Delahunt Retiring

Another one bites the dust. Dr. Amy Bishop was unavailable for comment.

Representative William Delahunt will not seek re-election to Congress, the seven-term Democrat will announce tomorrow, ending a nearly 40-year career in elected office and giving Republicans hope of capturing the seat, which stretches from Cape Cod to the South Shore.

"It's got nothing to do with politics," the Quincy Democrat said today. "Life is about change. I think it's healthy. It's time."

Change! Who knew change involved Democrats running for the hills so soon?

The 68-year-old lawmaker said he has been considering leaving the House for several years, but was talked out of it two years ago by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who convinced his friend he should stay and help President Obama with his first-term agenda.

"He said, 'Come on -- this is a new time. It's a new era. We [will] have a new president. We're all needed," Delahunt recalled Kennedy telling him. Once Kennedy died last year, Delahunt said he grappled with whether to stay and work on the issues Kennedy held dear.

"Clearly, since his death, there's something missing. There's a void. With the void, you feel the need to be here because there's much to do," Delahunt said wistfully in an exclusive interview.

There's also that messy residue from the Amy Bishop killings.

A host of Republicans were already in line to challenge Delahunt, and since Joe Kennedy III dropped out last week, the Democrat pickings are slim.

Democrats believed to be lining up to run for the coveted congressional seat include Quincy state Rep. Ron Mariano, former state Democratic Party chairman and Dukakis aide Phillip Johnston and Norfolk District Attorney William Keating.

State Sen. President Therese Murray, a Plymouth Democrat, has said she won’t toss her hat into the ring.

Could there be a GOP pickup here?

And what's the deal with this?

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt will be bowing out of politics and won’t seek re-election, U.S. Sen. John Kerry confirmed in a news release.

What, is Liveshot his press aide now?

Speaking of Lerch, what's the deal with this?

Joe Kennedy III Not Running for Congress

There was some speculation over the weekend that Robert F. Kennedy's grandson could possible run for Congress this year.

Well, you can cancel that for now.

Joseph P. Kennedy III, the son of a former congressman and the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, said Sunday he had decided against running for the U.S. House from Massachusetts this year.

Kennedy told The Associated Press that he wants to remain in his new job as a prosecutor in Cape Cod's Barnstable County. The 29-year-old Stanford University and Harvard Law graduate has held the post only for eight months.

"I've got a job I love being an assistant district attorney on the Cape, and I want to get better at it at this point," Kennedy said. "I know serving in Congress would be a great job, but I've got a great job."

A top state Democrat said Saturday that Kennedy was weighing a race if Rep. William Delahunt were to decide against seeking re-election in the 10th Congressional District, which encompasses the Massachusetts South Shore and Cape Cod.

Delahunt and the rest of the Massachusetts Democratic establishment were rocked in January when Republican Scott Brown staged an upset to win the U.S. Senate seat held for more than four decades by Kennedy's uncle, Edward M. Kennedy. While Kennedy's widow, Vicki, and Joseph P. Kennedy III's father, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, both eschewed races, they lobbied hard for the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Her loss raised questions about the endurance of the Kennedy legacy. It also inspired several local Republicans, including former state Treasurer Joe Malone and state Rep. Jeffrey Perry of Sandwich, to say they are considering running for Delahunt's seat.

Delahunt has been criticized in recent weeks for his handling of a 1986 shooting by Amy Bishop, a University of Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues this month. At the time, Delahunt was the local district attorney, and he accepted the findings of local and state police that Bishop's shooting of her brother was accidental.

On name alone Kennedy would have become the instant frontrunner. Still no word what Delahunt plans to do, so Kennedy's plan sure could change if he decides to retire, although it's indicated here he won't run even if Delahunt leaves office.

Says a commenter:

The boy raised the flag to see if anybody would salute it. Nobody did. Thank God.

Great News: Another Kennedy Preparing to Run in Massachusetts

You figured now that Patches is fleeing Rhode Island we'd be Kennedy-free for a bit, didn't you? Not so fast, my friends, not so fast. Now while you can count me among the legions that want to see William Delahunt take a powder, we should be careful what we wish for.

With speculation mounting that US Representative William D. Delahunt will not seek reelection, Joseph P. Kennedy III, son of the former congressman and great-grandson of the Kennedy family patriarch, is eyeing a run to succeed him in the 10th Congressional District, senior Democratic sources say.

