Pubdate: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 Source: Boston Herald (MA) Copyright: 2000 The Boston Herald, Inc. Contact: One Herald Square, Boston, MA 02106-2096 Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/ Feedback: to Mr. Carr: http://www.bostonherald.com/guestbook/all/hcarr.htm Website: http://www.bostonherald.com Author: Howie Carr, Columnist Bookmark: Items about George Soros http://www.mapinc.org/soros.htm THIS PRO-POT PLUTOCRAT MAY SOON FEEL OUT OF JOINT The chump of the year in Massachusetts politics is 70-year-old New York billionaire George Soros. Soros hates drug laws, and he has the bucks to finance what amount to backdoor legalization efforts in state after state. Before the recent Nasdaq meltdown, Forbes magazine said he was worth $5 billion - the 44th wealthiest American. Alas, George has been off his game of late - Russian bonds were not a good bet in '98, and then he missed the tech run-up last year, only to jump in at the absolute height of the now-collapsed market. But now Soros and a couple of other pro-drug gazillionaires are bankrolling referendum Question 8. In essence, it would make it a lot easier for drug dealers to avoid prison by seeking ``treatment'' and would enable the Whitey Bulgers of the world to keep most of the money and property they must now forfeit if convicted. You haven't heard much about Question 8, have you? Which is odd, because Soros et al have poured a half-million dollars into the campaign, and what do they have to show for it? Not even a dime bag's worth of sticks and stems. The campaign treasurer of the Coalition for Fair Treatment is the politically connected defense lawyer Tom Kiley. He's charged the coalition about $10,000 in rent. His firm has also billed them for about $20,000 in legal fees. Meanwhile, Kiley keeps other irons in the fire. He recently represented the former Quincy District Court chief of probation Andrew Klein in a larceny case. He got Klein off. Would you care to guess who was just hired by the Coalition for Fair Treatment? ``I did recommend him, yes,'' Kiley said. ``Andy was a natural for the job.'' Was it a way to make sure he had a job so he could pay off his legal bills? ``No. He's one of my rare clients who paid on time.'' You know a campaign is in big trouble when they have multiple managers and pollsters. The Coalition has both. They paid Kiley & Co. (no relation to Klein's lawyer) $50,000 for polling last winter. Now they've paid John Gorman's outfit $22,500. The official campaign manager is Debra J. Vanderbeek of Haverhill. Last summer, she was grabbing $12,500 a month. But in July a new name appears on the OCPF disclosure forms - former Dukakis flack Mary Fifield. She got $30,000 on July 31 and another $19,000 last month. But they weren't the only ones getting well off Soros and his pals. A lobbyist named John Coleman Walsh relieved the Coalition of $5,000. They imported an operative from D.C., handed over $850 a week to him and rented a car for him to use. They paid a left-leaning Santa Monica company $83,000 to collect the signatures they needed to get on the ballot. Something called Northeast Legislative Strategies collected $50,000. The ``Victory Group'' was victorious in taking $29,500 from the campaign. Said a Coalition spokesman: ``They handled a legislative hearing.'' For that much dough it must have been a very long hearing. In addition to paying themselves handsomely, these Question 8 hacks have been eating up a storm and charging it to addled old Soros. They love Maison Robert - they dropped $250 there on June 23, then came back four days later for a $278.50 feed. Can someone say munchies? Other pricey favorites: Bakey's ($520.09 on April 5), the Omni Parker House ($620 on April 24) and, of course, Locke Ober's ($249.58 on May 10). I'm sure when the Coalition arrives for dinner, the maitre d' has one question for the pro-pot pols: ``Smoking or non-smoking?'' It's a beautiful thing, living large off dazed and confused out-of-state billionaires. And looming ahead, in 2002, yet another legend in his own mind ripe for the plucking - Tom Birmingham. As for George Soros, a couple of thoughts for you and your pot pals. A fool and his money are soon parted. And, there's no fool like an old fool. They could make a movie about Question 8, except that Cheech and Chong already did. They called it ``Up in Smoke.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake