SUNDAY,  JANUARY 17,  2010

BULLETIN - AT 11:41 P.M. ET:  PPP, a Democratic polling firm, now has Brown five points ahead of Coakley.

Brown leads 51-46 in a poll of 1,231 likely voters.  The poll was taken yesterday and today.

PPP's last poll, taken from the 7th through the 9th, had Brown ahead one point, 48-47.

We should have a Rasmussen report tomorrow.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

ANOTHER MASSACHUSETTS READER REPORT – AT 11:07 P.M. ET:  Reader Gordon Bennett files this from Brookline, Massachusetts.  Brookline is filled with people who, in 1776, would have tried to research and understand the root cause of British frustration:

Drove through Coolidge Corner in the heart of Brookline this afternoon (the Brookline of Dukakis, Kennedy, and 80%+ margins for Obama-Biden in 2008) and instead of the usual gaggle of peaceniks waving multicolored rainbow signs, two Brown supporters occupied the high ground in an apparently uncontested fight and planted his flag. As Obama frequently says, "unprecedented."

Goody.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS – AT 10:26 P.M. ET:  Now we know the source of Martha Coakley's problems.  It's the source of all our problems.  It's...it's...it's...

As audience members streamed out of Pres. Obama's rally on behalf of AG Martha Coakley (D) here tonight, the consensus was that the fault for Coakley's now-floundering MA SEN bid lies with one person -- George W. Bush.

"People are upset because there's so many problems," Rosemary Kverek, 70, a retired Charleston schoolteacher said as tonight's rally wrapped up. "But the problems came from the previous administration. So we're blaming poor Obama, who's working 36 hours a day ... to solve these problems that he inherited."

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), speaking with a gaggle of reporters after the event, said that while state Sen. Scott Brown (R) offers voters a quick fix, in reality, the problems created by "George Bush and his cronies" are not so easily solved.

COMMENT:  I knew it.  Didn't you?  What's wrong with you?  Everyone knows it's BUSH (!!).  And even worse, it's that curse of Massachusetts, CHENEY (!!!).  Oh, there's also RUMSFELD.  Remember him?

Geez.

January 17, 2010    Permalink

MORE MASSACHUSETTS OUTRAGE – AT 9:56 P.M. ET:  The remarkable smear campaign against Scott Brown, which will climax tomorrow, continues, under the direction of national Democrats.  The Politico has the latest:

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is making hay this morning of a clip in which Scott Brown, in the process of praising President Obama's mother for deciding to have him at age 18, expresses some doubt -- and chuckles uncomfortably -- over the question of whether his parents were married when he was born.

DSCC spokesman Eric Schultz called the video "appalling" and tried to link Brown to the Birther movement, which denies Obama's citizenship and claims he was born abroad -- things he didn't even hint at in the video.

Politico writers are thick-skinned political reporters, and even they are appalled:

The claim is a wild stretch. The fact that Obama's mother was young and had to marry on the fly (his mother was pregnant when they were married in February, 1981) is central to his biography, as is his father's absence, and while Brown seems confused on that biographical point, he doesn't suggest in any way that he's aligned with the Birthers. Indeed in a GOP where Birther claims are common on the Hill and on the airwaves, Brown's words are practically a vote of confidence.

COMMENT:  We hope there's a voter backlash against this kind of stuff, but we wonder what we're going to get tomorrow, the last day of the campaign.

January 17, 2010    Permalink

YIKES! – AT 7:49 P.M. ET:  We only have one late Massachusetts poll, by MRG and InsideMedford.com.  MRG is a respected firm.  I don't know anything about its partner.  The poll, taken late Friday, shows the following:

A poll conducted by the Merriman River Group (MRG) and InsideMedford.com indicates that Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 50.8% – 41.2% in the contest to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Liberty Party candidate Joe Kennedy pulls in just 1.8% support, while 6.2% of voters are still not sure. Brown and Coakley both have most of their supporters locked in. 98% of both candidate’s supporters say they are definitely or probably going to vote for their candidate. In contrast, 22% of Kennedy’s supporters are just leaning toward him, suggesting that Brown and Coakley may both want to take aim at swaying those voters.

That's essentially a ten-point lead for Brown.  However, the sample of likely voters was relatively small. 

