MooreCOL.11-12-2004ÿÿ.no.15 Hed : Let's say Mitt was on loan for 2 years By BOB MOORE While the talk has been about Gov. Romney and what'll he do next, we may have missed the point. Maybe it should be : What will he be asked to do next? It's becoming clear that Romney's been a Karl Rove agent. Here today, gone tomorrow. Let me explain. Think of 2002 when the odds were that the Democratic candidate for governor would easily beat the GOP incumbent. In the White House Rove, Bush's top adviser, decreed that Mitt Romney, the Olympics savior, should save the Republicans here. He did and he ran big. Rove does that sort of thing - switching candidates when his polls say one can win. You may recall that in Minnesota former Vice President Walter Mondale fell victim to Rove's switcheroo. Rove's role is not limited to adding Electoral College votes. Here, events moved swiftly. A congressional committee came to Boston and roundly roasted Billy Bulger, and soon this top Democrat was a loser. Then Federal agents pressed Tom Finneran until he left. The rest was up to Romney - a Reform Campaign to make Democrats a no-no in the Legislature. This move reached into MetroWest where Romney rounded up Jim Coffey, a wealthy lawyer from Hopkinton, to foil State Rep, Karen Spilka of Ashland's move to become state senator. But Romney's cash did not carry, and Coffey's blunderbuss tactics failed. Spilka polled 57 percent of the vote to keep the district solidly Democratic. Fellow townsman Tom Sannicandro easily won the rep seat vacated by Spilka. WHAT NEXT? - The talk has been that Romney was trying to build himself up for some post in Bush's Washington or to be considered a GOP candidate for the presidential nomination in 2008. Look, he's never around was the frequent observation; he's looking for something better. I'd like to say, to the contrary, that Rove's been window-dressing Romney across the country and abroad - this son of a former governor of Michigan, astute manager of the limping Olympics and a venture capitalist. Reminding fellow Republicans and potential Democratic 2008 candidates Romney's potential. Like Secretary of Commerce in the cabinet? Homeland Secretary? Or a man to tackle the nation's foreign trade imbalance? Whatever. But a story in The Boston Globe Wednesday reported that Romney had left word at the White House that he wouldn't consider a Cabinet post, because - well, he'd promised to seek re-election for governor in 2006. OK, but all he'd tell the press was : "I do expect that I'll be running for governor, but I think that's another topic." [Translated : I do expect . . . . something could come up and I might change my mind - or have it changed for me in D.C.] A politician's biggest loophole is the word expect. Let's say Mitt was just on loan for 2 years. VOTING - Reluctantly I voted for John Kerry. I didn't feel comfortable with either man. Though I voted for Kerry, much of the attack on Bush was rot. And that includes the superior attitude toward those voting for Bush. The "they must be dumb" attitude. I don't think that attitude was smart, and it's a lot to come down from as we try to get on together. Until the last I almost voted for Bush, but then I thought of the three, or possibly four, Supreme Court Justices who are so close to retirement. Those retirements could give the man elected a lot to say about interpretation of the law, for two or three decades. Also, who'll be elected. After FDR, Democrats kept the White House for 20 years. Except for Carter and Clinton, Democrats have been left at the door much of the time since John Kennedy. Picking his first Justice is going to be a test of Bush's efforts to deal with the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate. They say he may raise Associate Justice Clarence Thomas [black, appointed 1991] to succeed William Rehnquist as chief justice when the latter retires. Rehnquist [1972] became chief justice in 1986. Illness may force Sandra Day O'Connor [1981] and Ruth Bader Ginsburg [1993] to step down. Recently, Justice Antonio Scalia, friend of Vice President Cheney, has sounded as if he'd like to go back into private life. Bill Safire of The New York Times, has an out for Bush in this ticklish situation : Just pick a brilliant, moderate, Hispanic female strict constructionist from Massachusetts. BIG DREAMS - The Trustees of Danforth Museum have spoken again. They'd like to radically revise that aging structure and maybe buy it or rent it long term for more than the $1 a year they now pay the town. The last time we heard from them, they were thinking raising a few million and setting up a museum-appropriate building on Farm Pond - an excellent site for a museum which draws visitors and students from the immediate area. But money is the catch. Maybe $25 mil for a picturesque site. And money is still the question if the town goes through with "doing something" with that building on Concord Street. Actually the Danforth extends a city block behind the Public Library. The Senior Center is located on the backside. The Center is moving [allegedly in April] to spacious new quarters, with parking lot, on Union Avenue when an elevator is installed. I bring this up because that move means repair. Not only on the backside but also of the Concord Street quarters. One of the trustees told me a year ago that recent improvements have not made the building satisfactory for museum care. The last rush to repair some windows was only a surface repair. Figures for programs like this are apt to be "vaguely satisfactory" and never precise. That reminds me, we have the $90 million capital improvement override to work on. To date, it still has to get sifted by town committees for presentation to a Special Town Meeting in January. But which of the programs proposed will be carried forward is not known. Meetings between now and January [date?] are few and far between. Still waiting is the FY 06 operating budget which goes before Town Meeting next April. And talk of town elections is just beginning to perk. Better get your Holiday Shopping done early. __________________________________________________ You can reach Bob Moore at edmoore4@aol.com or at 1-508-620-1449. To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@syslang.net with body unsubscribe frambors (the subject is ignored). Please read the Frequently Asked Questions maintained online at http://frambors.syslang.net/faq/about.html before posting or replying.