There's a new kind of sheriff in ye olde towne of Boston. And, quite naturally, some of ''the boys'' at their favorite street corners are having a bit of trouble accepting the new dispensation. Take Senate President Robert (Trav) Travaglini, please!
If one is prepared to believe everything the venerable Boston Globe puts into print on its front page, and I am often so prepared, their front page lead story this past Friday was an immortal doozy: ''Travaglini publicly rebukes Patrick,'' bellowed the headline. And the subhead: ''Warns governor-elect to work with Legislature.''
For good measure, the jump on page A42 has a banner headline stretching across all six columns: ''Travaglini warns Patrick to cooperate with Legislature.''
This particular Globe story made it all sound like one of those World War II movies out of Hollywood in which the vicious Nazi general tells his high-ranking prisoner: ''Ve haff vays, Deval, uff making you vant to cooperate vith our Legislature!''
Which is to say that this kind of back-alley bludgeoning, performed out in the open at a Boston breakfast for 300 members of the National Association of Industrial and Other Properties, was most certainly not the kind of persuasion previously associated with the polished and poised Robert E. Travaglini.
And yet, diligent Globe reporters cited several anonymous sources, all of whom were in the breakfast audience, and all of whom confirmed that the suave Senate president had said something very much along these lines:
''I told the governor-elect, if you're willing to share, and you care, and you prepare and are ready to deliver, then everything will work out. If not, I have senators across the state who share my vision and my approach and if forced to choose, I'm comfortable with whom they'll choose.''
Amazing, no? Amazing, yes!
And it's also amazing that a mature, seasoned professional like President Travaglini would brandish a gaggle of state senators - state senators! - as a threatening club over the head of a governor-elect fresh from a landslide victory.
Ah, but not to worry. By the next day, Saturday, the Boston Globe was back in print with the follow-up, in which a humbled State Senate President in a joint press availability apologized to the governor-elect and admitted that he might have ''misspoke.''
Hmmmm, yes. And it was also nice when Governor-elect Patrick responded to the Senate President's apology by asking gently, ''Are you ever going to be that contrite again?''
To which President Travaglini acknowledged ruefully: ''It's certainly not consistent with my character.''
But what in the world did President Travaglini mean when he publicly challenged Governor-elect Patrick that the time had come to ``share and deliver.''
Share what, Mister President? Deliver what, Mister President? Were you presuming to make the governor-elect an offer he could not refuse, Mister President? Should our next governor wear an FBI wire whenever he meets with you, Mister President?
Understandably, in their joint appearance Saturday, the contrite Robert E. Travaglini chose not to amplify his offensive remarks from the big breakfast in Boston. He simply apologized.
Out here where the air is a bit cleaner than it is in Boston, many of us recall U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern's characterization of Deval Patrick over the last two years.
''Deval is the real deal,'' said McGovern again and again, very patiently, to every person and every audience across the state that he could reach.
The young Democratic congressman from Worcester, now finishing up his fifth term, meant by ''real deal'' that Deval Patrick was a lot more than just a pleasant face.
But, then, the late Jim Croce said it all years ago in his song: ''You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with Jim.''
Or, in this instance, don't mess with Deval, a new kind of ''sheriff'' for olde towne Boston and the Commonwealth to which it clings.
Peter Young lives in Marlborough.
