UPDATE
For those of you keeping score at home - it's Friday, January 6th, 2006, and Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly is still a reprehensible sack of shit.
Reilly under fire for cover-up: Romney blasts AG as details of crash emerge
So now, as defined by the Gospel According to Tom, asking a law enforcemnent agency to explain their refusal to enforce the law is considered to be "politicizing" the matter. And our Attoreny General finds such behavior "horrifying"?
Let me pose a hypothetical for you, Tom.
Suppose these girls had been from an affluent family in Belmont, and their father happened to be a Romney campaign donor. If the governor was found to have used his influence to have the investigation prematurely closed, despite the overwhelming evidence that several laws of the Commonwealth had been broken, would you be OK with that? Or would you conveniently then flick your "Enforce the Law" switch to the ON position?
Yeah...thought so.
UPDATE: Boston Globe article, published 1/6/06, with timeline of the incident and subsequent investigation here.
UPDATE II: I guess I'd put forth the above hypothetical scenario to the folks over at the "reality-based" website, Blue Mass. Group, some of whom are having a hard time actually calling Reilly out and condemning him over this atrocity.
Were the roles of Reilly and Romney reveresed in this matter, I'm sure they'd all be willing to give the governor a pass on it.
Reilly under fire for cover-up: Romney blasts AG as details of crash emerge
Attorney General Tom Reilly scrambled yesterday to explain why he tried to cover up the role of alcohol in a fatal accident that killed two teens, but the secrecy crumbled within hours when new details involving vodka and drinking games were revealed by police.
The probe into Shauna and Meghan Murphy’s deaths concluded without criminal charges yesterday as Reilly — a friend of the girls’ father — was accused of intervening with Worcester District Attorney John Conte in an effort to keep details of the girls’ drinking secret.
The Southboro girls, ages 17 and 15, were killed in October when the Land Rover Shauna was driving struck a utility pole after they left the house party of a male acquaintance in Northboro. Police had probed whether to charge Nathaniel Berberian, 20, for allowing a minor to consume alcohol.
Northboro police Chief Mark Leahy, who had accused Reilly of thwarting his efforts to get blood-alcohol results on the girls, released a report yesterday detailing the alleged pre-crash drinking at Berberian’s home.
But an emotional Reilly, a Democratic candidate for governor, said, “The only role that I had in this at all is to take steps to make sure the (medical) information is not released to the media. To the best of my knowledge — I know I didn’t — no one interfered with any investigation, tried to impede any investigation, tried to withhold any information from law enforcement officials.”
Gov. Mitt Romney accused Reilly of trying to “hush up” the investigation. The AG read a statement from the Murphy family pleading against “politicizing” the case.
So now, as defined by the Gospel According to Tom, asking a law enforcemnent agency to explain their refusal to enforce the law is considered to be "politicizing" the matter. And our Attoreny General finds such behavior "horrifying"?
Let me pose a hypothetical for you, Tom.
Suppose these girls had been from an affluent family in Belmont, and their father happened to be a Romney campaign donor. If the governor was found to have used his influence to have the investigation prematurely closed, despite the overwhelming evidence that several laws of the Commonwealth had been broken, would you be OK with that? Or would you conveniently then flick your "Enforce the Law" switch to the ON position?
Yeah...thought so.
UPDATE: Boston Globe article, published 1/6/06, with timeline of the incident and subsequent investigation here.
UPDATE II: I guess I'd put forth the above hypothetical scenario to the folks over at the "reality-based" website, Blue Mass. Group, some of whom are having a hard time actually calling Reilly out and condemning him over this atrocity.
He may be right on principle, but it was a pretty lousy speaking performance.
~ Charley on the MTA
Sure, it might have been awkward for him, considering the connection, but he did whats right, and in the end, thats what matters.
~ Ben
Were the roles of Reilly and Romney reveresed in this matter, I'm sure they'd all be willing to give the governor a pass on it.
