News Alert Banana Losing Appeal After Brown Victory
Last night on the Drudge Retort, I honored the request of a few Republican members of the site to bring back News Alert Banana when the Massachusetts Senate race was called for Scott Brown. The Banana is the Retort's version of Matt Drudge's siren.
The banana has never celebrated a dramatic Republican upset victory with so much glee before. I don't know how he lives with himself.
There are a lot of reasons being batted around today for how the Democrats managed to lose a Senate election in Massachusetts. My favorite is the idea that voters in a liberal state that has universal health care voted for Brown, a candidate who supports the state's health care plan, in order to send a strong message in rejection of health care reform. That's like buying a Red Sox jersey to indicate how much you love the Yankees.
One reason for the ass-kicking ought to be getting more attention today, in my opinion: The Democrat-led Massachusetts legislature changed the Senate succession rules twice in the last six years to benefit their own party.
In 2004, when Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was the party's presidential nominee, the legislature faced the prospect that if Kerry won, the state's Republican governor Mitt Romney would be able to appoint his successor. They changed the rules at the urging of Sen. Ted Kennedy so that a special election would fill the seat instead.
Last year, when it appeared that Kennedy would die and leave the Senate Democrats one short of a filibuster-proof majority of 60 members, the rules were changed again with his involvement. The state's Democratic governor Deval Patrick would be able to appoint an interim successor to serve until the special election.
So when a little-known Republican state senator faced off Tuesday against the Democratic attorney general, who was supported by the Kennedys and the state's political establishment, this was the first time that voters had a chance to have their say in the choice of a replacement senator.
Message received.
The American public is sick and tired of insiders rigging the system for their own benefit, whether the system is politics, banking or Wall Street. Kennedy's gamesmanship with Senate seats helped elect the first Republican senator in Massachusetts in 38 years.
Comments
...well - you are entitled to your opinion - I'll stand by "if you didnt get a wake up call last night....". Im entitled to my opion too - you are delusional
> The American public is sick and tired of insiders rigging the system for their own benefit
That's why Bush and his Republican Congress people were voted out of office.
But why did the Democrats lose in Mass.? Simply, they already have universal health care, and they did not want to pay extra for the Federal version of what they already have.
Now, what about all those other states that have sold their citizens to the insurance companies? That question lingers....
Hi Richard,
You hit the nail on the head when you said that the political shenanigans and mid-stream rule changes by politicians (like the 2004 law change you mentioned) was a big factor in Brown's victory. Actually, it was the reason we had the election in the first place! But I think you are wrong in dismissing the effect of the Mass. universal healthcare on his victory too.
I live in Mass., and I can tell you that the Mass. compulsory healthcare has been mostly a FAIL. I have friends & acquaintances who have both been fined by the state because they did not buy insurance by the deadline last year. Friends who don't have insurance because they cannot afford to buy it, and now get fined because they didn't buy it. A fine they cannot afford anymore than they can afford insurance. Huh?
If national health care plan is like what we have in Mass., then it is no good. Peeps who voted Obama in 2008 voted Brown this time. It was not just a vote against the local Democrats.
Peace,
Jimbo
Coakley was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign. Brown was a brilliant candidate who ran a brilliant campaign. Couple that with the law jiggering and you have an electorate that is very inclined to vote Republican. Brown actually supports Massachusetts care, but is opposed to Nationalised health care. They are both very similar so go figure.
The American public is sick and tired of insiders rigging the system for their own benefit.
Strewth!
Political shenanigans with the senate seating by the Dem party may well have played a significant part in Coakley's defeat in that she was seen as an insider from a party of game fixers.
The anti-incumbent bias was against Coakley as an textbook "insider" while Brown shrewdly ran on a "just folks" platform replete with pretty little speeches that had little to no substance to them.
Like Well-fed Fred Thompson before him with his infamous red truck this guy sold himself as an outsider and populist regardless of his Wall Street connections.
The "Obama insulted my truck" thing was just too stupid fer werds but apparently the brain-dead rtard and Indy crowd ate it up like the pablum it was.
Coakley also didn't help herself with her Shilling gaffe nor her patrician "Wot?! Campaign in the cold among the common people?! *shudder*" thing.