The sources say that Kennedy, a 29-year-old assistant district attorney on the Cape considered by many to be the most promising member of his generation to extend the family’s political legacy, is not close to making any decisions and will not speak publicly until Delahunt announces whether he will seek another term. The discussions are taking place very privately among Kennedy family confidants.

As Delahunt ponders his future and Democratic hopefuls eye a bid for his seat, Kennedy’s potential candidacy is weighing heavily on the field that is starting to take shape.

“If he runs, he is immediately the front-runner,’’ said state Senator Robert O’Leary, Democrat of Barnstable, who said he would run for the seat if Delahunt retires. “From my perspective if Kennedy enters the race, it obviously changes the dynamic and makes it more difficult. But it would not change my decision.’’

One potential hurdle, however, is the political climate in the state, and especially in that district, which went heavily for Republican Scott Brown in last month’s Senate election. If Kennedy were to run and win his party’s nomination, he could risk become a lightning rod for the newly energized conservatives from around the country who poured millions of dollars into Brown’s coffers. With no member of the family ever losing an election in Massachusetts, he would be putting the Kennedy legacy on the line.

Delahunt Goes the Full Sgt. Schultz

It took Massachusetts Democrat William Delahuint 10 days to get his story together as to why Dr. Amy Bishop was released after a phone call from his office and this is the best he can come up with?

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, the former district attorney whose office investigated the fatal 1986 shooting of Seth Bishop by his sister Amy, said Monday he does not feel his office “bears any responsibility” for Bishop being freed without charges.

In a telephone interview with the Patriot Ledger, the Quincy Democrat said State Police Trooper Brian Howe correctly concluded that Amy Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother, Seth, by accident. But Delahunt said he has “very serious concerns” that Braintree police never alerted Howe or his prosecutors that, after the shooting, Amy Bishop fled with a loaded shotgun and allegedly tried to steal a getaway car from two men at gunpoint. He also raised concerns that Howe and the district attorney’s office were not told that Bishop was arrested after a brief armed standoff with police.

“We never had that information,” said Delahunt, who was Norfolk County district attorney at the time.

Because the shooting was ruled an accident, Delahunt said, the case was never brought to his attention.

That said, Delahunt called it “inexplicable” that Braintree police did not charge Bishop for assault with a dangerous weapon or other lesser charges.

So Delahunt is throwing the Braintree police under the bus, but last week the chief recalled interference in the case.

Frazier, based upon the recollections of an officer involved in the case, said the girl had fought with her brother in the 1986 incident, then shot him with a shotgun and fled down the street with the rifle in her hand, at one point pointing it at a car to try to get it to stop. Later, at the station, Frazier said, the booking process was abruptly stopped and the young woman released.

Frazier said the release of Bishop had "frustrated" officers at the time and called the handling of the case "troubling."

"The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age," Frazier said.

Frazier points the finger at former chief John Polio.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier has said former Braintree Police Chief John Polio derailed the investigation, which Polio has steadfastly denied.

Polio, now 87, didn't exactly seem fond of Delahunt back in the 80s.

In an extended interview with The Patriot Ledger in 1984, Polio described himself as a true lawman unafraid to break from good-old-boy traditions. In his career, he had arrested a town tax collector, a state representative and two of his own men – both of whom were jailed for breaking and entering.

Polio openly bemoaned how then-Attorney General Francis Bellotti ran his office, saying, “There is so much politics, it’s pathetic.” He called Delahunt, the district attorney at the time, “a politician ... a hanger-on,” saying, “If he has a political future, it’s a sad commentary on our society.”

I wonder if the governor will take Delahunt's statement today at face value and back off his planned investigation?

Update: Polio reacts to Delahunt.

I don’t find the State Police recent findings nor Congressman Delahunt’s statement made this day to be credible—only political. It should be noted that, in all other investigations that the Braintree Police Department turned over to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office, we provided them copies of all of our department’s reports and all physical evidence. Why would this case be any different?

Read the rest of it.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

Delahunt Finally Resurfaces, Plans Press Conference Today

It's taken Massachusetts Democrat Willianm Delahunt 10 days to get his story together surrounding his decision to release Amy Bishop, I mean Dr. Amy Bishop, from custody following the shooting death of her brother in 1986. Since it was divulged Delahunt, then the Norfolk DA, made a call and Bishop walked free, he's used his trip to Israel as a convenient excuse to avoid comment on the explosive case.

Former district attorney and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt is vowing to today divulge the details of his role in the investigation of a Braintree native who killed her brother in 1986, the same woman who allegedly unleashed a deadly rampage in Alabama this month.

