Gomez claims ideological cocooning and partisan gridlock are strangling the Congress and the nation. Markey claims the Republicans are up to no good, and it is more important than ever to send Democrats like him down there to fight them off.

If all that sounds familiar, it should. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren spent more than a year having the same argument, and you know how that one turned out.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

But whatever the result in next Tuesday’s election, we’ll still be living in a political climate that to me is the ultimate by-product of the “me” generation’s obsession with self.

In it’s youth, the baby boom generation defined itself with a cascade of nostrums; remember “never trust anyone over 30,” which has long since been updated to account for generational decrepitude.

But the slogan that still resonates is “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” No shades of gray there, or, really, much room for compromise.

Anyway, I get back to my desk from the debate, and find a new Gallup poll that shows public confidence in newspapers and TV news is at a low ebb, driven there in large part by the rabid nature of internet discourse and the media’s drift into partisanship.

Bottom line – in our politics, and in our news consumption, a critical mass of us seem to want our itches scratched, at the expense of true understanding and thought.

As we used to say back in the baby-boomer day – bummer.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Markey will paint Gomez as a sort of right-wing Rambo gone off the deep end, eager to slash benefits for vulnerable seniors and distribute the savings to greed-crazed oil barons.

In return, Gomez will describe Markey as a clueless, feeble old carpetbagger out to bleed the private sector dry to fund left-wing social-engineering fantasies.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Markey will counter by casting Gomez as what Karl Rove would look like if he were a Navy Seal.

Gomez will rebut by reaching beyond his description of Markey as “pond scum” to portray him as “organic waste.”

Most of the voters will recoil in disgust from the entire spectacle, and thus, yet another opportunity for serious discussion of serious problems will be lost.

If you think debt and deficits are important, it’s hard to imagine you feel well-served by the Markey campaign’s schoolyard mocking of Gomez’s perfectly reasonable claim that major tax breaks like the mortgage interest deduction should be part of the budget-balancing conversation. President Obama has taken the same position, and is also with Gomez on changing the way Social Security benefits are calculated, another attack point of Markey’s.

If you believe lobbyists have too much clout in Washington, you are likely appalled by Gomez’s insistence on stale ideas like term limits and congressional pay cuts that would give unelected power-brokers more sway over the nation’s business, not less.

The sad thing is, both Gomez and Markey strike me as pretty good men, capable, and well-meaning.

So why has their campaign devolved into organic waste?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

But I don’t think I realized just how bad things have become until I saw the results of a recent study that found “people are more likely to have hostile feelings toward people of the other party than members of another race.”

I’m glad that racism is fading away, if that’s indeed the case. But, are you kidding me?

“People are more likely to see their party as in the right, no matter what, and the other party as wrong,” says the lead author of that study. “People get more upset if they are asked to contemplate the prospect of their son or daughter marrying outside the party than outside their religion.”

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Let’s see if I have this straight: your son or daughter brings home the person they love and want to raise your grandchildren with, and when you learn they have a different party registration from you, you go ballistic?

You are willing to prioritize allegiance to the rhetoric and group-think of a bunch of politicians and consultants over your most important family relationships and deepest spiritual beliefs?

What are you, nuts?

Sorry, but how else to describe someone who would cling so tightly to a bunch of spin?

Political parties exist to pursue and perpetuate power, that’s all. If you want to focus on partisan control of Congress and vote for candidates as part of a numbers game, that’s fine.

But I think I need to be educated on how it’s right for partisanship to be more important than your family and faith.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 1:

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 2:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Or should I say, thanks for nothing.

A federal judge has ruled that a movie studio “violated minimum wage and overtime laws” by using unpaid interns to do menial administrative work on one of its productions. The judge agrees the interns benefited by receiving “resume listings, job references and an understanding of how a production office works,’’ but says the arrangement was still illegal because they weren’t in a system “intentionally structured to benefit them.”

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Got that?

They benefited, but not in the proper bureaucratic structure.

This distinction delighted one of the plaintiffs, who says internships have become “a form of institutionalized wage theft.’’ He’s still not earning any wages though – he’s busy studying to be, you guessed it, a lawyer.

I’m OK with all this insofar as no company should be allowed to exploit interns by failing to provide some benefit for their labor, and interns should never be able to take away paying jobs. But this ruling has some troubling implications.

Millions of kids get their first working experience from internships. Will these now evaporate?

What about volunteers?

If you hope to play pro baseball one day, will your park league team have to start paying you now?

You would hope any problems with the internship system could be worked out without throwing the opportunity out with the bath water.

But forget about that. The lawyers are involved now.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

The remaining 32-percent should make a point of paying attention as well.

Check: Live Reports From Court

Because there is a lot more at stake here than justice for an allegedly vicious serial killer.

By the time the trial ends this fall, we can hope to learn the truth behind who did what to – and for – whom.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

One myth formally bit the dust in court the other day, that Bulger not only didn’t deal drugs, but actively worked to keep them out of Southie, in keeping with the fairy tale of him as some sort of thug Robin Hood. No, his lawyers now admit, he peddled drugs to his neighbors, as aggressively as possible.

Gallery: Bulger Surveillance Photos

Add the human carnage that created to his alleged death toll.

We also need the truth about how extensively law-enforcement figures collaborated with Bulger.

The defense would prefer to turn this into a trial of the FBI, and while they shouldn’t be allowed to deflect blame from their client, we also must know the full extent of the bureau’s complicity here, once and for all.

And the Bulger trial is also important as a test case of how well our justice system works.

Bulger’s lead lawyer, J.W. Carney, is one of the best defense attorneys around, and he has made it clear he’s willing to use every trick in the book to try to get his client off, on our dime, by the way.

Expert lawyers and a gullible jury let O.J. Simpson get away with murder.

Could it happen again?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

And despite the claim of some pundits that the visit might actually backfire on Markey, I seriously doubt it. Consolidating and exciting the core Democratic vote is crucial for Markey, and Mr. Obama will surely provide that.

But as we saw three years ago, when the president came to Boston just two days before the Senate special to try to boost Martha Coakley, there are limits to how much he can do.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Back then, Mr. Obama spent much of his speech ridiculing Scott Brown’s truck, urging voters to not be “fooled” by his everyman appeal, as if voters taken with the idea of electing a fresh face who they agreed with on some key issues were easily misled dupes.

The president will rally the faithful today, but for independents and the independent-minded, it’s always vaguely depressing to see him spouting partisan rah-rah at events like this. What so many liked about him from the start was his appeal to something higher than partisanship.

And whatever Ed Markey’s merits, it’s hard for anyone, including the president, to spin him as the face of the future.

If anything, I suspect many independents will see the president’s visit as another sour note in this campaign, just as Sen. John McCain’s visit last month in support of Gabriel Gomez didn’t exactly enhance Gomez’s preferred image as an anti-Washington outsider.

McCain is popular here, but in the end he’s just another Washington figure with little real connection to our concerns.

The president carries more cache, but not much more. The non-partisans among us want less partisanship, not more.

So while his audience Wednesday will no doubt be thrilled, for the rest of us, not so much.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Expectations on the field will be low, and he may not have that hard a time exceeding them. But off the field, if you look at Tebow’s background, expectations can’t be high enough.

Related: Breer: Tebow No Lock To Make Team

He was born in the Phillipines to Baptist missionaries, who home-schooled Tim and his four siblings. And those parents apparently instilled quite the leadership impulse in their son.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Growing up in Jacksonville, Tebow and his family fought for his right to play football for the local public high school, a breakthrough for home-schoolers that became known as the “Tebow Rule.” He spent his high-school summers working at orphanages in the Phillipines.

And while his open pride in his faith has inexplicably made him an object of ridicule to some, Tebow walks the walk with prodigious philanthropy, which includes building a new hospital for poor children.

No, I cannot see any down side in having this impressive person move here.

In fact, I don’t think we can afford to let him spend all his time on football.

It is too late for Tebow to enter the U.S. Senate race, although I wouldn’t mind moderating the first debate with Gomez and Markey.

And it’s too late for the mayoral race, although I’d buy a ticket to watch him consult with blunt-talking political guru Ed Jesser.

But there is a race for governor next year that will just be heating up when the Pats’ season ends, plenty of time for Tebow to get his signatures.

Welcome to Massachusetts, Tim Tebow.

Now hurry up and save us.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Cellucci was a product of Irish and Italian parents, a double-Eagle (with degrees from Boston College and BC Law), and a “townie” in the best sense of that word, who spent his whole life in the working-class, melting-pot immigrant town of Hudson and never forgot where he came from.

Before he was a state rep, state senator, lieutenant governor, governor and US ambassador to Canada, Cellucci was a working lawyer. A guy I know told me once about coming to Cellucci for help with a complicated legal case and coming away from it believing he had just met the most honest man he would ever meet.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

It’s hard to sustain a reputation like that in a spin-laden profession like politics, but Cellucci somehow pulled it off.

Yes, he infamously claimed the Big Dig was “on time and on budget” when, we later learned, it most certainly was not, but he believed it when he said it and did his best to correct what would turn out to be by far the biggest mistake of his public life.

And throughout his career Paul Cellucci stuck by his principles as consistently as any political figure I’ve ever known.

He knew how politics worked and wasn’t above making the necessary compromises. But we are a better-educated state, with more opportunity for poor students, a more tolerant state, and safer from gun violence because Cellucci stood up for what he believed in.

Combine that with unquestioned loyalty to friends and family, and now you know why the eulogies are so glowing.

Rest in peace, Gov. Cellucci – you did it the way it should be done.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch: Keller @ Large Part 1

Watch: Keller @ Large Part 2

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Because it’ll be your first chance to really assess who Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez are and what they believe.

Perhaps there are voters who feel they get useful information from TV ads, campaign websites, and those canned campaign events where the candidates interrupt someone’s breakfast or stare knowingly at a factory machine. But I’m not one of them.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Only in a debate is there a chance that the candidates will be knocked off their script and forced to respond, to an unexpected question or the prodding of their opponent, in a genuine and spontaneous way.

Send: Your Debate Question To Jon Keller

Only in debates do we get a sense of how they handle pressure and think on their feet, a much better indicator, I’d say, of their leadership potential than their ability to deliver a speech someone else wrote for them.