MRG surveyed 565 likely voters between 5:00 P.M. and 8:45 P.M. on January 15, 2010 using touch-tone polling technology. The margin of error is +/– 4.1%. Some columns do not sum to 100% due to rounding.

Encouraging.  But we'll know in 48 hours.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

OBAMA TO MASSACHUSETTS – AT 5:04 P.M. ET:  The president flew into Massachusetts to try to save Martha Coakley from herself.  The New York Times reports:

BOSTON — President Obama swooped into Massachusetts on Sunday in an attempt to rescue the flailing candidacy of Martha Coakley, the Democratic Senate candidate in a special election on Tuesday that will determine whether the party will preserve its 60-vote majority in the United States Senate and keep alive its health care agenda.

Wait, wait, wait.  A few problems there.  The president "swooped" in?  I wonder if The Times ever had George W. Bush swooping.  So heroic, so romantic.

And, uh, the election won't determine whether the Dems can keep alive their health-care agenda.  It will only determine whether they have the 60 votes to stop a GOP filibuster.  They're already threatening to pursue their agenda through unconventional means.

“If you were fired up in the last election, I need you more fired up in this election,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over the loud applause of a packed basketball arena at Northeastern University. “Understand what’s at stake here Massachusetts. It’s whether we’re going forwards or backwards.”

Mr. President, that's your problem:  Many people think you are going backwards.

The Democratic Party deployed its full political arsenal here for the final 48 hours of the battle between Ms. Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general, and Scott Brown, a Republican state senator, to fill the seat of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

As the race lurched to an unpredictable finish, Republicans worked to capitalize on an uneven campaign by Ms. Coakley and a strong air of dissatisfaction with Washington. Senior Democrats conceded on Sunday the real prospect that Ms. Coakley could lose the race, but they hoped Mr. Obama’s visit would rally the Democratic base.

Translated:  Get those minorities to the polls, then ignore them between elections.

COMMENT:  We'll know in little more than 48 hours.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

FIELD REPORT – Here is a field report from Massachusetts that reader Will Stroock was kind enough to send us by e-mail:

Great Barrington and all of western Mass (I don’t know how to spell the state’s name either, and I’ve been coming here since 1973), is a burnt-out industrial section of the country. The factories were devastated by post war competition and are mostly gone. They took the tourist industry with them. What began moving in during the 1980’s was the same new-age Bohemian element that has taken over Vermont. The café I write this in is filled with dirty hippies - not a political commentary but an actual description – old time hippies who run organic farms, and the local burnouts. For some reason this café is also filled with pretty teenage girls.  I have no idea why they come here. The town nuts prefer Dunkin Donuts. Though they tend to stay away from Great Barrington’s main street, there is a large summer-residence element composed of affluent New Yorkers.  That’s me, but we owned land up here way before it was popular. They treat the locals like servants.

As for the locals, they’re usually too busy working to get political. The deli at the Price Chopper has no fewer than seven photos of children in the military, three marines, two sailors, one soldier and an airman (or woman, I don’t know the term for females). These are the people who are out on Lakes Buel and Garfield right now ice fishing and drinking beer, but mostly drinking beer. If there was ever a revolution the locals would be running the place within five minutes because they’re all armed to the teeth.

Despite the strong NRA/NASCAR element, make no mistake, this is liberal territory. In 2004 this area was filled with Kerry/Edwards signs. I used to go running in a Bush/Cheney hat and often was nearly run off the road for my trouble. In 2006 the yards were filled with Deval Patrick signs. In 2008, of course, Obama signs and stickers were everywhere. There were also a lot of creepy Obama paintings, as we have a strong artist colony here now.

This weekend I counted three Scott Brown yard signs and one Liberty or Union Revolutionary War flag (the royal navy Red Ensign with the words Liberty or Union stitched on it), up here, that make you conservative.

Now hear this: I have seen no, repeat no Martha Coakley signs, not a one. Not a sign, not a sticker, not a placard, except for one of the nuts holding a handmade sign at the bridge across the Housatonic.

Make of this what you will, but it doesn’t sound good for Coakley.

As they say, there's nothing like having boots on the ground, especially when the boots can send e-mails.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

OH PLEASE – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  President Obama is in church today.  He's speaking at a black church in Washington, with TV coverage.   Presumably, it's about Haiti. 

