The event was held at the JFK Library in Boston -- "the People's Library," according to U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
John Schneider, executive vice president of MassINC, was one of the speakers at Thursday night's dinner honoring the think tank's 15th anniversary.
By ANDY METZGER
BOSTON - There are a few obvious punch lines in Massachusetts politics: The unbroken streak of three former House speakers indicted by grand juries; the brotherhood of Billy Bulger, once one of the state’s most powerful pols, and James Bulger, once the state’s most notorious crime boss; and more recently former Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner’s infamous “preacher’s handshake,” containing a wad of cash.
Except for a passing mention of former Speaker Sal DiMasi’s absence – “he had a scheduling conflict,” quipped comedian Steve Sweeney – that low hanging fruit was avoided at “Serious Fun,” a celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of public policy think tank MassINC and a send-up of the state’s most powerful on Thursday night.
The event was everything the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast once was – with politicians and pundits taking potshots at each other, and catching belly laughs from the big-ticket crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library.
Co-host Jim Braude reminded U.S. Sen. Scott P. Brown, who phoned in from Washington D.C., that the Kennedy Library was the venue for a pivotal debate during his race in 2010.
“Well you mean the People’s Library, Jim,” Brown deadpanned.
The show opened with a filmed parody of “The Godfather,” with Boston Mayor Tom Menino playing himself, meeting with an actor playing Don Chiofaro, the developer who has butted heads with City Hall over his stymied plans to build a tower along the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
“The Philistines at the [Boston Redevelopment Authority] told me it would cast a shadow on the Greenway. It would cast a shadow on the food trucks and make the sandwiches cold,” said the Chiofaro character as Menino stroked a toy cat and later plugged Modern Pastry – “Leave the blue prints; take the cannoli.”
Some politicians thrive on their ability to tell and take a joke, while others believe that task is best left to the editorial cartoonists.
In a taped segment viewers could practically hear House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray reading their lines off cue cards.
“Neither of us is very good with the joke,” DeLeo said in what was intended to be the joke.
When questioned by a reporter, about half the attendees – who had shelled out $500 per ticket – either claimed to have professional lives of unwavering seriousness or confided that they had funny stories they would keep to themselves.
“I’ve been around this for a long time and there’s not a lot of humor,” said John Gomes, of Clarke University, a sponsor. “Of course, I worked for [Michael] Dukakis and [John] Kerry.”
Mark Robinson, who was former Gov. William F. Weld’s chief of staff, said a sense of humor was one of his former boss and friend’s many gifts. As thousands of public school teachers marched on Beacon Hill and yelled into megaphones to protest the scrapping of tenure protection, Robinson said, the governor turned to him and said, “Go down and see what they want.”
John Schneider, now executive vice president at MassINC, shared another moment from that tense time of education reform in 1993. Then a Statehouse aide, Schneider was seated in a closed-door conference committee with about 10 others, in heavy chairs around a table in then-Ways and Means Chairman Tom Finneran’s office.
“As I’m leaning back, I reached a point of no return,” Schneider recounted. He wound up on the floor, but emerged to the stunned crowd with a laugh line, “The Speaker told us that the proceedings of this conference committee were confidential. Now we’ll know.”
The story remained secret, Schneider said, though another attendee Thursday night, who had been at that meeting, remembered if vividly.
Charlie Baker, who ran against Gov. Deval L. Patrick a year ago, recalled arriving late to a “media event” when a staffer whisked him “straight into the closet” – next door to the door he was supposed to use. About seven of Baker’s cadre followed him into the closet, which he described as roomy.
“We managed to fit quite a few of us in there,” said Baker. “I was laughing inside.”
On the rostrum and in the video presentations, there were few taboos. There were two cracks about Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray’s harrowing early morning car accident, which he survived unscathed, and reference was made to Weld’s taste for “amber colored liquids.”
The only joke that really irked the crowd was when former State Treasurer Joseph Malone appeared to tongue former Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger’s ear, and Sweeney said, “Wasn’t that a wonderful Barney Frank type moment?”
MassINC is the publisher of Commonwealth Magazine, which has written critically about the negative impacts casinos might make in this state – and the anticipated Gaming Commission and other potentials served as the punch lines to more than a few jokes.
Gov. Patrick, who had just arrived by plane from New York City, was comically fawned over by co-host Jim Braude and chided by Eagan.
“I’m kind of surprised to see you tonight, because this event is in Massachusetts,” Eagan said.
“I have to travel. It’s part of the job,” said Patrick. “I have to get ready for the 2016 Iowa caucuses. Someone else wrote this,” he protested holding up the printed out script.
The crowd drank cocktails at an open bar for the first couple hours, and then sat down to dinner and wine – and more cocktails for those who ventured into the hall – during the presentation. After the program ended, groups hung around in bunches, chatting.
The aim of the night, levity, was achieved.
“We thought a lot about the tone of the political discourse these days,” MassINC President Greg Torres had said to kick off the show. “And we thought, maybe it was time to just take a break… Maybe it was time to step back and have a little fun at the expense of ourselves and everybody else in town.”