Five Things to Remember this November

Every time I think of why people shouldn't vote for someone like Scott Brown, Mitt Romney or Richard Tisei, my mind immediately goes to great lengths to come up with things about complicated policy reasons people aren't going to remember. Sometimes, it's the simple things that count -- and will allude to the more complicated things anyway.

Here's five simple things that you should tell your friends, family and neighbors for this November. 

• If a candidate has a Swiss bank account, a Cayman Islands bank account and a bank account in Bermuda, one he kept secret while in office, you should probably vote for the other guy.
• For as much as Republicans politicians like to rail against government, it's amazing just how much they love it when it comes to extracting everything they from it for their Wall St. friends. Wars they can't pay for (or finish)? Check. Bailing out the banks and giving tax loopholes to Fortune 500 Companies? Check. Then, when all the money's gone, they'll try to use your Social Security funds to pay for it.
• If a candidate's entire campaign is based on how nice his family is, he doesn't have anything to to run on. If he does so while talking about how much time he spends with his family during the daytime as an office holder, that means he wasn't doing his job.
• If a candidate runs on being a moderate, but will vote for John Boehner or Mitch McConnell, he's lying.

Today's Globe: 6 *more* pages of Scott Brown fluff

After taking a whack at Elizabeth Warren for an entire month with near-daily headlines about manufactured racial bating stories, what would the Boston Globe have in store for Scott Brown, now that they've decided we're into electoral politic's hard hitting journo season?

Fear not, dear readers, the Globe had six entire pages dedicated to Scott Brown today, covering

• the scandal about how Senator Brown's dead set against health care reform, while his daughter benefits from it and even Chief Justice Roberts ruled for it 
• the Senator's reluctance to debate in New Bedford or Worcester to answer questions relevant to those communities, even while his opponent agreed to one of his radio debates 
• why Senator Brown's saying he's for keeping student loan rates affordable, when he's the principal guy behind blocking current efforts in the Senate

Oh, hell, what did it cover? 

For Brown, campaign an all-out family affair 

Senator's wife and daughters now helping to soften image of the man with the truck 

WRENTHAM — Scott Brown is at the stove, preparing bacon and cheese omelets, tossing eggshells into the sink with scarcely a glance, each one a perfect shot. Gail Huff is at the breakfast table, reminiscing about her early days as a TV reporter, talking up her husband’s cooking. But the star of the show is the fridge. 

A standard issue side-by-side ­model, nearly every inch of its face is plastered with snapshots and magnets, children’s drawings and certificates of achievement, ticket stubs and local press clippings. The collaged photos show daughters Ayla and ­Arianna through the years — Girl Scouts, Little League, prom night, college — but there are glimpses of Brown and Huff, too. 

One shows him a decade ago, a ­little-known state legislator in full Gene Simmons makeup and giant shoulder pads, one more anonymous KISS fan rocking with his tongue out. Another from 2010 shows how much their lives have changed: Huff hugs the real Gene Simmons, after he invited them backstage because he wanted to meet Brown, the man who wrested Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat from the Democrats.

That's just the first three paragraphs. Dear god, help us all.

On the off chance that there's anything important happening in Massachusetts or the country at large -- oh, I don't know, like a jobs crisis or hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts citizens being under water on their mortgages -- I sent a letter to the Globe's writer of this fluffenuttery goodness. Here were my last few words for him.

He's running an entire campaign dedicated on steering the campaign away from any kind of serious issue or problem facing Massachusetts or the country, constantly engaging in Straw Mans and issues that have no bearing on regular people. Why is the media enabling him? 

There are serious issues in this race and the voters of Massachusetts deserve a media that's going to hold our Senators' feet to the fire, especially during political campaigns. That is your responsibility as a journalist. Please live up to it.

Pretty please?

Meanwhile, it's time to resurrect the Fake News tag, because when there's critically important stuff going on in Massachusetts and around the world, stories like this are a steaming pile of crap.

Scott Brown Heard Your Question, but isn't Interested

Bay State Liberal nails it. 

Health care's future is on the line but what did Scott Brown focus during his "debate" with Dan Rea? Yep, CherokeeGate. 

A few hundred miles away in New York, Elizabeth Warren sought refuge on an equally partisan stage, trying to talk substance about underwater mortgages with Rachel Maddow.

