Opinion: Gambling on greed in Massachusetts

Tuesday, September 4, 2007  

"Just a few weeks ago Glenn Marshall was riding high. The ponytailed chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council had won a contentious vote by residents of the town of Middleborough, Massachusetts, to build a casino and resort complex. Wealth beckoned. Life was good.

Now it's all over. Earlier this week he was forced out of his post following revelations that he'd been convicted of rape and cocaine possession, and had lied about being a war hero in Vietnam and having worked as a police officer. Tribe members he had ordered shunned have returned to the fold, and are asking uncomfortable questions. The fate of the casino hangs in the balance.

And, oh yes, former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the very symbol of political corruption in the Bush era, is tied up in all this, too.

What a mess. And it stands as a cautionary tale on several levels. There is Marshall's hubris, of course, which is so commonplace that it scarcely needs to be dealt with. More interesting, I think, is the greed and naivety of Middleborough - both its elected officials and the voters - who thought they could extricate themselves from a perpetual budget deficit by selling out for quick money."

Get the Story:
Dan Kennedy: Gambling on greed (Comment Is Free 9/3)