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CHARLES HURT (in, [where else?] the NEW YORK POST): Call it smear by association.
It appears to be — literally — the only hope Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has to pull off a slender victory here, in one of the most Democratic states in the country, for a seat so long owned by one of the most beloved liberal lions America has ever known.
Yet this is what it's come to: Don't vote for Scott Brown because look at all the yucky people in his party.
In a brilliant New Republic article, The Rise of Republican Nihilism, Jonathan Chair skewers the intellectual bankruptcy of the contemporary Republican Party.
Because Chait’s primary focus is domestic policy, he leaves out some of my favorite examples. For instance, late last year, the self proclaimed “Party of National Security” announced its willingness to block the Defense Spending Bill, which contained the funding for continuing the two wars that Party had dragged us into without an exit strategy (and, in the case of Iraq, without any good reason).
“There’s a big double standard here…What’s interesting here, is when Democrats get caught saying racist things, an apology is enough.
TODAY’S QUESTION: Is skillful political horse-trading the mark of a hero or a villian?
POINT (IT IS HEROIC): “The word "courtly" was created to describe Bruno's polite and generous manner. His image as a tough-guy boxer was accurate only until it suggested he was combative by nature. Then it couldn't have been more wrong.
He was in truth a compromiser by instinct. His negotiations weren't aimed at winning as much as creating a win-win situation. He wanted his share, and was happy to give you yours..”–Michael Goodwin in the New York Daily News (6/24/08) commenting on former NYS Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (a convicted felon)
Yes, yes, it is important to elect some new State Senators who favor the right of same sex couples to get married. I’ve written several columns explaining why.
As I’ve also explained, the way to pass same sex marriage is to pick up eight more votes in the State Senate. For perfectly understandable reasons though, LGBT political activists seem more focused upon extracting vengeance upon erstwhile allies who screwed them than they are on targeting the races that would get the job done.
From a blogger’s perspective, the one good result in the wake of the defeat of marital equality is the wealth of opportunity. There are so many possible angles just begging to be explored.
Some gay activists are now busy outing an allegedly gay State Senator who voted against marital equality. This has proven problematic in that though there have been many who have been “reamed” by the character in question, most of that activity seems to have taken place in a political context rather than a “romantic” one.
And even among those who’ve engaged in “romantic” liaisons with the pol in question, there is apparently not one person who isn’t too embarrassed to admit to it.
GATEMOUTH (4/14/06): In the end, I want a member of Congress who’s wrestled with, and lost sleep over the question of under which circumstances the deployment of American forces in battle is justified. “Just say no” is not an adequate answer…
GATEMOUTH (1/20/09): I am thankful to those on the left, like Katrina vanden Heuvel, who supported Obama understanding that he differed with them on the use of residual forces in Iraq, the escalation of the US military presence in Afghanistan, and the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I am also thankful to those on the left who supported Obama in part because they didn’t realize he held those positions, or believed Obama didn‘t really mean what he said and was really one of them. Clearly, in the crazed atmosphere of the Bush administration‘s unilateral imbecility, Obama was the right choice for such people, as well as for those holding views closer to my own.
It's been rough and rocky travelin',
But I'm finally standin' upright on the ground.
After takin' several readings,
I'm surprised to find my mind`s still fairly sound — Willie Nelson
It started simply enough.
I was a geeky junior high school smart ass; by contrast, Paul was a popular junior high smart ass. He thought it would be a goof, and a heart attack for the administration, for me to be student council president, and he ran a gonzo campaign to elect me. Incredibly, we beat out Heidi, a popular and leggy blonde teacher’s pet for a spot in the runoff, but lost in the end to Lloyd, a golden-boy who went on to produce “Watchmen.”
During this year’s final mayoral debate, Bill Thompson was said by the local commentariat to have made two grievous errors, which were only not said to be fatal in and of themselves because his candidacy was pronounced by the same wise-men to be in a state of extremis, for which the local press had already administered the rite of extreme unction.
Now, in light of the fact that Mr. Thompson lost an election to a man who received less than 51% of the votes, the wise-men have been proven to be a little less wise, and perhaps it is time to subject these assertions to a more rigorous analysis, if only because if the wise-men were right about them, these purported errors may have actually turned the course of history.
Error number one is said to be Mr. Thompson’s assertion that Bloomberg’s performance in the Office of Mayor rated a grade of D minus.
Now it can be told.
Last year, I used my Election Day vacation in an effort to help make Malcolm Smith the State Senate Majority Leader;
Having seen how that worked out, this year I used my day off to take care of my sick son Dybbuk and his new puppy, Cerebus.
But, in earlier times, my election days were far more exciting.
On an unseasonably warm Tuesday in March of 1998, NYS State Senate Democratic political operatives undertook a stealth operation of unsurpassing deviousness.
Meeting under the cover of darkness in the parking lot of an unassuming dinner on the Sunrise Highway, we were deployed by Frank Nemeth into the most Democratic election districts of a previously Republican Nassau County Senate District recently vacated by the death of the late Norman Levy.