Sunday Column full of Byrne, 980 WCAP and Dracut

I guess somebody has to make some noise out there, and WCAP seems to have done it this week for the column.

Saturday morning, Tom Byrne did appear with us on 980 WCAP as promised. He avoided any specifics about the investigation as he was told to by his lawyer, but did describe his embarrassment over the whole thing, and frustration that he cannot explain the situation.

Emails and callers all came in supporting Tom and the delegation.

General consensus seems to be that the Sun is throwing some facts into the story just to create a controversy (such as the lawyer that Sen Panagiotakos chose, or this morning’s column pointing out that Byrne was identified by the Senator at a ceremony inaugurating the JAM project .. because the Byrne family owned a number of properties in the district. Note that one of those buildings is now a thriving business– little thanks to the city).

The column notes this morning:

Shaw stepped up to defend his friend and the delegation, saying that it is possible that Tully said what is alleged, but that he is sure neither Byrne nor Panagiotakos, Nangle, Murphy or Golden were involved in anything untoward.

They also took the time to shoot the messenger, calling The Sun out for running the story to begin with and “targeting” the reputations of all involved. Shaw went as far to say that it was not fair to “take a shot” at the delegation and predicted that The Sun will not write a story if nothing comes of the investigation.”

I have to agree with the last part. The FBI never makes an announcement that an investigation is complete with no findings, so we never hear such stories in the paper (what happened to all that investigation that was happening in city hall last year?)

I don’t jump up and defend the politicians, they can do that for themselves. I am always nervous when I hear about cash floating around.. but this guy Paley was hiring Tully to try to stop the move of the RMV to another location.. and the fact is, the RMV moved.

Byrne owns properties across from both locations, so there was nothing in it for him (and the business that did move in by the new RMV has nothing to do with driving or traffic, so he got no gain from the RMV moving in there either).

All in all, it sounds like Tully still talks and acts like an old-time politician.. and makes everyone around him look bad. We’ll just have to see what happens.

WCAP Radio.. Pay Attention

Yeah, it looks like Tommy Duggan is done at the station.

I don’t work directly for them, so I don’t get the insider info anymore. The producers don’t have to appear anymore.. the automation systems have him programmed out, and Duggan is saying its permanent and looking for supporters to call in to complain.

For someone who spends so much time on and off the air attacking management, and even going so far as trying to challenge the ownership and interfere with advertising, its funny how hard he is working to try to get back broadcast time that he used only to promote himself and nothing else.

Rumors had been floating around for months that something might happen.. he must have finally pulled out just one too many of those Jenga blocks.

Dracut.. the Cox vote

The column says..

“Bob Cox blames a miscommunication for his decision to approve a liquor license for a private club where he serves a a board member.”

This is the second time they say “his decision to approve a liquor license.” The board approved it, he didn’t. If he abstained, there’s no way to know how the votes may have changed or stayed the same.

I had a problem with his vote against an amendment calling for a police detail to be added to the one day license. But then again, if he abstained, it would have failed with a 2-2 vote anyway.

But if the board had voted against the license, they may have been voting to actually cancel the event itself, so they may have voted another way. There’s no way to know.

Cox seems to be admitting that that he probably should not have been voting on this “so if I was wrong,” he said in the Sun. (I wonder who he spoke to over there? I know a lot of these pols are avoiding talking to Smith.. well most of them.)