Sal and Deval: Just Another Day in Paradise

We love watching fights on reality TV shows. When two contestants all but hiss like feral cats at the sight of each other, it makes for great entertainment. However, it’s distressing when we see this behavior from Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

The war of words between the two men continues to escalate. This time, it’s Patrick who is laying the verbal smackdown.

Responding to the Speaker’s charges that Patrick’s casino proposal is “losing credibility,” the Governor tells DiMasi to come up with a better idea if he hates casinos so much.

“Attacking ideas without proposing sound alternatives is not good economic policy, nor what the public expects or deserves,” Patrick wrote. “If the speaker has other proposals that will generate the benefits of our legislation, including direct property tax relief for over 1 million households, I look forward to hearing them.”

Oooooh! Next thing you know, Patrick is going to pour beer on DiMasi’s weave.

But it gets better. Economic development secretary Daniel O’Connell also took a couple shots at DiMasi.

“Regardless of whether the proposal creates 30,000 construction jobs over the next few years or 5,000 to 20,000 construction jobs, as reflected in other estimates, one thing is certain: The speaker’s alternative will create zero jobs,” the governor said in his letter to lawmakers.

We don’t want to take sides here. But there’s a pretty big difference between 5,000 jobs and 30,000 jobs. We did the math. The difference is 25,000 jobs.

Sure, 5,000 jobs is better than zero jobs. But 30,000 jobs is six times better than 5,000 jobs. We don’t think DiMasi deserves such a beating for asking why the estimate was so far off. We’re kind of curious ourselves.