Republican Scott Brown wins Massachusetts.Democrats Point Fingers

[CF DolFan]

I'm surprised no one has brought this up. This is very big news. This isn't some bi-partisan state. It's freaking Mass where Kennedy has reigned supreme. I have to admit while I know of an increasing number of people upset about the healthcare issue being forced down our throats,  I didn't really think this was possible. 

 http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/20/coakley.brown/index.html?hpt=T1

Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Even before the polls closed on Tuesday night, Democrats were distancing themselves from Democrat Martha Coakley and blaming her lackluster campaign for her stunning loss in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.

A top adviser to President Obama rejected assertions that Tuesday's vote was a referendum on the president or Democratic policies and instead took a shot at Coakley: "Campaigns and candidates matter."

For weeks, Scott Brown had been the underdog candidate, running behind in the race to finish out the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's term.

Trailing by double digits a little more than a week ago, Brown had edged ahead of Coakley, campaigning as the pickup truck-driving candidate, capitalizing on voter frustrations and vowing to send Obama's health care bill "back to its drawing board."

Coakley, the state's attorney general, had been considered a shoo-in in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, which hadn't elected a Republican to the Senate in 38 years.

But as Brown gained momentum and Coakley's numbers fell, Democrats rushed big guns to campaign for her, including Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

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In the hours after Coakley's concession speech, though, Coakley's pollster Celinda Lake fired back at criticism that she ran a weak and misguided campaign and failed to recognize Brown's surge until it was too late.

Instead, Lake warned Democrats that, "There's a wave here. The first shore was New Jersey and Virginia," she said, referring to Democratic losses in the governors races there, "the second was Massachusetts and it's coming to the island now, so we'd better do something about it."

Other Democrats appeared to recognize the anti-Washington sentiment the recent votes represent.

Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said that the election "became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process."


Republican Party
While Democrats huddled to try to figure out a way to get their health care bill passed before Brown is seated and ends their 60-seat filibuster-proof "supermajority" in the Senate, Webb says it would be "prudent" for Congress to suspend further votes on health care reform legislation until Brown is seated.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York, said Tuesday night that the Massachusetts results demonstrated Democrats have to change their strategy on health care.

"Large numbers of independent voters saying they're upset about health care, that's not just their fault, that's our fault too. And we have to think about what we're doing wrong here, and to have a conversation as if nothing happened, whether you're in Massachusetts or not, is being tone deaf."

Brown warned in his victory speech that Democrats will face the same factors in the midterm elections in November that led to his win in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

"We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises." he said. "They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there's trouble in Massachusetts, there's trouble everywhere -- and now they know it."

Heading into the race, few political analysts believed Brown, a state senator, had a serious shot at beating Coakley, the state's attorney general.

Brown was underfunded and unknown statewide. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts since 1972. Democrats control the state's congressional delegation. They also hold the state's governorship, along with overwhelming majorities in the state legislature.

But Brown, who is in his third term in the state Senate, charged forward on a pledge to end wasteful government spending and hand politics back to the people.

Before he was in the state Senate, Brown served three terms as a state representative. He's also a member of the Massachusetts National Guard.

"He's branded himself brilliantly. He has run as the people's senator," said Jennifer Donahue, a political analyst and contributor to The Huffington Post.

Asked in a debate last week if he was willing to sit in Kennedy's seat and block health care reform, Brown replied, "With all due respect, it's not the Kennedys' seat, and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat."

Donahue said that was the game changer for Brown because Coakley "didn't have an effective answer against that."

More so than a statement on the candidates' strength and weaknesses, it's discontent among voters in Massachusetts that swung the election, said David Gergen, a political analyst and CNN contributor.

"Scott Brown turned this into a referendum on what's going on in Washington, especially with health care. His campaign began to gain traction when he said that, 'I am going to be the 41st senator, the one who can stop a lot of this,' " Gergen said.

Gergen also pointed to a major sports gaffe that might have hurt Coakley's image in Red Sox nation. In a recent radio interview, she suggested that former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a Yankees fan.

"When she was clueless the other day about who Curt Schilling was ... you can imagine what that did," Gergen said.

