Posts Tagged ‘senator scott brown’

As you might guess I don’t agree with Jane Hamsher much…

Posted: September 1, 2010 by datechguy in elections, media, politics, tea parties
Tags: , , , , , , ,

…but when it comes to the health care bill she is one of the few people on the left looking at the political consequences with open eyes:

The DCCC was very good at getting not-so-savvy poll analysts to try and discredit the SurveyUSA polling. (Those same pollsters, ironically, didn’t see anything weird in the Research 2000 polls they were quoting authoritatively at the time, which many now find suspect — though Jerome Armstrong spotted it). Somehow Democratic members of Congress engaged in magical thinking and believed Rahm’s BS about the popularity of the health care bill increasing if it passed.

Rather than focus on jobs creation in a country with climbing unemployment rates, Obama spent the better part of a year focused on passing a health care bill that looks like it will play no small part in the Democratic Party’s upcoming electoral woes.

Well, we warned you.

I’ll go one step farther. The Election of Scott Brown was the real breaking of the dam and the thing that made the Brown Election was the chance to stop the Healthcare bill. Forgetting everything else, the morale factor that the Election of Brown had for the tea parties and the GOP can’t be overestimated. Without the Brown victory you don’t have Miller in Alaska you don’t have the GOP establishment defeats in Utah & NC.

Brown’s election Made the Tea Party and the election climate that we have this fall, and the Healthcare Bill made Brown.

Democrats did this to themselves, Hamsher & Co tried to warn them.

I should point out that legal insurrection dissents:

I’m not buying that spin. It is true that Hamsher had some of the most devastating critiques of Obamacare. But when I wrote my Open Letter in January 2010 to Hamsher asking her to join us in defeating Obamacare, there was no response, either directly or indirectly, in words or in action. Instead, Hamsher and others were focused on improving (e.g. public option) not defeating the legislation, an ultimately futiile quest which required a level of subservience to the Democratic leadership in the hope they would come through for you. They didn’t.

Fair point.

memeorandum thread here

Has Scott Brown spilled the Tea?

Posted: July 17, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, tea parties
Tags: , , , , ,

No question has produced more e-mail for me than Scott Brown’s vote on the Banking bill.

I personally think it is a huge mistake but I’m already on the record saying that my 80% friend is not my 20% enemy so I’m willing to give him a pass for now. Others in the Tea party are less forgiving as 150 people in Worcester protested him today.

I remember the enthusiasm for Brown just six months ago running with no other democrat drawing partisans to the polls and he managed to win by 5. If this is the attitude among those willing to still vote for him then he has big trouble coming up if he keeps on this path.

Update: Looks like these columns were a few months early

Another blow to the conventional wisdom…

Posted: June 30, 2010 by datechguy in employment, opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

If you do a search of stories on the Unemployment extension or lack thereof you will see a lot of stuff like this:

Republicans are united against the extension

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander M. Levin (D-MI), a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a press release yesterday that

“Republicans in Congress are clearly more focused on their short-term political standing than the immediate economic security of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are unable to find work.”

Evil Republicans yada yada yada, just like the tea party stuff we’ve heard so many times before. You would think it was part of journolist.

Interestingly enough if you look at the Globe today you find this:

Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts is planning to introduce legislation today aimed at extending unemployment assistance for the long-term jobless, funding summer jobs, and providing more Medicaid funding to states.

His plan would pay for the additional spending using unspent stimulus funding, along with cuts in other areas.

“There are some programs in that legislation that are important to Massachusetts during this economic crisis,’’ Brown, a Republican, says in a video message he is planning to release this morning. “But we need to find a way to pay for them.’’

Scott Brown? An Evil republican extending unemployment? That’s has to be as unlikely as democrats showing up for a Tea Party Forum.

How about that actually paying for that extension. As someone in tight shape who could use that extension I understand that the money is coming not from the Government but from my fellow taxpayers. Once people forget this we become a society of dependence.

Answer: Because Scott Brown is constantly attacked in ads

Posted: June 29, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Q: How do we know that this Boston Globe article showing Scott Brown is the most popular pol in Massachusetts is true?

The ads keep coming more than two years before he stands for election because something has to be done to change the tone in the state or dramatic change might come.

Meanwhile Brown has come out against the financial bill:

“I said right from the beginning, I’ll let my statements speak for themselves,” said Senator Brown. “I was disappointed and surprised that at the last minute, they put in assessment fees, taxes…really without letting us know, and I’ve always made it clear that I can’t support adding another $19 billion passed through taxes to individual consumers, especially in the middle of a two year recession.”

Gateway also notes that he has come out against Cap and Trade too. this will of course lead to more ads portraying him has pro Wall Street, Pro Big Oil against small kittens etc etc etc… but SISU notes that this is what the people want.

Scott Brown “has listened to his constituents,” an aide in our junior Senator’s office just told us, and will definitely vote “no” on the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill should it come to the floor.

This was the same thing mentioned at yesterday’s Twin City Tea Party Meeting, a member who called urging opposition to the bill was told that there was an overwhelming response from voters against both bills.

As this memeorandum thread shows where Brown leads others are following:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) joined Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) this evening, putting herself back into the undecided column on Wall Street reform legislation, after House and Senate negotiators added new fees on banks to the final bill late last week.

“It was not part of either the House or Senate bill and was added in the wee hours of the morning. So I’m taking a look at the specifics of that and other provisions as well,” Collins told reporters this evening outside the Senate chamber.

The times they are a changin!

Older Entries