Liberal Without a Cause

National Review, July 28, 1997 by Justin G. Maiona

BOSTON

November of 1990 was a heady time for Massachusetts Republicans: William Weld was elected the first Republican governor since 1970. Republicans were also elected as lieutenant governor and treasurer. In the State Senate, 16 Republicans were elected, more than enough to sustain Mr. Weld's veto. Mike Dukakis was out and it seemed like the beginning of a new era.

Fast forward to the summer of 1997, and the State Republican Party is in complete disarray. The Republican membership in the Senate has dwindled to seven and has long since lost its ability to sustain a Weld veto. After reaching 35 in 1990, the House Republicans have shrunk to a laughable 28 members of the 160-member body. Bill Weld is hoping to siesta in Mexico City and the State Treasurer, Joe Malone, and Lieutenant Governor Argeo Paul Cellucci (a Weld protege), are on a collision course for the 1998 gubernatorial primary. And looming on the horizon is U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy, who plans to run for governor in 1998. How could this have happened when the Republican governor is enormously popular, having been re-elected in 1994 with 70 per cent of the vote? The answer is William Weld himself.

One must realize that there are two Gov. Welds. The first is the image the governor wants us to see, that of a witty, affable intellect, a party maverick, who has set out on an uncharted course and who refuses to be limited by principles--which he calls ideology.

The second Gov. Weld is a shrewd, calculating politician who eschews principle at the slightest hint of resistance. He is a fan of the big policy prop that will pacify critics with the least amount of effort; he uses the Republican Party to advance his career, often by poking it in the eyes.

Both of these Welds allow the Governor to play the role assumed by many Northeast Republicans--namely, the Republican critic.

This assessment is shared by party liberals, moderates, and conservatives. Vincent McLaughlin has been a member of the State Republican Committee since 1978. A self-proclaimed liberal Republican, he nevertheless is quite clear regarding Weld. "He is neither Republican nor Democrat nor Libertarian. He is Weldian."

In the 1990 election, Bill Weld presented himself as a crusading U.S. Attorney who resigned from Ed Meese's Justice Department in protest over what he perceived as Meese's ethical indiscretions. He ruthlessly and successfully portrayed his Republican Primary opponent, conservative State Representative Steven Pierce, as a brooding man eager to orchestrate a return of the "back-alley abortion." In the general election, Bill Weld consistently characterized the powerful Democratic Senate president, William Bulger (more a conservative than he), as the wrench in the gears of the Massachusetts state government.

Once safely in the corner office of the State House, Gov. Weld decided he liked politics as usual. Bill Weld developed an effective pattern of public grandstanding on issues like the death penalty. His annual presentation of the death-penalty bill--while lambasting the liberal Democratic leadership that opposed him in the legislature--was lapped up by the press. But that was it. Bill Weld had no further use for the issue.

John Ellis is a consultant in Boston with Rasky & Co. and a contributor to the Boston Globe editorial page. Ellis states that "the Weld Administration's degree of responsiveness to the Globe was amazing." He abandoned the Republicans in the legislature and refused to dirty his hands with the usual arm twisting and application of public pressure. Meanwhile, Weld was sitting in Bill Bulger's office, cutting deals with a man he spent six months vilifying.

For example, Weld had campaigned against a legislature full of career politicians whose lust for taxpayer dollars could not be satisfied. He vowed never to sign the legislative pay raise. Most Republicans in the state dutifully followed suit and publicly opposed the pay raise. Then, suddenly, Weld went silent on the issue and for weeks refused to comment on it.

Early one morning, Weld signed a legislative pay-raise bill, in return for a small reduction on the capital-gains tax. That same day, to avoid the gathering storm of questions, he boarded a plane to Ireland with none other than Bill Bulger and Speaker Charlie Flaherty (who recently resigned the Speakership, after pleading guilty to tax fraud).

This politicking contributed to Gov. Weld's impressive 1994 re-election margin of 70 per cent of the popular vote. Why then are members of his own party backing Sen. Jesse Helms decision to torpedo Weld's nomination? Because after six-plus years of his posturing and party lashing, Massachusetts Republicans have concluded that Bill Weld does little for them.

According to McLaughlin, Weld declined even to respond to pleas from the state party to do "institutional advertising" for candidates during the 1994 election. This same form of advertising helped Gov. Voinavich of Ohio to capture his State Senate for the Republican Party. Weld's customary response to local candidates' pleas was to send the lieutenant governor to a fund raiser. Ellis confirms that Weld "was notoriously indifferent to local party concerns." In fact, as Ellis explains, "If you are Bill Weld, there are many things to do after dinner. Meeting with local activists in Haverill to discuss building the local party is not on his radar screen."