Let’s have a little chat about political “wise men.” It appears after the taking Mary lou Supple off the NRA board blunder, that a chat about political wise men might be in order.

Now a political wise man is different from what someone that Harvey Beit calls the “power group.” People from a power group are not wise men. People from a power group have their own agendas and own egos in mind and most probably would like to use the mayor for their own individual gratification. Not pretty.

Wise men on the other hand have their egos in check. Or, if they don’t have their egos in check, at least they are willing to check them at the door for the overall good of Newburyport, Massachusetts. An obvious example of a wise man would have been Ed Molin.

I can think of a very good group of political wise men, from a variety of different political points of view who could come together as a “think tank” if you will, and hash things out with the Mayor, and come to a consensus that would be politically beneficial to the people of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Now the nice thing about these wise men is that they would be enormously upset with me if I mentioned their names as “wise men” on the Newburyport Political Blog. And that’s why they are wise men.

Now I would think that a political wise man would tell the Mayor of Newburyport, Massachusetts a) not to ax Mary Lou Supple from the NRA board in the first place and b) absolutely not to even think about putting someone like Byron Matthews on the NRA instead. (The Newburyport Daily News, March 16, 2006.) And not to even think about having someone as controversial as Jonathan Woodman (who is the architect for the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank that demolished One Temple Street, part of Newburyport’s historic down town–see earlier post) taking charge or having any influence at all over a design review board for the City of Newburyport. No, no, they would tell the Mayor of Newburyport, Massachusetts that these would be very, very bad ideas indeed.

These wise men would tell the Mayor to use high profile people with contacts on a state or even possibly national level, to help with such things as the DEP and help solve the mess at the Crow Lane land fill and Plum Island. Now the DEP probably is not going to pay a whole lot of attention to a newly elected mayor. But, if there are folks in town who have any kind of contact with large agencies like the DEP, that’s where it’s a good idea to put these folks to work.

At the moment the Mayor of Newburyport, Massachusetts is getting a political “F” in my book. Not a good grade. But learning from one’s mistakes (we all make mistakes, that’s just part of being human) with the help of people who have the best overall good of Newburyport at heart and not their own agendas and ego gratification, could bring that political “F” up to a solid political “B+.” And a mayor with a solid “B+” would definitely work for me, in fact I would even settle for a decent “B-.”

Mary Eaton, Newburyport