There is something about a solid hour of live TV time being forced to explain and defend your views and background that brings out the best – or the worst – in a person.

And tonight at 7 you’ll get to see Gomez and Markey address at least some of the issues you have told us and the pollsters you care about most. (After the debate, go to cbsboston.com and tell us how well or poorly you felt the candidates answered the questions.)

And even if none of these reasons for watching or listening to the debate resonate with you, do it because it’s your civic duty.

Some pundits are saying no one cares about this race, and the winner will do so by default.

Why not prove them wrong.

See you tonight at 7.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

To those who have been obsessed with this case for years, it’s like the World Series, Super Bowl and Stanley Cup finals rolled into one. But even if you haven’t been following it, this trial is a major news story that deserves your closest attention.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

For starters, it’s about justice for a creature who, if the mountain of evidence and testimony against him stands up in court, is one of the most vicious predators and serial killers in our nation’s history.

The murders, the rapes, the seizure of property and businesses, that’s just part of the sheer terror Bulger allegedly inflicted on our community. Don’t forget the shots fired into the Boston Globe building, and the firebombing of the John F. Kennedy birthplace in Brookline, both said to be the product of Bulger’s opposition to school desegregation.

And then there were the allegedly respectable pillars of the community – journalists, politicians, priests, and others – who covered for Bulger, and perpetuated the repulsive myth of him as Southie’s very own Robin Hood.

But Bulger isn’t the only one on trial here. The corruption of the FBI agents and others in law enforcement who let Bulger run wild and enabled his escape continues to poison the well of public confidence and relations among police agencies.

If the charges against him are true, Whitey Bulger may have done more damage to a great American city than any single person in history.

So give this trial your attention. If justice can’t be done here, when can it ever be done?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

And if you have ever known him, no matter how nice a guy he may seem to be, don’t you find it hard to trust him, knowing that his own wife can’t do so?

Listen to Jon’s commentary: 

That is how I’m sure many of us feel having learned that three years ago, the Internal Revenue Service paid for 2,600 of its employees to gather in Anaheim, California for a free-spending leadership-training conference which included baseball tickets, fancy hotel suites, and $50,000 to make two videos of employees performing a Star Trek parody and other humorous hijinks.

And that was just one of 220 IRS conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012, according to the Associated Press.

But never fear, a crackdown on this kind of thing is already well underway, with IRS spending on large parties… excuse me, conferences like that one… down to under five million last year. The Anaheim fiesta was, says an IRS flack, “an unfortunate vestige from a prior era,” as if a year ago is already ancient history.

Few serious bosses with a clue would do stuff like this these past few years amid all the deprivation of our economy, for fear of looking careless and foolish.

Except, apparently, the decision-makers at the IRS.

For them, recession time was party time.

And as a result, among other reasons, their credibility gauge is buried on zero.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 1:

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 2:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

But in this case, to hear a bi-partisan cross-section of our state’s political leaders tell it, the “terrorists” are domestic – federal bureaucrats from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed suit in federal court to stop NOAA from imposing deep reductions in the amount of fish Massachusetts fishermen are allowed to catch, cuts Coakley calls a “death penalty” for the state’s fishing industry.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Our political establishment is united on this one, but their emphatic protests against NOAA policies to the Commerce Department, the White House and the agency itself have essentially been ignored.

NOAA claims its mandate that New England fisherman cut their intake of popular types of fish like cod and haddock by up to 78% is needed to protect the fish populations from overfishing. Coakley’s lawsuit claims the dictate is overbearing and based on faulty science.

And of course, there’s a political subtext here.

You may recall that the head of NOAA had to apologize to fisherman here after it came out that the agency was essentially shaking them down for dubious fines and using the money for sketchy purposes. Some say these new regulations are payback, and even Coakley, who usually is very circumspect, says she’s also skeptical of their motives.

This is all very bad business, and Gov. Patrick, our congressional delegation, and the attorney general should demand a satisfactory response from the president.

Foreign terror is bad enough; we shouldn’t have to play defense against attacks from our own government.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Seventy-two year old Arlindo Goncalves was a homeless man described by friends as “harmless.” He lived in a Brockton shelter and spent his days collecting cans.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

He and Selma Goncalves weren’t related. All they really had in common was they weren’t white, more than enough cause for Keith Luke, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi, to murder them in cold blood three years ago, in the course of a crime spree where he raped a woman and tried to murder her along with several other bystanders, including a Brockton police officer.

If you haven’t been following the trial of this creature, I don’t blame you, it’s been hard to watch because the defendant may be the single most repulsive specimen I’ve ever seen.

His lawyer doesn’t dispute that he committed the crimes, only that he was so mentally ill he didn’t know what he was doing, a long shot defense undercut by clear evidence of his careful pre-meditation.

Luckily for this violent, hate-filled animal, Massachusetts has no death penalty, an unlucky development for the convicts he will be living with for the rest of his miserable life. He poses a clear threat to the prisoners and guards.

And the thought of what it will cost to feed and clothe him for the next 50 years or so is infuriating.

Reasonable people can and do oppose the death penalty on principle.

