Globe's Kevin Cullen Takes Patrick To Task On Blue Cross Payout

Cornered by reporters Friday, Deval Patrick sounded like Peter in the Garden at Gethsemane, rejecting chance after chance to speak the truth about the money Blue Cross hands its big shots.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,’’ the frustrated governor said. “I’m not going to get into managing individual companies or individual compensation.’’

Hmmm. That doesn’t sound like the same guy who threatened to withhold state business from Hyatt Hotels after the chain crudely and cruelly replaced 100 housekeepers at its hotels in Boston and Cambridge with people who were forced to work more for less pay and benefits.

“You tell me that there are sound financial reasons for the company’s decision, and I accept that,’’ Patrick wrote Sept. 22, 2009, to Mark Hoplamazian, the chief executive of Hyatt Hotels. “But the manner in which these workers were discharged is so inconsistent with both the expressed values of the Hyatt organization and basic fairness.’’

Blue Cross flunkies can bleat as much as they want about the compensation packages they give their CEOs and board members being commensurate with the marketplace and blah blah blah. The truth is, to paraphrase the governor, it is inconsistent with both the expressed values of a nonprofit and basic fairness.