Screw the Democrats
A lot of people will spin Massachusetts a lot of ways, but what today's vote really means is that independents turned out in record numbers to tell the Democrats: ENOUGH! Trying to make every sort of policy on the basis of what one or two or three "moderates" want, when everybody knows that "moderates" is a code word for corporate interests, is just plain stupid. The only sensible option was to throw the Democratic supermajority out. Their vote doesn't mean that people in Massachusetts want a Republican Senator so much as that they've made a strategic point. It's a shame, but Washington almost surely won't listen. It'll take another election later this year to hammer the point home...
It's also unfortunate that in the end the progressive website most critical of what's on offer in terms of "health care reform" — that would be firedoglake — couldn't bring themselves to endorse a Democratic Party defeat. Others on the left (should I put that in "quotes"?) make the amazingly ignorant claim that the election wasn't about health care. I say: THANK YOU, MASSACHUSETTS! Let's hope this kills the bill.
Posted by George Kenney on January 19, 2010 9:42 PM 
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Comments
I see that Barney Frank is already saying they shouldn't bend the rules to get the bill through and I agree. Of course, we will now be treated to a non-stop pundit extravaganza about how the Democrats weren't bipartisan enough and lost because they were slamming socialist health care down on the poor overtaxed Americans.
I like Jonathan Schwartz' comment that this is all part of the Democrat's Operation Elect Sarah.
Posted by: Charles D
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January 20, 2010 9:51 AM
Brownie did a heck of a job.
What I see Is a successful exploitation of a combination of outrage sincere and not. Fear and ignorance were the fuel for Brown's victory. And cunning.
Coakley is an absolutely worthless campaigner. Or at least she was this time.
This was not a refute of the current meatloaf healthcare compromise. It is a clear indication that roughly forward towards a better social contract with the citizenry is the correct and smart way to go. Leave the path strewn with sore and cranky teabag-carrying righties. Some taxation of wealth will be a help.
The fact of the matter is that the democrats are foresaking what is the right thing to do in favor of comity. And that is a tragedy.
I am disgusted with the lack of spine. Knock some heads, bruise some ribs and do what is right for the greater good. The masses that don't get it now never will as long as it's only an idea. They don't do ideas.
Posted by: Peter | January 20, 2010 11:00 AM