It's getting ugly on Beacon Hill.
A chill is settling in on Beacon Hill, and the late October weather is only partly to blame.
In recent weeks, there's been an uptick in friction between Gov. Deval Patrick and top House and Senate lawmakers over the Legislature's pace on several of the first-year governor's key legislative initiatives.
Patrick says lawmakers have been taking their time scheduling hearings and taking votes, bogging down his efforts to make quick progress on campaign pledges.
Lawmakers say Patrick, used to the streamlined corporate world, doesn't understand the deliberative nature of the Legislature.
Just this week, Senate President Therese Murray, speaking to reporters after addressing a Boston Chamber of Commerce meeting, pointed to the fraying relations between Patrick -- the first Democratic governor in 16 years -- and the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Murray praised Patrick as a "great guy" with "absolutely wonderful ideas" -- then compared him to Republican Mitt Romney, who also made the leap from the corporate world to the state's top political office.
"I know he's frustrated just as the previous governor was frustrated. When you come from the private sector and don't know how government works, it's frustrating," Murray, D-Plymouth, said of Patrick.
Murray then defended the Legislature, saying: "We're not sitting around doing nothing. We've been working on these things for a long time but they take a long time to get through."
Patrick, who served in the U.S. Justice Department under former President Clinton, said he understands the nature of the Legislature -- but he's still impatient.
"I was sent here to make change and it is frustrating the pace of change," he said. "If there are proposals pending, then I fully expect that they're going to get a hearing and that that hearing would be fair and open. Yes, I am frustrated. That's not anger."
UPDATE: More from Dan Kennedy.
