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| Home Front: Politix |
| Boston Globe: Coakley for Senate |
| 2010-01-15 |
| PEOPLE IN Massachusetts are understandably frustrated. Next week's special election comes in the midst of a too-long Senate debate on health care, showcasing much of what is offensive about the rules of the Senate. The fact that a final bill hasn't even emerged has left many people ready to toss away the whole thing. Stir in the anxiety that comes with a still-faltering economy, and voters are angry. Both major-party candidates for Senate reflect something of that mood. Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley, after more than two decades in law enforcement, is no pie-in-the-sky dreamer. Thoughtful and empirical, she views issues like a lawyer building a case. She promises hard work and no illusions. And in some cases, that means scaling back the ambition of government programs to carefully monitor what works and what doesn't. Like the consumer-protection lawyer she is, she looks for measurable results. Republican State Senator Scott Brown, who drives an old truck, channels voter skepticism more directly. Ignoring signs of improvement in the economy, he casts President Obama as the source of today's problems, and would give the Republicans enough votes to block, under Senate rules, anything Obama wants to do. Affable in person, Brown nonetheless seeks to be a terminator, stopping the Democratic domestic agenda in its tracks. In Massachusetts, the expected result of a Senate election is a Democratic victory, so Brown wins points for being different. He even entices voters to give him a try, noting that they can toss him out after three years. Rarely has a pitch been more misleading. A vote for Brown is hardly a symbolic protest against congressional gridlock and the ways of Washington. It's a vote for gridlock, in the form of endless Republican filibusters, and for the status quo in health care, climate change, and financial regulation. That's what will happen if Brown gives the Republicans the additional vote they need to tie up the Senate. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 " It's a vote for gridlock, ..." Reminds me of a SciFi short story I read as a kid. Gov't had become so "efficient" that laws were passed overnight and implemented within a week. This was so inimical to the human condition that a Dept of Sabotage was set up to throw sand in the wheels of the legislative juggernaut. Don't remember the author, but it does have a Heinlein-ish sort of flavor. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2010-01-15 14:13 |
| #11 Well, yeah. Globe editors are... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-01-15 13:57 |
| #10 too-long Senate debate on health care, WRONG! You Fecking IDIOTS! One of the major problems is there was pretty much NO DEBATE AT ALL on this POS they are cramming down our throats, put together with backroom deals and closed meetings with union and lobbyists, locking out the public and the other party. Are the editors that disconnected from reality that they think they can get away with utter bullshot like that in public? |
| Posted by: Beldar Threreling9726 2010-01-15 13:07 |
| #9 I'm all for gridlock at this point. As Mark Twain said years ago: "If the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of progress is congress." |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-01-15 10:11 |
| #8 Why not? There's a Kennedy, after all... |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-01-15 10:10 |
| #7 It's a vote for gridlock, I'll have to see if 'gridlock' is on the ballot Tuesday... |
| Posted by: Raj 2010-01-15 08:41 |
| #6 Well, "Surprise, surprise", as Goober used to say. Last Sunday, they ran that bogus 'UNH-Brandeis' poll results showing her up 15 points. |
| Posted by: Tom- Pa 2010-01-15 08:35 |
| #5 "Ignoring signs of improvement in the economy" Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia....... |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2010-01-15 05:38 |
| #4 Also their website has yet to run with the latest poll story showing Brown leading. All Haiti, all the time. Probably trying to figure out how to rig one that show's Coakley up by 30. It really is Panic Time in Lib Land. Flopsweat, spittle flying panic time. Never ever thought I'd see it, but I am enjoying it... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-01-15 01:24 |
| #3 Oh the Globe's lefty credentials were second to nobody's long before the Times showed up. An interesting fact about Brown? His wife is a reporter for Channel 5 which is like the most liberal TV station in town. She's been there about 20 years. And she is smoking hot... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-01-15 01:15 |
| #2 The New York Times-owned Boston Globe. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-01-15 00:40 |
| #1 It's a vote for gridlock... Damn right, and beats the hell out of Dem's running amok. |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2010-01-15 00:14 |