Globe article on EOR and debate

[MBS]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/23/oreilly_undeterred_by_kerry_long_odds/

Link gives you photo and full text. The usual Globe mish-mash, misleading coverage, made even worse than usual by their uncritical quotation EOR's lies. But here were some bits I enjoyed:

Ed O'Reilly worked the crowd at an annual clambake, introducing himself to dozens of potential voters with a jolly optimism that seemed to overlook the stiff odds against his candidacy for the US Senate.

He spoke about the sputtering economy. He asked about local issues. He ate clams with a plastic fork.

Most were willing to hear the pitch from the mop-haired former firefighter and defense attorney who bears a striking resemblance to Joseph Kennedy. Some even said they would vote for him.

Until John Kerry arrived.

Kerry, who has made few recent appearances in this small town next to Springfield, swooped into a pavilion near the Six Flags amusement park with a half-dozen staff members at his side and began shaking hands. Heads turned. Conversations stopped. Cellphone cameras came out.

"He's like the heavyweight prizefighter," said John Auclair, a 51-year-old police captain from Ludlow who made sure to get a photo with Kerry.

on EOR's distinguished career:

He said he was also a firefighter in Watertown until his father, the fire chief, laid him off because of budget cuts. He received a law degree from New England School of Law and launched a 25-year career as a Gloucester-based criminal defense attorney.

O'Reilly lacks significant experience as an elected official. He was elected in 1984 to a two-year term on the Gloucester City Council, but didn't run for reelection. He also held a single two-year term on the Gloucester School Committee in the early 1990s, but didn't run for reelection because, he said, he wanted to concentrate on his law practice. His service was unremarkable, said a colleague.

"I can't think of anything that was special or out of the ordinary," Kim Normand, who recently left the School Committee after 20 years, said when asked about O'Reilly's tenure. "Nothing stands out."

O'Reilly is divorced and has a 26-year-old daughter who lives in Berkeley, Calif. He lives with his longtime girlfriend in a $1.8 million home in Gloucester and has a condominium in Delray Beach, Fla. He said he was an alcoholic in the late 1980s and used "other substances" that he won't talk about, but said he was never arrested or convicted of drunken driving and hasn't had a drink since March 8, 1989.

[Mass]

1. You selected the good part. It is amazing how Viser insisted on trying to present

an alternate reality even if he could not base it on facts.

Could that be because Kerry did not give him an interview. Matt Viser should know better and do his homework.

Kerry declined to be interviewed at length for this article and appeared annoyed about discussing the race after his 45-minute appearance in Agawam.

"You work hard, you don't take anything for granted," Kerry said in a 37-second interview, before closing his car door and ending the conversation. "You go around, you ask people for their votes, and you do everything you can to say your record. My record is strong. I deliver for this state. And I want to continue these fights.

[MBS]

2. the shallowness and pettiness of the Globe's so-called political

"reporting" amazes me daily. I think you're right that there were petty things going on there; your guess that Viser might have been annoyed that he didn't get a long interview feels right to me.