Oh, come on.  Now, really.  The man hasn't been in a church, to my recollection, since inauguration day.  Look, I hate to sound cynical, but let's be cynical.  This isn't about Haiti, although I don't doubt the president's devotion.  This is about Massachusetts.  Those images are beamed to the minority community in Boston, and the message is plain:  Get out and vote for my ally on Tuesday.

Our first post this morning reported the race card already being played blatantly in Massachusetts.  This is phase two.  Phase three comes when the president flies to Boston later today.  Phase four comes tomorrow, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  It's the way ethnic politics is played. 

January 17, 2010   Permalink

A GREAT NATION AT WORK – AT 11:27 A.M. ET:  Once again we find ourselves quoting a British writer examining the United States, and finding it good.  From London's Telegraph:

Compare and contrast the initial responses of two "major world powers" to the Haitian earthquake disaster. Within hours of Port-au-Prince crumbling into ruins, the US had sent in an aircraft carrier with 19 helicopters, hospital and assault ships, the 82nd Airborne Division with 3,500 troops and hundreds of medical personnel. They put the country's small airport back on an operational footing, and President Obama pledged an initial $100 million dollars in emergency aid.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the European Union geared itself up with a Brussels press conference led by Commission Vice-President Baroness Ashton, now the EU's High Representative – our new foreign minister. A scattering of bored-looking journalists in the Commission's lavishly appointed press room heard the former head of Hertfordshire Health Authority stumbling through a prepared statement, in which she said that she had conveyed her "condolences" to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, and pledged three million euros in aid.

Ashton, with whom we will probably have to deal, if no one else is around, has already made a fool of herself several times.  It is rumored that her theme song is "Be a Clown."

Memories might have gone back to December 2004, which saw similarly contrasting responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami catastrophe which cost nearly 300,000 lives. Again, within hours the US took the lead in forming an alliance with Australia, India and Japan, and had sent in two battle groups fully equipped to deal with such an emergency, including 20 ships led by two carriers with 90 helicopters...

...The EU, by contrast, pledged three million euros for the tsunami victims, called for a three-minute silence (three times longer than is customary to remember the millions who died in two world wars) and proposed a "donors' conference" in Jakarta nearly two weeks later to discuss what might be done.

Finally...

The only real difference between these two episodes is that, in the five years which have elapsed since 2004, the EU has even more noisily laid claim to its status as what Tony Blair liked to call "a world superpower", capable of standing on the world stage as an equal of the US. Anyone who witnessed the dismal showing at Thursday's press conference of the High Representative, which would scarcely have passed muster at a board meeting of the Hertfordshire Health Authority, might well cringe at the thought.

Hooray for the Telegraph.  Now let's have this from some American journalists.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

SHE'S BAAACK – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  Remember Cindy Sheehan, queen of the "anti-war" activists during the Bush administration?  She's back for Act II, but her nostalgia for those good-old BUSH (!!) years continues.  From AP:

LANGLEY, Virginia — A group led by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has protested near the CIA's headquarters and former Vice President Dick Cheney's home in northern Virginia.

They were protesting the use of unmanned drone aircraft to attack al-Qaida and Taliban targets.

The group of about 70 people rallied alongside a highway near the CIA compound Saturday. About half then marched to Cheney's nearby street and stayed for 20 minutes. Police kept them from going down his street.

Huh?  Cheney's street?  Do they understand that something happened last January 20th...like an inauguration? 

What outrages me is that people like this are still described by the mainstream media as "anti-war."  They're not anti-war.  They're only against any war that America has a chance of winning.  And they are utterly contemptuous of human rights and democratic principles.  When I see Cindy Sheehan protesting the cutting down of Iran's democracy demonstrators, maybe I'll think a little differently.  Until then, I'll hold my position.

January 17, 2010   Permalink

A WEEK TO REMEMBER – AT 10:48 A.M. ET:  This begins a momentous week in America.  No, I'm not talking about the Massachusetts election.  I'm talking about tonight's launch of the eighth season of "24."  In my house, that's a national holiday, marked by a dramatic pause in the counting of calories.

Fox tonight, 9 p.m. Two hours. 

