Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate–and Chris Christie’s bosom buddy–Charlie Baker ran for the state’s highest office four years ago as the Ultimate Tea Partier. Now, he’s running as the Ultimate Chauvinist Pig.
Baker, already on thin ice for his apparent indifference to the domestic-violence scandals affecting the National Football League, stepped in it again a few days ago:
Charlie Baker, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts, called a female reporter “sweetheart” while dismissing her question about domestic violence in the NFL, Blue Mass Group reported on Wednesday.
The reporter, Fox 25’s Sharman Sacchetti, had asked Baker at a “Women for Charlie” event last week whether NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should be fired over mishandling cases of players involved in domestic violence incidents. Baker told Sacchetti he wasn’t sure and would “need more data.” But after several days of attacks on the issue from his Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley, Baker changed his tune said Goodell should be fired.
In a follow-up interview this week, Sacchetti started to ask Baker whether Democrats would start running attack ads on him because of his uncertainty on the Goodell situation. But Baker interrupted her question.
“Okay, this is gonna be the last one sweetheart,” Baker said, putting his hand on Sacchetti’s shoulder.
“Sweetheart?” Sacchetti replied.
Baker then said he was “kidding.”
What’s next? Is Baker going to make a pass at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley during their first debate? Sheesh.
A letter in the September 27 Boston Globe nails it:
On the tape, Sacchetti reacts to Baker’s “Last one, sweetheart” with “Sweetheart, really?” in a tone of disbelief. Good for her!
Most of the time when men put women in her situation, we are unwilling to voice our anger and frustration. Internally we think, “Really? This guy who is my boss, or coming to me for publicity, or is asking me to do something, doesn’t even value me, or my work, enough to use my name?’” Then comes a quick mental calculation that the job and the paycheck are worth more than letting this man know what his words are saying to us. We ignore the slight.
This November, however, Baker is looking to the women of Massachusetts for a job as governor, and we can tell him loud and clear what his lack of respect means to us.
Of course, Baker does hang around with a very male crowd:
…[T]he Republican Governors Association (RGA) PAC created a fake front group to hide their money in supporting Charlie Baker. The Commonwealth Future PAC that you have been seeing on television with [former Mitt Romney aide] Beth Lindstrom which tries to sound like a Massachusetts group is really a front for national Republicans, checking the OCPF today, 99.7% of the money came from the RGA…
More recently, the RGA created a second front group called the American Comeback Comm Massachusetts Independent Expenditure PAC and you guessed it, it has nothing to do with Massachusetts. At this point the sole donation was from the RGA which was put towards mailers for Charlie Baker.
We’ve seen the attack ads, but if you are wondering what they define as a support ad for Baker, they defined this one as support.
This is an attack group.
So why are they hiding, setting up front organizations to hide their money, well if you didn’t know the RGA is mainly funded by the inner bowels of Republican sleaze, Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson as their top donors. Their 2014 election cycle top donors also include Harold Simmons of Contran Corp and Bob Perry of Perry Homes, if those names sound familiar they created the Swift Boat Vets.
Baker is now promoting himself as a “moderate Republican.” Those things don’t exist anymore. The only thing that exists is the need to make sure that Martha Coakley is the Bay State’s next governor.
