FOR GOVERNOR Deval Patrick, the gas tax fight is an important chapter on the need for political courage in times of fiscal crisis.
Best of all, he can write it.
A year ago, Patrick inked a $1.35 million book deal to recount his journey from Chicago's Wabash Avenue to the Massachusetts State House. The autobiography, said his publisher, would offer "a series of lessons and insights on life and leadership."
Imagine Patrick tapping out the lessons and insights on life and leadership arising out of the current economic meltdown.
The main character is, of course, the Bay State's first African-American governor and the first Democrat elected to the office in 16 years. A newcomer to the Massachusetts political scene, he beats an incumbent attorney general and wealthy businessman in a Democratic primary. Then, he wins the governor's office with inspiring talk of hope and change.
Grand ideas and new programs evaporate as the economy and state revenue tumble. The governor faces a devastating budget gap. He is forced to make tough but necessary spending cuts, disappointing liberals who elected him.
Meanwhile, the state transportation system teeters on bankruptcy, weakened by years of borrowing to pay the costs of the $15 billion public works project known as the Big Dig. The governor boldly confronts years of bad policy and craven political decisions, and proposes a 19-cents-per-gallon increase in the gasoline tax.
The handful of Republican lawmakers blast the proposal. But Democrats who control the Legislature are unhappy, too. The new speaker of the House must embrace an unpopular tax hike as his first order of business. The Senate president is calling for "reform before revenue."
One poll shows the governor's approval rating plummeting like the Dow. The political sharks start to circle. The state treasurer, a fellow Democrat with a lean and hungry look, and even leaner policy propositions, has the chutzpah to go public with his desire to run for governor. Charlie Baker, the well-regarded head of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and a top official under two Republican governors, confirms his interest in a possible gubernatorial run.
The business community stands behind Patrick and gives him more cover by proposing a 25-cents-per-gallon increase. Business leaders are criticized for being out of touch with working men and women. In Patrick's book, those businessmen become unlikely heroes.
The villains will be plentiful if Patrick traces back the origins of the state's transportation crisis.
A succession of Republican governors, from Bill Weld to Mitt Romney, turned the idea of commonwealth and collective responsibility for doing the right thing into a dirty concept. Meanwhile, they watched as the state sunk deeper into debt to pay the ever-escalating costs of the massive public works project. During the 1990s, Repubublican governors helped to keep the Big Dig's bloated costs hidden from the public. In 2006, tons of concrete fell in a Big Dig tunnel, crushing to death a passenger in a car. Only then did state officials finally confront another cost of their willingness to look the other way. The passenger, Milena Del Valle, died because of poor engineering decisions and a lack of oversight by government and the people hired to provide it.
If Patrick is honest, this chapter must also turn a critical eye on fellow Democrats. The Big Dig started on their watch and its cost to taxpayers was always underestimated. Once Weld won, Democratic lawmakers were terrified of any gas tax talk. They knew that over time, borrowing to pay for the Big Dig would ultimately backfire. But they were cowed by the anti-tax crowd. They let the Big Dig drain the state of resources, at the expense of critical road and bridge work across Massachusetts.
Those Democrats are now being asked to stand up and pay for some of their own sins. The governor who is asking them to do it is up for reelection in 2010, the same year his autobiography is due out.
Patrick, the author, will have a lot to say about Patrick, the governor.
But voters get the last word on their definition of political courage.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. 
