Following Charley’s lead, here’s what caught (or, more accurately, poked) my eye this morning.
- Just do it. Charley thinks we’ll get an interim Senator. After reading this story, I’m not so sure. If even the solid progressives are getting confused about what’s at stake, we have a serious problem.
“I continue to listen very carefully,” said state Representative Will Brownsberger, a Democrat from Belmont who is undecided. “On the one hand, I care deeply about the president’s agenda. On the other hand, there’s a strong progressive argument that the right way to choose a senator is through an election.”
Oh dear, oh dear. Will: nobody is saying we shouldn’t elect our Senator. Did you notice that there’s a special election set to fill the seat? And that, under the bill heard last week, whoever serves as interim won’t be able to run? The point is to ensure that MA has the representation to which it is entitled, so that (among other things) Senator Kennedy’s staff can worry about helping constituents instead of boxing up their papers. That’s a strong progressive argument too, and it doesn’t interfere at all with the democratic goal of electing a Senator. Win-win! Have your cake and eat it too! What’s not to like?
I love the Republican take on all this, though.
“If they want to do it, they’ll find a way to do it, and they’ll squash us,” said Senate minority leader Richard Tisei, a Wakefield Republican.
Hope springs eternal. đŸ˜‰
- Rich dude might run. I’m with Charley on this one: unless I see something dramatic, I’m not really interested. Frankly, we’ve had enough of the uber-rich Bain crowd around here. And then there’s this:
Pagliuca will almost certainly face criticism within Democratic Party ranks for his financial support of Republican candidates, including Romney in the US Senate race. Pagliuca’s wife, Judy, served as treasurer of Romney’s Senate campaign committee.
He said his support for Romney in 1994 was out of personal loyalty to a colleague. [Weak. -ed.] But he has also backed another major Republican when he donated $2,000 to Governor William F. Weld’s campaign to unseat Kerry in 1996.
Bleah. If Pagliuca wants to serve the people of Massachusetts and do something really constructive with his money, he should stick to his original plan: buy the Globe, and sink a lot of money into it so that it becomes the newspaper we all want and need it to be. Now that would be something well worth doing.
- Rosha what? I just hate stuff like this.
The Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association scheduled an invitational meet on Rosh Hashana, prompting the Newton North girls cross country team to decide against competing as a team because eight members will be observing the holiday.
The guy responsible, one Frank Mooney, says that “had no real idea how serious that day was.” Now that’s fair enough — not everyone is schooled in the significance of the religious holidays (though honestly, it would not have taken much effort to find out). But what’s really offensive is the way he responded to a rabbi who wrote to him to complain:
“You are way off!!!! … Sorry you assumed we did this purposely and were not sensitive to a religious holiday,” read Mooney’s e-mail.
“We took what we could from a very busy schedule and then left it up to those who could attend to attend…. I guess you could also assume that we are antiacademic when we have a date in Oct. that conflicts with the PSATs. Unfortunately it is not a perfect world and when we try to accommodate as many people as possible we run into conflicts,” the message read.
Kinda speaks for itself. Conflict with the PSATs, conflict with one of the most significant holidays in the Jewish calendar; same diff, really. And no, of course we would never do this on a Christian holiday of any significance.
Mooney and Charles Butterfield, the association’s vice president, said yesterday a meet probably would not be held on major Christian holidays, like Christmas or Easter, because facilities are closed and not available.
Ah. And why is it, exactly, that the facilities are “closed and not available” on Easter? Right. QED.
I just want to mention that there was a strong push by a number of appointment supporters to get rid of that pesky language saying the appointed candidate couldn’t run. After all, if we can’t take people at their word, where are we at as a society? A person’s promise is their bond, you know.
But I have a bad feeling…
See for yourself.
Isn’t the proposal that the Governor could not make the appointment until after the deadline to qualify as a candidate and that no person who qualified as a candidate could be chosen?
according to Jon Keller’s blog, the latest date for an independent to file is December 8th; hence the Governor couldn’t make an appointment until December 9th.
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p>http://pod08.prospero.com/n/bl…
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p>Correct me if I’m wrong David, but that would mean that the earliest date that the appointee could go in would be after December 8th; don’t think they’re going to hold up all votes in the Senate until that date. So what is the point of this exercise for a 42 day appointment (over the holiday recess for over a 1/3 of the “term” in any event).
We’re talking about democrats. Marty “term limits” Meehan. Deval “property tax relief” Patrick.
Almost no incumbents of either party stick to their term limit pledges.
A company I once worked for once scheduled an “all hands” meeting for Rosh Hashana. They were far more sympathetic when we complained. The next day they announced it had been pushed out… to the same day as Yom Kippur.
Could people weigh in on others besides Brownsberger so we know who out there needs convincing? I know that Ken Donnelly is strongly in favor of the interim appointment and he testified last week.
Funny, the story that got my attention in today’s paper is the one with the great big headline: “State tells city to seize aide’s computers“.
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p>This story has been brewing for days now, and still:
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p>Sorry guys, but once again Ms. Coakley seems far more interested in her personal political future than in actually executing the duties of her office.
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p>It appears to me that we’re seeing yet more evidence of our own virtual paralysis on issues of great importance. I blogged my concern about the inaction of our “leadership” on the interim appointment weeks ago. David’s response at that time was “Tom, what is it that you want?“. It’s a little late for the hand-wringing now about Will Brownsberger.
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p>I’ve said it before — this “team” needs a shakeup and needs one right now. I’m very happy to see Mr. Pagliuca joining the fray, and I’m happy to see him spreading some green among familiar progressive faces like Doug Rubin.
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p>I am, quite frankly, sick to death of hearing all about “good progressives” who can’t or won’t step up and act. The Keystone Cop routine is already stale, and the appearance of yet another criminal enterprise (in this case, the apparent connection from Ms. Wilkerson’s episode to the mayor’s office) being pursued by everybody except the Attorney General is all too familiar.
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p>Amongst all this, I’m not sure why the Rosh Hashana brouhaha merits anything more than an eyeroll over our morning coffee. Of course the holiday should be respected, especially in Newton. As far as I’m concerned, the story says more about the undue prominence given sports in our culture than anything else — especially with yet another Globe front-page with huge chunk of wasted space on yet another football picture.
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p>Here’s what I think we should be debating instead:
What the hell has this woman ever done but railroad innocent people into prison where one died. I wonder if Martha sleeps well at night. Bet she does. Kind of a socioptah thing.
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p>Elect an interim senator. You mean let the hacks who are bought and paid for on Beacon Hill appoint an interim senator. You mean not allow the electorate to decide who will represent them in congress. That’s pretty novel. You can’t expect those morons in the public to make such an important decision. Especially the morons in this state—they (God forbid) may be angry and elect a republican) That will not be allowed!
About fellow dems.
Weld put gay marriage on the radar screen way before nearly every other elected offical in the country. I don’t have a problem with Pagliuca’s donation to him. Romeny is a different story, although I understand there’s a personal/business reltionship there. It’ll be interesting to see if Pagliuca can buy the seat like fellow NBA owner Herb Kohl…
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He “had no idea how serious it was”? The day is on every calendar, for goodness’ sake. How did this guy end up in charge of his own household, much less something so complex?
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p>PS: I enjoy the fact that the ad on the right of this box is for Republican websites, and on the left is for the Miley Cyrus concert. Good targeted ads, here.
Anybody told him not to re-schedule for Sept. 28?