Finneran Discusses Fall From Grace

BOSTON -- Former House Speaker Tom Finneran, disgraced by a felony conviction, begins a new life next month as a radio talk show host.

WRKO announced its deal with Finneran Thursday. He will begin hosting a new morning talk show starting Feb. 12. Finneran has resigned from his post as president of the Biotechnology Council.

NewsCenter 5's Natalie Jacobson sat down Thursday with Finneran to talk about how he is dealing with a very public fall from grace.

"It was quite a fall, Mr. Speaker," Jacobson said.

"I wouldn't characterize it as a fall. It's a blemish. It's a blemish. This mistake that I made, to which I have pled and taken full responsibility and expressed my regret, is a couple of million dollars by the time we are done. My dad was a rug and an upholstery cleaner. I am a pretty simple kid at heart. When I think of the price -- just the financial price -- but as I said a moment ago, the reputation, the damage that I did to a record that was, in most people's eyes, a darn good record, that hurts. And it hurts the most because it was done by my own hand, my own stupidity, my own being drawn in a combative way. There was no reason for me to be combative. We had done nothing wrong. But I was combative about it, in part, because the underlying accusation was, 'You are a racist.' And when someone says that to you in the United States of America, that triggers all sorts of emotion. It triggered a lot of emotion in me. I tried to explain it to the judge in my own limited ability and through my tears last Friday," he said.

"At this moment, if you had a word to describe the emotion running through Tom Finneran?" Jacobson said.

"I couldn't do it in a word. It's kind of a mixed bag -- disappointment at my mistakes, recognition of my mistakes, but at the same time a sense of excitement," Finneran said.

For Finneran, life moves on. He said that he'll work to get his right to practice law reinstated -- if it is taken as expected. But he has lost his right to vote forever.