How much for judge's robe and gavel?

How much for judge's robe and gavel?
By Howie Carr
Boston Herald Columnist
Sunday, August 26, 2007 - Updated: 09:23 AM EST

If you have some news that you want to make sure nobody ever hears about, make sure you release it on the Friday before Labor Day.
So guess when the Governor's Council has scheduled a vote on the nomination of limousine liberal Judge Margot Botsford to the Supreme Judicial Court.
That's right: next Friday, at 10 a.m.
Oh sure, Gov. Deval Patrick et al. will come up with some feeble excuses why they just have to do it Friday morning before Labor Day. Maybe the fall session is beginning and they want a full complement, as if one or another of the justices isn't always recusing himself for whatever reason. Perhaps Margot doesn't want to miss the SJC's annual formal photograph.
Or maybe the moonbats don't want everyone reminded that Margot's husband, a Dukakoid coatholder named Steve Rosenfeld, donated three times as much money to Deval's campaign last year as he was allowed to under the law.
In his bride's Governor's Council questionnaire, Rosenfeld calls them "inadvertent over-contributions" mistakenly transferred by the Democratic State Committee. He was, he says, "unaware."
Another thing Rosenfeld is unaware of: how to spell Barack Obama's name. With $2,300, he's already maxed out this year to the Illinois senator, but Steve spells his first name as "Barak."
Deval's flacks insist that as rancid as Rosenfeld's money trail looks, there are no tawdry quid pro quos. These are Beautiful People, after all, and if they're not in the ACLU, they should be, or once were. After this newspaper busted Rosenfeld for his contributions, the Patrick campaign was shocked, shocked to discover that altogether more than $50,000 had been improperly contributed to the "reform" governor.
That 50 large, now sprayed with the journalistic equivalent of red dye, was grudgingly returned. A press release was issued. On a Friday afternoon.
Most likely, this uniquely timed vote to confirm the wife of Moneybags Rosenfeld will be presided over by the lieutenant governor, Tim "Lefty" Murray. His hands are clean, almost. Mr. Margot Botsford only gave Lefty $100 over the legal limit last year. Another over-contribution, Rosenfeld calls it. And that's less than he over-contributed to A.G. Martha Coakley - $250 above the legal limit.
But pay no attention to Moneybags' transgressions. Consider his wife's impeccable PC credentials. How PC is New York-born Margot? She has a degree from the JFK School of Government, aka Camelot High. She's a pal of pervert-coddling ex-Judge Maria Lopez. And these are the first words she writes in her Governor's Council questionnaire:
"I am the beneficiary of a trust set up by my father in 1976."
Politically correct? Just ask the Rev. Robert Burns. A serial pedophile, he served three years for molesting boys in New Hampshire. Then he pleaded guilty to raping or abusing five young boys in Massachusetts, at least one of whom later attempted suicide. Another became a heroin addict.
Judge Botsford could have burned Burns with a life sentence, but settled for 8 to 11. If only she threw around sentences like her husband throws around money to pols who can grease the skids for his wife.
In 2004 she ruled in the Hancock case that the state wasn't spending enough money on public schools in the poorer cities. If her ruling had been upheld it would have cost the taxpayers "hundreds of millions," according to reports at the time. Hundreds of millions, in other words, for members of the Mass. Teachers Association.
Would you care to guess which union spent $2,287,424 on the campaign of Deval Patrick, who by sheer coincidence just promoted the judge whose decision would have funneled so much money their way. The SJC overruled her 5-2, but now there will be one more MTA vote on the high court.
My prediction: The vote to confirm Mrs. Rosenfeld will most likely be 6-2, at worst 5-3. You know the old saying. Money doesn't talk, it screams.

Boston Herald