Cognoscenti: Is It Time For Menino To Retire?

From his beginnings as an 'accidental' commander-in-chief, Thomas Menino has cemented himself as Boston's longest serving mayor, a politician with an iron will — but perhaps lacking a constitution to match.

He is now running the city from the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where he was transferred from hospital on Monday after returning early from an Italian vacation because of health complications.

Mayor Thomas Menino hasn't been seen in City Hall for more than five weeks. As the list of his ailments grow, so to do the calls for his retirement.

Eileen McNamara recently wrote "No One Gets to Be Mayor For Life" for WBUR's opinion page, Cognoscenti. In it,  she argues that it's time for the mayor to retire — and that both he and Boston will survive.

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