While Elizabeth Warren constantly tackles problems that are actually effecting voters across Massachusetts, our Jr. Senator (rightly) thinks talking about the actual issues will cost him the election. It's all faux heritage-gate and innuendo until November... if the Senator gets his way.

If there's any shred of decency left in the organizations we formerly called the Boston Mainstream Media, they'll start to lay the smack down and demand he'll address his record and the issues. Don't hold your breath.

Until that happens, he'll deftly stonewall any serious questions and quickly pivot to how he's such a great dad or how Elizabeth Warren is a secret marxist foreigner and other assorted BS.

Activists and the netroots have a roll to play. We need to be loud enough so the media hears what we're saying and actually covers this race like journalists.

Video: Scott Brown's Royal Blunder

Scott Brown's two years of lying on the stump may not stay in the news as long as the faux heritage gate 'issue,' but in the end it could be more damaging. It changes the perception of Scott Brown. No longer is he the guy people want to have a beer with, now he's the guy people are laughing at.

Best Video Yet on Scott Brown's Kings and Queens

"Kings and Queens" was a longstanding part of his stump speech, and only blew up now because voters and the MSM had such limited access to him.

The guy thought the most important thing he could do was try to impress voters by making him sound important, in ways an 8 year old may think sounds important, instead of trying to talk about all the things he was doing to grow jobs and make Massachusetts a better place.

Perhaps that's understandable, given the fact that he wasn't doing anything to grow jobs or make Massachusetts better.

An absolutely appropriate question

"Which kings and queens and prime ministers have you had private meetings with?" 


After all, he's now talked about them at least five times.

The Media is in its own World

When it comes to politics and the news, two interrelated but entirely different things, there are really two worlds: the world everyday people and most public officials live in, and the world where the mainstream news exists. So, when the NY Times says Warren survived the state convention despite "flailing" over the past week, it's important to note that the NY Times is only describing the news as it exists within the very small bubble of the Main Stream Media.

The reality that the rest of us live in is a different story. A "flailing campaign" is not one that's evening up the polls and winning statewide conventions by record numbers. A "flailing campaign" is a candidate like Marisa DeFranco's, who lost 96% of the statewide delegate votes and had to pay her way through a signature drive.

What Elizabeth Warren has done in this campaign is truly record breaking. She went from a no-name candidate to someone who's amassed thousands and thousands of volunteers and enthusiastic supporters in the case of a few months. She's raising gazillions of dollars from mostly small donors, eschewing the typical Wall Street folks that dominate many statewide campaigns.

She's doing all of this against an incumbent with the thin but unmistakable veneer of popularity and likability. 

There is simply no precedent for what she's doing. Only in the world of the media could one of the single greatest primary campaign in this state's history be deemed as 'flailing,' simply because of media-contrived stories that the public -- in poll after poll -- states they don't give a damn about. It's amazing what they're doing, but not surprising.

Eventually, they'll be forced by the strength of the Warren campaign to actually report the race, just like Deval Patrick's campaign forced them to do... and when that happens, when those two worlds combined, Scott Brown's thin veneer will not only wear off, but his whole campaign will fall apart. At least, that's Ryan's Take. 

A Call to Convention

Elizabeth Warren didn't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy her way onto the ballot. Doing so, in fact, would have been much easier than organizing the tens of thousands of supporters and volunteers who have been electrified by the Warren campaign.

We haven't seen this kind of engagement by the activist base of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 2006, when Deval Patrick did something no one has since the Dukakis era: created a massive volunteer army.

In fact, with all due respect to the Governor, what Warren's been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time is even more impressive -- and I don't say that lightly. No one's attracted so many people, so quickly, as Warren has in Massachusetts. It's unprecedented and it's our best weapon against Scott Brown.

So, the question is, where does Marisa DeFranco fit in with all of this?

I'd like to say this primary is useful, like in 2006. Back then, the Governor benefited from being able to build up steam in the primary, igniting something that fascinated the media and enraptured hundreds of thousands of voters who were "checked out" for decades of voting before.

All of that happened, in part, because of the primary. Yet, Marisa DeFranco is no Tom Reilly or Chris Gabrieli. She isn't even a Christy Mihos. She's a comical sideshow that's raging behind the scenes, for anyone aware of the show. She's spouting Scott Brown lines, one after another, hoping one will stick and bring her act to Broadway. That dog ain't hunting.

