Thursday, January 21, 2010

Not quite what we need to hear


I am in Ed Markey's congressional district and have voted for him in every election.  As long as he is the Democratic nominee, I certainly can't imagine voting for anyone else.  But I am also wondering  whether he understands one of the reasons the Democrats lost on Tuesday.

A Boston Globe article today described the enthusiasm that Scott Brown has inspired in the Republican Party.  As a result, many of our Democratic members of Congress who didn't expect stiff competition may now find themselves running against formidable opponents.  For example, Joe Malone, the former treasurer of the state, is seriously considering a run against Bill Delahunt.

Ed Markey is the member of congress from Massachusetts with the longest tenure.  I would have assumed that this tenure came with some wisdom about politics.  Unfortunately, a quote attributed him about potential Republican opponents gave me serious doubts:

But Representative Edward J. Markey, who has represented the Seventh District since 1977, said national Republicans will waste their money if they try to unseat Massachusetts Democrats.
“If that is their strategy,’’ he said, “who am I to stop them?’’

If the leaders of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts haven't learned that arrogance and hubris are not the road to victory, I fear that the voters will provide for them yet another lesson.

4 comments:

  1. Makes me glad I'm now in Niki Tsongas's district. Hope she doesn't say something dumb like that!

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  2. I think the singing basset has a better ear than he does. (Tsongas, by the way, said something really smart and showed people she was taking the whole campaign very seriously.)

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  3. I was kind of assuming Niki would run in this election... And I'm seriously disappointed she didn't. But I think she's happy in the House.

    I really like her. And she marches in the Pride parade. That's how I met her, after I shouted, "Go Niki!" on the corner of Tremont and Clarendon....

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  4. She and Mike Capuano were the only ones who came to an anti-prop 8 rally after it was passed last election. She was really impressive. Paul Tsongas was also way ahead of the game, speaking out for LGBT rights back in the 1980's. I like her very much, too.

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