Make that former House Speaker and felon Tom Finneran

Finneran to plead guilty to obstruction in exchange for parole instead of jail; also, perjury charges in that redistricting case to be dropped.

Seth Gitell recalls whacking Finneran plenty as a Phoenix writer, but adds:

... [H]e was absolutely one of the smartest public officials I ever reported on, particularly on Beacon Hill. With all the ink devoted to the four recent Republican governors - Weld, Cellucci, Swift, Romney - an argument could be made that the influence of all of them was a fraction of that of Finneran. ...

Dan Kennedy: Finneran takes the hit:

... The charges have always struck me as faintly ridiculous. As Harvey Silverglate pointed out in this piece in the Boston Phoenix a year and a half ago, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan would have had a difficult time proving that Finneran did anything other than parse his words a little too cutely when he testified in the redistricting case. ...

The Outraged Liberal, however, cuts him no slack, but does credit him for leaking the story when he did.