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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Local Races 2018 and earlier / The Mass Senate Race: “Mini-Mitt”, Major Bro-hole

The Mass Senate Race: “Mini-Mitt”, Major Bro-hole

by Anne Laurie|  May 15, 201310:35 pm| 50 Comments

This post is in: Local Races 2018 and earlier, Republican Venality, Assholes

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Via Dave Weigel, Real Clear Politics just lurves the GOP’s new bro-mancer:

WATERTOWN, Mass. — Behind in the polls in a solidly Democratic state, heavily underfunded against a formidable opponent, and suffering from a barrage of attacks over a questionable tax break he once received, Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez nonetheless brims with a preternatural confidence — the kind found only in a candidate whose political career is just three months old.

After cruising to a surprisingly easy win over better-funded opponents in the Massachusetts GOP primary, Gomez has since been left to wonder whether the cavalry will ever arrive in the form of an investment by the National Republican Senatorial Committee….

Translated from the weaselspeak: After kneecapping the two professional GOP politicians, Gomez’s puppeteers still haven’t quite convinced the Permanent Party (GOP wing) to buy a piece of this risky prospect. It’d be so much nicer to persuade the “Independent” Repub-in-all-but-registration Massholes that Gomez isn’t a wholly-owned subsidiary of MegaSuperGlobalPACs, LLC.

… In part because he has positioned himself as a non-ideological, problem-solving “new Republican” — which happens to be the only kind of Republican that can win a statewide race in Massachusetts — Gomez purports to being unconcerned about monetary support from the national GOP…

But with six weeks to go until the June 25 special election, Gomez could use more than the lip service provided thus far by national Republicans. And, according to a source familiar with the NRSC’s thinking, he is about to get that investment. After initially viewing his chances of winning with more than a little skepticism, party officials in Washington have been convinced by a slew of public and internal polls to put their financial weight behind Gomez…

Weaselspeak: We have Karl Rove’s “The Math”! We’d show ya, but then we’d have to kill ya, hahahaha!

… Since his primary victory, Democrats have been eager to portray Gomez as a “mini Mitt” — a clone of the former governor who, like Gomez, is a Ken Doll-handsome product of Harvard Business School. In addition, both men made their fortunes in the rarefied world of private investment.

Five of Gomez’s top advisers are veterans of Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, and the Senate aspirant has been boosted by radio ads funded by a super PAC helmed by Romney’s longtime confidant Eric Fehrnstrom….

Weaselspeak: Okaaay, the formula didn’t work so good last November, but Ed Markey is no Barack Obama, and the media spotlight’s not so glaring in a six-week Senate runoff.

…The “mini Mitt” portrayal in a state that handed Romney a 23-point defeat to President Obama in November has recently been compounded by the revelation that Gomez, like the failed presidential nominee, benefited personally from an accounting practice that is unknown to the vast majority of American wage-earners: In 2005, Gomez received a $280,000 income tax deduction after agreeing not to alter the façade of his historic home in the wealthy Boston suburb of Cohasset, even though a town statute already prevented him from doing so….

Who among us hasn’t taken the occasional semi-licit tax deduction to the tune of the average worth of a house in this state? (Shut up, Willard.)

… Though he lacks Markey’s Boston accent, Gomez sounds like a salt-of-the-earth local rather than an Ivy Leaguer. In the interview with RCP, for instance, he described his recent private summit with union leaders as a “no bullshit meeting” and acknowledged that aspects of life on the campaign trail “can be a pain in the ass sometimes.”… And though the Republican exudes confidence in informal settings, his hands shook with nervousness when he addressed local reporters at press conference in Woburn on Monday.

He is 47 years old but looks 37 and, when the cameras aren’t rolling, he laces his speech with “like” and “dude” enough times to come across as 27….

Somewhere inside the Beltway, Paul Ryan senses a great disturbance in the Force, as if a myriad firefly attention spans had shifted…

… “When I decided to run, I can’t count how many, like, Navy buddies called or emailed me and literally said, ‘Are you insane?’” Gomez recalled. “They all reached out and were like, ‘Dude, like you’ve got a great job, you’ve got a great family.’ I’ve got four amazing kids, my wife is awesome, [I] had a great job until I left it. ‘And why would you want to go down there?’ Like, they said it’s like a cesspool.”…

That’s the graf that caught Weigel’s eye. Isn’t Gabe bro-mantic! Forget all those years as a vulture capitalist, did you know Gabriel Gomez used to be a SEAL?

