Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

R. I. P. Senator Ed Brooke

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Senator Ed Brooke (1967-1979) passed away today at the age of 95.  He was the first African-American elected to the US Senate since Reconstruction, and while nominally a Republican it seems even by the standards of his day he was in the wrong party (though when he first ran for State Rep. he got the nomination of both major parties).  He was the GOP nominee for Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1960 and was elected AG in 1962.  President Nixon offered him a variety of Cabinet posts, though he proved to be a thorn in Nixon’s side.

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  1. Ed Brooke was a great man, a Republican that anyone in their right mind could vote for – so unlike the Republicans today. Today he would not be welcome in the GOP.

    I voted for him several times, always with pride. Though he was not a leader in the Civil Rights movement, he contributed greatly to that cause, simply by being who he was.

    • A proud, fair, honest and articulate Massachusetts Republican.

      The Republicans you complain about aren’t actually IN Massachusetts. That would be like me saying all MA Democrats are corrupt because of one Dem rep. with foil-wrapped blocks of cash in his Congressional freezer.

      I was able to meet him once, and he was a fine gentleman.

        • I don’t see if it’s relevant whether Massachusetts has many tea party types. The fact is, and it is a national tragedy, that the Republican party has been mainly taken over by hard line ideologues who deny science, defend economic policies that led to the Great Recession, and care nothing at all about the less fortunate among us – totally unlike Ed Brooke. Anyone elected as a Republican to the U.S. House or Senate will be under tremendous pressure to follow the party line, that has been on ugly display in the few days since the Republican takeover. Susan Collins, for example, has an image as a “moderate” Republican but she mainly votes the party line.

          Yes, we do have more than our share of right wing whackos in the Republican party in MA. Just look at some of the candidates they have fielded in the last few years.

          I wish we still had a Republican party of men and women like Ed Brooke (or Dwight Eisenhower).

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