Tomorrow night, 8 p.m. Two more hours.

The edition of "24" tonight is on against the Golden Globe awards.  Jack Bauer vs. Susan Sarandon.  Is there a choice there?

January 17, 2010   Permalink

MASSACHUSETTS – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  There are no new Massachusetts polls at this hour.  We expect there'll be more either late today, or, certainly, there'll be wrap-up polls tomorrow.  There are two full days of campaigning to go before Tuesday's vote.

The key element to watch for today – the race card.  President Obama flies in later in the day to campaign for Coakley, and the focus will be on bringing out the so-called "black vote."  African-Americans have been indifferent to Coakley.

Also, and this hasn't been discussed, tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Lots of focus on minorities, minority interests, minority fears.  The Dems know how to work a day like that.

How blatant is it?  It's already started:

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has told a largely black congregation that if Democrat Martha Coakley loses the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, it will be a victory for people who want President Barack Obama to fail.

Coakley, who's Massachusetts' attorney general, is in a tight race against Republican Scott Brown. The special election Tuesday is being held to fill the seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Menino appeared with Coakley at a Sunday morning prayer service in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

By the end of today, or tomorrow, I wouldn't be shocked to see this even worse – Brown portrayed as a friend of racists, a racist himself, or a friend of racists who takes orders from Sarah Palin. 

The Democratic Party depends heavily on the black vote.  This could be a very ugly two days. 

January 17,  2010   Permalink

SATURDAY,  JANUARY 16,  2010

WILL THIS WIN MASSACHUSETTS? – AT 11:37 P.M. ET:  The Politico reports on the enthusiasm gap that Scott Brown is counting on to win on Tuesday:

HYANNIS, Mass. – As the two candidates running in the special Senate election here barnstormed across the state Saturday, the enthusiasm gap between the two parties was on vivid display.

Democrat Martha Coakley, Massachusetts’ attorney general, kicked off a series of stops with a morning speech at a Boston union hall, receiving a response more polite than enthusiastic.

Coakley and Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late senator, both addressed a crowd of about 100 electrical workers but it fell to a state representative from nearby Dorchester to deliver the closing remarks aimed at firing up the Democrats.

“I see there is some excitement in this room but there is not enough excitement in this room,” Martin Walsh said, as the heavily male, Carhartt-and-jeans crowd stood with hands in pockets.

Yeah, Martha and Vicki, the electric duo.

There was no need for such an exhortation on Cape Cod as state Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican nominee, was enveloped by a couple hundred, sign-waving supporters as he attempted to walk into a local pub where another hundred voters waited for an afternoon rally.

“People’s seat, people’s seat!” the Hyannis crowd chanted, aping the retort Brown gave at a debate Monday when asked about “the Kennedy seat.”

With three days until Bay State voters go to the polls to decide whether Democrats will retain their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the momentum plainly is with the GOP.

He’s drawing crowds rarely seen by Republicans in this state and seems to have more organic support than Coakley, an impression underscored by the imperfect measurement of yard signs spotted for the Republican (many) and the Democrat (none) along the South Shore and on the Cape.

COMMENT:  Two more days.

January 16, 2010   Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 5:50 P.M. ET:  Again the Brit reporters get it right, when observing American politics.  From The Times of London, on the Massachusetts race:

The latest polls show the Republicans ahead in America’s most liberal state. The party has not won a Senate seat here for 37 years. The Democrats are so worried about losing the seat that Obama is flying in tomorrow, despite the crisis in Haiti.

Yeah, let's put first things first.  Who cares about human life?

To lose Kennedy’s seat would be a humiliating end to Obama’s first year in power, particularly as Kennedy was one of the first senior Democrats to endorse him for president. Not only would it be an ominous sign for the mid-term elections later this year but it would lose the Democrats their supermajority in the Senate, robbing them of their ability to sidestep Republican filibusters, and derail healthcare reform.

And...

Bill Clinton, the former president, flew in for a rally last Friday even though, as a United Nations special envoy for Haiti, he had not slept for three days. “I came here to tell the people of Massachusetts that this country’s revolution was born in Massachusetts against those who abused power ... do you now want to put Massachusetts on the side of the power abusers?” Clinton said.