… Coffey describes Gomez as a “natural leader,” who went from “not having a political bone in his body” to assembling a top-notch campaign team almost overnight, albeit with the helpful circumstance of a Republican presidential nominee having just closed up shop in the same city…

A natural leader whose patriotic sense of self-respect didn’t prevent him serving as the figurehead in “a controversial video attacking President Barack Obama for jeopardizing national security by releasing information related to the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden.”

Donate to Democrat Ed Markey at the link.

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Reader Interactions

50Comments

  1. 1.

    ulee

    May 15, 2013 at 10:50 pm

    I’m Gabriel Gomez and I approved this message. Obama ordered the assassination of our arch enemy, Osama Bin Laden, and, yes it was successful and now the real usurper must be punished. I don’t know why, but I’m on a mission from God.

  2. 2.

    Yatsuno

    May 15, 2013 at 10:52 pm

    Somewhere inside the Beltway, Paul Ryan senses a great disturbance in the Force, as if a myriad firefly attention spans had shifted

    Yeahbut…Ryan still has a sixpack man! He’s also got those dreamy granny-starver eyes!

  3. 3.

    Redshirt

    May 15, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    What’s so bad about weasels? Why would you tarnish them so?

  4. 4.

    westcoastranger

    May 15, 2013 at 11:01 pm

    I was not a Mitt fan but there is no question that he was accomplished in business and a leader. Gomez has had a mediocre career in Private Equity. Never lead deals, never been on boards of companies – basically, he was an administrator. I suppose that doesn’t matter, but it also does matter that he’s now being cast as a power broker.

  5. 5.

    Gex

    May 15, 2013 at 11:02 pm

    I get that the right has their share of closet cases. Whatever.

    I can never get over how absolutely gay the rest of the male right is. Nothing gets their blood pumping like the right bro. I mean this is teenage girls/boy band kind of behavior.

    I can’t believe it isn’t so obvious that there isn’t a cultural push back against this kind of pathetic display.

  6. 6.

    ulee

    May 15, 2013 at 11:02 pm

    I think the black muslim brotherhood should stop attacking liquor stores and come down hard and disarm and disown city violence. Bring the hammer down and then march for equity and bring the economy to a halt. Martin Luther King Jr. had the right idea. Kill em with kindness, but disarm the kids first.

  7. 7.

    Poopyman

    May 15, 2013 at 11:05 pm

    @efgoldman: The formatting buttons come in, the formatting buttons go out. You can’t explain that.

  8. 8.

    ulee

    May 15, 2013 at 11:06 pm

    @Poopyman: Hal has his reasons.

  9. 9.

    Yatsuno

    May 15, 2013 at 11:07 pm

    @efgoldman: I’m afeared the change is probably permanent. NotMax tried after the upgrade and got banished to oblivion. Honestly I kinda like the nym change. Just different enough to be noticeable but everyone knows it’s still me. Or is it…

  10. 10.

    beltane

    May 15, 2013 at 11:11 pm

    One thing puzzles me about the new site. Why is it that the font in certain blockquotes is teeny tiny, while in other cases it is disproportionately large? I swear I am not under the influence of any hallucinogenics.

  11. 11.

    Suffern ACE

    May 15, 2013 at 11:12 pm

    @efgoldman: To whom do we direct complaints about the removal of previously-available formatting buttons?

    I don’t know. One of these things with greater and less than signs has to do something.

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    May 15, 2013 at 11:16 pm

    @beltane:

    I swear I am not under the influence of any hallucinogenics.

    We read the site too; we don’t take much convincing to believe it’s messed up.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    May 15, 2013 at 11:20 pm

    @efgoldman:

    To whom do we direct complaints about the removal of previously-available formatting buttons?

    I think you’re either supposed to email [email protected] or pipe your complaint to /dev/null . Either should be as effective as any other way of notifying TPTB around here, and much less likely to get you flamed.

  14. 14.

    Spaghetti Lee

    May 15, 2013 at 11:24 pm

    @Yatsuno:

    Just different enough to be noticeable but everyone knows it’s still me. Or is it…

    Perhaps you are the evil goateed twin of our beloved Yutsy, and you’ve banished him to Opposite World to take your place!

  15. 15.

    Spaghetti Lee

    May 15, 2013 at 11:26 pm

    Just a regular salt-of-the-earth navy guy who has tax deductions larger than 99.5% of the country’s salaries. If you make that kind of scratch, you are not allowed to describe yourself as outside ‘the political system’. You’re in fact a beneficiary of the political system. Someone ‘outside the system’ running for office would be, I don’t know, a 55-year-old immigrant woman who works in retail and makes $25,000 a year.

