And I am NOT the one who called them that, either!
"Brazen betrayal" by Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist | October 29, 2008
It's as if she was desperate to get caught.
The feds say she shoved the cash into her bra and her pockets at restaurants right across the street from the State House. These are restaurants with big windows, restaurants full of people who work on Beacon Hill.
They say she openly cracked knees and twisted arms after taking the bribes, barely bothering to disguise her intentions. That Dianne Wilkerson expected to get away with all of this beggars belief and betrays a serious psychic malady.
Then again, she had survived other transgressions - thrived, even. With a magician's sleight of hand she called on the race card and it fluttered into view, diverting eyes from her campaign finance violations, her tax problems, her lies.
The state's only black senator - the one who was supposed to represent a new Boston - appears to be nothing but a throwback to the city's corrupt past. Dejavu indeed.
It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. And it is heartbreakingly sad.
It has made all of the people who believed in this senator - good people who had invested her with their hopes for what women, African Americans, and the whole city could be - look like fools.
--MORE--"
Not only look like; they ARE!!!
Here, take a gander at some damn fools!
"Some in home district still backing Wilkerson; See her as victim of biased intent" by John C. Drake, Globe Staff | October 29, 2008
Residents of her district have repeatedly propelled state Senator Dianne Wilkerson to reelection despite her history of legal and ethical transgressions, and yesterday not even images of her stuffing money into her clothing were enough to turn away her staunchest supporters.
In interviews, some supporters compared the 16-year incumbent's predicament to that of other black political leaders who have faced arrest, even invoking the name of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was arrested in Birmingham during the civil rights era. Several people questioned the preelection timing of Wilkerson's case and suggested that she had been singled out for scrutiny by federal investigators.
Talk about DENIAL!!!
Please, please, she is NOWHERE NEAR the GOOD DR. KING!!!!!
"It doesn't change my opinion of her," said Zerahiah Israel, 37, of Dorchester, while waiting for a bus at the Dudley MBTA station yesterday. "There are unscrupulous individuals who don't have the interests of our community at heart and would not like to see that kind of strong leadership in the community."
Israel said he was not registered to vote in time for the September primary, but plans to vote for Wilkerson next week, in spite of her arrest. "Had we done what we were supposed to do in the primary, she would still be in office with almost no competition," he said.
Pffftt! Where were you, buddy?
Jean McGuire, executive director of Metco, the Roxbury-based agency that enables city students to attend suburban schools, said the senator's supporters will be rightly disappointed if Wilkerson is convicted of the charges. But she expressed confidence that they will reserve judgment.
But NOT disappointed at the ACTS?
"It's always disappointing if your hopes for somebody don't pan out, but until it is proven otherwise, we hope things go forward," she said in a telephone interview, adding that the allegations should have been aired earlier.
Yeah, except she was TAKING BRIBES right up until THIS MONTH!!!
"On Oct. 2, she accepted a $10,000 cash payment from the agents posing as developers, saying she needed the funds for her reelection effort, the FBI said"
"That's the part I think will fuel people saying: 'Wait a minute. Why didn't they let us know a long time ago,' so it could be discussed and have a public vetting and work through the courts and all be resolved by now," McGuire said.
Because they were still BUILDING the CASE?
While supporters said they still intend to vote for Wilkerson next week, it was not clear yesterday whether her campaign would continue in earnest or whether she would abandon it. Her usually bustling Tremont Street campaign headquarters, on the first floor of the Roxse Homes apartment complex, was shuttered. Her campaign manager, Boyce Slayman, did not return repeated phone calls, and others close to Wilkerson said they did not know her plans.
Then YOU GUYS DESERVE to EAT SHIT!!! Fuck, I'll help feed ya!!!!
Pffffffffftttt!
One staunch supporter, Michael Thomas, 48, a real estate consultant from Roxbury, said her arrest was part of a conspiracy and his support of Wilkerson is total:
"There's always been a conspiracy to make sure that wherever there is a concentration of black power, their power is always diluted. There are other elected officials that have been doing things under the surface for years, and they just get a slap on the wrist. If I had money to pay her debts, I would."
There is that WORD AGAIN!
It was not so much the allegations that a politician accepted $23,500 in payoffs that sent ripples through the lunch crowd yesterday on Beacon Hill. The shock was the allegation that state Senator Dianne Wilkerson was brazen enough to accept the cash in bustling restaurants just steps from the State House.
Hey, when you think you are UNTOUCHABLE.... !!!
The crimes occurred, authorities allege, in settings as varied as the Fill-A-Buster lunch counter on Bowdoin Street, where bureaucrats squeeze ketchup onto the meatloaf special, and Mooo, a modern restaurant with 25-foot ceilings where white gold chandeliers bathe the airy dining room in warm amber light and a 52-year-old single-malt Macallan scotch sells for $425 a glass.
One FBI surveillance photograph appears to show Wilkerson grabbing a handful of $100 bills over a starched white tablecloth at a lunch June 18, 2007, at the esteemed No. 9 Park, where a loin of Colorado lamb is served with fava beans, Greek yogurt, and pickled garlic scapes ($65 in a three-course prix-fixe).
In a dining room in the 1803 Bulfinch mansion, Wilkerson then allegedly stuffed the $1,000 into her bra, according to a surveillance photograph and an affidavit filed in court. Authorities allege that Wilkerson accepted the first payment of $500 on June 5, 2007, at Scollay Square, an American bistro where lunch includes Island Creek oysters ($13) and blackened center-cut swordfish steak with mixed greens ($13.50).
This is the kind of stuff the FBI SHOULD BE SPYING ON!
Instead of seeking a dark corner amid the orange glow of the dim restaurant, Wilkerson appears in an FBI surveillance photograph to be seated at an outside table while accepting an alleged cash bribe on a sun-dappled day on Beacon Street. Wearing a red hat, Wilkerson sits facing the State House, which looms at the end of the block.
The discussion was perhaps frankest at Fill-A-Buster, the six-table, 13-stool Greek-style diner at which Wilkerson is accused of accepting six bribes. Owner James Grigas said he has been making the senator breakfasts of bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat toast for at least a decade.