But Keith Luke and the damage he has done and will do in the future should at least make you re-evaluate that opposition.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

BOSTON (CBS) – Issues come and go, but the outrageous mismanagement of the state’s food stamp – or EBT – program is the toxic gift that keeps on giving. And it’s time for Gov. Patrick and his allies in the legislature who’ve been investing so much energy in stalling and debunking EBT reform efforts to drop the bad attitude and start treating this issue with the seriousness it deserves.

Tuesday, thanks to an investigation by the state auditor’s office, we learned that during a nearly two-year period leading up to April of last year, next to nothing was being done about the problems with EBT, including millions of dollars in benefits being grabbed by criminals using the social security numbers of dead people.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

State officials say they’re doing everything they can to try to clean up this mess, but the auditor’s report found that similar reassurances during the time frame in question were, in essence, lies.

When I asked Gov. Patrick about all this in an interview last winter as he was making the rounds to explain why we should all pay higher taxes, he insisted with a straight face that everything that could be done was being done, and touted the fact that the director of the state agency overseeing EBT had been forced out in the wake of reports of widespread fraud.

The new director deserves a chance to fix all this, but the clock is ticking. We should be receiving weekly updates from her and the governor on their progress.

And in the meantime, please, no more condescending lectures about how anger over this amounts to beating up on poor people.

It’s poor people who are the victims of this fraud, not to mention all the taxpayers who’ve had enough of this administration’s buck-passing and foot-dragging.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch Part 1

Watch Part 2

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ NewsRadio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

For all of the ridicule he’s received since his bizarre 2011 car crash and the skepticism directed at his relationship with disgraced former Chelsea Housing Authority chief Michael McLaughlin, it’s worth noting that Murray has never been charged with any crime, and there’s no indication he’s about to.

It’s also notable that most of the people who know him best, in the State House and in Worcester where he served on the City Council, speak highly of his character and abilities.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

I asked Murray Wednesday if the ongoing probe of McLaughlin’s sketchy fundraising activities on behalf of Murray and others played any role in his decision to leave office 19 months before the end of his term, and he insisted it didn’t.

But while we’re being fair to Murray, let’s also be fair to the taxpayers and note that leaving office won’t and shouldn’t absolve him from responsibility for his decisions.

Murray strained his credibility by insisting he never knew of McLaughlin’s long, questionable past. When you lie down with dogs you risk getting fleas, and yet Murray persisted in a relationship where the risks arguably outweighed the benefits.

Murray engaged in patronage hiring on behalf of McLaughlin that was, while apparently legal, a violation of the public’s trust.

And it shouldn’t be forgotten that even if Murray didn’t know about it, McLaughlin’s abuses of power and sticky fingers exploited and damaged some of the most vulnerable members of our society, poor and frail elderly tenants of public housing.

It may be that all Tim Murray ever did was grossly misjudge someone, and who among us hasn’t done that.

But while he sails off into the private sector, he should also recognize that he has unfinished business to take care of with the rest of us.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

As we know full well here in Boston, over the coming days people will rally behind the survivors and the families of those who didn’t survive. We’ll give financial and moral support and help those who need it until they’re back on their feet.

And maybe after the damage is fully understood, we’ll all spend some time thinking a bit harder about risk, and how we might want to do more to protect against it.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

I was stunned to read Monday night that Moore, Oklahoma, is one of the most tornado-prone places on earth, with five major hits on the city in the past 15 years alone, including the strongest tornado ever recorded in 1999 – 318 mph.

Yet few of the homes built during a period of explosive growth in the ‘60’s, ‘70’s and ‘80’s included basements, the place experts say is your best chance of riding out a tornado.

Here’s a year-old story out of Minnesota, another tornado-prone state, where even fatal strikes haven’t been enough to prompt changes in the building code to require safe rooms. They recommend it, but it’s up to the homeowner to decide if it’s worth it, and at up to $10,000 a pop, many decide it isn’t.

“Is it a good idea for people to be safe in their houses? Absolutely,” says a top state code official. “How much can people afford toward that end is another issue.”

We’ve seen this same dilemma play out on Plum Island and the Jersey shore and other places where nature is a threat to residential development.

We want to chase the American dream, wherever it leads us.

But when we fail to take the risks seriously enough, it can turn into a nightmare.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Markey and Gomez will debate live in the WBZ studios with questions from yours truly and a Boston Globe reporter. You can watch the debate on WBZ-TV, CBSBoston.com, boston.com, bostonglobe.com, or hear it live on WBZ-AM NewsRadio 1030.

You can participate by sending me a question for possible use in the debate at this e-mail address: jpkeller2@cbs.com.

Guidelines: in these debates, each question will be asked of both candidates. So keep your suggestions issue-oriented and appropriate for all three to address.

Keep in mind, this is a contest for U.S. Senate, not mayor or governor, so filter your question accordingly.

We’re looking for substantive questions, not campaign rhetoric or personal attacks.

Unless you specifically request otherwise, we will use your name or initials if we use your question. If you want to remain anonymous, please do tell us where you live so we can at least identify the locale of the question.

So with that in mind, give it some thought and send us a question or two for consideration.

And save the date – Wednesday, June 5.

