest Mortgage as they sought urgent financial assistance from the global financial giant.

In a statement to the Globe, Patrick said he made the Feb. 20 call to Citigroup not in his role as governor but after a personal request to him from a top official at ACC Capital Holdings, the firm that owns Ameriquest Mortgage, which has frequently been accused of predatory lending.

Joan Vennochi says this was no rookie mistake...

Can Patrick really believe his personal identity is separate from his elected position? Does he really believe the recipient of that telephone call - former US Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, now a Citigroup executive - considered Patrick your average private citizen, and not governor of the Commonwealth, when he took it?
If Patrick does believe that, wow. He is not a new governor making rookie mistakes. He is a new governor who doesn't understand what it means to hold public office.

The phone call to Citigroup doesn't smack of political favoritism. It reeks of it.

The way things have been going so far, Deval Patrick could be the best thing that happened to the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Posted by Matt Margolis at 01:34 PM | Comments (4) | Track

Comments

Ah what a dope. The Rodney Alan Rippey ( yes I've been corrected) of Massachusetts politics expects us to believe , after his coronation and acting like an emporor, that we shouldn't see His Majesty as the Governor of the Commonwealth when he made that call, but just as a regular Joe. Just like you and me. The little people. He obviously took off those big boots he wears to walk all over us so he could become one of us for the period of that phone call. Yea I can se it now, me and Deval just chillin in the back of the Caddy, knockin back a few Colt 45's.

Posted by: Big Bish at March 6, 2007 02:51 PM

I am past being shocked at anything Deval does anymore. However, the irony of this is too funny. Saturday night, Charles Prince, the head of CitiGroup was at Tufts Saturday night. He was there for the EPIIC symposium
http://www.epiic.org/symposium/2007/symposium.html#corporations

The topic was "Global Governance and Multinational Corporations: Changing Roles and Responsibilities" Mr. Prince and other business where there to discuss ethics (maybe Deval should have attended so he could pick up some pointers). Mr Prince spoke of ethical dilemmas he has faced. Prince was actually quite interesting, the whole panel was. It was worth being searched (the head of Dow Chemical was there as well). I am sure Mr. Prince is glad this little story hadn't broken yet. He made it out of town unscathed. I wonder if Deval got any face time while he was here.

Posted by: Maggie at March 6, 2007 11:50 PM

Bish, Bish, Bish.....

His highness may have Colt for us little people, but HE would be sipping on Corvassier.

Now, I'm the president of a company. If Coupe Deval called me, I'm thinking even if it were on a Saturday morning, I'd know I was speaking with the govenor.

I disagree with Joan Vennochi. The Gov didn't make his mistake by calling the guy.....he knew damned right well what he was doing. His mistake is that he thinks he will get away with things like this.

Posted by: V at March 7, 2007 07:18 AM

When I read about Deval Patrick lately I can't help but think of the Brittany Spears song "Oops I did it again". His mistakes are so frequent that I am expecting he will shave his head and enter a rehab any day now. Lastly, if Joan Vennochi is jumping ugly on you - then you are really in trouble.

Posted by: gopnews.blog at March 7, 2007 08:45 AM