Sunday Loon Watch: GOP vs. Obama on Iran

Sunday Loon Watch: GOP vs. Obama on Iran

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What The Globe Didn't Tell You

If today's Globe coverage here had you a bit concerned about the Patrick Administration's role in the Cognos-Dimasi scandal, be reassured that the bloggers on Blue Mass Group are on the case. You can read the whole thing here but below is an excerpt from the post written by David Kravitz:

First, here is the full statement from A&F spokesman Joe Landolfi. I have underlined the only parts that made it into the Globe.

The US Attorney's indictment indicates that the initial Cognos matter began in 2004 under a prior administration. Two investigations into this matter have been concluded - by the US Attorney and the Inspector General - and there have been absolutely no allegations by the investigators of misconduct of any kind by any senior Patrick administration official. Patrick administration officials cooperated fully with both investigations. In fact, the Inspector General's report specifically concluded that the decision to award the contract to Cognos was made on the basis of the recommendation of the then-acting Chief Information Officer - an appointee of the prior administration - who withheld information about concerns raised by the procurement team from her superiors. The Patrick administration brought in a new CIO who was made aware of irregularities with the procurement process and the administration referred the matter to an independent investigatory agency, revoked the contract and obtained a full refund of the $13 million paid to Cognos.

We are confident that senior administration officials acted appropriately at all times. In response to inquiries about the role of the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, we believe that the right decisions were made given the information presented at the time. Given that this is an ongoing prosecution, we feel it is most appropriate to not interfere with the judicial process by responding to specific facts in the case until the process comes to a conclusion.

Now, I don't expect the Globe to run the entire statement. But there's some quite useful information in there that I would think readers would like to know about -- specifically, (1) that this began under the Romney administration, and (2) that the decision by A&F Secretary Kirwan to go forward was made based on misinformation relayed by the Romney holdover CIO, Bethann Pepoli. Way down in the bowels of the article, the Globe does report that "administration officials pointed blame for the award at a holdover from the Romney administration, [acting CIO] Pepoli. Pepoli selected the winning bidder and recommended approval to higher-level officials in a bid process that has since been found to be improper." But the Inspector General's report is quite clear that, as Landolfi's statement says, Pepoli gave Kirwan bad information. Whereas the Globe's version suggests that there was some technical flaw in the procurement process, and Pepoli just passed along what the procurement people told her. That's not the case.

Ethics

Here is a WBUR discussion of the allegations against Sal DiMasi:
http://www.wbur.org/2009/06/03/dimasi-analysis

Here is a link to the Governor's Task Force on Public Integrity, which issued a report in January 2009 "outlining comprehensive recommendations to strengthen the state's ethics and lobbying laws."

Task Force members are here. It's an interesting group which includes Charlie Baker, Harvard Pilgrim exec often mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for governor, and Pam Wilmot of Common Cause.

Dear Governor Patrick, Senator Baddour, and Representative Costello:

Please make Ethics Reform a reality! We need it.