You can follow Jon on Twitter @kelleratlarge.

One article reports on the now-infamous IRS Determinations Unit in Cincinnati, where underqualified employees were making politically-sensitive decisions in an atmosphere of near-total bureaucratic dysfunction.

The Times story doesn’t prove or rule out the possibility their selective hassling of conservative groups was the result of marching orders from Washington, but it does show what a mess the IRS is. Says one source: “People were coming and going, asking for advice and not getting it, and sometimes forgetting the cases existed.”

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Another piece details how the Veterans Affairs department is struggling to deal with a backlog of disability claims from veterans that right now sits at 600,000 claims sitting unaddressed for at least four months.

It seems applications have overwhelmed an “antiquated processing system,” and only recently has serious money been spent on automating claims.

Yes, this is 2013.

That’s a long time to keep our sick or wounded vets waiting for action, don’t you think?

So, let’s summarize: two of the most important functions of our government, revenue collection and tending to the needs of sick and wounded vets, are being botched, badly, and in some cases have been over long periods of time.

Efforts to fix the problems are either glacial or non-existent.

We know we don’t have to live with this.

Some government agencies can and do perform their jobs with skill. But while they sort out all their partisan finger-pointing in DC, we should keep all the pols on notice — this at-best rank incompetence occurred on your watch.

Better fix it, fast.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

So let’s see what our choices are.

It appears as if we have a slew of sports-themed films to choose from. There’s “The Great Gatsby,” the story of super-wealthy dilettantes who squander their gifts with recklessness and poor judgment. I think I’ve seen more than enough of New York Knicks basketball for one week, so I’ll skip that one.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

There’s something called “Aftershock,” which I presume is a documentary about how the rest of the week went for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, and again, I’ll pass in favor of something more uplifting.

In that vein, I could go see the new movie about Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, “Iron Man 3,” but why pay $20 for tickets to something I can watch for free on TV?

As I said, I’m trying to take a break from politics, so that rules out “To The Arctic,” a movie about bi-partisan relationships in Washington; “Escape From Planet Earth,” a movie about what the president would like to do this weekend; and “The Source Family,” a documentary about a charismatic father-figure/cult leader preaching a gospel of healthy eating.

For me, it’s too soon for a feature length movie about the Menino years.

Maybe I’ll just skip the movies after all, although I am intrigued by the concept of the “Lux Level” some theatres offer.

I guess that’s where you go after you start in the cheap bagel seats and work your way up to the cream cheese mezzanine.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Here it is in a nutshell:

On Fox, two out of three pundits agreed his comments had only bought him about 12 hours of peace and quiet.

Not 11, not 13, 12.

On the lefty website Daily Kos, one recommended poster was calling it a “fake” scandal.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

For true wisdom on this, we’ll have to turn to Cooter.

Yes, Cooter from the TV series “Dukes of Hazzard,” who tended to the souped-up Dodge Charger with the confederate flag on the roof featured in the show’s many car chases.

Cooter’s real name is Ben Jones, a former congressman who was set to play with his band at a fundraiser for Ed Markey when he was told to stay away because of his past comments defending the confederate flag against complaints that it is a racially-offensive symbol.

Cooter has struck back with an op-ed piece on boston.com accusing Markey of misplaced political correctness. (I bet more voters here agree with Markey than not.) But at one point he argues: “In this Internet world…things are being simplified to the point of idiocy.”

I believe Cooter is on to something.

For those who wallow in it, the boil of left- and right-wing rhetoric reduces any issue immediately to its partisan bones, which are so calcified with grievance and stereotyping that no honest exchange is possible.

And that leaves us in for weeks, maybe months of harsh partisan warfare.

Is that really anybody’s idea of a good thing for the country right now?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Yes, this means you, Americans age 48 to 68 who are calling the shots in Washington these days.

Your first president, Bill Clinton, didn’t turn out so badly, except for that little lapse of personal judgement that essentially undermined his second term, and allowing his greedy buddies to gut the financial regulations that might have prevented our economic collapse.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

But that was just a warmup for our second boomer president, George W. Bush, who didn’t start out badly, but was overwhelmed after 9/11. Like a lot of boomers, Bush didn’t know his own limitations or those of his cronies, and thus thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job dealing with Hurricane Katrina. And in Iraq, he confused his own “vision” with the best interests of the country, without letting annoying facts get in the way.

Now we’re on baby-boomer president number three, and the same generational flaws just keep on emerging.

As we’ve seen this week, our president and his fellow boomers at the IRS and Justice Department think they and their agenda are what’s best for us, without regard to long-established traditions of governmental balance and restraint.

Please, all of you, in both parties, stop it. You aren’t very impressive, and the reality of you certainly doesn’t match your colossal self-regard.

I realize your job isn’t easy. Many of your constituents are self-serving, narrow-minded boomers who’ve created the litigation-crazy, polarized culture you have to try to operate in.

But it’s up to you to try to transcend your constraints, and lead in a balanced, thoughtful way that values humility over ego. And for the past 17 years or so, you haven’t been getting it done.