John Avlon, author of "Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics," says in the end, the results of Tuesday's election rested in the hands of independent voters. Democrats far outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts, but there are more independents than Republicans and Democrats combined.

"Independents asserting their real power even in Massachusetts should be a huge wake-up call to Democrats and Republicans."

But no matter what the outcome, Avlon said this shouldn't be viewed as voters turning on Obama.

"I don't think it's a referendum on Obama necessarily personally, because he is still personally popular with many independents. It's the Democratic Congress that's being reacted against.

"Independents like the checks and balances of divided government. They dislike the ideological arrogance and legislative overreach that comes when one party controls both the White House and Congress. That's what you're seeing," he said.

[StL FinFan]

I wonder if people just didn't like her or if it was over the issues, especially health care.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I'm surprised no one has brought this up. This is very big news. This isn't some bi-partisan state. It's freaking Mass where Kennedy has reigned supreme. I have to admit while I know of an increasing number of people upset about the healthcare issue being forced down our throats,  I didn't really think this was possible. 
 

Actually she wasn't a very good canidate and Brown was predicted to win for a long time.  And a republican winning in Mass really isn't that big of a deal.  Before electing Deval Patrick, Mass had 4 republican governors in a row from '91 - '07.  Fact is "Liberals" are in fact liberal as in make up their own mind and don't always vote party line.  The "left coast" aka California is the state Ronald Regan was governor of.  Red states are actually more party line, than blue states.  The number one reason Mass has a reputation for being the most liberal state in the country has to do with the presidental election of '72 when it was the only state which was smart enough to not vote for tricky dick.  Rhode Island is actually more liberal than Mass, but it too has had republican governors and senators.     

[Dave Gray]

This is a pretty big deal.  It was a perfect storm.

Coakley ran a bad campaign.  She's a lawyer, not a politician, so she didn't really go campaign.  Brown had 60 events in the last month.  She had 18.  He out-hustled her.

The Dems also made the mistake of thinking that it was a done deal months ago.  It gave Brown all the momentum.

But, it's also a referendum on the economic situation.  People, in general, think that Obama's health-care plan is a bad one and Brown represented a way to kill it.

I think that Obama's honeymoon is over and he's now bearing the brunt of all the economic situation.

[Spider-Dan]

Coakley ran one of the worst campaigns in recent memory.  She clearly presumed that the (D) next to her name was an automatic win.  She went on a freaking 2-week vacation in a 6-week general election cycle.  Absolutely unbelievable.

That being said, it is true that a majority of people object to the health care plans... but this statement is, in and of itself, misleading.  There are many people who object to it because they think that it doesn't go far enough.

Saying that this election is an indication that legislation needs to move further to the right is incredibly shortsighted.  The state of Massachusetts already has healthcare that is further to the left than the plan that Congress is trying to pass!  If anything, this election (and the poor Dem turnout in heavy Dem areas like Boston) shows that Obama's endless triangulation and attempts to work with an opposition that has no goal other than pure obstructionism is pointless.

Arlen Specter's defection was the worst thing to happen to the Democratic Party.  It allowed the GOP and the media to frame the situation as 60-votes-or-nothing, when they should have been using the Bush playbook of 50+1-is-a-majority from jump.  Republicans never had anywhere close to 60 and they passed whatever the f*ck they wanted for 6 years.

The best solution now is:

1) House passes the Senate bill as is (it contains many important healthcare insurance reforms that would not qualify for a bill passed under reconciliation)
2) Senate starts wielding the reconciliation hammer vigorously and repeatedly, using it to pass things like a public option (which would qualify for reconciliation)

50+1 was good enough for the GOP.  We elected 58 Democratic Senators to govern, not stand around with their hands in their pockets.

41 Republican Senators does not a mandate make.

[bsmooth]

he only thing gives the GOP is the ability to filibuster, that is all.
The woman said Schillling was a Yankee fan, and one of her aides knocked a reporter to the ground. She appeared not to care and out of touch.
Then there was the whole Catholic shouldn't work gaffe.
There is still the possibility it could get passed before Brown is certified and sworn in next month.

[Spider-Dan]

The Senate Dems have already thrown themselves under the bus on that one, insisting that no new legislation be passed until Brown is seated.

