The Hiller Instinct: Hiller Instinct: Calling it quits

Someday Marie St. Fleur is going to be the answer to a question in trivial pursuit: "what was the shortest campaign in Massachusetts history?"

The answer is her 27 hours, but for Tom Reilly, St. Fleur is a time bomb with a long fuse who could still be blowing up in his face this fall.

At Reilly's campaign headquarters this evening, she said yesterday was one of the best days of her life, today one of the most difficult:

"I am withdrawing from the race for lieutenant governor," Rep. Marie St. Fleur, (D) Boston, said.

St Fleur quit just one day after Reilly picked her to be his running mate after news reports traced her long trail of unpaid taxes and bills:

Her biggest debts: $13,000 in delinquent federal income taxes, $40,000 in student loans.

"We've known each other a long time," Tom Reilly (D) said.

Riley said yesterday, but obviously it wasn't true, because the straight-laced AG would never knowingly choose anyone with St. Fleur's pattern of not paying tax bills to Boston and the IRS, which are sure damage to his reputation for integrity and intelligence.

Ironically, St Fleur almost hinted at what might come, and why she was willing to chance it.

"I am about to put my family through the cruelest public scrutiny. But if you believe in something, you can't stand on the sideline and let someone do it for you. You better take that risk if you really believe it," St. Fleur said.

Tonight, she did not aplogize to voters, or even to Reilly, just to her family.

"My family is the most important part of my life. They have not been prepared for this," St. Fleur said.

And neither is Tom Reilly, who put off facing reporters in person until tomorrow.

But, whenever he talks, there's nothing he can say. He can't defend St. Fleur, and he can't defend picking her unless he'd like to try the insanity defense.

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