Remarkable.  Martha Coakley, as a prosecutor, worked to keep an innocent man in prison to protect her political allies.  She ignored the case of an obviously guilty rapist, again presumably to protect the people who could help her. 

Abuse of power anyone?

January 16, 2010   Permalink

THE CLASS ACT, AND THE LESS-THAN-CLASS ACT – AT 5:03 P.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Standing alongside two former presidents, President Barack Obama on Saturday promised that U.S. support for Haitian relief would continue long after the scenes of death and destruction fade from the headlines...

...Obama and former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton met in the Oval Office for about half an hour to discuss the assignment he gave them: to lead private fundraising efforts for Haitian relief, including immediate needs and the long-term rebuilding effort.

Being the class act that he is, President George W. Bush accepted.  I don't know how no-class Obama could look him in the eye, after the filth that Obama has directed at Bush in the last two years.  The contrast between the two, one the man who led America after 9-11, the other a minor Chicago politician with a golden voice, couldn't be greater. 

Of course, most of the mainstream media, in reporting the story, conspicuously ignores Obama's behavior during these last years, and also ignores the fact that Bush has refused to respond. 

Oh, and get this:

Obama sent Secretary State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Caribbean country for the first look by a top U.S. official at the devastation. The White House has said Obama had no immediate plans to visit.

Of course not.  Obama will be in Massachusetts, trying to save his political butt.

What a show.  What a revelation.

January 16, 2010   Permalink

SHAMEFUL, DISGRACEFUL – AT 4:52 P.M. ET:  If you want a sickening example of what's being thrown at Scott Brown by the Democrats in Massachusetts, here it is, via The Plum Line:

This is absolutely brutal: Massachusetts Dems have dropped a mail piece accusing GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown of wanting hospitals to turn away “all” rape victims.

The mail piece — sent over by the Brown campaign — shows pictures of women who are supposed to have been raped, one of them in a wheelchair bent over with her head in her hands. It says: “1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008. SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY.”

The mailer — paid for by the Massachusetts Democratic Party — says the claim is based on “a law to let emergency hospitals turn away rape victims in need of emergency contraception.” That appears to be a reference to a Brown-sponsored 2005 amendment that would have exempted hospital personnel, on religious grounds, to inform victims of the availability of the morning after pill.

As Coakley’s own Web site says, after Brown’s amendment was rejected, he voted in favor of the bill to require emergency rooms to provide rape victims with emergency contraceptives, and the whole debate seems to be more nuanced than the mailer suggests.

The mailer could be related to the fact that internal Dem polling reportedly shows Coakley under-performing with less-affluent women.

COMMENT:  Nice, huh?  But remember, things like this sometimes work.  Plum Line is also reporting internal Coakley pulls showing her underperforming among African-Americans, which is certainly one reason why Obama is flying in tomorrow.  Watch the fear tactics escalate.  It is turning into an ugly smear campaign run by masters of the craft.

January 16, 2010   Permalink

UTTERLY INTRIGUING – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  This is one of those James Bond stories that I just can't resist.  From the Jerusalem Post:

Without Mossad director Meir Dagan, the Iranian nuclear program would have been successfully completed years ago, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram claimed in an op-ed published Saturday.

What?  This is from an Egyptian paper?

"Over the past seven years, he has worked in silence, away from the media," the op-ed read. "He has dealt painful blows to the Iranian nuclear program … he is the Superman of the Jewish state."

Among the steps taken by Dagan against Teheran, Al-Ahram listed diplomatic action to embarrass the Islamic republic, action to fuel opposition protests, assassinations and covert attacks against nuclear facilities.

The idea that an Egyptian paper is saying this is beyond fascinating.  I doubt that it got printed without Egyptian government approval.  Is it a signal to Iran that Egypt stands with Israel on the threat Iran poses to the Mideast?  Is it a signal to the U.S. that Mideast nations can take care of Iran, without the on-again, off-again help of Washington?   

The op-ed stressed that while the Mossad under Dagan's leadership achieved many bold victories against Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it never took responsibility for its operations, but wisely chose to wait for the other side to declare that they had taken place.

COMMENT:  There have been a number of unexplained incidents involving the Iranian nuclear program, including the recent assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.  There have also been reports, unconfirmed, of Israeli commando operations inside Iran. 

