Jim Lyons might need saved his job as chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, if solely he might have achieved only one factor.
Win an election. Just one. Just as soon as.
But placing that elusive first “W” up on the board was one thing Lyons might in some way by no means accomplish, not even a single time, throughout the 4 catastrophic years wherein he has nearly fully dismantled each the native GOP in addition to Massachusetts as a two-party state.
Check out the picture of him from Tuesday night time in Marlboro, throughout his ouster from the $98,000-a-year job that he desperately wished to hold onto.
Lyons is 68 years previous, however boy, doesn’t he look extra like he’s, perhaps, 108 years previous?
Losing every single day, in each method, 24/7, should actually take it out of you.
Lyons’ final vote, by the way in which, got here final week on the election for Republican National Committee chair. By proxy, he voted for Harmeet Dhillon.
She misplaced, in fact. Once Lyons endorsed Harmeet, her defeat was pre-ordained. A Jim Lyons endorsement has been the political kiss of dying ever since he first began operating for workplace again in 1984.
He was a Democrat again then. That was the 12 months Ronald Reagan carried 49 states. Jim all the time knew tips on how to choose ‘em.
After being mugged by actuality (and the voters) but once more Tuesday night time, Lyons posted the next on Facebook:
“We have only just begun.”
Now that’s a scary thought, at the least to the handful of elected Republicans left in state politics after Lyons’ 4 years of political pyromania in opposition to his personal social gathering.
The job of being a state social gathering chairman is fairly easy. The committees exist as vessels, principally, to funnel help and, extra importantly, cash, to native political candidates.
As one state rep defined:
“A party chairman has two tasks – he has to be able to get along with people, and he has to be able to raise money.”
Jim Lyons might do neither. He had retired from the Legislature in 2018 as a result of in poor health well being – the voters bought sick of him. So he determined to run for social gathering chairman – the job wanted the person, and the person wanted a job.
He railed in opposition to Gov. Charlie Baker, as nicely he ought to have. With COVID, countless scandals in state businesses and his insane inexperienced vitality insurance policies, Baker was, like Lyons, a complete catastrophe.
But as soon as Baker grew to become a lame duck, it was time for Jim to pivot. So he switched from attacking essentially the most outstanding Republican within the state to stalking lesser GOP figures, like all people on the state committee who opposed him.
Lyons was quickly too busy to fret about profitable elections. He was as a substitute consumed with suing different Republicans for… no matter. Forget planning campaigns – he wished to attend the depositions. Send out some extra subpoenas!
The donors vanished. So he used the social gathering’s dwindling funds on non-public detectives. He had them path one feminine member of the committee, she says, to Tennessee. He used his personal firm’s funds – fats with $48,000 in COVID welfare – to dig up decade-old divorce data on one other member of the committee.
Like all people else, I watched this catastrophe unfolding with rising dismay. He tried to knock the one remotely critical GOP candidate for statewide workplace, Anthony Amore, off the poll.
After failing to get 4 totally different referendum questions on the poll, he tried once more with drivers’ licenses for unlawful immigrants. He arrange a completely nugatory web site. I screamed at him. Finally, with lots of assist from all of us who weren’t suing one another, he bought it on the poll.
But then he couldn’t increase any cash – it is a recurring theme, you might have seen. And what little Lyons did increase, he spent some on the lawyer who was suing different Republicans for him, and on “consultants.” Oh yeah, he additionally did some marketing campaign literature – with out Amore’s identify on it.
The Democrats, in the meantime, had been fanning out to metropolis and city halls, researching who was asking for mail-in ballots. They would then solicit their votes. Jim Lyons filed a desultory grievance in opposition to mail-in voting after which went again to plotting extra lawsuits… in opposition to Republicans.
Meanwhile, his candidate for governor, Geoff “DoorDash” Diehl, ran like a scared rabbit from debates together with his Republican opponent. Diehl refused my provide of a second debate.
Lyons and his Kool Aid Kult grew surly. They accused me of “selling out,” as a result of the opposite candidate had purchased advertisements on my radio present. Guess what – I promote advertisements to whoever desires to purchase them, together with the Mass GOP. So Lyons’ minions began making up incredible lies about how a lot I’d gotten for radio spots.
I requested them to retract their falsehoods, however they refused. That left me no selection. As Harry Truman used to say, “If they’ll stop lying about me, I’ll stop telling the truth about them.”
So I began scouring their social media. This is how clueless the Lyons crew was – they by no means bothered to wash their Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds, and so forth.
It was like capturing fish in a barrel. I’d tweet out a photograph of some Lyons loser on the committee snuggling with some random man, after which beneath I’d run the information story of the pal’s indictment on fees of forcible rape of a minor in Essex County.
Lyons claimed he was the most important Trump man in Massachusetts, a complete lie. I ran pictures of him with Ted Cruz in 2016, and his proud announcement that he was Ted Cruz’s state marketing campaign chairman.
Al Davis used to say — Just win child! Jim Lyons turned that round – Just lose child!
Last week, Lyons didn’t even present up for the one debate of his marketing campaign for re-election. Just like his boy, DoorDash Diehl, he went MIA as a result of he couldn’t defend himself. What might he say?
Before the vote, he and Diehl went on a ultimate tank-town tour, addressing what few true believers remained. He informed the shut-ins about his massive plans – to not win elections, however to file extra and greater lawsuits in opposition to Republicans.
He informed his mouth-breathers that the massive drawback in state politics wasn’t Democrats, it was Republicans.
But he would sue them, the bastards, the RINO’s. At the beginning, Lyons promised he’d get his supporters $4 million. Then it was $5 million. In a ultimate e-mail final weekend, the quantity was as much as “in excess of $5 million.”
And now Lyons is left, as soon as once more, with Dick Tuck’s lament:
“The voters have spoken, damn them.”
But Jim Lyons has solely simply begun. Forewarned is forearmed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”