The ultimate embarrassment is her continual campaign spiel about how she's the real grassroots candidate, but admits she only has 40 volunteers and has only raised only $40,000, the vast majority of which would have been needed to buy her way onto the ballot via paid signature collecting.

Years ago, I decided a barometer I'd use for any campaign in the state would be paid signature collecting. It's simply a disrespectful act toward democracy to go out and buy some private company to pay people a dollar a signature (or more) to put someone or something on the ballot. It's led to extreme abuse and has been the constant tool by bigoted or corporate groups to get things on the ballot.

DeFranco may be shocked to learn this, but she isn't entitled to be on the ballot. Buying signatures alone isn't enough. Thankfully, we -- the activist base of this party -- have an opportunity to do what party leaders can't and tell DeFranco she's toast, by denying her access at the convention.

If any of your delegate-friends waver, feeling guilty about dropping someone from the ballot for the first time in a long time, remember to tell them just what kind of a campaign DeFracno's run. Remember to tell them just what's at stake in November. Only one candidate at the convention can take on Wall Street and actually act as a force of nature to give everyday American families a fair shot. Any other vote is a vote for Scott Brown.

Elizabeth Warren's giving them hell

This is just fantastic stuff. Scott Brown isn't going to know what hit him.

First Ad Against Scott Brown, 2012

"Priorities"

Voice actor, over sad music, images of struggling seniors: "Right now, seniors are barely breaking even, facing higher and higher medical bills, costs that keep going up, all on tapped-out fixed incomes. Who's on their side?"

Cut to an image of Scott Brown looking at his most aloof and out of touch. Cue 'serious' music.'

Voice Actor: "Not Scott Brown. At one meeting, he warned seniors that their benefits would be cut in the deficit-reduction bill, a bill he voted for."

Cut to image of a white-haired grandma, angry but resolute, sitting on her front porch, with her grand kids on her lap.

Grandma: "I can't afford any benefit cuts."

Then she'll read John Walsh's line:

“I never thought I’d see the day when a senator from Massachusetts would talk about slashing Social Security and Medicare benefits before holding billionaire hedge fund managers accountable,” John Walsh, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement today.

Grandma: "We can't afford six more years of Senator Brown. We need someone who will protect Medicare and Social Security, not vote to cut it. That's why I'm supporting [Insert Democratic candidate here]."

Cut to Democratic Candidate, knocking on a senior's door or at a senior center, etc.: "I'm running to protect Social Security and Medicare, our families and our seniors, and to make this country work for its people again, not just Wall Street and the Bankers. That's why I approve this message, and that's why I ask for you vote on election day. Thank you."

MA-Sen: Marisa DeFranco on Today's LeftAhead

Democratic candidate for US Senate, Marisa DeFranco, joined us on today's LeftAhead podcast, talking about jobs, immigration, her background and why she has the chops to beat Scott Brown.

She's an immigration attorney and has been so for well more than a decade. She's also been very involved in women's rights issues, like equal pay for equal work. She unabashedly wears a progressive hat and seeks to build a grassroots campaign.

Listen to the show or download it at LeftAhead, the BlogTalkRadio player on the right, iTunes or any number of other podcast aggregators, like PocketCast for Android.

MBTA Thinks the Truth is too Confrontational: Denies Factual Ad on Scott Brown's Big Money Interests

From Daily Kos:

You’ll note it’s not particularly rude—it shows a perfectly nice picture of his handsome face, and just recites the facts: he took money from polluters, and he voted for their interests.

The good news?

We’ve heard from lawyers today saying that’s almost certainly unconstitutional, and I imagine we’ll find out in some courtroom soon.

Let's hope the anti-free speech BS stops, because that ad is the best kind of good: the cold, hard truth. Nothing hurts worse than that.

Scott Brown is not on our side, and if this goes to show anything, it shows that no matter what, the activist base of this state won't let another election go by without the voters knowing the truth.

'I was for it before I was against it'

In record time, no less.

WASHINGTON — Senator Scott Brown will not disclose whether he supports a GOP budget plan that includes sweeping changes to Medicare, despite saying to a business group last week that he will vote for the measure when it comes up in the US Senate.

Perhaps Senator Brown's never heard the expression, "you can't put the genie back into the bottle." I don't care what his poll numbers are today, the only chance in hell Brown has in winning reelection is for the electorate to remain completely ignorant as to the job that he's doing.

