Mayor Thomas M. Menino grabbed headlines last week when he chastised the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for adopting a rule that allowed a referee to slap a key penalty on a Cathedral High School player about to score a touchdown.
The player’s offense? Raising a fist in triumph while he approached the end zone in the fourth quarter of his team’s Super Bowl appearance – a move that was deemed unsportsmanlike.
“I think sometimes these rules are written by frustrated athletes,’’ said the mayor.
Yet overshadowed by the tirade was a more fundamental question: What the heck is the mayor of Boston doing complaining about something far beyond the purview of City Hall?
Some political observers took it as the latest sign that Boston’s longest-serving mayor is gearing up for a 2013 campaign.
He’s been all over the news lately, talking about the Occupy Boston encampment at Dewey Square, outlining his vision for the East Boston waterfront, and endorsing Suffolk Downs for a new casino.
One top aide said Menino still hasn’t decided about his political future. “He either wants to be on top or go out on top,’’ said the aide, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “He doesn’t want anyone thinking there’s ‘fifth-term-itis.’ ’’
DiMasi’s wife defends him, says Globe wanted him out
Debbie DiMasi, wife of former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, is defending her husband after he was jailed last month for his conviction on federal corruption charges.
During an appearance on WGBH-TV’s “Greater Boston,’’ she accused The Boston Globe of propelling the criminal case. She said the newspaper was eager to dislodge her husband from the State House because he had blocked casino gambling – a potential source of advertising revenue.
The familial support ignored a couple of big moments in his trial, though.
First, DiMasi’s onetime law partner, Steven Topazio, testified that the former speaker arranged a contract for him with a Canadian software company – Cognos Inc. – for which he did no work.
While Cognos typically paid Topazio $5,000 a month, he said he routinely passed along $4,000 of that to DiMasi. The former speaker was accused of pushing a computer contract with Cognos through the Patrick administration in exchange for the money. His attorney called it “referral fees.’’
Secondly, Cognos gave Topazio one $25,000 lump sum in December 2006 for five months’ work. He testified that DiMasi demanded it all.
When Topazio gave him a check for that amount, DiMasi returned it with handwritten instructions on the envelope to break it into checks for smaller amounts: $8,000 on Dec. 20; $4,000 on Dec. 22; $6,000 on Dec. 26; and $7,000 on Dec. 28. The envelope was shown in court. While DiMasi’s attorney noted that all four checks were deposited at the same time, in the same bank, with the same teller, the former speaker never took the stand to explain the $65,000 in alleged kickbacks – or his reasons for wanting the big one broken into more nominal amounts.
“They felt that Sal didn’t need to get up on the stand, that the case was very weak,’’ Debbie DiMasi said.
A jury of his peers disagreed.
Growing family a factor in Bielat run for Congress
When Democrat Barney Frank announced last month that he would not seek reelection to Congress, the natural assumption was that his 2010 Republican opponent – Sean Bielat – would be a sure candidate for the seat next year.
Not so fast, Bielat told the Globe.
“From a pure candidacy perspective, the pieces are in place. We have a good amount of volunteers and people who want to come back again. On the other hand, we just have to figure it out as a family,’’ said Bielat.
He spoke from Pennsylvania, where they had moved nearly three months ago to be near family after pregnancy complications. Three weeks ago, his wife delivered a baby girl, and the family is returning to Massachusetts in the next week or so.
“When I started the last race, we didn’t have any kids. Now we have two under 15 months old,’’ said Bielat.
Bielat has also faced a series of inquiries and complaints from the Federal Election Commission about technical errors in and improper filing of his fund-raising reports from his last campaign. Bielat explained that he raised about $320,000 before the primary, then $2.1 million in the frenetic final weeks.
“It was just drinking through a fire hose,’’ he said. “We had some people doing the reports at that time who were being overwhelmed through no fault of their own, just by the magnitude of money coming in.’’
He promised better in the next campaign – if there is one. A decision should come within a week.
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Glen Johnson is lead blogger for Political Intelligence; available online at www.boston.com /politics. He can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.
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