I'm not so sure if

calling the Speaker a hack is a good idea. Don't get me wrong - I see the point. But there was a lot the progressive community gained from its relationship with DiMasi on BlueMassGroup. Even the MSM saw it. Of course, plenty of commenters called DiMasi a hack and other slurs, but not Bob and Charley. That's a horse of a different color.

If the new Speakah doesn't see BMG as a place he can go to on certain areas to gain support, he won't bother. Does that really help us in the long run?

None of this is to say that the Speaker shouldn't be roundly criticized for not standing up for stronger ethics (and probably pension) reform. Criticize away!

• It's a bad idea
• It's sending the wrong message
• It's a bad idea
• It's sending the wrong message
• We clearly need some policy fixes here
• It's sending the wrong message
• It's sending the wrong message
• It's sending the wrong message
  

These are things the Speaker needs to hear over and over again. Over at BMG, the editors and others have managed to roundly criticize the Governor without resorting to petty namecalling. The result? Pretty positive -- he's largely moved on the issues we've criticized him over. DeLeo? If we delcare him Hack Enemy Numero Uno - even if he sort of deserves it right now - he's not going to bother with the progressive/BMG crowd at all. We can get him to move on ethics and pensions and a host of other issues we hold dear to our hearts, but taking feel-good hacks at him won't get him to play ball. Far from it.