Brown being a pretty boy centerfold with a celebrity wife and a daughter who was on American Idolatry didn't hurt himself.
Also... fer the record, Spud's been whining longer and louder than anyone about bringing back the DR News Alert Dancig Banana and is quite hurt that you attribute his return to "a few Republican members of the site".
Spud's a Republican suddenly?
Blech, just blech.
Be Well.
Sorry, Spud. Your cries for the return of the banana were as unheard as an uninsured American in a Republican's Congressional office. The Drudge Retort regrets the error.
We in the insurance industry have lobbied the current
administration too hard and too long to let this simply
slip away. We need to make it mandatory that everybody
purchases insurance and the President is backing us
all the way!
Brown won for one simple reason. Americans are happy with the country, and fear Obama wants to fundamentally change it. He has a different view of America than most. We didn't envision someone who wanted to take over the banking system, the car companies and the health care system. The Democrats will lose power in November, and it will be DECADES before they get it back. Obama will serve one-term and go down in history as one of our worst Presidents ever.
Sorry, Spud. Your cries for the return of the banana were as unheard as an uninsured American in a Republican's Congressional office. The Drudge Retort regrets the error.
Apology accepted!
Analogy appreciated.
Brown won for one simple reason.
Cos people like trucks?
Cos he's a celebutard with a celebutard wife and celebutard daughter and Americans really are that shallow?
Cos American Idol has dumbed America down to the point where style over substance politics is acceptable?
Cos Mass already has more progressive HC than the reforms being proposed and adopted an "FU Buddy I got mine" attitude?
Cos Mass is hopelessly ghey and is now conditioned to only vote fer guys with great hair?
Cos people were stupid enuff to buy into that "Obama insulted my truck" meme?
Got no hard polling data there, of course.
Just informed hunches really.
Be Well.
Massachusetts voters, and I am one, are tired of having their vote taken for granted. I'm a lifelong conservative, so living in Mass for 40 years has been painful. We do have UHC, but it isnt working and the pols can't find a way to fund it without tax hikes, the state is bleeding cash! Additionally the corruption and ineptitude of the local pols is at an all time high. The last three speakers of the Mass House are all crooks(Bulger/Finneran/Damassi). Damasi is facing 185 years in the Federal pen, not to mention two boston city councilors and other state reps getting stung by the FBI for accepting bribes, on tape no less. Add to that the idiot POL from chelsea who had to surrender to police for improper and lewd advances to two women in Lowell. State Senator Galucci violating his house arrest and being tossed in the can, and the picture begins to come into focus. This is a rejection of all the inept, corrupt, and morally bankrupt pols in the state and the nation. We are hard working, America loving capitalists. We want you to say what you mean, and to mean what you say. We will not allow you to steal, cheat, lie, and force things upon us which we don't believe or want. Everyone, in every state should wake up and take a long hard look at what this nation is becomming, what it means to our children's future, and vote accordingly.
We didn't envision someone who wanted to take over the banking system, the car companies and the health care system.
When the banking system and the car companies teetered on the brink of failure, he had two choices: Use the federal government to prop them up or let the country pay the consequences of their failure. The bank bailout is being paid back in full, so it was clearly the right decision and will be remembered as one of the best decisions of his first year in office.
The car company bailout is more debatable, but it's silly to suggest that he "wanted" to take them over. The new president has enough on his desk without putting himself in a position to try and fix the decades-old mess that Detroit's car companies have gotten themselves into.
I myself lived in Mass for 50 + years, and I thought it was justice served nice and cold from the 2004 senate successtion decision. Ted wanted it changed in 2004 so Romney could not pick a Republican, but JFKerry lost anyway, and Ted changed it back in 2009 except there was still a specail election. If he did not play games, they would have the 60 super majority, no more ha ha ha
I get it --
"appeal"
HA!
Rogers says, "The bank bailout is being paid back in full, so it was clearly the right decision and will be remembered as one of the best decisions of his first year in office."
If it is paid back in full, how is is appropriate for Obama to revile promotional bonuses to executives who have successfully borrowed and repaid?
Really, Rogers, can you as a putative Democrat answer that one honestly?
...Please for the sake of reason, give it a try ...?
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