  16. 16.

    Hill Dweller

    May 15, 2013 at 11:27 pm

    Olympia Snowe is on Stewart’s show pretending she is a moderate. It would be nice if Stewart pointed out she was more than happy to join the Republican filibuster hundreds of times in Obama’s first term.

  17. 17.

    Mike E

    May 15, 2013 at 11:27 pm

    Yeah, bold italics linked type and

    I’m the deciderer.

    buttons are all there.

    Let’s see if I have paid enough attention to the strike thru html code to remember how to do this.

  18. 18.

    Todd

    May 15, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Just saw trek. Great movie!

  19. 19.

    eemom

    May 15, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Ya know, everyone’s right. The comments ARE too small, and it’s not just cuz I’m a old. It looks weird. It’s disconcerting. A previously well ordered and comforting reality has been rent asunder and trampled into pixelated dystopia.

    Furthermore, in what respect exactly is this an “upgrade”?

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    May 15, 2013 at 11:31 pm

    Wish I could move back to Massachusetts just vote against this asshole.

    Reminds me of living in Rhode Island when a guy ran for the House seat held by a corrupt Dem named St Germain. He was a Republican, a lawyer, and a Naval Academy graduate. Normally that would count as three strikes against him, but I voted for the guy, who lasted maybe one term until he got booted out.

    Reminds

  21. 21.

    MikeJ

    May 15, 2013 at 11:32 pm

    @efgoldman: The plugin that handles the formatting button is a pain in the ass to use. I’m not the least bit surprised that mix hasn’t wanted to fuck with it yet.

    And how often was the code tag used anyway? It could be argued that you shouldn’t use the code tag unless you know how to do it yourself.

  22. 22.

    ulee

    May 15, 2013 at 11:34 pm

    @eemom: It’s the New Coke. Sometimes people just feel the need to fuck up success.

  23. 23.

    Suffern ACE

    May 15, 2013 at 11:35 pm

    I wonder, is the font so small that we won’t be able to read between the lines any longer? Or is that another issue altogether.

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    May 15, 2013 at 11:41 pm

    The redesign fucking sucks, whether accessing from my desktop or iPad. I’ll try visiting Red State or Free Republic where they might have capable IT folks…

  25. 25.

    Cacti

    May 15, 2013 at 11:42 pm

    Didn’t the loser of the Dem primary get more votes than the winner of the R primary?

  26. 26.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    May 15, 2013 at 11:57 pm

    @Mike in NC: I’ll save you the time. Here’s a good comment from Red State. “If Nixon had a son he’d be just like Obama.”

  27. 27.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    May 16, 2013 at 12:05 am

    @eemom: an upgrade to a new version of WordPress, maybe? The look certainly isn’t it.

  28. 28.

    Eric U.

    May 16, 2013 at 12:05 am

    I don’t think the fact that Nixon was involved in a criminal conspiracy to break-in to someone’s business really ever sunk in with some people. This is the sort of thing that would get most of us thrown in jail without much drama.

  29. 29.

    dance around in your bones

    May 16, 2013 at 12:10 am

    Hey Steeplejack! Just starting to watch Rome, Open City on TCM – is this good? I may not make it through the subtitles (too hard to read BJ y subtitulos at the same time :)

    But, Anna Magnani!

  30. 30.

    SatanicPanic

    May 16, 2013 at 12:15 am

    @Eric U.: The right is trying to rehabilitate that guy, for what I don’t know. The boomers are going to go to their graves bickering. I don’t remember my grandparents ever arguing over Hoover vs FDR. Though I guess there’s a good reason for that.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    May 16, 2013 at 12:18 am

    @dance around in your bones:

    Yeah, it’s a great movie. Made right at the end of the war, has a “ripped from the headlines” feeling. One of the first of the great Italian neorealism movies. Probably not a good choice for sort of watching while Balloon Juicing, though.

    And it was Anna Magnani’s first big role.

  32. 32.

    dance around in your bones

    May 16, 2013 at 12:27 am

    @Steeplejack: Well, I’m going to soldier on, then. I speak some Spanish, so the Italian isn’t too difficult to sort of pick up – plus, it’s a lovely language.

    I love old WWII B&W movies. I bet it’s depressing, though.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    May 16, 2013 at 12:29 am

    @dance around in your bones:

    Let me know who wins!

