Unsteady is unready
If this is what a Tom Reilly governorship is going to look like, then maybe it's time to look at Plan B.
I'm not complaining about Reilly's selection of a running mate, Marie St. Fleur, a state representative from Boston. At least she's won an election. Kerry Healey couldn't even win a legislative race when Mitt Romney tapped her four years ago.
The problem is with the way Reilly brought St. Fleur onto the ticket. It was, at best, a politically clumsy process, filled with bad leaks, broken promises, and hurt feelings.
At worst, it reveals the lack of thoughtfulness, consistency, and honesty in some of the most pivotal decisions that Reilly makes as a public official and the haphazard disregard he has for some of the people most affected by his choices.
Where to begin? How about with Mayor Tim Murray of Worcester. Reilly made a vow to Murray five months ago that he wouldn't hand-pick his own candidate for lieutenant governor, a job Murray is seeking.
''He said, 'Tim, I'd never do anything to hurt you,' " Murray said.
Or how about with Chris Gabrieli. Gabrieli is one of these rare guys liked by virtually everyone in the Democratic establishment, partly for the millions of dollars in self-made money that he throws at problems and candidates and partly because he's just a smart and decent guy.
Reilly courted him to be his lieutenant governor -- have no doubt about that. They've talked for weeks about it, held endless discussions, signed letters. They planned a press conference for yesterday to announce it and even mapped out a celebratory dinner for last night.
Yes, they were both correct in their respective parting statements that there was never a ''formal offer." But what happened is tantamount to a groom driving to a bride's house on the morning of their wedding to say that while he still may want to marry her, he's begun thinking a lot about someone else. The relationship collapsed sometime Sunday afternoon.
How? As Reilly aides leaked word to reporters over the weekend about the Reilly-Gabrieli ticket, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and a former Suffolk district attorney, Ralph Martin, were privately exhorting Reilly to consider St. Fleur. Despite months of talks with Gabrieli, in Reaganesque fashion, the last voice in Reilly's ear won out.
''I thought he had to do something that was different," Menino told me yesterday.
Said Martin, a close Reilly friend: ''I just wanted to make sure that he gave it the deliberation I thought it was worth. At the end of it all, someone was going to feel let down. If you know Tom, that's the last thing he intended."
But I do know him, and I'm decreasingly convinced that's true. I keep thinking back to Reilly's remarks after the Supreme Judicial Court legalized gay marriage, when he said, ''I don't believe the court should be making profound social changes." If the court doesn't make these changes toward equality in America, then who or what does?
Eight months later, Reilly changed his position, saying, ''We've all evolved as a state," and, ''No one has been hurt" by gay marriage. What took so long?
His problem is that after a while, he's not just hurting people with his decision-making, but alienating constituencies. Liberals are still irate over his former opposition to gay marriage. Worcester may be next, because of Murray.
Here's my problem: I like Reilly, at least I want to. I like that he's rented the same Watertown apartment for years. I like that I regularly run into him walking solo along the Charles River after work, clearing his head of debris. I admire the decency he showed to the friend whose daughters died in a car crash.
I believe he has the capacity to understand the needs and dreams of the average person better than anyone who's run for higher office in this state in a good, long while.
But the hallmark of a great leader is making clear, thoughtful decisions in a way that is honest and forthright. For now, Reilly has a long way to go.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com. 