Or so I argue in the Globe today. Check the whole thing here.

My latest column for the Globe went online yesterday. It argues that Vornado and Steve Roth won’t be wicked heartbroken if the city does follow through on its eminent domain threats at the stalled Filene’s redevelopment site.

Any taking means that Roth gets paid to take a walk from a project he clearly doesn’t believe in now. And getting paid is what that dude does best. As he’ll gladly tell you himself.

Read the whole thing here.

[Globe image]

First, there’s been much made of the cursed offices from which Coakley is attempting to leap. And the current AG certainly seems to have taken some campaigning tips (act indifferent, bash Bush, dismiss your opposition) from her predecessor, Tom Reilly. I asked Charlie Manning about the comparison between the two. His answer: At least Martha won a primary. Ouch.

And then there’s prediction time. I heard a lot for Coakley by ten, and the lowest a Dem would go was a five-to-eight-point win. The point Warren Tolman makes in the piece, about Brown peaking a week early, may well turn out to be true. But so is this point a less-than-ecstatic Dem made: This race never should have been this close, and because it was, it will wind up causing collateral damage down the line. The DNSC and DNC don’t need to be wasting time and money defending Massachusetts. They’ve got their hands full in Montana, and Nevada, and pretty much everywhere else that isn’t Massachusetts. The thought here was that, even if the GOP can’t steal Ted’s seat, they’ve at least softened up the Dems elsewhere. Something to watch.

Short version: No matter what some white-ass person on Fox News says, Scott Brown’s surge in the polls here is not evidence that Barack Obama has turned even the gayest, universal-iest health care havers into a teabagging mob ready to swarm the State House lawn, topple the JFK statue, and whack it with shoes. It’s because of that old Tip O’Neill saying, No politics happens on your dumb cable channel, it happens in real life on your street, guy.

One can only assume a pouty press conference from the guy’s daughter will follow.

At least Tim for Treasurer had the decency to exploit all his kids on TV, equally.

Halfway through the presser formally announcing Capuano’s candidacy for Senate, somebody asked him about the doomed candidacy of Celts co-owner Steve Pagliuca. He didn’t get much of a chance to answer. Frank stepped in, took the mike, delivered the afternoon’s best line (“It’s important for people to think outside the box, but you’ve got to know what the box looks like”), and walked off the stage to a round of applause.

And Capuano’s left on stage with this look on his face that says, Whose presser is this, anyway? And also, Damn, that guy’s good.

Nine months after he came crashing into state government, Jim Aloisi has been tossed overboard. Or, rather, he’s, uh, decided that his work here is done. And by “work here,” we mean, “alienating the legislature he was brought on board to woo, and driving down his boss’s poll numbers for good measure.”

The Globe reports that Deval Patrick pushed the guy aside. Tim Murray, of course, denies it. He shouldn’t protest so much. Throwing Aloisi in the dumpster is the first sign of solid political instincts we’ve seen from the administration in a long, long time.

Aloisi, of course, was last seen on this corner of the internet crowing about how he couldn’t possibly disappear from public life because he’s “passionate” about T riders, his advocacy on riders’ behalf has been “unprecedented,” adding that it’s “my destiny … to be their spokesperson.”

The amazing thing in all of this is that Aloisi, while universally reviled on Beacon Hill, was brought into the administration for the sole purpose of repairing the governor’s relationship with the legislature. Instead, he made it much, much worse.

But how did it happen that Patrick came to call on Aloisi in the first place? I asked that very question of a Beacon Hill source I trust a little while ago. And here’s the story that question elicited.

Remember Bobby Trav’s elaborate Senate portrait unveiling? Sure you do. Well, that thing was MC’d by one Jim Aloisi. Aloisi put on a big show of cracking wise and  busting balls and generally playing the part of smarmy Beacon Hill insider. And that was the point. Apparently, the whole thing was Aloisi’s idea. With Trav off the Hill, Aloisi’s access to the levers of power had been severed. He needed a way to get that access back. So he convinced Trav to have his portrait painted, and then suggested himself as an appropriate MC for the ceremony that was his idea in the first place.

Aloisi put on a show that day, and the administration came away more convinced than ever that this was a guy who was connected, who was well-liked, and who could get things done for them. So when they needed a Beacon Hill fixer, they came calling.

In hindsight, Aloisi’s first press conference as secretary was incredibly telling. The guy barged into the room, sidled up to a conference table, and started blinking at a battery of television cameras. He was already sparring with Therese Murray. On his second day. He sat down, a dumb look on his face, and just stared. Then he asked, “Am I supposed to start talking?”

Somebody really should’ve told him, “NO!”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwyjwmYMEs

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