01:00 AM EST on Sunday, April 2, 2006

I'm cranky today.

And I'll be cranky:

As long as the State House is mired in a depressing budget battle in which Governor Carcieri seeks cuts in child care, health care and other social service areas.

As long as it takes to straighten out the mess created by an incompetent Board of Elections -- you know, the panel that Superior Court Judge Steve Fortunato last week lacerated for hopelessly botching an inquiry into Republican spending and the 2002 Carcieri campaign.

And as long as sharpie Las Vegas or Atlantic City promoters come in here and try to put across a full-fledged gambling casino and as long as they and their legislative allies treat Rhode Islanders as dummies. Which reminds me: God bless Republican Rep. Nicholas Gorham, who last week had an essay in The Providence Journal and wrote of lawmakers, "Let's face it: We are not geniuses."

Frankly, I was going to begin today's column by beating up on U.S. Senate candidate Matt Brown and his hemorrhaging bid for the Democratic nomination.

But it's not Brown's campaign that needs scolding today. It's the secretary of state office he runs. You must have received a mailing from his shop as part of an effort to clean up voting lists. Okay. But, as the American Civil Liberties Union rightfully complained, the form you're asked to fill out can easily mislead you into coughing up your drive's license number and part of your Social Security number -- not to mention your phone number and e-mail address -- when in fact you don't have to. Indeed, as Brown aide Jan Ruggerio told the Journal's Bruce Landis, you don't have to fill out the form at all.

This is Keystone Kops stuff, but still nothing compared with the Board of Elections. Because it mishandled its duties, Rhode Islanders may never know if the state GOP acted legally or illegally in using funds from the national party during Carcieri's 2002 campaign.

In fact, it's anyone guess whether parties are now free to violate the laws here and send in massive infusions of funds for the 2006 gubernatorial contest.

Judge Fortunato ruled that the elections board had been asleep in not writing procedural rules that would allow parties and candidates to know what was kosher and what wasn't.

The case brought by Democratic state chairman Bill Lynch threatened to embarrass Carcieri, but Fortunato told me it would be wrong for anyone to think the governor got off on a technicality. He said, "The cases are legion that say that in the area of the First Amendment, if there is to be any regulation of free speech, or political speech, the regulations must be carefully drawn. They must be specific. And they must not leave ambiguities. And, most of all, they must not give unbridled discretion to the regulatory authorities."

Fortunato, who used to be a Democratic state senator, said, "I have a feeling in this case the Republicans were happy they had a judge that does not fit into the conservative mold of always genuflecting to the government and its regulatory agencies . . . The Republicans are entitled to have these rules . . . so are Socialist Workers, Greens, and everybody else."

The board's bungling of this case may remind you of another embarrassment: Last year, the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals forced the board to rethink its banning Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey from hosting a radio show.

The board obviously needs new blood and new leadership.

ON THE CASINO front, Trump Entertainment Resorts' recent presentation at Lombardi's 1025 Club in Johnston was a dismal affair.

The glitzy promoters didn't spring for any of the banquet hall's chicken and pasta. The spread consisted of coffee or water and fancy videos and smooth talk about Trump "magic" and the Trump "brand," as if Donald Trump personally cares one whit about Johnston.

An event at the 1025 without food is like a great racing machine without an engine. But how would Trump & Co. appreciate that? After all, they referred to the town as a "city" and to Route 6 as "Highway 6." It reminded me of presidents or vice presidents coming to Rhode Island and brutalizing the names of local pols.

The most sobering thing about this evening at the 1025 was my realizing that if a casino ever comes to town, you can be sure that Steve and Dave Lombardi's gritty establishment will be the first business to go under. "Myself and a lot of the smaller restaurants," Steve told me ruefully. Sure, he said, a casino may bring in new jobs, "but I think they're going to take them from our industry."

