Facing sex charges, Marzilli represents Mass. Senate in Germany

Mental illness or not, he needs to be removed from office. He is a complete disgrace to the State of Massachusetts and his family.

Unbelievable. He is accused of sexually assaulting, not one, but FOUR women, and he still has his job, still gets paid, and now takes trips to Germany on taxpayers expense. Do not need an ethics investigation on this one, should have been clear - he should NOT have been representing this state at that conference, or at any other's for that matter. What is going on here? Who approved that trip and expense?

Any guesses who paid the tab for this?

Leave it to Senate President Therese Murray to whitewash sending a sexual preditor, as an emmissary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Berlin by saying, it's OK, he's been diagnosed with a mental illness that makes him a sexual preditor. Look out Deval, we may be getting another unexpected bill you'll have to pay. He's on our dime. Any damage he does will be our responsibility.

And who do we suppose paid for this excursion? It's all Bush's fault!

i want to know why his staff did not report this to the press. If he is using his title of Senator, then he is on official business. Obviously the taxpaers should not be paying for someone that can fuction in Europe in offical capacity but not on Beacon Hill. Much like sarah Palin, Jim;s staff made a huge error hiding this trip. Is Marzilli directing his staff on issue or are they the default senator, except for voting?

There are no words to describe how corrupt our state government is. One good ol boy protecting another, just in case they too get caught with their pants down. This goes beyomd any explanation as to justify him representing us. He needs to go to JAIL!!!

germany is a great place to send someone with a sexual deviance problem!

"“Jim Marzilli has a diagnosed mental illness, this is a different situation,” Senate President Therese Murray said"

Ms Murray I have some news for you. The citizens of Massachusetts don't want a sexual degenerate - sane or not representing them. Seem beyond reason that I would even have to point that out.

Sickening. I would like to see him resign and reimburse us for his no show Senate work. Make sure he pays the bill to Germany as well.

No way should we allow him to continue into the new year and get a bigger pension.

Here it is all you fools voted to give these vermin more money by voting no question 1. any other state that would have passed like no tomorow . Nothing will happen other than the corrupt courts will let the corrupt politicians off and they will collect years and years of your hard earned money . We will have to work til the day we die and these vermin will live large thanks to the cowards in ma. but ban doggie racing its bad for the dogs but put people with kids and bills out of work, clowns. No wonder everyone hates ma.

Disgusting. This coupled with Wilkerson debacle, Sal's refusal to release records, Finneran getting indicted, Billy Bulger. And those are the only ones we know of. How many other things do we not have a clue about. Thanks to all who voted NO on Question # 1 due to the doomsday campaign by the state/local unions who are in bed with Beacon Hill. Way to show them how outraged you are. Morons.

And Senator Wilkerson is up on charges and been asked to resign...

Yeah, right we don't have a race problem in America.

Whatever!

Has no one heard about innocent until proven guilty?

Amazing how quick everyone is to lynch an accused without due process of the data / evidence.

The Senate's convened ethics investigations of Senators Wilkerson and Marzilli.

The House has REFUSED to convene an ethics investigation of Speaker Sal DiMasi.

If ever there is a smoking gun for both state Attorney General Martha Coakley and U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan to conduct separate investigations of Speaker DiMasi, it's the arrogance of the House Ethics Committee refusing to investigate its own speaker.

What? Flew to germany on behalf of Massacusetts? I hope the Germans catch him accosting some frauline and they jail him!

Notwithstanding his so-called sickness, how does sending a lame duck legislator on that trip benefit the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?

An absolute disgrace. Good ballot question for next year: Reduce the House to 100 members and the Senate to 30!

I used to think that we deserve what we get when we keep voting these people in - now I really wonder if the votes are counted - does anyone else notice how the election results were in so fast this time? I refuse to believe that the people of Massachusetts actually voted down question 1, voted yes on question 2 and voted no on question 3 - all three in my opinion, against our own self-interests.

Welcome to Massachusetts, the Louisiana of the Northeast.

Sounds like a free trip to Germany at the taxpayers expense. Oh, and nice having a sexual predator as a representative of this state!

So that's why he wasn't at his high school reunion!

Welcome to Massachusetts, where sexual predators are "mentally ill" as long as they have a "D" next to their name

It's unfortunate that Sen. Murray is perpetuating misinformation about mental illness. It's been widely reported that Marzilli has bipolar disorder - altho somehow I doubt that Murray has access to his psychiatric diagnosis - which she apparently believes is a reason/excuse for his (alleged) sexual assaults. But where in the world is she coming up with a connection between between the two? We're talking apples and oranges here, folks. Would she say the same thing about a more widely-understood condition, like depression or diabetes? I hope not.

And we didn't pass Question 1. Lots of sex shops in Germany, he probably felt right at home..
Murray is an integrity challenged jackass and would heve been caught with wilkerson if she could have fit a cell phone tower in her bra.
80% of the Mass Legislature are either stealing themselves or are enabeling the others. Have these people no shame??

