Starting to look like Ted Kennedy’s seat is up in the air, and may very well go to a Republican. Be nice if someone in the liberal blogosphere would notice and efforts would be made to provide some support, whether it be volunteering or matching the Brown moneybombs. Likewise, it would seem to some that some concern should be shown about the fact that the New York race is shaping up to be a fight between a moderate Democrat and a very conservative DINO. Shoring up the left flank there might also be a worthy endeavor.
On the other hand, I do understand that the high crimes and misdemeanors of Rahm and Gruber are probably bigger priorities and more important uses of progressive energy. Good thing progressive icon Chuck Grassley is riding to the rescue. No doubt Grover Norquist has some thoughts on these issues, as well.
But don’t worry- once Democrats are in the minority, then we’ll see the change we were promised.
AhabTRuler
Like fuckin’ money, Cole. You never disappoint.
burnspbesq
It’s awfully dangerous to rely on the people of Massachusetts coming to their senses – they are, after all predominantly Red Sox fans, which is an inherently irrational behavior.
General Winfield Stuck
I do love it when you lay the snark on extra heavy. Throws the natives off the particular pony of the day that be taking them in the usual wrong direction.
Jim
Show Me On the Doll Where Rahm Touched You
LOL!!
I sent Coakley a hundred bucks today. I was looking for an ActBlue link here. Show them the power of the Pragmatic Left! Hear us phlegmatically roar!
demkat620
John, these are Democrats. This is what they do. The Firebaggers, as you have called them, are convinced that only a wake up call of losing the majority will do.
Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.
When Scott Brown wins Tuesday night, I expect Tweety to have repeated on air orgasms.
1994 all over.
Cain
John.. FAIL dude.. utter FAIL.
cain
Ailuridae
Granted we only have a limited data set during her time as Senator to go on but there is little in Gillibrand’s voting record to suggest she is a moderate. She’s somewhere around the 15th-20th most liberal Senator right now.
So the choice is between a Senator who has been a reliable progressive vote in her limited time in the Senate and a man who was far more conservative than his congressional district for a decade and then tacked hard to the right to try and win a Senate seat in TN.
demkat620
lulz
valdivia
Agree that more effort should be put into the race. Maybe because I am an O-Bot and still have the whole hopey-changey thing going I really don’t think Brown will win. Coakley took her time getting the race in gear but now it’s all guns blazing. I also hear that at the debate last night Brown was pretty bad.
Oh and the Rass poll was a one nighter.
kay
@valdivia:
I’m panicking. I sent her 25 bucks. That’s about as extreme as my panic gets.
demkat620
@valdivia: Yeah well don’t go over to the GOS. They are ready to light themselves on fire it is so over. Brown’s got it in the bag and Coakley was a shit candidate.
And nobody has even voted yet.
MikeJ
Perhaps our host should follow the lead of Atrios who just earlier today posted, “One thing about traveling abroad is that no matter how much time I actually still spend blogging – sometimes a lot, sometimes very little – I find it provides an effective shield against understanding why I should waste 3 seconds bothering my beautiful mind with any of the freak show stuff. And that’s a good thing.”
L. Ron Obama
I gotta say that “Manic Progressive” beats “Iatropic Excitement” hands-down.
valdivia
@kay:
@demkat620:
I am doing mine too, sent money and will be making calls through OFA this week when I have time. I really think a lot of dems thought this was a coronation, getting a little scared is good but thinking this guy has it int he bag? No way.
[insert caveat about what I will do in a week if I am wrong]
The Raven
Obama ated their hearts.
Croak!
Xenos
Not.going.to.happen.
It will be too close for comfort, which means Coakley will squeak by with just a 15% margin.
Then again, I remember that when Dukakis ran in ’88 it was also an election year for Teddy K. Dukakis got something like 53% and Teddy got 85%, so around 32% of this state is completely irrational, having voted in the same election for Bush and Kennedy.
Annie
John +3ish?
Jean
@kay: Kay, I sent her 25 bucks too for the same level of panic.
BruceFromOhio
I think Cain and the Raven called it.
Which trips the “so we’re supposed to LIKE our Democrats, even though they [fill in the atrocities]” synapse, the “they used us!” hand gesture, and the “progressives are not an ATM!” rolling of the eyes, and the cycle then repeats itself.
Which is good news for John McCain.
Sanka
Probably not. “Kennedys seat” is secure in the hands of the Democratic party. But it is fun watching the DNC and the DSCC flush $500K down the toilet. Money that could have been well spent defending waht were deemed to be more…er, critical races for the Democrats in 2010.
Uncle Teddy’s seat was supposed to be a no-brainer for the Democrats and Coakley and Co.
continued to press the flesh of lobbyists in DC rather than campaign in MA even until todaycampaigned as such.But Coakley will win because, er…Sarah Palin hasn’t endorsed Brown….or something. An apparently, the Coakley campaigns big “strategy” is to scream “BUSH! BUSH! BUSH!” and push Obama’s agenda.
