Globe Columnist: Dobelle Defense “Truly Ludicrous”.

Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham explains the chilling similarities between profligate spending Westfield State University suspended president Evan Dobelle and his public relations mouthpiece, George Regan. Calling the Dobelle defense to charges of extravagant travel and misuse of credit cards “truly ludicrous,” Abraham tells some tales of Regan’s methods that ought to make the most willfully blind Dobelle defenders wince. It should cross even that crowd’s odd threshold for embarrassment when the subject is the former president of Trinity College.

Here’s a sample:

Sometimes, the pit bull approach backfires. A couple of years ago, a Theatre District nightclub shut down during the weekend of the Harvard-Yale football game because a party there hosted by black Ivy League alumni had attracted too many black patrons. Regan, representing the club, responded thoughtfully: “There were a lot of people in line known to police and security circles as bad people, OK? They probably couldn’t spell the word ‘Harvard.’ ”

Nice. Eventually, club owners apologized publicly and paid a $30,000 fine. “Could I have chosen my words a little better?” Regan said Wednesday. “Probably.”

Westfield’s board of trustees will resume deliberations on Dobelle’s fate at the end of November.  Meantime, Dobelle has filed suit against the school for investigating his spending. No word on the reason for those 15 trips to San Francisco as foundation funds for scholarships diminished.