He's the poster child for you liberals. He's got an illness and we should rehab him. Way to vote NO on #1...Idiots. I look forward to increasing my taxes to pay his pension bump on 1/1/09. Only about 1500 days until B Hussein Obama is out!!!!!

ya know, as a reasonably enlightened citizen and all you'd like to see beyond the details to the big picture, to see the logic in things, to give the benefit of a doubt etc. marzilli did a good job by most accounts, good guy, intelligent, well spoken. but how is it possible there was no one else as qualified that could be sent to germany? it doesn't make sense.

from someone who tries hard to see deeper into things this is just ridiculous. yes, marzilli's problem is different, he's not a crook, just mentally ill and sexually dangerous. hhmm, let's see, who should we send? a crime is a crime, it's arguable even worse to send this guy than wilkerson. i wonder how the germans will feel when they find out? we need some fresh thinking up on the hill.....

He wasn't so mentally ill to leave his district to accost women. That sounds a bit cunnung to me...certainly not mentally ill. Of course he just took a page from the Kennedy Playbook and ran to Mclean (rehab?).

Do any of you know how to read? "He didn’t use any taxpayer funds while he was there," Not that I'mdefending a sexual predator. But get your facts straight. All you fox news republicans are so quick to make up facts. And You wonder why your party in dissaray?

Any idea if he enjoyed Germany and the new hunting grounds? Did he need to use diplomatic immunity? If Deval is using him as the face of Massachusetts then we all suffer.

Plus, he's a really creepy looking guy. At least Mitt photographs well.

Hat tip to Politicker.com, Matt?
I saw the story there three hours ago.

The same old, same old from all of you POSERS, I mean posters.
Everyone complains about the abuse, the polical and economic climate and what happened on November 4th with respect to our local elections?

Right! The same people voted in, time after time. Marzilli didn't run, but Therese Murray did. And she won handily! The problem is people piss and moan on chat boards because it's easy. Try going out and fighting for change and we wouldn;t still be stuck in this mess.

Bull! Why is it that whenever someone is accused of a sexual crime they get off with that excuse of bipolar disorder? It is such an overused excuse! It is ridiculous! Demeaning to say the least. my GOD! Why don't they just say they are addicted to SEX and get it over with? That they are dirty dogs and sick individuals that will not make an attempt to better themselves because they don't think they have a problem? Bipolar disorder is an illness and it can be maintained with medication, life altering situations, therapy, change.Those people that do know of this Marzilli's incidents and still want him in office are just as bad as he is. he needs to resign.

The previous comments are why the best blogs and online articles don't have a comments section. Did Barney and Jon Keller author all of these? And did Howie Carr help? Yikes. Hey, we can all agree abuse of power shouldn't be tolerated. That's easy. But these comments argue for a more informed and sophisticated society too.

Please, everybody take a deep breath!!

Senator Marzilli did this for the children!!

Hey, CynicalGenius, the Rep. party may be in disarray, but Massachusetts, run by Democrats, is a national disgrace! Y. Abrams said it best in her Sunday column, "The State House is a scandal factory."

Just what we need, more sanctamonious Dems like CynicalGenius defending their firends' twisted abuse of power-all the while telling the rest of us, Reps and Indp. alike-how to live our lives. One party rule in MA has destroyed this state.

It's very ironic that someone who gets caught doing something illegal (the groping incidents) then all of a sudden he is diagnosed with bipolar disease. This moron was never diagnosed until he got caught, like all the others. Now he's in Germany representing the state of Massachusetts.
He's either drinking a lot of German beer or maybe he is seeing how "bipolar" panels would work in Munich. What a moron, deport him as soon as possible to MCI Walpole. Perhaps his cell mate can offer him the top bunk. What kind of state have we become. Please!

ya know, as a reasonably enlightened citizen and all you'd like to see beyond the details to the big picture, to see the logic in things, to give the benefit of a doubt etc. marzilli did a good job by most accounts, good guy, intelligent, well spoken. but how is it possible there was no one else as qualified that could be sent to germany? it doesn't make sense.

from someone who tries hard to see deeper into things this is just ridiculous. yes, marzilli's problem is different, he's not a crook, just mentally ill and sexually dangerous. hhmm, let's see, who should we send? a crime is a crime, it's arguable even worse to send this guy than wilkerson. i wonder how the germans will feel when they find out? we need some fresh thinking up on the hill.....

Is that Manic-Depressive Axis Type Grope Strangers? Is that code billable?

CynicalGenius, he may not have used state funds while there, but he was on the state clock for the duration, as he continues to be. Is that supposed to make us feel better?

Maybe no one has paid attention to recent news from Alaska, but the presence or absence of taxes has very little to do with corruption.

Throw this bumb in jail!

What exactly is the problem here? So he went to Germany for an environmental conference and gave his current title. BFD. The state didn't send him, the state didn't pay his way, and the state has nothing to do with this conference.

I have plenty of friends with bi-polar disorder that don't harass women and who knows-perhaps Dianne Wilkerson has a gambling addiction...

Let's cut the crap and the dead weight. Marzilli is laughing at the Senators. They have to work for their paychecks.