Because that all worked so well for Jon Corzine…
Jager
Having spent most of my adult life in Boston, I’ve never been able to figure out why Ma voters seem from time to time to go for the handsome, rich, insipid republican….
Think Romney, Weld*, Sargeant, etc, etc, etc. I don’t think it helps that local right wing talk radio is banging the drums for Brown like Boston is Birmingham!
*I like Weld better now since his fellow repubs threw him under the bus…but was probably up to his ass in the Whitey Bulger deal when he was the fed prosecutor.
jeffreyw
I’m in.
CJR
You gotta forgive us Mass voters for not running around screaming about the falling sky. Coakley is a “meh” of a candidate but if anything all the noise will secure a lot of people getting to the polls who might not have gone.
Max
According to FDL and Americablog, this is Obama’s fault for not going to Mass.
Never mind that the DNC has sent in its people and OFA (Obama’s campaign arm) is out in full force. I got an email from them today.
I fucking hate the blogosphere (except here).
/rant. Going to donate.
valdivia
@Max:
but of course it is. how could it not be? I am amazed they haven’t blamed him yet for Kennedy dying.
Midnight Marauder
Seriously, Cole, you are pretty fucking terrible at this game.
But I still love you.
Max
@valdivia: It really makes me ill.
I have to stop going to those places.
FlipYrWhig
@demkat620:
They really, REALLY want another McDonnell-Deeds VA-GOV scenario so that they can prove that all weak Democratic candidates are weak in the same way, that way being insufficient firebagging progressivism, which will mean that the only prescription to cure that fever will be… more firebaggery.
CalD
Q: What does a “very conservative DINO’s” ACU rating look like?
(Hint: Not very much like Harold Ford’s — OK except for the year he was running for Senator of TN.)
BombIranForChrist
I know you enjoy taunting FDL, so I don’t want to rain on your fun too much, but it’s not the NY Dems fault that independents and Dems are lukewarm about this race. This is the price of promising the voters everything they want, and then taking a giant shit on them once you have power.
beergoggles
I live in Boston and I’ll gladly trade Coakley for Gillebrand so I feel more motivated to vote for her.
Coakley is a horribly weak, milquetoast candidate that somehow thinks she’s entitled to the seat and the only thing motivating me to go out and vote is that Brown is a total bigoted a-hole/douchenozzle.
valdivia
@Max:
yes you do! I really only hang out here and a couple of other places. My head and heart can’t take the other stuff.
Max
@valdivia: I’m stopping as of tonight.
Balloon Juice
Ebay
itunes
Amazon (via BJ)
Nordstrom.com
Macys.com
Zappos.com
and Twitter
Is my new round of intertubing
Crashman06
@beergoggles: Ditto and ditto. “Milquetoast” is a perfect way to describe Coakley. This is what I, and other lazy registered Dems, get for not voting in the primary.
valdivia
@Max:
:)
I have one for you someone turned me onto that has great great deals on nice nice stuff (warning, girly talk)
http://www.yoox.com/home.asp/tp/7139&?gclid=COnUqrmjoJ8CFcNM5QodEzQ1Iw
Midnight Marauder
@beergoggles:
That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.
Paris
I live in upstate rural NY. My wife is active with the local and county dems (I’m registered Green so get funny looks at social occasions). I’ve attended events featuring Kirsten Gillebrand. Patterson chose a perfect Hillary Jr. She is a hard worker and well respected here. She will get good support upstate. Ford doesn’t have a chance.
Thoroughly Pizzled
Rather amusing comment on that FDL link:
I really have no idea what “additive” is doing there. Or any of those words.
SiubhanDuinne
@Max #24:
Why in the world would Obama go to Mass? He’s not even Catholic.
kid bitzer
that new category title, “Show Me On the Doll Where Rahm Touched You”
man, that is so funny, and so wrong. i’m laughing like i know i shouldn’t.
yeah, okay, i’ll kick in some dough for coakley.
Max
@SiubhanDuinne: Well played.
Max
@valdivia: Curse you!
valdivia
@Max:
I know, but when you want that must have item and refuse to pay those over the top prices this place can lead you to some finds!
PaulW
leave it to the bostonian Dems to bleep things up. ;-)
El Cid
I’ve been reading Daily Kos on this for days and every day there have been multiple messages begging people (especially in MA) to donate money and time. This notion that they’re all just sitting around whining and screaming OBAMA = BUSH is bullshit, and I’ve followed along that race and efforts to do something there while there’s been nothing here.
Anne Laurie
@Jager:
As a fellow Masshole-by-choice, I share with you two local slang terms that don’t get mentioned by the Media Village Idiots: swamp yankee and hoper. Swamp yankees are the local redneck equivalent — mean, slope-browed inbreds who still resent being forced to take down their “No Irish, dogs, or colored” signs. Hopers is a term coined in the early 1900s, during the first Gilded Age, to describe those now known as teabaggers — working-class ethnics who vote against their own self-interest in the (vain) hope that they’ll be mistaken for “a Lowell or Cabot”. Both these groups are attracted to rich, vapid Rethugs like dogs are attracted to kitchen waste.
