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Scott Brown Benefits From Late National Republican Money
Tweet Share on Facebook January 17, 2010 Comment (57)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
With the Massachusetts senate race in its final stages, national money is flowing into the state. I reported on Friday that the League of Conservation Voters and AFSCME had entered the fray for Democrat Martha Coakley. Since then almost all of the new money reported has been on Republican Scott Brown's side.
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The Devil Responds to Pat Robertson on Haiti
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2010 Comment (112)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Judging by this letter to the editor in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Satan really is not pleased with Pat Robertson's assertion that Haiti got devastated by an earthquake because of a deal the country made with the devil (h/t Swampland):
Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll. You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract. Best, Satan
Apparently Satan's earthly spokesperson is named Lily Coyle and lives in Minneapolis.
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Scott Brown Win Could Kill Healthcare--Obama Must Go to Massachusetts
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2010 Comment (50)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Obama should hit the campaign trail for Martha Coakley this weekend. He dipped a toe in the Massachusetts special election Thursday when he cut an online ad supporting her. He went in a bit more Friday when he recorded a robocall ("I rarely make these calls and I truly apologize for intruding on your day...") exhorting Coakley's election. The stakes, he said in the call, include healthcare reform, because the Massachusetts seat will be the difference between Democrats having a 60 seat majority and Republicans being able to sustain filibusters.
With stakes like that, Obama should stop inching in and take the plunge. Or to switch metaphors, go all in.
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Brown Ahead of Coakley as AFSCME and LCV Enter Fray
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2010 Comment (20)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
With a new poll showing Republican Scott Brown clearly ahead in Tuesday's special election, two more Democratic ally groups have joined the battle for the Massachusetts senate seat. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has bought $100,000 worth of radio ads supporting Democrat Martha Coakley, while the League of Conservation Voters has bought $350,000 worth of television time for a new ad blasting Brown.
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Terrorists Lose: Polls Show U.S. Calm After Christmas Bomb Try
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2010 Comment (6)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
All terrorist attacks serve two purposes. The first is to kill, maim, or otherwise cause damage--in the case of the Christmas bomb attack on the Northwest Airlines flight into Detroit, for example, the immediate aim was to blow the plane out of the sky and kill its passengers. But terrorists have a broader aim: instilling fear in a much wider audience and using it to achieve their goals.
As Fareed Zakaria wrote in Monday's Washington Post:
In responding to the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced the feelings of many when she said that to prevent such situations, "I'd rather overreact than underreact." This appears to be the consensus view in Washington, but it is quite wrong. The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. Its real aim is not to kill the hundreds of people directly targeted but to sow fear in the rest of the population. Terrorism is an unusual military tactic in that it depends on the response of the onlookers. If we are not terrorized, then the attack didn't work. Alas, this one worked very well
Maybe not, according to a couple of new polls.
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NRA Fires Off Mailing for Scott Brown
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2010 Comment (21)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The National Rifle Association became the latest group to enter the Massachusetts senate race this week, spending a bit under $20,000 to mail four-color postcards to Bay State voters, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. The mailing is, not surprisingly, on behalf of Republican Scott Brown. In the last few days the race to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy has become a magnet for political dollars from national groups who see the contest as being about the filibuster-breaking 60th Democratic senate vote and the fate of healthcare reform. Indeed, the NRA's $20,000 foray is fairly low-key compared to other sums that have been spent, mostly on television ads. According to the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, the heavy hitters include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with almost $1 million, the Service Employees International Union with $529,000, and a labor-backed 527 called Citizens for Strength and Security plunking down $278,000 all supporting Coakley. Brown's allies include the Chamber of Commerce, with $443,000, the American Future Fund with $375,000 and Americans for Responsible Health Care with $204,000. Cillizza reports that overall Coakley's allies are outspending Brown's by 2-1. Add the NRA's drop into Brown's bucket.
Interestingly, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign still doesn't seem to have sunk any cash into the race.
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Why Scott Brown is Competitive in the Massachusetts Senate Race
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2010 Comment (43)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
If Martha Coakley wins with less than a landslide Tuesday, or if she actually loses, there will be a great deal of analysis about how the sour national mood hurt her, and what it all means for Democrats in the 49 other (less Democratic) states come November. And it will be good, solid analysis (it has in fact already begun--see Chris Cillizza's fine post here).
But Massachusetts is the state that brought us the late Thomas "Tip" O'Neill and his maxim that all politics is local. And if Coakley sinks, or barely survives, it will not just be because the Democratic brand is unpopular. It seems that she has forgotten Tip's motto, and run a startlingly poor campaign.
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Pat Robertson Blames Haiti Earthquake on Pact with the Devil
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2010 Comment (89)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
There's nothing like unspeakable human tragedy to bring out the crazy. And few people better embody the crazy than religious comedian Pat Robertson. So it should not come as a surprise that he's incorporated the Haiti earthquake--which may have left a half-million dead--into his weird, classless act. Speaking on his television show today, historian Robertson spouted this gem:
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Scott Brown in Virtual Tie in Massachusetts Race as Dems Deploy
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2010 Comment (45)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
In the first contest of 2010, the question shouldn't be whether Democrats will win but by how much. On Tuesday, Massachusetts voters will select the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's successor. Martha Coakley, the Bay State's attorney general and the Democratic nominee, was until very recently the prohibitive favorite over GOP nominee Scott Brown, a state senator. Not only had Coakley raised $5.2 million to Brown's $1.2 million (his fundraising has increased dramatically with the new national attention), but Massachusetts is about as reliably Democratic as they come.
The race was supposed to be a yawner but has become the focus of the political world as recent polls have shown it to be a nail-biter: Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, reported over the weekend that Brown had a 48-47 lead, while a Rasmussen poll released today had Coakley ahead by a mere two points, 49-47--a virtual tie, as it is within the 3 percent margin of error. As recently as last month, political guru Stuart Rothenberg wrote that, "If Brown can crack the 40 percent mark against Coakley, it would be noteworthy," political guru Stu Rothenberg wrote last month. Tuesday Rothenberg moved the Massachusetts senate into the "narrow advantage" for Democrats column on his report.
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Health Reform Polls Ticking Upward
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2010 Comment (12)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
For the first time in months, a plurality of Americans supports healthcare reform, according to a new Gallup poll. The reform plan's numbers have been improving since early November, when only 43 percent approved and 48 percent disapproved of it. Now 49 percent approve and 46 percent disapprove--a good trend and a good hallmark as Democrats try to push to finish the legislation.
But the poll also contains several items that should trouble Obama and the Democrats.
