Liberals all over Massachusetts are holding suicide watches over each other as relatively unknown Republican Scott Brown won the Senate seat left vacant by Ted Kennedy's passing. It's a bit surprising, but not so much when you really consider what's going on in the country as a whole. Sure, Massachusetts without two liberal senators is like DisneyWorld without two mice (and I don't want to conjecture who's Mickey and who's Minnie in this pair) but despite what people might want to think, Massachusetts isn't all Harvard and Beacon Hill. We have our fair share of chowderheads. And there simply was only one Ted Kennedy. Give him his due, he was a great senator and leader.
And, in case you've been asleep for about ten years, the country as a whole is gravitating a tad right of center.
Nor have Obama and the Democratic majority really been doing the job they were mandated with in the last election. They caved to the health care lobbyists. Wall Street is still running roughshod over Washington. Voters sent a pretty strong message to Washington. They tend to use governors and representatives and senators as messenger boys sometimes.
Democrats have a few things to take heart in. First of all, getting a wakeup call isn't a bad thing. They should learn from it. Voters' love affair with politicians can be fickle. Frankly, Brown strikes me more of a puppet, the candidate du jour, a relative unknown who came on the Republican radar, and was probably told to just shut up, look pretty, and do what he was told as the Republican political machine pumped money and advisers into the race. I mean, face it, he looks great--in uniform, and out.
It's not a full term either. It's not like old Scottie is going to have a lot of time to really make a mark for himself, and while 52% of voters embraced him here, in Washington, as a junior senator, he's going to have to lick a lot of Republican boots. I suggest he check out some Southern senator that runs a weekly prayer group, or something like that, and just keep his head down.
But then you wonder who the heck will or can the Democrats put up against this centerfold in '12. I mean, all they got on the bench are a bunch of old, white, wrinkly guys.
So all you liberal Democrats out there, take heed. The sun will come up tomorrow.
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