Get caught with a couple ounces of marijuana or shoplift an item from a department store and you could do jail time, but intentionally mess with the inner workings of democracy and lie about it and you'll get a slap on the wrist. At least, if you're Tom Finneran.
The former Speaker of the state legislature pleaded guilty today to obstruction of justice charges in exchange for having three counts of perjury dropped in a case stemming from his involvement in a legislative redistricting plan. Finneran received 18 months of probation, a $25,000 fine and agreed not to run for political office for five years.
Now the president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Finneran may also end up getting disbarred and losing his state pension, but the fact is that he lied under oath in a case that determined that the districts that were drawn up violated the state constitution. As a lawyer, he knows better. As the most powerful person in the state during his reign as Speaker, it demonstrates an arrogance that was also on display when Finneran refused to fund the Clean Elections Act, even after being ordered to do so by the state's highest court.
Maybe voters in Massachusetts elected Republican governors for 16 years to balance the tyranny that they saw in the state legislature.
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