Baker can run … and so he does

Guess who fled the state again yesterday just as the legislature finally had its hearing on the catastrophe that is the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Gov. Charlie Baker, also known as Tall Deval. He was on the lam once more.

Well, he can run but he can’t hide. And someday soon the “embattled” governor may be looking back on this ongoing RMV disaster as the good old days.

There’s another ticking Registry time bomb out there that Tall Deval et al. are loath to confront – the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of illegals gallivanting around the Commonwealth with fraudulent driver’s licenses obtained, more often than not, with stolen Puerto Rican documents.

At least the Ukrainian junkie charged with killing the seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club last month was in the country legally, not that that’s much solace to anyone.

But what happens if – when – an illegal Dominican fentanyl dealer kills a bunch of Americans while making a delivery, high as a kite?

Who is Tall Deval going to point the finger at then? He won’t have Erin Devaney to kick around anymore.

The guy in this state who’s done the most to try to stop the scourge of illegal driving, identity theft and the resulting billions of dollars lost in welfare fraud is Officer James Scott, who just retired from the Saugus Police Department.

Over the past few years, Scott has trained almost 2000 law-enforcement professionals on how to spot “impostors,” the term he coined for the illegals committing identity theft for fun and profit.

Oddly, Scott has gotten more support from officials in New Hampshire than he has here in Massachusetts. With assistance from a handful of local state reps, Scott has tried to interest Tall Deval’s crew in trying to do something about the crime wave, but mostly he’s ended up butting his head against the wall.

If you watched any of the Registry hearings yesterday in Gardner Auditorium, you’ll be familiar with the alibis, rationalizations and excuses they’ve been throwing at Scott over the years when he talks with Tall Deval’s assorted coat holders and payroll patriots.

We’re working on it, they tell him. Or, This sounds like a federal problem. Or, We’re doing some things we can’t talk about…. Blah blah blah.

Last week, the State Police out of Sturbridge bagged an “impostor” with a fake Puerto Rican license. He’d been lugged two years ago in Lowell – cocaine trafficking. Apparently he had no trouble getting back across the border and back into business, but we don’t need no stinkin’ wall – just ask US Rep. Lori Trahan.

Here’s another recent impostor story, from New Hampshire. The state cops there just arrested a guy who tried to get a driver’s license in Manchester claiming to be one Orlando Santos-Quilles, age 45.

According to the NH State Police, they “discovered the male had also been identified as Jamie J. Velez-Colon age 39 of Jamaica Plain MA.”

Turns out that with the assistance of ICE (which many Democrats want to abolish) the cops “were able to identify the male as Milcante Asuncion-Tejera, age 47, of Bani, in the Dominican Republic.”

So why would an illegal Dominican need two fake driver’s licenses from two different states?

Hint: every driver’s license entitles the impostor to an… EBT card.

Welfare fraud is bad enough – six years ago, Gov. Deval Patrick admitted the state was paying $1.8 billion in welfare to illegals. But another Jarheads disaster would be worse, much worse.

How unconcerned is the Registry? You saw their criminal lethargy firsthand at yesterday’s State House hearing. And this has been the Registry m.o. forever.

In December 2015, when yesterday’s scapegoat, Erin Deveney, was officially appointed registrar after serving as the interim boss, DOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack put out a gushing letter to her employees:

“As Gov. Baker said at this morning’s press conference…. ‘Erin has done a terrific job at taking on a very difficult assignment and to some extent making it look easy.’”

Tell it to the Jarheads, Stephanie.

“I can think of no one better equipped than Erin Deveney to lead the effort and build on the hard work done over the past six months or so by the ‘War on Wait Times’ team and others at the Registry… and I am delighted that she will continue to serve.”

Wait times at the Registry are a problem, absolutely, but you know what’s a bigger problem? Not bothering to suspend the drivers’ licenses of criminals, or even worse, allowing illegals, some of whom are welfare-collecting drug dealers, to commit identity theft while you’re looking the other way for fear of being accused of… racial profiling.

I’d have asked Tall Deval about some of these issues, but I wasn’t at Reagan International Airport in DC yesterday.