Time to update your nickname, the “me generation.” Let’s just call you the “epic fail” generation.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 1:

Watch Keller @ Large — Park 2:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Anytime we rediscover the professionalism of our health-care and law enforcement people and the generosity and community spirit that lives here, it strengthens our confidence in what we’ve built and where we’re headed. Our tourism business dropped after 9/11, but not this time, a sign of how our reaction strengthened our image around the world.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Commissioner Davis went on to say this: “I hope the people who committed these atrocious acts know there is a futility in their efforts.” And of that, I’m sorry to say, I’m not so sure.

While it’s still not clear exactly what the two idiots involved thought they were going to achieve, consider the usual goals of the terrorist: killing and injuring people; inflicting economic damage; attracting attention to their sick politics; and enhancing the fear of future violence and chaos.

On most of those fronts, it’s hard to argue that they failed.

There’s been a terrible human toll and serious damages to business. Attention has been re-focused on jihad and its proponents. And there’s plenty of lingering fear, anger and confusion to go around.

We hope to find out soon from the surviving “suspect” if he thinks his crime spree was “futile.”

Whether he does or not, put me down in favor of no mercy for him, as one small step toward making sure other, future would-be mass murderers understand what the commissioner was really saying – you can hurt us, but you can’t defeat us, and we can defeat you.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

So when you speak out, it matters, and we do listen. Because we never want to lose a listener or viewer, as I apparently did with Wednesday’s commentary.

A gentleman wrote to say he’d enjoyed listening to me on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 over the years. “You always seemed a guy who told both sides of the story,” he says.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

“But over the years I notice when the Republicans are guilty of something, you’ll throw in your little ‘Democrats and Republicans are both bad’ disclaimer at the end. Then when Democrats have screwed up, you will make a point of regurgitating the disclaimer [and] watering down the gravity of the charges….”

The last straw, apparently, was Wednesday’s commentary on Benghazi, in which I protested against being misled about the facts of war by my government during Vietnam, Iraq II, and now the Libyan fiasco.

He writes: “There is absolutely NO Republican culpability in this story and it sickened me to hear you start ranting about past mistakes of the Republicans when the story you were commenting on was a coverup by the Democrats on the scale of Watergate.”

His conclusion: “You Jon are a shill for the left and you don’t even know it.”

Well, sir, if you’re listening, thank you for the note.

I am sorry I upset you.

I will take your admonition to heart and re-double my efforts to be fair and non-partisan.

But you should know you’ve probably just given the laugh of the day to some of our left-leaning listeners and viewers.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Because I’d rather both you and they kept listening to keep me honest if I ever become a shill for either side.

And if you ARE reading this, I’ll take it as a positive sign that you weren’t quite as offended as your e-mail implied.

Thanks!

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

And for days leading up to the hearing, DC partisans have been doing what they do best, trying to put their partisan spin on this horrible story.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

The Republicans claim you’ll hear evidence that the Obama administration badly bungled our response to the attack and then tried to cover up their incompetence with a bunch of spin about what happened.

The Democrats have branded the whole thing a reprehensible GOP charade aimed only at damaging the president and Hillary Clinton politically.

Given what we know about the craven, self-serving behavior on both sides of the aisle down there, I’m sure there’s plenty of truth in both lines of attack.

But I hope I speak for at least some of us when I say, whatever else they wind up doing, give us the truth about what happened. Because we’re good and sick of being lied to about foreign affairs and the safety of the men and women who serve us.

I’m old enough to remember being lied to on a daily basis about the status of the Vietnam War, where we were always on the verge of victory, until it became clear we weren’t.

Was Saddam Hussein an evil guy who once used chemical weapons? Yes, but we know we were given a bunch of spin when the case for the invasion of Iraq was made.

If the current administration made mistakes in Benghazi, it’s not an impeachable offense. The fog of war is always hard to see through clearly.

But neither party should ever get a pass on giving us bogus spin about such serious stuff.

So drop the partisan posturing, all of you, and give us some desperately-needed truth.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Before and during the game, coaches work the refs, a.k.a. political reporters, hoping for favorable treatment. Once the game starts, both teams try to set the pace, provoking a running game if that’s their strength, slowing it down to a crawl if it isn’t.

And if you’re the home team, as Ed Markey is in the U.S. Senate race in our relentlessly Democratic state, you do your best to whip up the partisan crowd, the better to intimidate the visitors.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

All these tactics were on display Monday when Markey once again hammered away at his opening gambit in this race, demanding that Gabriel Gomez sign the “People’s pledge” they used in the Brown-Warren race to restrain the role of independent outside groups.

Markey, who will raise and spent vast amounts of conventional campaign donations from special-interest groups during this race, accused Gomez of “welcoming vast amounts of undisclosed” campaign money by refusing to sign the pledge.

And he raised the spectre of Gomez in league a pantheon of right-wing villains, from Karl Rove to the NRA, even though he acknowledged there’s no evidence of their actual support for Gomez, who will likely prove too moderate for many conservative donors.

In response, the Gomez campaign has pointed to millions in Markey donations from special-interest groups and suggested they’d welcome a debate over who has the better ethics.

But a website that tracks how members vote on their donors interests gave Markey some of the best marks in Washington last year.

Both campaigns want to set the terms of the debate, we get it.

