As the battle over the Senate seat in Massachusetts heats to fiery levels, a bit of nasty physical confrontation is reported today. Seems the Attorney General running with the blessing of the Democrats in Massachusetts turned a blind eye as her staffer - walking beside her - shoved a reporter to the ground in Washington, D.C. last night.
Or, was it just an ok thing to do since the reporter is employed for the conservative publication, The Weekly Standard? Coakley is prone to refer to those not inclined to vote for her as "radical right" and "far right" and other exaggerated descriptions. She has decided to go negative in her panic of the results of the latest polling and has the help of a flyer mailed out after the debate Monday night by the SEIU that drags former President George W. Bush into the fray. Massachusetts State Senator, Scott Brown, the Republican "scaring" Coakley - her word - has no connection to the former President but that is not what is important. It is important to note that Coakley is now so desperate to rally supporters that she is dredging up the default position of all liberal Democrats when they are losing a political battle - toss in the 'fear' that the days of George W. Bush will return if the other candidate is voted into office. Oh, the horror.
Last night in Washington, D.C., a fundraiser was held for Martha Coakley and she was in attendance. This alone is odd - candidates are at a last day push at this point of in an election and are not out of town with lobbyists, raising money for themselves. Coakley, running on a promise to vote into law the Obamacare legislation pending in Congress, filled the place with health care lobbyists. Lots of big insurance folks and drug industry leaders turned out to write a check for Coakley. Coakley claims this event was in the works for weeks. To some, it is an act of last minute desperation to raise some badly needed money for the campaign coffers. Her opponent, Brown, raised $1.3 million dollars in one day - online- this week thanks to a national effort of conservative activists. Coakley is reported to have been caught off guard by this action.
The most striking observance I have come away with from this special election campaign is the blatant arrogance of Martha Coakley and the Democrats in Massachusetts. In control for decades in their choice of Senate representation, the Democrats simply assume that the seat will remain in the Democrat column and the candidate didn't really need to make too much of an effort to win. The best line in the debate Monday night came from Brown as moderator David Gergen, employed by the Kennedy School of Government, carried the water for Coakley as he asked this of Brown:
"Host David Gergen [of the Kennedy School of Government!] asks if Brown really wants to sit in the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate seat and block health care reform, knowing it probably won't happen for quite a while if it doesn't happen now; Brown respectfully corrects him on whose seat it is.
"Are you willing, under those circumstances, to say I'm gonna be the person, I'm gonna sit in Teddy Kennedy's seat, and I'm gonna be the person that's gonna block it for another 15 years," Gergen asks.
Brown responds: "Well, with all due respect, it's not the Kennedys' seat, and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat . . ." " That from The Wall Street Journal online.
By heralding the election as a continuance of dead Ted's legacy may have been the wrong tactic by the Democrats. The health care legislation is deeply unpopular in this country, even in blue state Massachusetts. Massachusetts has universal health care in place as a state - thanks to former Republican Governor Mitt Romney and voted into place by Republican Scott Brown - and many voters are waking up to the fact that national health care will mean higher costs to the state. These costs, of course, will be passed on to the people. Surprise!
The pending health care legislation will not go into effect for several years. It is all conveniently written to take control with regard to the presidential election cycle. Barack Obama and the Democrats are using this push for deeply unpopular legislation as a vehicle, they think, for a permanent Democratic majority. Surprise! Were the 'poor' and 'the children' a topic of conversation as Coakley raked in the big bucks at the tony venue last night in Washington?
This sums it up, from the Washington Examiner by Byron York:
"The bottom line: In a state where support for the Democratic national health care plan should be strongest, the current bills making their way through Congress cannot muster majority support. If Coakley is elected, she will cast the 60th and decisive vote in the Senate to pass a plan that not even half the people in her home state support."
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