overnor Paul Cellucci's unprecedented radio attack ads charging the state Legislature with ''Animal House'' antics and overspending could trigger a new era of super-cynicism in government.
The ads are presented as an effort to take the debate on tax-cutting and other issues out of the insular world of the State House and carry it to everyday citizens. But of course money for the ads comes from Cellucci's campaign war chest, and the contributors to that fund are hardly average Joes and Janes.
The tactic of using an early media campaign to smear the opposing party by attacking its legislative leadership is new to Massachusetts, certainly 29 months before the next election. But Cellucci's camp says it is similar to the tactic used by President Clinton in his last campaign, when he blasted Congress as a way of undercutting Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and the Republican Party generally.
That is a valid argument, but not a rationale. For almost four years, Republicans all over the country have been pointing to the '96 Clinton campaign as the number one example of all that is wrong with American politics - particularly the overly negative, heavily financed ad campaign funded in large part by special-interest money. Texas Governor George W. Bush, with some justification, is making Vice President Al Gore pay a heavy price for his part in that tainted campaign.
Now, Cellucci - Bush's Massachusetts campaign chairman - is holding up that very campaign as a model to be emulated.
Part of Cellucci's motive is to influence the tax-cutting initiative he is supporting on the ballot this November. But there is an obvious and larger near-term objective: diverting attention from his own difficulties such as the Big Dig, Massport, and the lieutenant governor by throwing the spotlight on another branch of government that has put its own poor performance on display.
As governor, Cellucci has the capacity to take his message to the people in many ways. By using campaign money for a radio ad attack, he is trading the bully pulpit of his office for a broken-down political soapbox.
