The newly installed Governor has been taking a lot of flack for some spending during his first two months in office. It all started with the inauguration and its price tag. Then we heard about the $72,000 chief of staff he hired to assist his wife in the duties of a first lady. Then a couple of helicopter rides in State Police aircraft. Follow that with Caddy-gate, a $46,000 lease for a Cadillac DTS (his other option was the similarly equipped $31k Chrysler 300). But the cherry for the media blitz surrounding the spending was the $27,000 spent in upgrades his office at the State House, including $12,000 for new drapes. Amidst scrutiny of his spending, and little attention to his political initiatives Deval Patrick has come out and admitted it was a bit much. He's screwed up and will be repaying the Commonwealth's coffers for some of his extravagance. Repayment will include the full cost of the redecoration of his office, and a contribution to the monthly lease cost of the Cadillac to make it comparable to the cost of Romney's vehicle. It bears mention that Dukakis used to take the T to work as Governor (and still does when he's in town.)

Starting day one of the administration the rhetoric was all about the budget deficit that Romney had saddled Patrick with. Pike tolls can't be removed because we don't have the funding for it. Budget cuts will be made (or at least increases won't be as significant, it's all in the semantics for politicians.) Slots may be installed at racetracks to generate revenue. Then the focus turned to Patrick's own spending on his administrative creature comforts. The state democrats seemed like they were in control of the spin out of the gate – but the republicans must have hired someone good because the tables have turned. Little has been reported in the last week or so about anything positive coming out of the Governor's office, and even less about anything relating to policy. Of course there is one good thing being reported about the Governor's office: it sure does look nice.

We've said it before and we'll say it again. Deval Patrick needs some more photos in the public domain we can use. Bostonist would endorse that as money well spent. Until then we'll keep on using this gem.