THIS PRO-POT PLUTOCRAT MAY SOON FEEL OUT OF JOINT

The chump of the year in Massachusetts politics is 70-year-old New
York billionaire George Soros.

Soros hates drug laws, and he has the bucks to finance what amount to
backdoor legalization efforts in state after state. Before the recent
Nasdaq meltdown, Forbes magazine said he was worth $5 billion - the
44th wealthiest American.

Alas, George has been off his game of late - Russian bonds were not a
good bet in '98, and then he missed the tech run-up last year, only to
jump in at the absolute height of the now-collapsed market.

But now Soros and a couple of other pro-drug gazillionaires are
bankrolling referendum Question 8. In essence, it would make it a lot
easier for drug dealers to avoid prison by seeking ``treatment'' and
would enable the Whitey Bulgers of the world to keep most of the money
and property they must now forfeit if convicted.

You haven't heard much about Question 8, have you? Which is odd,
because Soros et al have poured a half-million dollars into the
campaign, and what do they have to show for it?

Not even a dime bag's worth of sticks and stems.

The campaign treasurer of the Coalition for Fair Treatment is the
politically connected defense lawyer Tom Kiley. He's charged the
coalition about $10,000 in rent. His firm has also billed them for
about $20,000 in legal fees.

Meanwhile, Kiley keeps other irons in the fire. He recently
represented the former Quincy District Court chief of probation Andrew
Klein in a larceny case. He got Klein off. Would you care to guess who
was just hired by the Coalition for Fair Treatment?

``I did recommend him, yes,'' Kiley said. ``Andy was a natural for the
job.''

Was it a way to make sure he had a job so he could pay off his legal
bills?

``No. He's one of my rare clients who paid on time.''

You know a campaign is in big trouble when they have multiple managers
and pollsters. The Coalition has both.

They paid Kiley & Co. (no relation to Klein's lawyer) $50,000 for
polling last winter. Now they've paid John Gorman's outfit $22,500.

The official campaign manager is Debra J. Vanderbeek of Haverhill.
Last summer, she was grabbing $12,500 a month. But in July a new name
appears on the OCPF disclosure forms - former Dukakis flack Mary
Fifield. She got $30,000 on July 31 and another $19,000 last month.

But they weren't the only ones getting well off Soros and his pals. A
lobbyist named John Coleman Walsh relieved the Coalition of $5,000.
They imported an operative from D.C., handed over $850 a week to him
and rented a car for him to use. They paid a left-leaning Santa Monica
company $83,000 to collect the signatures they needed to get on the
ballot. Something called Northeast Legislative Strategies collected
$50,000. The ``Victory Group'' was victorious in taking $29,500 from
the campaign.

Said a Coalition spokesman: ``They handled a legislative hearing.''
For that much dough it must have been a very long hearing.

In addition to paying themselves handsomely, these Question 8 hacks
have been eating up a storm and charging it to addled old Soros. They
love Maison Robert - they dropped $250 there on June 23, then came
back four days later for a $278.50 feed.

Can someone say munchies?

Other pricey favorites: Bakey's ($520.09 on April 5), the Omni Parker
House ($620 on April 24) and, of course, Locke Ober's ($249.58 on May
10).

I'm sure when the Coalition arrives for dinner, the maitre d' has one
question for the pro-pot pols:

``Smoking or non-smoking?''

It's a beautiful thing, living large off dazed and confused
out-of-state billionaires. And looming ahead, in 2002, yet another
legend in his own mind ripe for the plucking - Tom Birmingham.

As for George Soros, a couple of thoughts for you and your pot
pals.

A fool and his money are soon parted. And, there's no fool like an old
fool.

They could make a movie about Question 8, except that Cheech and Chong
already did. They called it ``Up in Smoke.''