Trump, Baker the butt of jokes at St. Patrick's breakfast
In between name dropping, Irish songs and conventional messaging, Massachusetts public officials tried their hands at stand-up comedy Sunday, focusing a stream of zingers and duds on recently approved legislative pay raises, the immigration debate, and of course President Donald Trump at the annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast.
Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, a black Haitian-American who lives in Dorchester, set the tone in welcoming Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and noting that she had not invited Trump.
"We're just going to stick with the one token Republican this year," said Forry, the host. "Ironically, I used to be the token at this breakfast."
Forry mocked Trump's Twitter obsession with her own fake tweet from the president, holding up a sign that read, "Good Luck on yur STUDID breakfast SAD!!"
The governor's devotion to the Republican Party was also a topic, with Forry telling him, "you know you're not really a Republican" and at another point calling Baker "the least favorite governor at the White House."
Baker fed into that thread with his post-election video dubbed "a bipartisan love story" that strung together photos of the governor smiling and laughing with the state's top Democrats as Barbara Streisand sang longingly about memories.
Attorney General Maura Healey tweaked legislative leaders for the hefty pay raises they approved for themselves this year, displaying House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Stan Rosenberg riding in "tricked out Mercedes."
"I thought they told you not to spend that pay raise all in one place," Healey said.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh also capitalized on the raises. "What I do love is when elected officials take a stand," Walsh quipped. Singling out Forry and South Boston Rep. Nick Collins, he said, "They are profiles in courage. I mean voting for your own pay raise, on a roll call. That takes a lot of guts."
Collins jabbed back at Walsh, of Dorchester, for shortening the route of this year's parade in South Boston.
"Remember that year when Mayor Flynn, a Southie guy, decided to shorten the Dorchester Day Parade?" Collins said. "Me neither. Never happened."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren kept up her focus on the president, describing the Irish as "the immigrants Donald Trump likes."
Referring to the Patriots come-from-behind Super Bowl win in February over the Atlanta Falcons, Warren said, "Wasn't it great to see a victory that wasn't decided by the Russians?" She added, "I am still amazed by Julian Edelman's catch. Those are big hands. Not tiny little presidential hands."
She wrapped it up with: "Any minute the president will declare that when you're famous you can grab someone by the blarney stones."
Sen. Edward Markey also targeted Trump. "It's hard to measure the historic meanspiritedness of this administration," he said. "Saint Patrick was famous for driving the snakes out of Ireland and unfortunately they seem to have all landed jobs inside the White House."
Baker, regretting his resemblance to villainous NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, recalled being mistaken for him by Pats fans at the Super Bowl parade.
"The boos start raining down," the governor said. "This is no joke. So I looked out and I said 'Hey, wait a minute. I'm not Roger Goodell. I'm the governor.' And they booed even louder."
Several speakers riffed off of Trump's orders aimed at blocking entrance into the U.S. of foreign nationals from six majority-Muslim countries.
Congressman Stephen Lynch said he was "worried sick" that his Irish mother-in-law, who lives with him, might be deported.
"It would be so easy for the authorities to pick her up any weekday Monday through Friday at 6:07 p.m. when she gets off the bus at - the Number 9 bus, at G and Broadway," Lynch said.
Walsh said he was supposed to visit Ireland this year for St. Patrick's Day.
"I was going to go over and go back to the homeland," he said. "But I had to cancel my trip because I wasn't sure that immigration would let me back in the country."
Healey joked about running for governor against Baker next year and the fact that Baker didn't vote for a presidential candidate.
"I backed Hillary," Healey said. "He was backed into a corner."
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