Slog Comments
The GOP to Get the SOS They Wanted
2
The Dems were well aware of what the Rethugs wanted. They said they weren't worried; Brown lost last time and will lose again.
3
How will Scott Brown return to the Senate? Deval Patrick is the governor of Mass. and he's a Democrat. Doesn't the governor appoint a person to finish out the term of the vacating senator? I don't understand why Patrick would pick Brown.
5
@3 Patrick wouldn't pick Brown, however when John Kerry was running for President in 2004 the Mass. Legislature changed the state to take the power to appoint an interim Senator away from then Governor Mitt Romney. Good idea, but it got us Scott Brown to begin with when he won the special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat.
7
Brown won't win.
First of all, his opponent won't be as weak and out of touch as the one that he did beat for the Senate seat.
And second, Warren will be out campaigning for his opponent.
First of all, his opponent won't be as weak and out of touch as the one that he did beat for the Senate seat.
And second, Warren will be out campaigning for his opponent.
8
@3@5 yes, Deval gets to pick a interim senator who serves for something like 120 days. Then an election. I'm sure Scott Brown is licking his chops but I actually don't think he'll win this time around. Particularly if Deval thows his own hat into the ring.
9
Why would Patrick leave the governor's mansion and run in this race, though? I admit to knowing basically nothing about Mass. politics, but Governor->Senator is a diagonal/downward move, depending on how you look at it (well respected governor to most junior senator), and governors are perfectly able to run for president and win, if that's what he wants.
I dunno, though. He might be under pressure from the national party to make that move, depending on how thin the Dems' bench is in Mass. Anyone know more about the state's politics than me?
I dunno, though. He might be under pressure from the national party to make that move, depending on how thin the Dems' bench is in Mass. Anyone know more about the state's politics than me?
10
Because Susan Rice owns $300,000-600,000 worth of stock in TransCanada (per NY Times and her financial disclosure report), the proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, I am not sad that she is not going to be secretary of state. Kerry is likely to be a better choice from an environmental point of view, and is well qualified for the job.
Surely the Democratic party and the voters of Massachusetts can figure out a way to avoid sending Scott Brown back to the Senate.
Surely the Democratic party and the voters of Massachusetts can figure out a way to avoid sending Scott Brown back to the Senate.
11
Nominating John Kerry is FUCKING STUPID. Obama is back to being the spineless twerp we know from the last four years.
12
There will be a primary for this special election. I'd love to see the Tea Party prevail with yet another unelectable nutjob.
@10 - Owning TransCanada stock would rightfully call her appointment as Secretary of the Interior into question, but I can't see how her becoming Secretary of State would help TransCanada get this pipeline built.
@10 - Owning TransCanada stock would rightfully call her appointment as Secretary of the Interior into question, but I can't see how her becoming Secretary of State would help TransCanada get this pipeline built.
13
@10- That'd be a nice reason for her not to be SoS, but it's not what happened. Instead the GOP dictated Obama's actions from the minority position AGAIN. The battle may have been inconsequential, but it shows Obama doesn't care to win the war. Again.
14
Even far better for Wall Street to get a new sec'y of state who is worth over $1 billion and is a Forbes.
(Tell me, Goldy, have you even read ONE of those numerous WikiLeaked State Department cables which routinely detail how State works on behalf of American-based multinationals (and some aren't even American-based at that?)
(Tell me, Goldy, have you even read ONE of those numerous WikiLeaked State Department cables which routinely detail how State works on behalf of American-based multinationals (and some aren't even American-based at that?)
15
There are children about to get driver's licenses that have never lived in an America with a white male Secretary of State.
So we're fixing that...
So we're fixing that...
16
@12, Freak Lunch, ...
"Owning TransCanada stock would rightfully ...."
She's invested across the board, sonny, including Rio Tinto, Monsanto, numerous oil, coal and gas companies, etc.
"Owning TransCanada stock would rightfully ...."
She's invested across the board, sonny, including Rio Tinto, Monsanto, numerous oil, coal and gas companies, etc.
17
@11, dwight....
Obama is just doing what the Wall Streeters directed him to do --- just as the State Dept. spokes person is Victoria Nuland, the wife of one of the founders of that most ultra-conservative of former rightwing groups, PNAC --- or the Project for a New American Century (Dick Cheney & Company).
And, Obama appointed a 100% neocon administration in his first term --- probably even worse in his second --- didn't you ever even frigging notice that???????????????????????
Obama is just doing what the Wall Streeters directed him to do --- just as the State Dept. spokes person is Victoria Nuland, the wife of one of the founders of that most ultra-conservative of former rightwing groups, PNAC --- or the Project for a New American Century (Dick Cheney & Company).
And, Obama appointed a 100% neocon administration in his first term --- probably even worse in his second --- didn't you ever even frigging notice that???????????????????????
18
@11 - Agreed, it's disappointing.
Scott Brown ran an incredibly stupid campaign. For example, trying to use Warren's title of "professor" as an insult in a state with 90 colleges and universities, let alone the highest percentage of college educated adults in the nation. And then there was the race-baiting of her Native American heritage. I'm sure the war whoops and tomahawk chops his staffers were filmed performing were the subject of ads against him.
But he will have learned from those mistakes. He polls very highly in likability - a huge asset for a Republican in a state where Independents outnumber Democrats by a wide margin. This time we can assume he'll be careful not to squander that asset by going sneeringly negative. Plus, his opponent won't be able to ride the coattails of an Obama landslide in the state, like Warren did.
Democrats will have a tough time beating him.
Scott Brown ran an incredibly stupid campaign. For example, trying to use Warren's title of "professor" as an insult in a state with 90 colleges and universities, let alone the highest percentage of college educated adults in the nation. And then there was the race-baiting of her Native American heritage. I'm sure the war whoops and tomahawk chops his staffers were filmed performing were the subject of ads against him.
But he will have learned from those mistakes. He polls very highly in likability - a huge asset for a Republican in a state where Independents outnumber Democrats by a wide margin. This time we can assume he'll be careful not to squander that asset by going sneeringly negative. Plus, his opponent won't be able to ride the coattails of an Obama landslide in the state, like Warren did.
Democrats will have a tough time beating him.
19
@2 ftw. Turn up your shit detector Goldy. They'd have to be as naive as a 5-year-old to be taken on that. Jesus.
20
This is exactly what Obama shouldn't have done. I hope there's some Machiavellian reason he appointed Kerry, because I'd hate to think this was just a stupid move.
21
It may have gotten lost in the noise the last few weeks before the election, but Kerry's name was already up front as the likely nominee for SoS...and I don't recall any mention of Rice at the same time.
I don't know if she was a late pick or deliberately set up as a stalking-horse, but either way the administration seems to be back to their original choice. (With apparently good odds that Rice will be asked to serve on the National Security Staff, which doesn't require the "advice and consent" of the Senate.)
I don't know if she was a late pick or deliberately set up as a stalking-horse, but either way the administration seems to be back to their original choice. (With apparently good odds that Rice will be asked to serve on the National Security Staff, which doesn't require the "advice and consent" of the Senate.)
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