Just noticed on Daily Kos that Rep. Tierney has a primary challenger in the person of Seth Moulton. He has the support of VoteVets, a fairly reliably progressive organization. On the other hand, the following, without more substance, sounds worrying:
“I’m a pragmatic Democrat. I’m a person who wants to go to Washington and get things done,” Moulton said. “… I’m (also) a frustrated Democrat. I think we haven’t shown a lot of new thinking about old issues. Congress has been kicking the can down the road too much.”
The “kicking the can down the road” phrase has been used a lot by those who want to make Social Security less generous.
Back in 2012 when there was talk of shipping him up from Texas for the challenge, he described himself as a “fairly centrist guy”.
Anyone with opinions on this guy? Would another Tierney run risk turning the seat Republican? Is Mr Moulton a bit too centrist for Massachusetts?
I was wondering who the h-ll that was. A Texas centrist is a pretty solid Republican around here. I’d think we can do better.
He seems to have spent all of one year in Texas.
Sab! Was surprised you called a lifelong Bay Stater a Texan… I had a job for a year in Connecticut but that doesn’t make me from Connecticut. Before we Democrats try to demonize him to save Tierney (yet again) we will have to get our facts straight. He appears to have a strong resume (highly educated, served his country in the military, competent businessman) so we may have to play our class warfare card and just throw bricks at the rich kid. But, that takes finesse because some of our favorite Dems are rich (Deval, all Kennedys, Roosevelts, Clintons, etc,etc,etc)
He’s a rich guy from the North Shore – went to Phillips and then Harvard. He “needed” to serve his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is a big red flag for me. I have a hard time trusting anyone who would have enlisted in those wars because they felt it was the necessary and right thing to do. [Let the attacks on me begin.] He then was Petreaus’s right hand man for a few years before returning to MA to attend Harvard Business School. After that he worked at some Texas energy company and now he’s back to run. I guess military service and HBS is enough.
He’s running as some natural leader who can help break the partisan gridlock, which is bullcrap. Totally worthless. He barely mentions any policy views, but those he has mentioned imply that he is very centrist (at best). One of his first public statements was to say that he would have voted against the Amash amendment.
Allegedly he paid for a poll during the last election and it implied that an independent had a chance to win the election, so he considered running then.
Tierney, however, should be worried about this (and so should we). Moulton has hired Joe Trippi and some other serious pros to run his campaign. He is going to raise a ton of money and could appeal to a lot of people who think Tierney is dirty.
I’m not too thrilled about Tierney after all of the developments, but he’s a pretty solid progressive vote. Moulton will not be. This dude probably thinks he can be President, and has the look for it, too.
I really wish Tierney had retired and given someone like Driscoll a shot.
That’s not an automatic qualifier for office either of course, but there was a lot of strong patriotic inclination to defend the nation at the time, and frankly very understandable, especially with regard to Afghanistan.
Doubleman! You have exposed this guy! Just another rich, educated Democrat! Why can’t we find someone poorer to support!? We have already helped so many of those rich ones get elected! (Warren, Kerry, Patrick, Obama, all Kennedys, Grossman, etc., etc,) And this one actually tried to copy Kennedy and Kerry by thinking military service was a duty! The nerve of this guy!
I disagree with your characterization of kicking the can down the road. That’s pretty much what happened last night so we all have the privilege of once again fighting over budgets and defaults in a few months. That’s how I use the phrase and have heard others use it.
This may be an Atkins 92 situation where a primary keeps the seat in Dem hands.
this Summer over 150 Democratic activists (me too) were at the Lynn Dem Cookout. Congressman Tierney was there working the crowd. Seth Mouton showed up and spent the better part ot an hour trying to find anyone who would talk to him. The vast majority of the attendees made a point of wearing Tierney stickers to send Moulton a message.
The smear campaign against John Tierney was outragous. The feds did a full investigation and if you think they didn’t want to indict a sitting Congressman you are sadly mistaken. But ya know what -they did have any evidence of criminal wrong-doing by Tierney. Yes his wife used poor judgement in dealing with her family and she paid a price but no link to JT. Then the Republican controlled Hous Ethnics Committee took a try but could not find anything on Tierney and closed down their “investigation”.
No smoke, no fire, no smoking guns.
John Tierney will win against any primary opponent and he will win the November 2014 final. They threw the kitchen sink at him in 2012 and came up short. That was the Republicans best shot. My Congressional District isn’t voting to send a Republican to vote for Joohn Bohner for Speaker and another government shutdown.
that is
I like Tierney, and I’d be prepared to accept almost any explanation he offers:
“My wife wanted to help her brother, we both wanted to believe it was legit.”
“My wife wanted to help her brother, my mistake was not to pay more attention.”
ANYTHING. But he just never offered it. Instead he went after Tisei as extreme, which Tisei isn’t, though Tisei played into that with his excessively aggressive ads.
Tierney should welcome the new opportunity to explain himself humbly, ask some forgiveness, and put this behind him.
He is quite an impressive person when I’ve listened to him on NPR discuss military issues, and someone who sounds like he became quite skeptical of the war while fighting it. I think we can use new people around, and someone who fought for his country and is taking on a powerful incumbent certainly made rising stars in the past (John Kerry comes to mind).
But, two years ago he was definitely drinking from the Broder-Brooks-Simpsons Bowles kool aid (admittedly as was I, but I’ve learned from my naivete). We have to see if he has learned. For me, the lesson of the shutdown is how terrible the GOP is and how they can’t be bargained with but merely defeated. If he runs with a Brownsberger ‘pox on both houses’ narrative and ‘im the reasonable one in the room’ it would definitely be cause for concern. But with Trippi there I suspect he will run as a standard progressive with emphasis on newness and service and contrasting that with entrenched incumbency and ethical issues. I’ve long said Tierney should’ve bowed out after 12
and let Driscoll have a shot.