Third-term-itis

From lackluster appointments to a broken-down budget process, Paul Cellucci looks increasingly inept and irrelevant

Nearly nine years into the Weld-Cellucci era, the wheels have come off state government.

Even though this is Paul Cellucci's first full term as governor, the malaise that characterizes third terms has set in. As Bill Weld's "co-governor," Cellucci was able to portray himself as the quietly competent insider who knew how to make the machinery of government work. Now, with Weld long gone, there's something breaking down everywhere you look: embarrassing, publicly funded shenanigans at Massport; stunningly undistinguished appointments; and a state budget that's two months late, leaving underpaid human-service workers and hard-pressed school districts wondering when, if ever, they're going to get the money they've been promised.

Fortunately for Cellucci, prosperity is a powerful narcotic. Good times have inspired torpor. Taxes have been cut repeatedly during the 1990s, yet money continues to pour in so quickly that Cellucci can call for still more cuts -- even though real needs will go unmet when, inevitably, the economy returns to earth. It's about as limited an agenda as can be imagined, yet Cellucci's popularity ratings remain as high as the Dow.

But Cellucci's good luck is Massachusetts's misfortune. The mistakes of commission and omission that are now being made will hurt the state for years to come.

Take, for instance, Cellucci's narrow, unimaginative, and occasionally bumbling approach to filling key positions -- one of the few areas where he can make a real difference, given that the Democratic legislature can and does thumb its nose at him.

The governor's quest for a new runway at Logan Airport suffered a serious setback aboard the good ship Nauticus, when Massport executive director Peter Blute was photographed boozing it up with Republican lobbyist Sandy Tennant and breast-baring stunt actress Gidget Churchill. Cellucci's response was telling. To his credit, he acknowledged the seriousness of the situation by demanding Blute's immediate resignation. But he then replaced Blute with his chief of staff, 33-year-old Virginia Buckingham, a media strategist even less qualified to run a major transportation agency than former congressman Blute had been when he was appointed two and a half years ago. Cellucci's absurd claim that critics of Buckingham were being sexist was quickly answered by Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi, who termed the appointment "gender neutral hackery." If Cellucci truly believes that Buckingham possesses leadership skills that have not been evident thus far, then he should have appointed her on an interim basis -- and let her prove her mettle.

The Red Sox' proposal to build an expensive new ballpark complex in the Fenway has underscored Cellucci's passive approach to governing. Cellucci precipitously endorsed the plan even though the Red Sox have been less than forthcoming about crucial financial details -- including how much public money they will ultimately need. Essentially, Cellucci has signed on to a plan that calls for the unprecedented use of eminent-domain powers to take private properties -- including the Phoenix's building -- for the benefit of the team, which is, after all, a private interest. Worse, estimates that the Sox' plan will cost $550 million, with $200 million to come from taxpayers, will likely prove to be way too low.

There is no more important issue on the public agenda than education, and Cellucci has managed to botch several crucial appointments. His decision to name abrasive former Massport head Steve Tocco, an aggressively unpleasant lobbyist, to chair the Board of Higher Education is an insult. Earlier this year, the governor bumbled when he tried to bend to his will the even more important Board of Education, which oversees public schools.

It started when Cellucci nominated Board of Education member James Peyser, head of the Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank, as the commissioner of education, even though Peyser is not a professional educator. Peyser's fellow board members refused to go along, which led to a standoff and some embarrassingly unsuccessful post-vote lobbying by the governor. It took the customarily acerbic John Silber to find a way for Cellucci to have his cake and eat it too. Playing the unusual role of a diplomat, Silber resigned as board chairman, paving the way for Cellucci to name Peyser to take his place. That, in turn, allowed the board to appoint interim commissioner David Driscoll to the commissioner's job on a permanent basis.

Peyser, an advocate of privatization and vouchers, and Driscoll, a career educator who's liked by the teachers' unions, are an ideological odd couple, although they have vowed to work together. Cellucci, meanwhile, demonstrated stunning political and public-policy misjudgment. He came out of it relatively unscathed only because of Silber's selfless act.

The two-month-plus delay in the state budget is not, strictly speaking, Cellucci's fault. But the governor's inability to pressure House Speaker Tom Finneran and Senate president Tom Birmingham to resolve their differences is further evidence that Cellucci lacks leadership skills. Day after day, Finneran and Birmingham politely hash out their differences on Birmingham's office balcony. The issues that separate them, such as runaway MBTA costs and the scope and focus of a tax cut, are not unimportant, but they should have been settled months ago. Why haven't the legislative leaders been summoned to the governor's office for a meeting of the minds -- and a cracking of some heads?

There are some issues that Cellucci legitimately can do nothing about. Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, with the help of Attorney General Tom Reilly and Auditor Joe DeNucci, appears to be doing the best she can to clean up the mess left behind by Joe Malone's administration.

And Cellucci deserves qualified praise for his appointments to the Supreme Judicial Court. Naming Justice Margaret Marshall, a South African native and former anti-apartheid activist, as chief justice was inspired, and the Phoenix enthusiastically supports her nomination. The two new justices the governor nominated last week, superior-court judge Judith Cowin and appeals-court justice Francis Spina, are, unfortunately, pro-death-penalty, and more conservative than the moderate Marshall. But Cellucci has made no secret of his support for capital punishment, and Cowin and Spina both have reputations for thoughtfulness and diligence. Cellucci should be credited for appointing such well-credentialed people, even though their nominations are a disheartening step toward the possible reinstatement of the death penalty, which the Phoenix strongly opposes.

Bill Weld had his faults; indeed, the government-by-lobbyist ethos now plaguing Beacon Hill got its start during his tenure. But Weld's administration was energetic (even if he himself was not), creative, and forward looking.

By contrast, Cellucci seems bogged down by terminal third-term-itis. The imagination, the excitement, and the ideas are gone, replaced by an endless parade of unqualified loyalists in an administration punctuated by occasional demagoguery over taxes and the death penalty. It's dispiriting, especially when you consider that the next gubernatorial election is more than three years away.

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