The DiMasi Conviction

The conviction Sal DiMasi, the ex-Democrat (natch) Speaker of the Massachusetts House, raises questions that transcend the guilt or innocence of one man.

One principal question that every Massachusetts citizen/taxpayer should be asking is this: Why was it necessary for the Commonwealth to enter into two contracts with Cognos to supply $17.5M worth of "performance management software" for the Mass Department of Education at a time when taxpayers everywhere are struggling and when public sector budgets are (or should be) shrinking?

This type of superfluous, irresponsible, expenditure is endemic to government. Apart from its utter wastefulness, it furnishes the nutrient broth that nourishes and sustains the culture of corruption flourishing in the putrid Petri dish that is Beacon Hill politics.

Consider: If the damn Cognos software were so vitally important, why was $13.5M of the contract rescinded? If the damn Cognos software were so critical to the mission of education of children, why did even the banana-backboned, now-Harvard Dean Leslie ("she can hold her head high") Kirwan "push back" and only reluctantly authorize it after serious arm twisting from DiMasi's Office? Harvard Dean's will always hold their heads high, but Kirwan shouldn't. She caved.

I guarantee every citizen of Massachusetts that the Cognos software had absolutely nothing to do with teaching our kids, but everything to do with the counter-productive impulses of "data mining" and control, which are the province of state education bureaucrats.

In the final analysis, the messages emerging from the DiMasi affair are not about one man's financial desperation and venality but about government excess and the need to reduce drastically the reach and scope of the public sector.