WEEK OF DECEMBER 11, 2009

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, DEC. 11, 2009……Martha Coakley, and Scott Brown, stepped closer to the world's most exclusive club this week, and Deval Patrick backed away from one that isn't really all that exclusive, unless you're female.

Whatever you thought of Patrick's withdrawal from a Clover Club appearance last weekend, the administration's official explanation - had no idea it was all men! Until the last minute! - was an interesting one. Note to administration, in case an invitation like this pops up again: A few other single-gender groups include the Spice Girls, the College of Cardinals, "The View" most mornings, and several barbershop quartets. Also gay marriages, men's softball leagues, and women's softball leagues.

While Coakley and Brown commanded headlines with outsize wins in their respective primaries, training their sights now on the Jan. 19 election that will decide Paul Kirk's successor, there was a lesson for political watchers: the polls never lie. They're always right.

So, too, are the hallway whisperers, and this week they were numerous and active in the House of Representatives, where the budget crisis has indirectly inflicted the ambience of pocketed revolt. Veteran House Democrats are sharpening their criticism of DeLeo and his leadership team, as fallout from a string of staff layoffs and salary cuts blends with lingering resentment from DeLeo's election to the post earlier this year.

Rep. Lida Harkins, a senior-ranking member under DiMasi who was back-benched after working as a close ally of Rep. John Rogers in Rogers's battle against DeLeo for the speakership, used unusually incendiary language Thursday in responding to Rep. Garrett Bradley, one of DeLeo's floor leaders, who said Wednesday that Harkins had been in the Legislature too long.

"Garrett always seems to go after the women when he's on the attack, so that's not surprising," Harkins said Thursday, adding, "Maybe that's where he feels the most comfortable."

Bradley semi-responded Friday: "I will not dignify that with a response."

Hey now. Two veteran Dems questioning, first, whether one has outlived her usefulness, and second whether one has a women problem, non-Tiger variety.

Flashback: DeLeo, Jan. 28, 2009: "It has been a tough fight, but now is the time for us to put aside these difficulties to come together. The seriousness of the issues before us demands that we work together … The animosities and division [have] to be gone."

Rogers, Jan. 28, 2009: "We have had a division. It's been played out in the public. We have been harmed by it as an institution. We have been injured by it individually. More importantly than that, the people have been harmed by the division. That divide can no longer occur."

Immediate impetus for the shootout between Harkins, of Needham, and Bradley, of Hingham, was the round of 27 layoffs and 13 salary cuts executed last week, many of them aimed at former House barons with Rogers stripes that were clipped by the DeLeo regime. The layoffs' handling rankled members, who complained that longtime aides were treated rudely, given no notice that they were losing their jobs before being escorted out by legislative security officers.

It is another headache for DeLeo, who is also dealing with revelations that a House account is paying private attorneys almost $378,000 in public funds to represent the speaker's office in the federal corruption probe into former Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, who set up the law firm contract before he departed in January. While the money is used to pay for services provided to the House, and not DiMasi, some members derisively refer to the spending as "the DiMasi defense fund."

"Members are ticked off that their furloughs and their layoffs are going to finance that fund," said one House Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Other skirmishes: Rep. Thomas Golden saying he'll move to block Rep. William Lantigua's bid to collect salaries from both his House seat and his Lawrence mayoralty, Reps. John Quinn and Thomas Stanley tossing wrenches into the looming attorney general appointment process, even members of DeLeo's own leadership team applying pressure for him to tab a Coakley ally before Christmas. On the other side, Senate President Therese Murray says she won't make a move on that until after the general election.

DeLeo is being petitioned by members to anoint one of their own to succeed Coakley as A.G. should she beat Brown in the Jan. 19 U.S. Senate election to permanently succeed the late Edward Kennedy, and Kirk. State law authorizes the Legislature to fill the vacant post. With a 4-to-1 numerical advantage over the Senate, the House has traditionally picked one of its members, a handful of whom are jockeying quietly - sort of quietly - for the speaker's blessing. What some House members want is for DeLeo to make his choice clear, if not official, so the would-be successor can begin waging a campaign.

That person would then have to run in a likely primary for the permanent gig next fall, which spooks the safely ensconced lawmakers right down to their wingtips. Of course, the way things are going inside the capitol - seeds of division sprouting mutiny, a budget apparently still in tumble and expected to deteriorate next year - beating feet could be a good strategy.

The extent of the intraparty warring is unusual. Longtime members said they do not recall acrimony on this level outside of the usual squabbles for an open speakership. The lesson here is that the resentments bred by leadership fights can heal to some extent, but that the scar tissue can rupture at any time.