They may be obscure, but gotta love the primary choices

Thus far, we've had Bob Massie and Alan Khazei in the race to replace Senator Scott Brown. Now we can officially add Newton Mayor Setti Warren to the list. All three of these candidates are known as progressives and each have diverse backgrounds and compelling stories, so the differences will have more to do with style and priorities than a checklist of where they stand on the issues. Now we just have to find out more about them, both as candidates and how they'd act as legislators.

There's another question, too. All the heavily rumored candidates are either in or, in the case of Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, out. Since what we have in the race thus far are three candidates of little fame or fortune, does that mean someone very different will be compelled to risk entrance into the race?

Be it a Congressperson who's looking at the improving odds, or a wealthy hedge-fund type, it shouldn't shock anyone -- though it's probably just as likely that what we see is what we get, which would suit me just fine. After all, despite however little known they may all be in public, if you're a lover of good government and reality-based policy, it's hard to complain about any of these fine Democratic candidates.

MA-Sen Campaign News: Alan Khazei and Bob Massie

• To the surprise of no one, Alan Khazei jumped in the race. For those of you who remember, last time around, when I knew Martha Coakley was going to walk away with the primary, I endorsed his candidacy. 
• In a race of unknowns, Khazei may be the least unknown, but he's starting out $190,000 in the red from his last effort to take the seat -- though much of that debt comes from his own personal loans, which he doesn't exactly have to pay back. That said, $200k doesn't grow on trees, so without more money coming in, there's only so much a candidate can self-fund, at least when we're not talking about Meg Whitman here.
  
  At the end of the day, this isn't a whole lot of money for a US Senate race, but Khazei's going to have to prove he can raise the big bucks if he wants to win a wide-open primary and take on Senator Brown. 
• Another favorite candidate of mine, Bob Massie, just picked up a major national political player on his team in Joe Trippi. Trippi's claim to fame was Howard Dean's '04 campaign, but he also worked for Governor Brown's campaign in California (against previously-mentioned Meg Whitman). Ultimately, this may best serve to kick-start his campaign a little bit and show that Massie's not just in some quixotic quest -- in a race as wide open as this one looks to be, Massie's got a real shot. 

Holy Jeebus, Brown Okay with Dismantling Medicare?

More evidence that Scott Brown is out of touch with the Massachusetts voter.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them might be slow to accrue supporters within his own party, but Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), a key swing vote in the Senate, indicated to TPM on Tuesday he was at least open to the idea. 

"Listen, everything is on the table right now and the people understand everything is on the table," he said when asked by TPM if he had concerns about privatizing and cutting Medicare. "People recognize that we're in a financial emergency and as a result of that to say that something is not on the table is really irresponsible and I'm thankful that we have people like Congressman Ryan working and coming up with a plan."

I'm sorry, Senator, but the destruction of Medicare should not be on the table. The most ironic thing about this statement is the fact that Congressman Ryan's plan is essentially "Obamacare" for seniors, hypocrisy extreme for both Brown, who railed against Obama's health care bill, and the entire Republican Party (aka "The Party of No.").

Bob Massie: Channeling '06 to Win in 2012?

By now, many people who pay attention to the State Democratic Party and Massachusetts politics in general have heard that we've had our first announced challenger to Scott Brown -- Somerville's Bob Massie. Though most people probably don't know Bob very well (disclosure: I know him a little bit), he's not exactly a new hand to Massachusetts politics and is certainly fondly remembered by those who have been around since his 1994 campaign, where he beat out an insider to be nominated Lt. Governor on the Democratic ticket.

He's one of those rare few involved in politics who govern themselves by their convictions, and aren't afraid to take on the big challenges in order to help everyday people. We need more people like him in office. In many ways, he's the type of politician who's been sorely missing in this state for a long time -- but in other ways, his campaign reminds me a bit of the early days of Deval Patrick's 2006 winning effort. That's why I actually think he has a shot.

Consider this: One candidate was a political outsider with absolutely no name-recognition, but had an inspiring story and was willing to run hard based on his convictions alone. The other candidate is known only in activist circles, but has an inspiring story and is willing to run hard based on his convictions.

One of the candidates got out there ahead of the entire field, so he could build the sort of grassroots army among party activists that would enable him to defeat opponents who would start out with more money and name recognition. The other is doing the same thing.

