Deval Patrick has something on other politicians. He admits mistakes. That's the good news lead in to the story. The bad news is that he makes mistakes. Stupid mistakes. And keeps making them. A couple of weeks ago, on the eve of the swelling of caddy-gate and the great drape fiasco, the Governor made a phone call on behalf of the company he'd resigned from during the campaign as to eliminate conflict of interest. He took off his Governor hat, picked up the phone, and placed a call to Citigroup on behalf of Ameriquest Mortgage. The call to Robert Rubin, a top executive at Citigroup, was made to ask for the company's support of an urgent request from Ameriquest. At the time Patrick didn't think that he was doing anything wrong in making the phone call – but has since changed his tone, allowing the media to once again use the phrase well on it's way to defining the first few months of the new Massachusetts executive branch: mea culpa.
Patrick, a former assistant attorney general, pointed out that he had worked with Rubin in the Clinton administration and that the conversation with Citigroup's executive lasted "at most a couple of minutes."The call was short – only a couple of minutes, that's got to count for something. Phone calls last only seconds in a lifetime. New drapes, however, are there for the term. The length of the call doesn't really have any bearing on the ethics of the actions – it wouldn't really have been any better if Patrick just sent an SMS. "Rubin – it's me Deval,
It's not as easy as just taking off the Governor hat (shown right) - but if it was perhaps this is the hat Deval Patrick removed before making the call. Want one? You can buy it now in the Bostonist store for only $10
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