Deval Patrick got caught again, but this time the charges were a little heavier than blowing taxpayer money on office drapes or shelling out $1,100 a month for a new Cadillac. This time the state Ethics Commission is investigating Patrick for making what may have been an illegal phone call to the financial colossus Citigroup on behalf of Ameriquest Mortgage, the mortgage lender whose board Patrick served on until last year.
Just a phone call? Hardly. Normally when a governor or other state official contacts a corporation, it is on behalf of the Commonwealth.
But Patrick was using his former position on the board - and his immense leverage as governor - to elicit financial support from Citigroup, which has strong business ties with Massachusetts, for Ameriquest.
When the criticisms came crashing down, Patrick could do little to shield himself. He said he made the call - which was directed to Citigroup's executive committee chairman and former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin - not as governor but strictly as a business reference. Kyle Sullivan, a Patrick spokesman, said the governor was simply vouching for the "current management and character of the company." Patrick added this meager plea: "Don't give up on me yet."
The irony underlying this and Patrick's other missteps in his first months in office is that, leading up to the 2006 elections, Patrick cast himself as a political outsider who eschewed "Beacon Hill culture." As a result, he enjoyed massive grassroots support from the Massachusetts left-in particular from liberal bloggers and students. Patrick was, to his supporters, a populist.
A little civic inquiry, however, should have revealed this to be dubious. Despite the grassroots support he indeed received, Patrick was no less an "outsider" than the Beacon Hill bigwigs he denounced.
Patrick downplayed his extensive corporate connections, and instead emphasized his tenure as a civil rights lawyer under Bill Clinton.
Did voters selectively ignore that Patrick was an attorney for Texaco, general counsel and corporate secretary for Coke, and a board member at Ameriquest, the country's largest mortgage lender? Or did they simply not know? Such ignorance is unforgivable, especially in light of last week's Boston Globe headlines.
What's worse is many of Patrick's supporters have begun to dismiss the governor's phone call as a novice mistake. That is delusional. Massachusetts should be well aware that Patrick's call to Citigroup was no innocent blunder-it was a calculated and deliberate act of political favoritism.
Last year Ameriquest was forced to pay $325 million in compensation to borrowers in 49 states after repeated allegations of "predatory lending." Having been rightfully thrust into financial straits, Ameriquest sought assistance from Citigroup, the world's largest and most profitable financial organization. And Patrick was the middleman, the character witness for the company whose board he sat on for two years. Patrick's phone call carried with it the implicit threat that if Citigroup declined assistance to Ameriquest it would risk losing business with Massachusetts.
Patrick's foibles in his first months as governor are excusable. This is not. Patrick's phone call should prove to be the death knell of his image as the populist governor, the image he presented to his widespread and faithful base.
Despite his pleas, it's time for Massachusetts to have the courage to give up on Patrick. And while that may not require something as drastic as impeachment, it will require a level of scrutiny that voters failed to exercise last November.
- Derek Hawkins is a senior journalism major and member of The News staff.
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