  34. 34.

    John S.

    May 16, 2013 at 12:32 am

    @Hill Dweller:

    Jon Stewart is fucking useless. He’s been busy fapping to centrist “both sides do it” porn for quite some time now.

  35. 35.

    Cacti

    May 16, 2013 at 12:37 am

    @John S.:

    Jon Stewart is fucking useless. He’s been busy fapping to centrist “both sides do it” porn for quite some time now.

    I’ve been unimpressed with his hip new brand of Broderism for a long damn time.

  36. 36.

    lojasmo

    May 16, 2013 at 12:48 am

    @Ted &Heleni: is running for congress! Fantastic!

  37. 37.

    lojasmo

    May 16, 2013 at 12:49 am

    Edit function is gone. I don’t get with all the Stewart hate.
    No wai! Edit function is back!
    I don’t watch Stewart much, but when I do, it’s only “both sides do it” when it’s a repub on.

  38. 38.

    Petorado

    May 16, 2013 at 12:54 am

    he has positioned himself as a non-ideological, problem-solving “new Republican”

    Bullshite. Republicans don’t solve problems, they create them for political advantage. See debt limit, sequester, political appointees, filibuster, shall I even try to go on? Weigel is such an absolute fecking idiot sometimes.

  39. 39.

    dance around in your bones

    May 16, 2013 at 1:02 am

    @Steeplejack: Not the priest, I think. :(

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    May 16, 2013 at 1:05 am

    @dance around in your bones:

    I just flipped over during a commercial on the show I’m watching and saw a certain character get shot. It’s not the feel-good movie of the year, that’s for sure.

  41. 41.

    lojasmo

    May 16, 2013 at 1:08 am

    @Hill Dweller:

    snowe has voted for a filibuster hundreds of times

    Senator Olympia Snowe, R from ME, has voted in favor of a filibuster 123 out of a total of 555 opportunities. This amounts to an obstruction record of 22.2%.

    123 is not “hundreds” asshat.

  42. 42.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    May 16, 2013 at 1:11 am

    @lojasmo: Yeah, that’s one major lie he told there!

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    May 16, 2013 at 1:16 am

    @Petorado:

    Weigel is such an absolute fecking idiot sometimes.

    That wasn’t Weigel, it was the tool at RCP. Weigel was pointing out what a ridiculous fap-job it was.

  44. 44.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    May 16, 2013 at 1:20 am

    @Anne Laurie: He does demonstrate he’s an idiot, though, when he uses a word like “abortionist”.

  45. 45.

    dance around in your bones

    May 16, 2013 at 1:22 am

    @Steeplejack: You got your torture, attempted betrayal, kids whistling, troops deliberately misfiring, and eventual shoot priest in the head scene.

    Naw, not such a feel good movie. You know who else would’ve liked this movie?

  46. 46.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 16, 2013 at 3:17 am

    product of Harvard Business School.

    This alone should be the kiss of death. You know who else was a product of Harvard Business School? That’s right, the shittiest president of the last 80 years, hands down, and a serious contender to make Buchanan and Harding runners up in the worst president ever competition.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    May 16, 2013 at 8:33 am

    @lojasmo:

    No the real problem with Snowe and Collins is that they vote when it doesn’t matter throwing both sides the occasional bone so as to maintain the facade of their moderate status.

  48. 48.

    liberal

    May 16, 2013 at 8:49 am

    @MomSense:
    Actually the fact of the matter is that (at least according to the Am for Dem Action scorecard) they’re both more conservative than the most conservative Dem in the Senate.

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    May 16, 2013 at 9:19 am

    One of our Maine OFA Field Organizers is now in Mass working on the Markey campaign so I have been enjoying hearing about the campaign and seeing the photos of the volunteers.

  50. 50.

    MomSense

    May 16, 2013 at 9:25 am

    @liberal:

    They absolutely are more conservative but they are masters of voting when it doesn’t count on just enough environmental bills while bemoaning “partisanship” to maintain the facade. The other thing that is important to note is that they are (Snowe was) hugely influential in terms of the committees and in terms of which legislation makes it to the floor. They don’t actually have to filibuster to stop legislation.

    And in many cases securing their votes means concessions as was infamously the case on the ARRA (stimulus). Collins and Snowe requested cuts to school building funds, public health funds, etc. Of course all the blame went to the President for asking too little while the gals from Maine were applauded for their moderation and bipartisanship. Blech.

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