We know times are hard for everyone right now, but there comes a point in one’s working life where the strain of the job just isn’t worth the paycheck. We thought Rep. Jennifer Callahan may have met that threshold back in May, when another House member told her he could “really hurt [her] if [he] wanted to.”

Now, only a few months after her first run-in, Callahan says she and her constituents are being threatened by wannabe House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

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Gov. Deval Patrick isn’t one for oversharing. While he’s not as spotlight-averse as Senate President Therese Murray, Patrick doesn’t usually spell things out as precisely (or as with as much snark) as House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

Apparently, Patrick’s victories during this legislative session have him feeling pretty confident. Both of today’s papers got the governor to give some pretty blunt quotes.

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In June, Rep. James Fagan engendered the ire of bloggers around the country when he said that, as a defense attorney, he would “rip apart” victims of child rape on the witness stand if the Legislature passed tough mandatory sentencing laws.

According to a report in today’s Globe, it’s about the only thing he would do as an attorney. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a malpractice suit lodged by one of Fagan’s former clients will go forward.

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Yesterday’s scene on the banks of the Esplanade was almost perfect. Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill that will dedicate $3 billion over eight years to fix 300 of the state’s most dilapidated bridges. He did so in sight of the most notoriously crumbly of span of them all, the Longfellow Bridge, as a Red Line train crept across.

The only thing that could have underscored the point better is if a chunk of the bridge splashed into the Charles as Patrick talked about the legacy of neglect.

But his remarks did get us thinking.

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There is no better time to read an article about the MBTA possibly seeking “hefty” fare increases in 2010 than when you’re standing on a corner for half an hour, waiting for a bus that never shows up. It makes the idea of paying as much as $1.90 to ride the bus when it finally does arrive that much more infuriating.

But once we made it into the office and had some coffee, we calmed down and recognized Dan Grabauskas’ comments for what they are—the opening salvo of a campaign to get the MBTA some debt relief.

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It used to take an extra-marital dalliance or criminal activity to destroy a political career. But in the era of YouTube and blogs, all it takes is an ill-advised vacation locale or activity to turn a viable candidate into Jay Leno’s punchline.

With Barack Obama heading to Hawaii in the next few weeks, the Globe reviews all the gaffes that make liberals long for what could have been had John Kerry not gone windsurfing in the summer of 2004.

But all we could think of is all the vacation hilarity that would have ensued if Mitt Romney were the Republican nominee.

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If the Legislature had spent a little bit more time voting on bills instead of mounting campaigns to become House Speaker or working 15-hour weeks, maybe they wouldn’t have to stay in the chambers until late tonight to accomplish all the stuff they should have done before the end of the legislative session.

But they didn’t, so now it’s time to cram months of legislation into a few precious hours. Let the frenzy begin!

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When he was campaigning for the Massachusetts governorship and the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney often cited his experience in saving the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City as a reason he’d make the best candidate.

So it’s ironic that the 2008 Beijing Olympics might delay the announcement of John McCain’s running mate until the first week of September.

The Games giveth, and the Games taketh away.

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Details on the closeness of House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Cognos continue to emerge. The Globe reports that King Sal’s personal accountant and law partner were both involved with the company as the state considered multi-million dollar contracts with the software giant.

Cognos and Sal’s pals are so deeply connected that the paper actually had to create a flow chart to help readers keep the relationships straight.

Flow charts are never good signs when potential scandal is involved.

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We here at Boston Daily have quite the online presence. Googling our names brings up various posts from this blog and mentions on other sites. We are completely unfamiliar with the concept of being anonymous on the Internet.

In his column today, Alex Beam explores how the Web-averse can expunge their identity from the series of tubes. But perhaps the bigger question is, why would you want to?

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