As a voter, I prefer to see them debate the issues that matter to me. How about you?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Everyone is outraged at what he did. You really can’t go any lower.

Nothing we’ve heard about his non-criminal life has warmed up his image any, and I seriously doubt that’ll ever be possible.

But it might be a good idea for those who’ve chosen to make a big issue of the disposal of his remains to take a step back and rethink it.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

For starters, there’s no excuse for the harassing phone calls and insults being received by the owner of the Worcester funeral home where the body is being held.

Would they also question the patriotism of the doctors and nurses who treated the younger brother? People doing their jobs under the law should not be vilified for fulfilling their duty, and that goes for the surviving brother’s defense attorneys too.

As for the question of where he should be buried, I share the concern of some that a local grave site might become some sort of sick rallying place for the deranged, and be offensive to the victims and their families. Steps should be taken to prevent that from happening.

But I would ask those who want a prolonged fight over this to explain why any more of our collective anger and energy should be wasted on it, when there are so many more important battles to be fought?

The short-term effort to clean up whatever cesspool helped spawn these two, for instance. The long-term fight against terror, both domestic and foreign. And the campaign to help repair as much of the damage they caused as possible.

Suspect #1 is dead.

Why spend another breath arguing about him when we need to concentrate on the ones like him that are still with us?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 1:

Watch Keller @ Large — Part 2:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

It’s called Winky, and it’s a terrifying new wrinkle.

It’s bad enough that every last person now has a camera in their hand at all times, ready to take pictures of everything from sunsets to pets to food to…you, doing something you’d rather not have captured and uploaded for mankind to enjoy.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

But what makes Winky truly scary is the possibility it could permanently ruin one of the most expressive gestures in the human pantheon – the wink.

A wink can mean many things.

It can be flirtatious.

And it’s often used to let someone know you’re joking or fibbing, an especially useful gesture in a culture where, increasingly, people who get the joke are harder to find.

But in other cultures, winking can have very different meaning.

In China, people can and do take offense at a wink.

In parts of West Africa, parents use it as a discreet sign to their kids that it’s time for them to leave the grownups alone.

And I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when I’m peppering a politician with questions, I like to throw in a wink, just to confuse him.

No real reason. It’s just fun.

But now, thanks to Google and company, we’re on the verge of the wink being reduced to the slightly creepy message that someone’s taking your picture, most likely a total stranger.

This marks the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it, don’t you agree?

(Wink wink.)

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

They lapped up Markey’s stump speech about how Gabriel Gomez and the Republicans want to violate women’s rights, put kids at risk by keeping guns readily available, torture seniors by cutting their benefits, and otherwise dial back our society to the time of Cro-Magnon man.

It was all pretty predictable, and par for the partisan course.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

After all, the Republicans have already started giving Markey a brisk pounding. In his concession speech Tuesday night, GOP candidate Dan Winslow called Markey “the lobbyist’s candidate,” and “the weakest candidate that the Democratic machine has nominated for the U.S. Senate in living history.”

But there was something about the Congressman’s remarks that was a little troubling.

Unless I dozed off briefly and missed it, Markey said nothing about jobs and the economy.

Later Wednesday, I caught up with Gomez, who also pointed out Markey’s omission. But beyond bemoaning joblessness, debt and the deficit, Gomez so far has had little to say on those subjects himself. His website statements on economic issues are an exercise in avoidance.

Meanwhile, economic malaise rolls on, here and overseas. Even China is now stalled.

And neither party seems to have much of a clue what to do about it.

So, what else is new?

But their political failure, both nationally and locally, to even discuss the issue in any meaningful way is demoralizing. We deserve better, I think.

So, when are we going to start demanding better?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

BOSTON (CBS) – What happened Tuesday in Massachusetts politics?

In a way, it was just the latest chapter of an old story.

For more than two decades, in spite of the occasional Republican governor sneaking past security, ours has been arguably the bluest state of them all, to the point where you realized there weren’t two parties anymore in any realistic sense.

Instead, there are two camps – the political insiders, and the political outsiders.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Even as Democrats consolidated their lock on all major elective offices, the outsiders have been making inroads. Deval Patrick was about as far outside the Democratic Party power structure as you could get back in 2005 when he started running for governor; when he won the primary, he bellowed to the crowd: “Let them hear you on Beacon Hill!”

And even though Elizabeth Warren was fully embraced by the insiders, she’s another example of someone with no campaign experience rising quickly to the top.

Now, it’s Gabriel Gomez’s turn.

His victory in the GOP primary Tuesday was a clear win for the outsiders. But he’s outnumbered, big-time; the total number of votes cast for all three Republican candidates was less than Stephen Lynch’s losing total.

And while Ed Markey is surely a consummate insider, he’s also a seasoned politician with the backing of the most effective and well-organized political machine in our state’s history.

The insiders rule here for a reason – they know where the votes are and how to get them out, and that is the name of the game.

So can Gomez pull a Scott Brown and score another upset for the outsiders?

It’s happened before, but it’ll take a lot of work and luck to make it happen again.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Check: Where Do I Vote?

It’s an important vote, and if you choose to throw it away, don’t be complaining down the road that you don’t like the choice in the final.

