Patrick says he won't run for White House

WASHINGTON -- Deval L. Patrick, speaking to a gathering of lawyers last night, left no doubt about his future political plans.

``I have no intention of running for president of the United States," he said, after being introduced as a man who would be a great president.

But he certainly reminded them he was running for governor.

``This is supposed to be -- and will be -- an apolitical gathering," Patrick said at the outset of remarks to members of the American Constitution Society. But his speech repeatedly returned to Massachusetts politics and this fall's gubernatorial race, as the Democratic candidate sharply criticized public school conditions, rising healthcare costs, and a recent rise in gang violence.

``We have been led by a series of recreational governors, people who seem more interested in having the job than actually doing the job," Patrick said, sounding fiery at times. ``And the other aspirants, my competitors for this office, have been in power and done nothing, while all our troubles deepen."

Patrick, who picked up his party's endorsement at the state convention in Worcester earlier this month, also criticized Governor Mitt Romney, saying he was ``playing politics" with stem cell research and going on a ``tax-cutting binge." He lamented the Bay State's shrinking population, ``overcrowded classrooms," and ``a political culture that frankly likes it the way it is."

``We have a better organized, more motivated, broader, and eager grass-roots organization than any other candidate will or ever will have in Massachusetts," Patrick said.

The audience of several hundred gave Patrick two standing ovations, saving its loudest cheers for his criticism of the Bush administration and the current Congress, which he said was ``more concerned over lying about oral sex than they [are] about preserving constitutional values."

The talk drew on Patrick's campaign speeches, as the candidate condemned ``politics as usual" and invoked advice from his grandmother: ``Hope for the best -- and work for it." Patrick made liberal use of both phrases in his remarks at this month's party convention.

Patrick, the former assistant attorney general for civil rights under President Clinton, seemed more focused on his new career in electoral politics than in the academic trenches of the law. Afterward, he appeared a little fatigued.

``We landed at 4:30," he said in an interview, ``and then I wrote the speech."

In the interview, he called the American Constitution Society an ``important organization. It's a counterweight to a deliberate and purposeful long-term effort by the Federalist Society [a conservative lawyers' group] to impose a very different -- and I think a very limited -- vision of the law."

The American Constitution Society, which counts liberal lawyers, legal scholars, and politicians as members, is a registered non partisan nonprofit . Patrick has donated over $5,000 to the five-year-old organization and once sat on its board of advisers, according to Lisa Brown, executive director.

Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, also spoke at the convention, held at the Hyatt Regency hotel by Capitol Hill.

Patrick will be back in Massachusetts for campaign stops in Northampton, Randolph, and Newton.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, Patrick's rival in the Sept. 19 Democratic primary, flew to Washington on Monday to meet with Justice Department officials about rising gas prices.