With American Iran policy in complete disarray, and Iran off the front pages, it may be up to Israel and even some temporary Arab allies to take care of the problem, if they can.

January 16, 2010    Permalink

ALERT – NEW MASSACHUSETTS POLL – AT 11:27 A.M. ET:  Reader Zach Hafer alerts us to a new American Research Group poll:

Republican Scott Brown leads Democrat Martha Coakley 48% to 45% in the special Massachusetts US Senate race to replace Senator Ted Kennedy in a telephone survey conducted January 12-14 among 600 likely voters in Massachusetts saying they will definitely vote in the special election on January 19.

Brown leads Coakley 94% to 1% among registered Republicans and he leads 58% to 37% among unenrolled voters. Coakley leads Brown 71% to 20% among registered Democrats. A total of 8% of Democrats and 5% of Republicans remain undecided.

COMMENT:  A word of caution.  We report this poll because it's news, and because the numbers seem generally to be in line with other polls.  However, there is some dispute in political circles about ARG's transparency and methodology.  We'll check the final election result against ARG's numbers and draw our own conclusions.  Margin of error is four percent.

January 16, 2010   Permalink

TAKE BACK YOUR MINK, TAKE BACK YOUR PEARLS – Well, that's from "Guys and Dolls."  Oh, wait, I apologize.  It's been renamed "Male Oppressors and Unwitting Females Who Haven't Had Their Consciousness Raised." 

But it might as well have been from Nebraska's Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, who got a special deal for his state in exchange for his sinful vote in favor of ObamaCare.  The people of Nebraska, honorable folk, did not like what he did, put the full Nelson on him, and now the senator wants to repent:

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is asking Senate leaders to eliminate a controversial Medicaid deal for his state in the health care bill.

The moderate Democrat, who provided the crucial 60th vote for the Senate health care bill, has been criticized because Nebraska was exempted paying any cost of a proposed expansion of Medicaid.

All other states would have to pick up a portion of the tab after the first few years.

Nelson's been arguing ever since that he never wanted a special deal for Nebraska and that he wants all states protected from burdensome new costs.

Oh right, oh sure.

That didn't quiet the controversy so Nelson took it one step further on Friday and asked for the deal to be withdrawn and replaced with a provision treating all states equally.

COMMENT:  This sudden purity, this sudden finding of Biblical virtue.  I guess there really is redemption.  Or is it called political salvation?  Nelson isn't up for reelection until 2012, but he's already in trouble.  If Massachusetts goes red on Tuesday, Nelson should reserve the moving van.

January 16, 2010   Permalink

THREE DAYS TO GO – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  There are no new polls from Massachusetts at this hour.  There were wild rumors late last night about candidates' internal polls, but the rumors were all over the place, with none confirmed.

We expect new poll numbers this weekend, with perhaps some last-minute polls on Monday, or Tuesday morning, reflecting the impact, if any, of Obama's campaign trip to Massachusetts tomorrow to try to save Martha Coakley from herself.

GOP challenger Scott Brown is snapping back at the smear offensive being waged against him, as Dems pull out all stops to keep the "Ted Kennedy seat" in their column.  From Fox News:

GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown and his supporters are firing back at Democratic senators for accusing him of being a "far-right" politician backed by "right-wing radicals" by virtue of his ties to the conservative tea party movement.

Brown, with the support of the tea party groups and others, is posing a stiff challenge to Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy. Polls show him closing in on Coakley, long the frontrunner, with just four days to go until the special election, and the latest survey shows him leading by 4 points.

With the race tightening, national Democratic heavyweights have stepped into the picture and are lobbing harsh accusations at Brown's support network.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., claimed in an e-mail that "swift boaters" were trying to sink Coakley, a reference to the ads that targeted him in the 2004 presidential campaign. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Brown a "far-right tea-bagger" in an e-mail, using a term that also can refer to a sexual act. Then on Friday, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., wrote in a fundraising e-mail that Coakley was "being attacked by tea partiers and right-wing radicals."

COMMENT:  It's all negative.  What is there positive to say about Martha Coakley, Madam Gaffe, whose latest blunder was to describe Boston Red Sox great Curt Schilling as "a Yankee fan."  I mean, really.

January 16,  2010   Permalink