If you haven’t already read his work, George V. Higgins is an endless font of information on the folkways of the Commonwealth.
Texas Dem
Part of me wants to see Coakley go down in flames simply because of her appalling behavior in the case of Gerald Amirault, but that would almost certainly kill health care reform and destroy the Obama presidency. She is a truly awful candidate. Why didn’t Dems. recruit someone stronger? Kennedy’s window could have won this thing in a walk. Instead, we may end up with a health care reform bill that will die one yard short of the end zone.
I fear that Coakley will come up short next week, and that the consequences for our president and his party (not to mention the country) will be catastrophic. You will see a wave of Dem. retirements and a surge in GOP recruiting and fundraising, followed by the mother of all blowouts in November 2010. Say hello to Speaker Cantor and Majority Leader McConnell, followed by President Romney. And say goodbye to your dreams of reform, at least for another generation. The wheel of history takes another cruel turn.
gopher2b
Since it’s Kennedy’s seat, shouldn’t he get to choose who gets it?
Ben
I still have no idea what FDL’s goal is. It can’t really be “doom healthcare reform for a a generation,” can it? But on the other hand, they can’t seriously think that torpedoing the bill will actually result in getting a better one. Maybe it’s just “be petulant all the time.”
Yutsano
@Texas Dem: This is either performance art or concern trollery at its finest. Either way chill out dude.
Texas Dem
Just a guess, but I think they’re operating under the assumption that the only way we’ll get a single payer health care system is if the current system totally collapses. In other words, they’re trying to “heighten the contradictions,” to use a Lenninist term.
BruceFromOhio
@Yutsano:
Concern performance trollery art? Hrm, doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
I’ll stick with ‘manic progressive’ – the abrupt knowledge of how difficult it is to fix shit that has been really, truly fucked up by 8 years of Republican idolatry.
BruceFromOhio
@Texas Dem:
Too thoughtful. I’m sensing lizardbrain activity in most of the verbiage out there, and not much else.
Yutsano
@BruceFromOhio: Thre really funny part is that if that nightmare scenario does occur I’m laying the blame square at the feet of the firebaggers. The Republicans can’t do shit and we all know it but they decided purity was more important than getting things fixed after thirty years of conservative philosophical dominance. Fuck that shit. If you think Obama has done nothing but shit on the progressive agenda and been worse than Bush and therefore the wingnuts should take over again you deal with the consequences. I’m gonna be happy couch surfing in Australia.
Mary
@Texas Dem: The firebaggers were never for single payer until late in the game when they tried to coopt (and raise money off) that position. Therefore, the single payer people have no use for FDL either. I think they’re pretty much spent as any sort of force for healthcare or anything else for that matter.
Jager
All you need to know about how fucking nasty a good chunk of the Ma electorate is in the comments section of almost any story in the Globe or Herald…
The Raven
Oh, the Democratic leadership is perfectly happy to eulogize Kennedy now that he’s food for corvids. But no-way does the current Democratic leadership want another strong liberal Democrat in the Senate.
Can’t do much for ’em, if they’re determined to shoot themselves in the foot.
Croak!
bob h
As for the high crimes of Gruber, I would note that he is terribly knowledgeable and committed to universal coverage, so his input has been a good thing. But $700,000 is 3.5 man-years at a typical consultant rate of $100/hr., and Obama has only been in office one year.
Ron
As another commenter pointed out, calling Gillibrand a moderate these days is not terribly accurate. She WAS more moderate when she represented a somewhat conservative disctrict in the House, but even then only on a few issues and she’s tacked to the left on those as well.
Bostondreams
@burnspbesq:
Two World Series titles in this decade, one more than those Yankees (I’m sorry, 2000 is not the current decade; there was no year zero). So I will thank you not to question our sanity.
Now, let me head into my shrine and pray to my Lord and Savior Dewey Evans.
(and my uncle is a big time wingnut in what he calls ‘The People’s Republic of Cambridge’. He cannot wait to rub Brown into my face (literally and figuratively, I suppose). Here is hoping Coakley wins out.)
lawguy
You know, I’d suggest that at this point the change will probably come just as quickly with minority democrats as with a majority.
If I lived in Mass. or NY I’d probably vote against the republican and republican light, but I don’t and I don’t have the money to throw away on another hope and change piece of B.S. At any rate lets not forget that who Ford’s BFFs really are. Hint they live on Wall Street and work and livein the White House.
Tell me again just what this administration has accomplished or tried to accomplish that is of real help to the middle and working classes as much as to our oligarchs? Why should the average working stiff be out there anyway?
What has the current democratic party done to earn the support of the working people who worked so hard a little over a year ago to ensure Hope and Change?
crumpet
I live in Massachusetts. And I will be one of those dispicable people who will be casting their vote for Brown. Hate me if you want to. But the whole “Hope & change” thing is beating the shit out of me and my family. I can’t afford any more of it. Maybe a little wake up call in Washington will get things on a better footing…one can only “hope”.