Who's going to want to book the 1025 when there's the grandeur and sizzle of facilities at a casino? You know, the kind of place that sucks up a community's commercial lifeblood and whose machines and table games systematically separate bettors from their money; it's bad enough that Rhode Island already has Lincoln Park.

Johnston Councilman Ernest Pitochelli watched the Trump presentation and told me, "I think it's a con job."

I don't want a Johnston casino and I don't want the much-further-along West Warwick casino the Narragansett Indians propose to open with Harrah's. But I was interested that Trump exec Jim Perry contended Rhode Islanders would do themselves a disservice by rushing the Harrah's project through. He said, "Are you getting . . . the very best deal for you?" And, "I would question that, without a competitive bidding process, an open process."

Days later, Rep. Tim Williamson held a State House news conference to tout legislation backed also by House Speaker Bill Murphy, a fellow West Warwick Democrat, and Senate President Joe Montalbano. It calls for a referendum to amend the Constitution to allow the Indian-Harrah's casino. (Not that the ballot question or the amendment would actually mention Harrah's.)

Williamson said that when it comes to a casino license in Rhode Island, it makes no sense to talk of competitive bidding because, right now, there's only one bidder -- Harrah's -- and the Trump/Johnston proposal is just aborning.

Of course, the people of Rhode Island might work out a much better deal for themselves if they waited until the Trump project gained footing and the state could play Trump off against Harrah's.

But Williamson isn't interested. He declared, "I'm worried about getting the most money for the town of West Warwick, which has been conveniently left behind by the last five gubernatorial administrations."

Williamson's vague bill leaves such items as license fees and tax takeouts to negotiations after the referendum.

He and his allies clearly think voters are dopes.

NOW, FOR THE state budget fracas, which raises more immediate questions about what kind of state Rhode Island is to be.

There was a fresh reminder of this at last week's Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless annual luncheon at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.

The main speaker was former state Sen. Tom Coderre, 36, whose story of fighting back from drug addiction has been prominently chronicled in the Sunday Journal.

With Carcieri sitting only a few feet away, Democrat Coderre denounced slashes the governor has proposed in social programs. Coderre declared, "We're not taking care of the people who are most vulnerable in our society and we've been quicker to reinstate cuts for things like the Registry of Motor Vehicles than we have been to restore cuts for the social service programs that are so important." Big applause. "And governor, I appreciate -- I appreciate -- the hard work that you do and I appreciate you as a person. I think we need to look at these things as our priorities, Governor. We need to go back and we need to make some noise. We need to make sure that we're making the same kind of noise that inconvenienced drivers are making to get the cuts restored for the Registry."

I wondered what Carcieri thought of Coderre's pitch. He chuckled and said, "I can appreciate it. Sure, it's a tough budget."

The governor noted that he has given in on one front -- he has withdrawn a proposed $5.8 million cut in adult day services for people with developmental disabilities. (On the other hand, he still plans to slash that amount from elsewhere in the Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals budget.)

Again, Carcieri told me, "It's a tough budget, that's all."

I wish the governor and more Rhode Islanders would take to heart a fable that Coderre repeated to the lunch audience about a mouse who was alarmed to see that a farmer and his wife had brought a mousetrap into the house. The mouse went out to warn the other animals. The chicken said this is of grave concern to you but of no consequence to me. The pig sympathized with the mouse but said all I can do is pray for you. The cow, too, felt sorry but said it's no skin off my nose.

Lo and behold, a poisonous snake is ensnared in the trap and bites the farmer's wife. She gets a fever. The farmer kills the chicken for chicken soup. The wife's still sick and friends and neighbors come to sit with her around the clock; to feed them the farmer has to butcher the pig. The wife dies anyway; so many people come to the funeral that the cow has to be slaughtered for food for them.

And the mouse looked upon all this with sadness.

Said Coderre, "So the next time you hear that someone's facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, remember that when there is a mousetrap in the house, the whole barnyard is at risk. What affects one of us affects all of us."

If that message would sink in, I'd be a lot less cranky.

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal's political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com /(401) 277-7638 .