The Hiller Instinct: DiMasi resigns

Frequently, recently, it's been House Speaker Sal DiMasi who's spoken the loudest on Beacon Hill...

DiMasi clearly enjoyed amassing power, and using it. It was the Speaker, for example, who killed casinos and opened the door on hiking the gas tax...

And it was DiMasi who may have saved gay marriage.

"I am not resigning; I am not going anywhere..." DiMasi said back in May.

His final days have been rough on his reputation:

On Friday, his office was insisting reports of his resignation were just rumors and gossip...and, today--equally unbelievably--his spokesman, David Guarino, is alleging all the stories about DiMasi's ethical challenges had quote "zero" to do with him quitting.

"He talked about it with his family. He was, he was planning on serving through the term and he was thinking about leaving at some point during this term, and he decided this was just the best time for his family...and for him," Guarino said.

Sure! As they like to say at the State House, I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night.

Now I'd like to tell you that the end of the DiMasi era will mean big changes on Beacon Hill, but I doubt it....because the top two contenders for his job have each been in the House for fifteen years. So they're creatures of the system, and unlikely to challenge it.

I'm Andy Hiller and that's my instinct.

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