Sinus problems on Beacon Hill

Widespread sinus problems seem to be afflicting Beacon Hill leaders when they fail to detect the stench covering the Commonwealth.

Beginning with the Probation Dept. Scandal that has been ignored by House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo who continues to conduct his single-minded Dog and Pony Slot Barn Show state wide after accepting campaign contributions from the Gambling Industry and its promoters and conducting business behind closed doors.

Buying a judgeship for $39,775?

DeLeo, The Buffoon!

As the Boston Globe editorial below points out, 'appearance' is everything:

With family ties to lobbyists, Walsh doesn’t fit health post

NEXT TO the budget, the thorniest issue the Legislature will deal with this year will be changes in health care financing. Lawmakers will consider bills that may completely change how health care providers are paid. That shift — from fee-for-service payments towards a system based more on per-capita reimbursements — will set off a free-for-all among insurers, doctors, and hospitals.

To referee this on the House side, Speaker Robert DeLeo has chosen a health-finance committee chairman, Steven M. Walsh of Lynn, whose family is to lobbying what the Mannings are to NFL quarterbacking. Walsh’s father-in-law represents the state’s health insurers, while his uncle’s firm blocks and tackles for Steward Health Care, new owners of the Caritas chain of Catholic hospitals. (Walsh’s father is also a lobbyist, but mainly for the American Federation of Teachers.)

...While Walsh, a Wesleyan graduate and practicing attorney, gets high marks from some State House observers, DeLeo’s decision to put him in charge of the committee overseeing organizations that are paying his uncle’s firm and his father-in-law can only undermine public confidence in the Legislature. DeLeo’s tone-deafness on conflicts of interest was painfully visible in the recent probation scandal, and alarm bells should again be sounding around the health-finance committee.