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A Massachusetts View:
Paul Cellucci Should Not Go to Washington

January 2, 2001

Though the cabinet positions for the incoming White House administration are now all filled, Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci is still in the running for a lesser appointment. This bothers a lot of people who have seen his work up close. 

Paul Cellucci has shown a lack of leadership for vital Republican causes and the mainstream values that are passionately held by the American heartland that voted overwhelmingly for a change in Washington.

His refusal to denounce the famous "Fistgate" conference at Tufts University last year where children and teachers were assaulted with homosexual pornography shows his lack of concern for children and their parents. His refusal to support parents who used proper channels to warn him and the Department of Education about exposing children to sexually explicit material shows a complete lack of support for the role of parents and taxpayers who try to monitor the materials to which their children are exposed. In any setting other than a school, a person would be serving jail time for exposing children to the materials presented at Tufts. In a southern state, in the Bible belt, might Cellucci be a different politician -- showing different colors?

Regarding the condition of the Massachusetts Republican Party under Cellucci's leadership, town after town has no Republican town chair -- no one to contact. Those who are town chairs express disgust at the governor and the Massachusetts Republican Committee for their lack of interest or support. Conservative Republicans have faced discrimination and rejection under Cellucci because of their stands on moral issues.

The governor should face the financial disaster of Boston's "Big Dig" highway project and not escape that mess by receiving an appointment in Washington -- to the Department of Transportation, as one very ironic example. Although the naming of Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation this week rules out that post, America would also lose out in an appointment of Paul Cellucci to a lesser role in transportation - or to anything else in Washington.

Watch out America! Where are Paul Cellucci's leadership skills and integrity? Many in Massachusetts have seen enough to believe that their Governor should not be involved in the Bush administration.