Blue Mass Group

While thousands rallied outside the Longworth House Office building earlier today, 99 unemployed activists made their way to Speaker John Boehner’s office to call for action on jobs. Knocks on the door went unanswered, and we were asked to leave, but we made ourselves heard loud and clear. Check out this video:

Well, I suppose we should not be surprised.  My first reaction to yesterday’s poll number was maybe Rove might reconsider taking a role in the race in Massachusetts.  I mean it really is not all that ridiculous to think it might be best to leave Brown to his own money and his own skills.  I understand he is quite affable.  (I personally found him to be a jerk, but that’s just me).  I was wrong.  Quite wrong. Instead Rove is going whole hog in the other direction claiming that Warren is cozying up to…THE BANKS!  I mean, really.  I don’t even know how you could make that argument, much less believe it.  However, as Digby notes, it is a blatant attempt to confuse low-information voters.  I don’t know if it will work, but it certainly could confuse people.

Closing the loop on an earlier post, the Attorney General’s office has ruled that a referendum to repeal the new casino law cannot go on the ballot because that law is an appropriations measure and any law that “appropriates money for … the commonwealth or for any of its departments” is excluded from the referendum process under the State Constitution. In a press release (no link), a spokesperson for the Repeal The Casino Deal Committee said “I am disappointed but not entirely surprised. We understood going in that the Governor and legislative leadership had inserted appropriations language into the law to secure this very outcome.” Indeed. Casino opponents can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Judicial Court, but their acknowledgement that the appropriations sections were added expressly to sabotage any repeal effort suggests that they won’t.

Here a few tidbits I’m surprised nobody is talking about -Blago is sentenced to prison for 14 years   -DHS kills off Plan B for teenage girls   (btw I can’t seem to hyperlink anymore in the new formatting, any advice?)   My own take on Story 1. Blago deserved the max but he is a patsy for an entire system and way of doing business in Illinois that will not change for quite sometime. Its really like Massachusetts on steroids. Old urban machine pols, with progressives either shut out or co-opted by that system (or in the case of Obama choosing to do little to pad resumes and bide time) vs. ridiculously conservative Tea Party Republicans, even in the suburbs. The days of good government moderate Republicans who were liberals without machine taint died with Charles Percy this year sad to say. Until there are statewide clean election laws and significant reforms to election law this kind of stuff will only get worse. Its important to note that until he tried to sell the Senate seat none of his blackmailing, contract and influence peddling, personal abuse of state property, and land swaps with felons were all legal under Illinois [...]

The latest poll in the MA-Sen race is out, and it’s a doozy.  The poll, jointly commissioned by UMass-Lowell and the Boston Herald, shows Elizabeth Warren opening up an impressive 49-42 lead over Scott Brown.  The same pollster found Brown with a narrow 41-38 lead a little over two months ago. Among the terrible bits of news for Brownie contained in the poll’s details: Since the last UMass/Herald poll, Brown’s favorable rating has slipped 4 points (from 52% to 48%) and his unfavorable has climbed 6 points (from 29% to 35%), for a net movement of -10. The central message of Warren’s campaign seems to be working: Asked who would do a better job of looking out for middle class families, 43 percent of voters cite Warren and 33 percent identify Brown. Nearly half of Massachusetts voters also say Warren would do a better job of regulating Wall Street institutions. And more than a third of Massachusetts voters say they are less likely to back Brown because of campaign donations from Wall Street, a main theme of the Democratic attack against the incumbent. Comments like this from independent ex-Brown voters are absolutely devastating, since they show that Scott Brown’s act [...]