Speaking of choices, what do we have on today’s ballot? There’s no one without flaws; no ballot has ever offered a candidate without some.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

But if you’re struggling to decide, let me help you with a positive take on all five candidates.

On the Democratic side, Congressman Stephen Lynch is a tough, smart guy who worked his way up from poverty. While he votes with his party leadership most of the time, he has shown an impressive willingness to think for himself when it matters.

Watch: Democrats Debate

Congressman Ed Markey is an experienced legislator who knows how to work the levers in Washington. You have him to thank for the early start of daylight savings time.

On the Republican ballot, businessman Gabriel Gomez served his country admirably in the Navy and also has an impressive rags to riches story. He would bring a fresh perspective to the Senate, a place that could use it.

Watch: Republicans Debate

Former US Attorney Michael Sullivan is another working-class guy made good. He would bring useful experience and a strong work ethic to the job.

And State Rep. Dan Winslow is a bright thinker of unquestioned integrity. He could be just hauling in the dough in the legal world; instead, he’s risking much of his fortune for the opportunity to serve.

These are all decent men who deserve your effort to consider and choose one for this important job.

And I repeat, if you don’t vote today, don’t bother to bemoan the choices down the road.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

BOSTON (CBS) – There is just one day to go until voters choose party nominees for the U.S. Senate election in June, and a significant amount of media discussion of the primaries down the stretch has been devoted to analysis of why so few people seem to be paying attention.
This is unfortunate on several levels.

This campaign has struggled to capture public attention, no doubt, but you wonder when stories about what a supposed dud the race is become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

There was misguided coverage of this type right from the start when Ed Markey was anointed a prohibitive frontrunner because of support from the DC establishment, and the Republican candidates were dismissed as the “B” team because has-beens like Bill Weld and Kerry Healey chose not to run.

But Stephen Lynch has given Markey all he can handle, and the GOP candidates who did emerge have run a lively race that offers genuine choices across the ideological spectrum.

Yes, this race hasn’t generated headlines, but is that the fault of the candidates or the headline writers?

Just one week ago, the WBZ/Boston Globe debate between Lynch and Markey offered a provocative discussion of homeland security issues that couldn’t be more timely, as did a Western Mass. debate the next night. The GOP debate earlier this month was also lively and informative.

Plenty of headline material there, for news organizations and consumers who cared.

I’ll be talking more about the choices on your ballot tomorrow, but if you skip voting because you’ve absorbed the false notion that it doesn’t matter and no one cares, better ask yourself – am I really that apathetic, or just acting that way because I’m supposed to?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

Watch Keller @ Large – Part 1:

Watch Keller @ Large — Part 2:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

No one can read the minds of the people who were out there, even the ones who were chanting “USA.” It seemed to me it was mostly a mix of relief that the siege was over and pent-up energy among people who’d been cooped up all day.

If there were a few people in the crowds who didn’t comprehend the solemnity of what had just occurred and thought it was just another party, well, there’s always a few bad apples in every bunch.

But it’s obvious from the videotape that many of those celebrating were doing so in a display of appreciation for the heroic work of law enforcement.

And if you have a problem with that, I guess I have a problem with your opinion.

MIT police officer Sean Collier was laid to rest Tuesday; there will be a memorial service for him Wednesday on the campus, and they expect 10,000 people to show. That tells you something about the special respect we hold in our culture for good cops, and by all accounts, Officer Collier was an excellent one.

Same goes for MBTA police officer Richard Donohue, Jr., who’s fighting for his life in the hospital.

These men are our best and brightest. When they were attacked, it was an attack on all of us.

We unfortunately share our communities with some bad actors; most of us fully appreciate how the thin blue line keeps them from trashing our way of life.

So if you don’t like the fact that some of us ran into the streets last Friday to high-five law enforcement, too bad. The people that did so get it; their critics do not.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

BOSTON (CBS) - If you didn’t catch Monday night’s WBZ debate between U.S. Senate candidates Stephen Lynch and Ed Markey, you missed a good one that could help inform your choice of a nominee for U.S. Senator who might be serving you for many years to come.

Video: WBZ Democratic Debate

So let’s consider what we learned from the debate that might inform us how well Lynch or Markey might represent us in the Senate.

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

Both men were able to put their best foot forward at times last night.

Markey is a veteran legislator who’s been down there since 1977, and he knows how to play the game and work the system.

Lynch’s most ferocious lines of attack were over votes Markey took that reflect the sometimes-byzantine nuances of a congressman’s life, voting against great-sounding bills for tactical reasons that aren’t easy to remember years later.

And Markey is a proud partisan, hitching his star to the president at every possible turn. If you’re a staunch partisan too, you’ll probably like that.

But if you’re sick of business as usual, as many independent voters are, you may have found your man last night.

Even though Lynch votes with his party leaders almost as often as Markey, he made it clear he does think for himself, even when that means bucking the party line, and his passion for his constituents is unquestioned.

Markey says he’s a fighter, and points to his record to prove it; Lynch’s life story and demeanor are his proof.

It’s an interesting race.

And if you did miss it, by all means watch the video before primary day, which is one week from today.

Unless you prefer voting blind, or letting others make the choice for you.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.