“I really want to get myself fully briefed,” Delahunt told the Herald yesterday, after returning from a trip to Israel, where he had been since the Alabama killings took place on Feb. 12.

Delahunt, who is considering not running for re-election, was the Norfolk district attorney when Amy Bishop shot her 18-year-old brother to death in 1986.

Bishop, 45, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, faces capital murder charges for allegedly shooting to death three colleagues and maiming three others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Delahunt said he and former assistant district attorney John Kivlan will hold a press conference at his Quincy congressional office this afternoon to answer questions.

“We’ll be there ... to spend whatever time is necessary to answer questions from the media,” Delahunt said.

Bishop was not interviewed by Delahunt’s state police squad until 11 days after her brother’s death.

After the shooting, Bishop had run from her parents’ Victorian house with the shotgun and held it to the chest of an auto body shop worker, demanding a getaway car, according to the worker and reports by Braintree police at the time. She then trained the weapon on cops who found her there.

She wasn't interviewed for 11 days after she killed her brother and pointed a shotgun at police?

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has announced an investigation into the 1986 slaying and mishandling of the case.

Law enforcement lapses in the 1986 case have touched off outrage from Boston to Alabama.

“There are just too many unanswered questions,” said Needham attorney Timothy Burke, a former prosecutor. “This is the very reason why cases of this magnitude require the utmost in scrutiny.”

Bridgewater State College criminal justice professor Dr. Mitch Librett, a retired New Rochelle, N.Y., detective, said the case smacks of a “cover-up.”

“I have never heard of such a thing where there’s been a death by firearm where you have the actor identified and there’s not so much as a grand jury,” he said.

DA Rips 1986 Bishop Report

Time for everyone to get their stories straight in Braintree.

The Norfolk district attorney ramped up his criticism of the 1986 investigation of Seth Bishop’s death yesterday, saying that it was “glaring’’ and “striking’’ that local police accounts of Amy Bishop’s armed standoff at a local business were not included in the State Police report or considered as part of the prosecutor’s decision about whether to pursue charges.

“It was a glaring omission that . . . there wasn’t the inclusion of the shooter who exited her house with a gun, leveling the gun at an innocent bystander, and making demands on that bystander,’’ William R. Keating said in a telephone interview.

Although Braintree police had documented in great detail how Bishop had pointed a 12-gauge shotgun at two employees at a local auto body shop and demanded a getaway car, there is no indication in the final State Police report that they shared this information with the troopers who worked out of the district attorney’s office and were assigned to the case.

Keating also revealed yesterday that the state trooper who wrote the report, Brian L. Howe, has told investigators in Keating’s office that he “did not have a recollection’’ of Braintree police telling him of the incident. That backs up the repeated assertions of the assistant district attorney assigned to the 1986 case, who also said he was never made aware of the second assault.

Last Friday, 23 years after Bishop escaped charges in the shooting death of her brother and her armed encounter at the body shop, police say the Harvard-educated neurobiologist fatally shot three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and injured three others.

In the aftermath, a series of troubling questions have been raised about how the Braintree case was handled, with several key figures in the investigation - including former Braintree police chief John Polio - saying they were unaware of crucial facts surrounding the death of 18-year-old Seth Bishop.

Keating said yesterday that he was confounded by Polio’s admission that he did not know Bishop had pointed her firearm at a mechanic and demanded a getaway car. These details were included in Braintree police reports made public on Tuesday after they had previously been declared missing.

Then Norfolk DA and current Democrat Congressman Bill Delahunt conveniently remains out of the country. He's busy trying to get into Gaza for some strange reason.

US Representative William D. Delahunt, who was Norfolk district attorney at the time of the 1986 shooting, has been in Israel since the Alabama shootings, but was questioned about the case yesterday at a press availability called after the congressional delegation was blocked from entering Gaza.

“I haven’t had a real opportunity to get into the details of the case, but I suspect when I return I’ll have an opportunity to become debriefed,’’ the congressman told the Associated Press.

Three people might be alive today if Delahunt had done his job in 1986. The blood is on his hands.

Instead he made a phone call and the case disappeared. Thanks to him, Amy Bishop went on to become a one-woman crime wave.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

See also this absurd attempt at linking Bishop to tea parties. Yes, the left indeed is that stupid.

I'm sure Keith Olbermann will jump on that one.

Nutty Professor Killed Her Brother in 1986, Was Released on Orders From Delahunt

Looks like Massachusetts Democrat William Delahunt has some explaining to do.

