Casinos

In order to save a faltering political relationship that had developed during the governor's first year in office, Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi had two meetings, including one private dinner in the North End, to resolve their differences and move forward, the Boston Globe reports.

Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Milton)"We had a great, quiet, come-to-Jesus kind of conversation with each other," Patrick (D-Milton) told the Globe.

That dinner, along with a handwritten note of apology from Patrick, repaired the relationship between the executive office and the legislature, the Globe writes, allowing Patrick to push his priorities through the legislature with DiMasi's cooperation. Patrick's letter remains under a blotter on DiMasi's (D-Boston) desk.

In particular, Patrick and DiMasi reconciled their public feud over casinos. "We were both feeling like there was some blood on the floor after the casino vote," Patrick said.

For almost two years, Gov. Ed Rendell has worked against staunch neighborhood resistance to proposed casinos in Philadelphia. Even as some residents who once revered him as the city's mayor grew to loath him for his acceptance of the slot parlors planned for the Delaware River waterfront, Rendell has always sided with the casino developers.

When neighborhood activists continued to push the casinos to consider other sites further from residential areas, Rendell wrote to one that "the issue of re-siting is over." When City Council continued to cause delays, he sharply criticized local lawmakers as having "no guts."

But now that some of his staunchest Harrisburg allies from Philadelphia are lining up against him, Rendell appears to be bending, if not breaking, on the casino issue. On Friday, the man who championed casinos in Pennsylvania said "the political landscape has changed" and that he would meet with the casino developers to discuss moving the projects elsewhere.

Still, even as he signaled his first significant shift on casinos after long lauding their potential for proving tax relief, Rendell, a Democrat, sounded a note of caution.

"I'll meet and make a good-faith effort to explore the potential benefits of re-siting," he said, "but nobody should get too excited. The only way these casinos can be legally re-sited is if the casinos voluntarily agree."

The BIAW's new Change PAC television ads have now been released. According to Postman, they focus on the tribal casino deal that Gov. Gregoire authorized last year, which the Republicans are claiming was a quid pro quo.

The ad shows an elderly woman playing slot machines that land on pictures of the Democratic donkey logo and a winking Gregoire, but with no payout for the gambler. The ad says that "Christine Gregoire and tribal casinos are the only winners here."

Video of the ad is here at the Times' website.

Native American tribes all mean something different to our top politicians: Gregoire, Bush, Obama and McCain. Wally just wishes he could win at slots.