"Other Than That, Mrs. Lincoln..."

My, oh my, the Deval Patrick era is off to a glorious start. When they're not busy holding "marketing events" with Big Dig lobbyists or planning Gov.-elect Patrick's five-day-long, $1.8 million, most-expensive-ever inauguration party, Team Deval is busy shooting down various campaign promises.

Or, as the AP reports it:

Gov.-elect Deval Patrick's new budget chief said Thursday that local option taxes on meals, hotels and other services [Strike one!] should be one of the things the state considers as it seeks to create a stable long-term financial picture.

Leslie Kirwan also said she isn't sure she can find the $735 million in wasteful spending Patrick said he wanted to eliminate during this fall's gubernatorial campaign. [Strike two!]

At the same time, the outgoing financial official for the Massachusetts Port Authority said she isn't sure the state can cut property taxes, as Patrick said he hoped to do
when he said he opposed a rollback in the state income tax rate during this fall's gubernatorial campaign. [He's outta there!]

Oh, and did I mention that Deval Patrick is thinking of killing the deal Massachusetts made with the feds to help catch illegal immigrants? And that he refuses to defend the state constitution from the legislature currently trashing the rule of law and denying 170,000 citizens their civil rights?

Some Patrick supporters claim to be surprised that Deval is coming out so liberal, so fast. These people are shmucks. Of COURSE Patrick is raising taxes. Of COURSE he's not cutting any government spending. Of COURSE he's on the side of government bureaucrats and illegal immigrants. It's who he is.

Deval Patrick spent the entire campaign telling anyone who would listen "I'm a movement liberal, folks!" But so many Massachusetts voters were so determined to vote Democrat they just didn't listen.

Well, they'll have four long, expensive years to hear what Gov. Patrick has to say.

[hat tip: MassBackwards]