The biology professor accused of gunning down five colleagues and a staff member at the University of Alabama on Friday was released from police custody 23 years ago after she allegedly shot and killed her brother in Braintree, police announced Saturday.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier said Amy Bishop was detained following the death of her brother on Dec. 6, 1986, then released without being charged.

Frazier said Amy Bishop shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth Bishop, in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun at the family’s home in Braintree, then ran into the street and aimed the gun at a passing vehicle before fleeing from the scene. Amy Bishop, who was 20 at the time, was arrested at gunpoint by Braintree officers.

Bishop was never booked, however, and all police records of the case have gone missing, with the exception of an entry in the police log noting an accidental shooting, Frazier said.

Bishop, now 42, faces a capital murder charge in the campus shooting Friday, which left three biology professors dead and another two critically wounded. A university staff member was also hurt.

Braintree officers who remember the 1986 shooting said that former police Chief John Polio dismissed detectives from the case and ordered the department to release Amy Bishop after a telephone conversation with former district attorney William Delahunt.

Delahunt is currently a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts.

Here's a statement from the current Braintree police chief.

I (Chief Frazier) spoke with the retired Deputy Chief who was then a Lieutenant and was responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a phone call he believes was from then Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a captain on Chief Polio’s behalf. He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit.

Braintree Police Lieutenant Karen MacAleese was a high school classmate and confirmed from photographs that the suspect is the same Amy Bishop who lived in Braintree.

I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop. It was a difficult time for the department as there had been three (3) shooting incidents within a short timeframe. The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.

Oh, and the records from the incident? Well, they simply disappeared. How convenient Bishop's mother was well-connected.

Chief Frazier said Judy Bishop, Amy's mother, was on the town Board of Personnel at the time. Any connection between the 1986 case and her mother's position would be speculative.

The records of the 1986 shooting, according to Chief Frazier who was on duty at the time of the incident, are now missing.

More here.

Whoever this is is greatly offended some people are calling Bishop a socialist. Aww, what a shame.

Who's the Most Endangered Democrat in Massachusetts?

Sadly, it's not Barney Frank, who will no doubt have to be carried out in a box. Howie Carr thinks William Delahunt is one Congressional Democrat in the greatest jeopardy of being swept out of office in November.

Bill Delahunt, come on down!

The only question is, does he permanently adjourn to Hedonism II now, or in 2012?

It’s like a logging forest out there for congressional Democrats these days. Timber! First Chris Dodd falls, then Patches Kennedy, not to mention a whole host of lesser-known Beltway banditos. They’re all retiring due to ill health - the voters are sick of them. The question now is the same one they ask at the deli counter. Who's next?

Consider why Delahunt might want to call it a career. First, he’s already got a state pension - $58,343.76 a year. He’s also vested for a congressional kiss in the mail, probably at least another $90,000. He turns 69 in July, so he’s still young enough to cash in on his career in, ahem, public service, as well as finding time to fact-find at those clothing-optional Jamaican beaches he so enjoys.

On the other hand . . . first of all, there’s a congressional redistricting coming up. Massachusetts may be losing a seat. Redistricting is all about carving, and it would be immensely easier if there’s a solon who is retiring and whose district no one would miss.

And if Delahunt runs, and loses, which certainly seems possible, then who better to gerrymander out of Congress in two years than the cheeky Republican who knocks him off?

Well, it appears Delahunt may not even have any fight left.

US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown’s upset victory in last month’s special Senate election.

“Every election cycle, I take my time, I think it through, and I think, not about whether I can win or lose, but: ‘Am I in a position to make a difference?’ ’’ Delahunt, a Quincy Dem ocrat, said in a telephone interview. “Can I achieve what I want to achieve outside of public life?’’

Delahunt, who has not faced a serious challenge since he was elected in 1996, has a campaign war chest of more than $600,000 but has not been aggressively raising money this year, according to federal records. He said he will announce in March whether he will seek reelection.

If he departs, it would signal a continued shift in New England’s political landscape after the Republican Brown stunned Democrats when he won the seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy’s son, Patrick, said yesterday that he will be quitting his US House seat in Rhode Island.

“I have held elected office for almost 40 years,’’ said Delahunt, a former prosecutor. “I understand that there is always an ebb and flow. Today you are up and tomorrow you are down. That is the rhythm of political life.’’

Delahunt has held office so long that Democratic strategists said it is not clear who in his party might seek the seat if he were to retire. Some have floated the name of Therese Murray, president of the Massachusetts State Senate, who is from Plymouth. But she has recently indicated that she believes Delahunt will run and win.