Imbeciles, the lot of them.

[Dave Gray]

I like the Howard Dean brand of thinking.  He's a no BS kind of guy.  He says that you can't compromise; it just isn't realistic.  Just get what you want and push it through, then live or die based on the results.

I think it's the only way to go.

Bush was a lot of things, but he was effective, at the very least.  Without a filibuster-proof majority, he still got whatever he wanted.  Ultimately, he is seen very unfavorably for a lot of it, but he got judged on the policies.

[bsmooth]

I like the Howard Dean brand of thinking.  He's a no BS kind of guy.  He says that you can't compromise; it just isn't realistic.  Just get what you want and push it through, then live or die based on the results.

I think it's the only way to go.

Bush was a lot of things, but he was effective, at the very least.  Without a filibuster-proof majority, he still got whatever he wanted.  Ultimately, he is seen very unfavorably for a lot of it, but he got judged on the policies.

That is because the GOP had tough focues leadership that got their people in line to vote. The Dems have a pea brained grandma and an out of touch old man, and both of them are spineless and too beholden to the far left fringe of their constituents.

[Spider-Dan]

Pelosi is a lot less spineless than Reid, who allowed Lieberman and Nelson to dictate terms to the rest of the caucus.

Furthermore, I think it's fairly absurd to say that they are beholden to their far-left constituents when virtually every goal of the left (single-payer system, Medicare open to all, strong public option tied to Medicare rates, weak public option with negotiated rates) was ultimately shot down.

Reid, in particular, is too worried about "centrism" to get anything done.

[stinkfish]

It's a good day here in Massachusetts 

[Dave Gray]

I agree with Spider.  Hate on Pelosi all you want, but she gets shit done.

And it's definitely not appeasing the left that's the problem.  It's totally the opposite.  When you do a bunch of compromising, only to get ZERO opposition votes, it just weakens your position.  At that point, screw the compromise and just pass the bill you want.  That's been the problem all along.  The stimulus is a good example.  They packed it with a bunch of tax cuts that the GOP wanted and they still didn't get a vote.  What's the point of adding things for the other side if they aren't going to support it anyway.

[Buddhagirl]

I agree with Spider.  Hate on Pelosi all you want, but she gets shit done.

And it's definitely not appeasing the left that's the problem.  It's totally the opposite.  When you do a bunch of compromising, only to get ZERO opposition votes, it just weakens your position.  At that point, screw the compromise and just pass the bill you want.  That's been the problem all along.  The stimulus is a good example.  They packed it with a bunch of tax cuts that the GOP wanted and they still didn't get a vote.  What's the point of adding things for the other side if they aren't going to support it anyway.

I think this is the larger problems. I would love to see the Dems say screw the GOP and get some balls. Compromise isn't working nor is it worth the effort. They should just start pushing shit through  and watch the fall out.

It's a good day here in Massachusetts 

Is this because you're happy your new senator looks like this:



Gotta say I love the double standard. No way a woman could do that. Just goes to show how deep the "Good Old Boy" network in Mass. is. Congrats!

[CF DolFan]

I think this is the larger problems. I would love to see the Dems say screw the GOP and get some balls. Compromise isn't working nor is it worth the effort. They should just start pushing shit through  and watch the fall out.

Is this because you're happy your new senator looks like this:



Gotta say I love the double standard. No way a woman could do that. Just goes to show how deep the "Good Old Boy" network in Mass. is. Congrats!

I wouldn't think of Mass being a good ol boy network but racy pictures are a part of many people's past. It certainlty doesn't define who they are today.


I don't think compromising is the issue.  You can compromise without loosing your values. It's once you lose that the integrity is lost and you become just a wishy washy politician who is only worried about the next election. Unfortunately that is where most politicians sit.

[stinkfish]

First Buddha, Brown is a REpublican, and therefore not even allowed within whistling distance of the Good ol' boy network here. Coakley is actually one of the  Good ol' boys here, which makes his victory even that much more impressive.
Second, I don't personally think that something as innocuous as this photo spread from some ancients Cosmo should come back to kick any candidate in the head, regardless of gender. It's just not relevant.