Given the serial fiascoes of the Martha Coakley for Senate campaign, you would think, five days before Election Day, that the second coming of Shannon O’Brien has run out of ways to hand Scott Brown an upset victory in the race for what was for decades Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat (but, as Brown has reminded us, remains the people’s seat to do with as they wish).
But no! Coakley has managed, at this late hour, to diss New England’s most hallowed site – Fenway Park itself. And, for bonus points, to do so in the course of explaining why she’s above standing outside in cold weather (as if this is an unusual hardship for New Englanders) to ask for votes, when she could be getting to know connected people who know other connected people. As the Boston Globe reports:
There is a subdued, almost dispassionate quality to her public appearances, which are surprisingly few. Her voice is not hoarse from late-night rallies. Even yesterday, the day after a hard-hitting debate, she had no public campaign appearances in the state.
Coakley bristles at the suggestion that, with so little time left, in an election with such high stakes, she is being too passive.
“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?” she fires back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that. “This is a special election. And I know that I have the support of Kim Driscoll. And I now know the members of the [Salem] School Committee, who know far more people than I could ever meet.”
Brown supporter and Red Sox icon Curt Schilling is apoplectic, and I’ll let him do the honors:
[This statement] shows her elitism and arrogance unbelievably. Aside from the apparent feeling that the seat belongs to her just by virtue of her party, she just admitted that she doesn’t need to bother meeting with constituents because she’s meeting people like Kim Driscoll, and political leaders, and Democrat activists. I guess they’re the ones that matter, huh? I know it’s a “special election” and all, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t need to fight for this seat. Prancing around with this mindset of “Oh, I’m a Democrat, therefore Ted Kennedy’s seat just automatically belongs to me regardless of what the people think,” is idiotic. Acting as if she doesn’t need to give her constituents the time of day is ludicrous. She can make all the snide remarks about Scott Brown shaking hands with people in the cold that she wants, but that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re trying to get elected. She seems to have forgotten that she’s trying to get elected in Massachusetts, and not in Washington D.C. – if she remembered that, maybe she’d spend more time trying to impress Massachusetts voters and less time rubbing elbows with the Democrat establishment, Big Pharmacy lobbyists, and union leaders. Most normal politicians, Republican or Democrat, do go shake hands with voters. Even if it means standing in the cold outside of Fenway Park.
Maybe Coakley should come back when she has a little blood on her sock.
If Brown wins this election, it should set off a shock wave to Washington the like has not been seen in recent memory.
Go Brown!
Slightly off-topic, but your mention of Schilling reminds me of one of the all-time great quotes from a baseball GM (in this case Ed Wade, former GM of the Phillies).
About Schilling: “A horse every fifth day, a horse’s ass the other four.”
Schilling can be that way. But he’s spot-on in this statement. Whether Coakley wins or not, the people are ticked off and the elites–in both parties–better get ready for it.
Bush tortured people…..sorry I am channeling my inner berto
per 14,
Call me when the pitchforks hit Wall St.
———
It’s fine if the people from my team do it….sorry I am channeling my inner dch.
Turns out Scott Brown owns a timeshare in Aruba. A time-share!
Some man of the people. That thing has to be worth 3 or 4 thousand dollars!
How sweet would it be for Brown to win primarily because Teddy refused to step down while he was dying, thus causing there to be plenty of time for the D’s negatives to rise & the nation’s outrage at the political class in power (the Dems) to swell? All because Teddy was so selfish & wanted to cast a “memorable” vote on the floor of the senate. If the election were 4 months ago, we don’t have this conversation.
Insert your own “Ted thought of himeslf instead of acting when an important event would shortly thereafter take place” Kopechne joke here.
I can think of no bigger thumb in the eye to the progressive/liberal/Obama/DNC agenda than a Republican winning the seat that the Kennedy family had a gasp on for more than my 43 years. Plus, with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend losing in MD a few years back, could we put the final nail in the “Camelot” coffin w/a Brown win since the Dems decided to go emotional & get Ted’s (third?) wife to cut a commercial?
dch,
That’s funny.
Ted Kennedy was not going to die for the Democratic Party. He wanted to stay alive for the windfall profit 2010 inheritance tax break.
Nostradamus: the Angels will defeat the Red Sox in a post season series before a Republican wins a Senate seat in Massachusetts. Made it by three months!
Scott Brown really should not camoflage paint his Republican Party status. He does not have to spell it out. An “R” will do.
Berto: your nickname is not Campy by any chance? As in Dagoberto “Bert” Campaneris? If there is a Baseball Crank All-Star team Berto is nominated to be the utility player! When Campaneris played all nine positions in one game who was the player who slid into home while Campy was catching resulting in a medium scale collision? Ed “Spanky” Kirkpatrick of the Angels.
And thank you, Baseball Crank. If not for you I would not know they were having a special election in Massachusetts today. I was busy Sunday taking my son on an eleven hour sojourn to San Diego to see the Jets upset the Chargers and today was a holiday. I am surprised there is not a post here trumpeting the Jets victory. It just proves you are Baseball Crank, not Football Crank. Keep up the A+ baseball reporting!