Three for Three on Speaker Indictments

Well, I trust that by now most of you know that we're now three-for-three on indictments of former speakers. To wit:

• First there was Charlie Flaherty, who pled guilty to tax evasion and ethics violations.
• Then, there was Tom Finneran, who pled guilty to obstruction of justice and was placed on 18 months probation.
• Now we have Sal DiMasi, indicted on seven counts of mail and wire fraud and five counts of criminal conspiracy, all to help Cognos software win two state contracts.  In return,  Salutatorian Sal got $57,000 in cash.

For risking 20 years in prison, you would have thought Sal would have done something bolder, made more money.

Conspicuously absent from this list, by the way, is former Senate President Billy Bulger who, his brother notwithstanding, has never been indicted for anything.  Of course, he did make a nice pension haul and failed to cooperate in the search for his brother, but he's had the good sense never to do anything indictable.  And trust me, if he had, they would have indicted him.

Set forth below is a copy of the actual indictment against  Sal DiMasi and associates Joseph Lally, Richard McDonough and Richard Vitaly: