Gag me with a silver spoon. Governor-elect Mitt Romney says he hopes his and running mate Kerry Healey's decision not to take their salaries "sets the appropriate tone" as they prepare to assume office on Thursday. Yes, it certainly does. Nothing like two rich folks engaging in a cheap publicity stunt while rewarding their chief media strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, and legislative lobbyist, Cindy Gillespie, with salaries of $150,000 apiece.

Romney describes his and Healey's decision to forgo $255,000 in annual salary as "symbolism." Here's what it's symbolic of, Mitt: you've got it, we don't. The subliminal message is that only the rich have the integrity and public-spiritedness necessary to govern, which is a load of crap.

As campaign-finance watchdog George Pillsbury tells the Globe, it would have been more impressive if Romney had taken the $6 million in personal wealth that he dropped on getting elected and spent it on saving some of the social programs that he's about to whack.