Less than a month out from what looks like major midterm Republican victories across the nation, the Massachusetts GOP is on the verge of being eliminated as a legitimate opposition party for the foreseeable future.
It’s a pathetic story, and it didn’t have to happen. And the biggest mistake was made by Gov. Charlie Baker back in 2019.
He should have bailed out Geoff Diehl with a hack state job. After losing his second consecutive race, Diehl was out of the Legislature, broke. If only Diehl had been given a parachute, he and the state Republican Party might not be about to be totally humiliated.
Hack jobs are meant for unemployable, unelectable pols like Geoff Diehl. If he were grabbing $135,000 on, say, the Cannabis Control Commission, he’d be out of sight, out of mind, forgotten but not gone. He wouldn’t be embarrassing himself and the Republican Party. He’d still be taking photos shaking hands with Charlie.
As a politician, Geoff is a sheep in sheep’s clothing. His campaign is destitute. Their big activity Saturday was volunteer standouts in such bustling locations as the Townsend Common and the Westminster Cracker Factory.
Today the Diehl machine will be flexing its sign-waving muscle at, among other places, Monson Town Hall and the Leominster Connector, in the middle of the Pats’ game for minimum visibility.
Don’t worry, the Diehl campaign assures you, there will be “plenty of parking.”
Diehl held a press conference at the State House last week and one TV camera turned up. This week he issued more policy statements, with comments from … his campaign manager.
He had to cancel a fundraiser at a brewery last week in Holden that had been advertised as an event with the sheriff out there. He no longer talks to reporters very often, as if he’s worried about being asked questions he might not have very good answers to.
Diehl seems even more terrified of answering certain questions from reporters than he was of debating his GOP primary opponent last summer.
After being crushed by the fake Indian, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in 2018, Geoff’s prospects weren’t so hot, to put it mildly. He became an Uber driver. There’s nothing wrong with that, but let’s face it, would you rather be out hustling rides in Greater Brockton, or “telecommuting” at the Mass. Gaming Commission?
Geoff’s Uber passengers gave him a 4.91 rating (out of five) on his 196 trips. So he was a competent chauffeur. One quality of Diehl’s in particular stood out among his passengers — “Knows English.”
The chairman of the state Republican Party is Jim “Jones” Lyons, a defeated state rep from North Andover. His finance chairman is Rick Green, a defeated Congressional candidate.
Green runs A-1 Auto Parts in the metropolis of Pepperell. His employees include John MacDonald, defeated state Senate candidate, and Dean Tran, defeated state senator, as well as a former aide to Lyons, the defeated state rep.
Do you begin to detect a pattern here? Soon Diehl was on the A-1 payroll. He had all the right qualifications — defeated for both the state Senate and the U.S. Senate, not to mention unsuccessful candidate for the GOP chairmanship won by defeated state rep Lyons with the help of defeated Congressional candidate Green.
They’re in big with former President Donald Trump now, but in 2016 Lyons worshipped Ted Cruz, and Rick Green swooned over John Kasich. That’s right, the son of a postman!
Headed for certain defeat on Nov. 8, Diehl is already a three-time loser. He’s the local Beto O’Rourke, minus the heiress wife.
They could make a movie about this whole Mass. GOP crew, except that Stephen King has already grabbed the obvious title — “The Losers’ Club.”
Lyons has turned the state Republican Committee into the political equivalent of Jonestown — a political death cult. And he’s the new Jim Jones, doling out the Kool-Aid to his bust-out acolytes as the vultures circle overhead.
Jim Jones Lyons rules only to retain his death-like grip over the tiny cult. There are supposed to be 80 members of the committee, but it now has six vacancies. He won’t hold any caucuses that might result in new members who could vote against him in the next election come January.
The state committee hasn’t held a formal meeting in months, because the opposition, roughly 36 of the 74 members, won’t provide Jim Jones Lyons with the quorum he could use to screw things up even more.
There are few GOP candidates for office. Jonestown couldn’t find anyone to run for treasurer. Their candidate for attorney general, Jay McMahon, is a nice guy, God bless him. But when he opens his mouth, he sounds like My Cousin Vinny.
State committees are basically vessels to funnel campaign money to candidates, and the members are essentially the party’s board of directors. But when the committee becomes nothing more than a vehicle for settling petty grudges and enforcing rigid, unpopular litmus tests, guess what happens?
The serious money dries up, and the state committee becomes totally useless.
In Welducci days, the GOP state committee members were catered to by the administration. It didn’t take much to keep them happy, just a few little jobs or appointments — state library commissioner, deputy commissioner of agriculture, board of registration for realtors, etc.
As former President Lyndon Johnson used to say when he hired his political opponents, “I’d rather have them inside the tent (urinating) out than outside the tent (urinating) in.”
Which is exactly what the Jonestown Losers’ Club is now doing.
Before Jim Jones Lyons hijacked the committee, it was rolling in dough. Charlie Baker’s RINOs passed out millions to local candidates, including some who are now members of the party’s Jonestown death cult.
Kathy Lynch, Dennis Galvin, Todd Taylor, John MacDonald, Patricia Saint Aubin — every one of them got big money, and they all lost their races. And they didn’t get hack jobs. So they try to sabotage Charlie Baker.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Geoff Diehl once thought Donald Trump might rescue him. But all Trump cared about was getting rid of backstabbing Baker. Once Trump eliminates a foe, he moves on. How often does he talk now about the 10 Republican Congressmen who voted to impeach him last year?
Never, because all but one or two of them have lost their seats.
Geoff hired Corey Lewandowski, cut him one $12,500 check in March, and that was it. Corey quit Diehl’s campaign the day after the primary.
Now it’s almost over. If only Charlie had provided gainful unemployment to pitiful Geoff Diehl, the taxpayers might have had a shot at stopping Massachusetts from going full California, or Illinois.
This catastrophe didn’t have to happen, but now it has. And the Losers’ Club is about to expand to everyone who works for a living in Massachusetts. Pass the Kool-Aid.