Yeah, how can you argue against this?
"For DeLeo, casino politics is personal; Speaker’s father a racetrack legend, but gambling foe" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | April 11, 2010
Well, that nice kid is now the speaker of the Massachusetts House, Robert A. DeLeo, who is fighting the biggest battle of his career by trying to push through a bill to license two casinos in Massachusetts and 750 slot machines at the state’s four racetracks, including his late father’s beloved workplace, the Turf Club at Suffolk Down.
The memory of his father, Al DeLeo, a handsome, courtly man in a tuxedo who greeted gamblers by name and showed them to their favorite tables overlooking the track, and the pride of workers like him whom the speaker met as a young man, are fueling his fierce advocacy of expanded gambling, which he sees as an economic lifeline.
Along with a few other thing$.
This isn't "news," this is agenda-pushing rubbish by a pro-casino and pro-gambling paper.
But DeLeo learned other lessons from his father, too, ones he has not spoken about as publicly.
Even though Al DeLeo loved the track, he recognized its dangers, to the point that he forbade his son from gambling. Robert DeLeo remembers one occasion when he bet on a horse, won, and bragged to his father.
“I was as proud as a peacock,’’ he said in a recent interview. “I said, ‘Hey, Dad, I won a race.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘You’re going to lose too many. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t even go there, pal.’ ’’
So the KID DIDN'T LEARN a DAMN THING!!
With the House set to take up the bill Tuesday, DeLeo is at a crucial juncture, balancing the concerns his father had about the dark side of gambling with his belief in the great economic potential of casino development in the state. For the first time since he became speaker 15 months ago, he has put his stamp firmly on a bill and is driving it forcefully, making it possible, perhaps even likely, that the state will legalize expanded gambling this spring, after decades of debate. DeLeo is personally pressing members to back his legislation....
And you do not say no to the speaker in this state, sig heil.
“Anybody who’s got a pulse in the building pretty much knows it’s an important bill for the speaker, and you don’t have to be spoken to to know that,’’ said Representative Denis E. Guyer, a Dalton Democrat who opposes the legislation. “It impacts his district, and it’s important to him.’’
DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat who rose to power as a low-key figure promising to allow dissent, said he is doing what needs to be done to pass his bill.
That's why it is all being done behind closed doors!
“I wouldn’t consider it arm-twisting,’’ he said. “We debate, and there’s give-and-take, until we come to a conclusion at the end.’’
Some would call it other things: extortion, blackmail
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Robert DeLeo said he sees no conflict between his father’s warning years ago to avoid gambling and his own current push for slots and casinos. He said he is frustrated by critics who say his bill will prey on the vulnerable. A lot of regular gamblers, DeLeo said, are just “old-timers’’ with $10 or $20 to spare.
Yeah, so TOSS IT AWAY at the CASINO so the state can balance its books.
“I see them with their stogies, spending the afternoon at Suffolk,’’ he said. “It’s like a senior-center mentality — you know, just get out there, have some fun, socialize, see their buddies, gab about the
Yeah, just DROP the OLD FOLK off at the RACETRACK and let the homeless into the libraries!
There are your SOCIAL PROGRAMS as offered by the LOOTING LEGISLATURE!
But above all, he said, he is pushing his bill for the track workers, people like his father, who he said are struggling to support their families.
“I see the desperation in their eyes,’’ DeLeo said. “And they don’t know where their next paycheck is going to come from. I think I understand a little better than the average person.’’
Really, I think I'm going to be ill.