One candidate was a political outsider who brandished an anti-establishment message, the other is a Beacon Hill outsider who's on occasion sparred with some of the establishment, at least when they forgot who they were working for.

In a race where I don't think many core members of the democratic establishment will even run -- never mind be our best shot at winning -- we need people like Bob Massie to breath a fresh breath of air into our politics. Someone else will jump into the race, someone with more money and with bigger name, but like Tom Reilly, I'm not so sure that person is going to win -- and I'm pretty confident that person won't be our best bet at beating Scott Brown.

The biggest difference between what Deval Patrick did in '06 and what Bob Massie is trying to do today is that Deval Patrick never won anything before, never mind a statewide primary. None of this is to suggest that what happened in 2006 will happen again today, but I've got hope that a candidate like Bob Massie can speak to our better angels and get a lot of people who checked out to check back in come 2012.

Scott Brown's Betrayal: I'm Not Surprised, Just Angry

I got some flack for praising Brown when he came out in support for DADT repeal a few weeks back, because I thought it was important to recognize when someone does something right. It wasn't like I was going to vote for him, but we needed more of that sort of willingness to cross the isle.

I also wouldn't go so far as to say I trusted him, but I was pretty hopeful his support would have meant DADT's passage. Turns out, I should have been even more skeptical than I thought. He took that 'support' and stabbed everyone in the back. The good news, though, is it's going to backfire. He'd have been better off had he just stayed opposed to DADT repeal -- because by toying with people who cared about this issue, he made them far angrier than they would have otherwise been.

In 2012, Brown's race probably wouldn't have been a priority for me -- not because I didn't care about it, but because I'd inevitably be heavily involved in some race or races at the State House that kept me insanely busy. But not anymore. Come election time, any spare moment I have will be dedicated to making sure the only Brown we have in the US Senate is Sherrod.

Daily Updates: 12.6.10

Facebook:

• I'm feeling very mheh about the new facebook profile...
• (1 week would offset the entirety of this coming year's expected deficit.)
• Hmm. 10 weeks of war spending in Afghanistan ($2.8 billion a week) would pay for the entire Massachusetts state budget. Can anyone say, "misplaced priorities?"
• I don't get how adding a cartoon picture will help the children, but it sounds fun.

• AT&T shouldn't be sending me emails saying "Last chance to waterproof your iphone" when I don't even have an iPhone. Thanks for rubbing it in :P
• Well, it doesn't make up for Brown's pissing on the poor this Christmas, but he still gets a big thanks for now supporting repeal of DADT
• Dear Facebook, I'd really love it if you allowed users an easy-to-create way of making RSS feeds of their status updates and group feeds, etc. That can't be hard, and it's a great way to get people clicking on Facebook who aren't already doing it. Let's get it done!

Lots of tweets, too.

Yes, we should thank Brown, and scorn him

As a lot of people are quickly figuring out, Brown's come around to supporting the proposed Don't Ask Don't Dell repeal, which will (eventually) allow gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly. This is a huge political victory for civil rights, and is a huge step forward to achieving the votes necessary to get'er done. Brown deserves credit for coming around on this issue.

He also deserves scorn. He's up there with Republicans blocking almost everything on a daily basis. His opposition to extending unemployment benefits killed those benefits for people who've been out of work for a lengthy period of time (and just before Christmas), saying it would hurt the deficit. Meanwhile, he's perfectly willing to pass tax cuts for the uber rich, and hold up other bills until it passes, like a toddler throwing a tantrum fit. The tax cuts for the rich are one of the two or three biggest reasons why this country's deficit exploded post-Bush, an extension of them would cost this country $700 billion over ten years, all of which would count against the deficit. An extension of this country's meager unemployment benefits is pennies on the dollar compared to the tax cuts for the rich, so it's pretty clear he doesn't actually care about them. He just cares about making sure the deficit money government spends is going to the ultra rich.

So where do we, the people, and Senator Brown stand? He's decidedly a mixed bag, but clearly more bad than good. We should be happy that we can swing him on a few important issues in the meantime, but it's clear he's not our Senator for the future. It'll be important to make sure the public understands just how dangerous Brown is on economic issues, and not buy into his 'moderation' because he'll swing with us on occasion when it comes to social issues. Otherwise, we may all end up in his poor house.