GOVERNOR PATRICK has a compelling personal story to tell, and he says he will be telling it on his own time. But the $1.35-million memoir Patrick has contracted to write over the next two or three years still presents conflicts with his day job - the job 1.23 million Massachusetts voters elected him to do.
Patrick says he will be writing the book "at nights and on weekends," as if he stops being governor after 5 p.m. His wan assurances bring to mind a similar miscalculation he made in his first months as governor, when he made a call to former US Treasury secretary Robert Rubin vouching for ACC Capital Holdings, a company where Patrick had been a board member. Patrick tried to mitigate the furor by saying he had not made the call "in his capacity as governor." No one begrudges Patrick a personal life or free time. But then, as now, he seems not to appreciate that he is never off the clock.
The tension between the state's claim on Patrick's time and his own was only heightened by his clandestine trip to New York to ink the book deal while his casino gambling proposal was going down in flames. The proposal's defeat was a foregone conclusion, but many of Patrick's hard-working allies felt abandoned by his retreat. "It's hard to imagine a more inept act," said one of Patrick's State House supporters.
Also worrisome are the speaking engagements Patrick may be expected to make. The book will be published in 2010, in the heat of Patrick's reelection campaign, assuming he seeks reelection. To maximize reader interest, he will almost surely embark on a book tour. He has said he will donate a portion of his speaking fees to A Better Chance, the nonprofit group that helped get him a scholarship to Milton Academy. Patrick will have to choose his sponsors carefully to make sure speaking fees are not unregulated campaign contributions in another guise.
It is true that former governor Weld spent the last six or seven months of his tenure writing a first novel, "Mackerel by Moonlight," but Weld had already checked out mentally from the job. We expect more from Patrick, whose promise has so far not been met.
All good expository writing aims to answer a question. Patrick will have many to choose from. Is becoming the second black elected governor in US history a grand enough achievement for him, or will he seek higher office still? Will he ever feel at home in the political fray, or continue to hold himself aloof from the mess of democracy? Is he a one-term governor? What really makes him tick? Massachusetts residents shouldn't have to buy the book to learn the end of that story.