Still, several Republicans see a chance to recapture one of the state’s conservative districts, where Brown received some of his highest margins of victory on Jan. 19. And they have seized on an unlikely issue: Venezuela. Or, more specifically, Delahunt’s good relations with Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, who once called President Bush “the devil’’ in a speech at the United Nations.

Remarkably, the Globe goes on to portray Chavez in a positive light, something they'd never do for a Republican.

Update: Delahunt may really be having problems now.

Congress Going After Online Shoppers

The government's insatiable thirst for tax revenue is about to hit online shoppers, who've largely managed to escape onerous state taxes by shopping at sites such as Amazon.com. So if you've been wondering what to do with that $13-a-week windfall from King Obama, just forward it to your state government.

The days of buying online to avoid paying sales taxes may soon be over.

A bill is expected to be introduced to Congress this week that would force retailers like eBay and Amazon.com to start collecting sales taxes on behalf of states from people who shop online or through mail order.

It's not a new effort: Attempts to close the online tax "loophole" have been going on for at least a decade.

But supporters of the bill think Congress may finally give in to their demands because of their own pressure to lend support to financially battered state governments.

"This would be fiscal relief for the states that wouldn't require any money from the federal government," said Neal Osten, a senior policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, which is drafting the bill.

Osten pointed to a recent study that said state sales tax collections fell to their lowest levels in 50 years at the end of 2008.

The study by the Rockefeller Institute, which is the public-policy research arm of the State University of New York, said that fourth-quarter 2008 sales taxes dropped by 6.1 percent, and that preliminary figures for the first three months of 2009 suggest even steeper declines.

In case you're wondering, and I know you are, this isn't just another Democrat tax scheme. It's bi-partisan confiscation of your money.

Osten said the new bill, which is expected to be introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi, (R-WYO) and Rep. Bill Delahunt, (D-MA), is being drafted to make it easier for retailers by requiring states to inform retailers when there's a change in the tax code, such as a sales tax holiday.

Under the current rules, sales taxes often slip through the cracks. Shoppers living in Vermont, for example, aren't required to pay sales tax at the time of purchase when buying stuff on Amazon.com.

Linked at Instapundit. Thanks!

Congressional Democrats Finally Tackle Important Issues

Rather symbolic, irrational people celebrating an irrational number.

“I’m kind of geeked up about it,” Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) told POLITICO. “It’s crazy, but I’m a whole lot more excited about that than congratulating the winner of last year’s Rose Bowl.

“I’m not making this up. I have been fascinated by pi since I was a kid. It blows my mind. It’s lovely. The fact that it’s sort of this infinite number. I just think it’s this magical thing. ... There’s a real beauty to mathematics.”
...
“It makes you realize how consequential you really are,” Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) said with a smile.

But there’s always one: “We were never good at math in my family,” said Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.). “I thought I was voting for p-i-e.”

Delahunt Backtracks

Bumbling Massachusetts Democrat William Delahunt made an idiot of himself the other day and was pummeled far and wide.

He tried to clarify himself by calling in to Mark Levin Friday.

Conservative Punk has the audio.

Massholes Heart Chavez

Every year it's the same two useful idiots, Joe Kennedy and William Delahunt, sucking up to dictator Hugo Chavez. They accord him more respect than they do their own president.

They have no shame.

What this is really about is advancing Chavez's U.S. agenda, a big part of which is to blame U.S. oil companies for high oil prices.

High oil prices do squeeze the poor. But oil companies do not control them. Dictators such as Chavez do. Eighty percent of the world's oil is held by inefficient state oil companies. Venezuela is one of the worst, producing its oil with scab labor since a 2003 strike, and it has also confiscated at least $1 billion in U.S. oil assets since then. Some industry analysts estimate that Chavez adds as much as a third of the cost to world oil prices. No wonder he wants someone else, like Big Oil, blamed.

Now he's got a willing dupe. Besides browbeating oil companies, Kennedy also brought in politicians shilling for Chavez as well.

Massachusetts Rep. Bill Delahunt denounced Big Oil's "record profits" and condemned the companies for not participating in Kennedy's politically loaded program. This comes on the heels of his refusal to vote in Congress for more domestic oil or natural gas production, which could bring down energy costs for all.

Oil companies, in fact, give far more to charity than Kennedy's $25 million program. In 2006, Chevron gave $90.8 million. British Petroleum gave $106.7 million. Exxon Mobil gave $138.6 million.

It goes to show that Kennedy's cheap oil program is a plan to really advance Chavez's influence in this country. What a scam.

Via Instapundit.