What's the difference between Scott Brown and Elmo?

When Elmo helps Big Bird count to five, Gordon gives him a pat on the head.

When Scott Brown helps Bob Hedlund count to five, the taxpayers of Massachusetts give him $15,000.

Brown is the Assistant Minority Whip in the State Senate. As such, it is his job to help Minority Whip Hedlund round up and count Republican votes.

There are five Republicans in the State Senate.

The Assistant Minority Whip gets a stipend of $15,000 for his additional duties...helping the Whip count to five.

(I wonder...when Scott Brown helps count to five, is he responsible for the odds or the evens?)

So remember, the next time Scott Brown suggests that he is a fiscal conservative who cares about what happens to our money, what he really means is that he cares about the 15,000 clams we put into his pocket last year because he helped another Republican count to five.

I’ll bet he didn’t need any help counting our $15,000.

Not fit for office

John McCain: "We need to have Curt Schilling as president of the President's Council on Fitness."

Does this guy look like the poster boy for fitness?



Tags: 2008 New Hampshire Primary Election John McCain Curt Schilling Republican

"I don't want to be president of a sad nation..." and other thoughts on tonight's debate

Tonight it's the Republicans' turn. Where the Democratic debate was pretty tame--the candidates essentially agree on most of the issues and are just arguing around the margins--the Republican debates could be much more entertaining. These guys run the gamut from pro-war to anti-war, pro-choice to pro-life, anti-immigration to proposing paths to citizenship. You name it, and these guys disagree. Hopefully the sparks will fly.

Just to get my biases out on the table again: I am a Democrat who supports Bill Richardson at this early juncture. The chances of me voting for one of these guys is very slim, but I'll be watching just the same.

And now live from the Reagan Library, it's Chris Matthews...

• Tommy Thompson got the first "good grief" from Michelle as the most odd looking candidate.
  
  
• Rudy Giuliani tosses in a "Shining City on a Hill"
  
  
• John McCain thinks the war is on the right track, terrorists "will follow us home." Democrats are for surrender.
  
  
• Thompson says we should get out if the Maliki government asks us to. He also is apparently for federalism. He thinks the civil was will end if they split into the 18 United States of Iraq. Seems naive.
  
  
• Mitt Romney gives Reagan a big smooch. We need to stay in Iraq now so we don't have to go back.
  
  
• Sam Brownback suggests we're partnering with a number of moderate Muslim regimes. Mentions Egypt and Pakistan. Matthews wants to know why the people in those countries don't like us. Just five minutes in, he's already doing a much better job than Brian Williams.
  
  
• Men with suits and silk ties vs. soldiers with mud and blood on his boots. Nice visual by Mike Huckabee. I'll bet he uses that one in each of his speeches.
  
  
• Jim Gilmore with another Reagan smooch.
  
  
• Ron Paul wants "non-intervention." You know, he could have hammered the rest of these guys. He ended up giving a good answer about historical reasons for non-intervention.
  
  
• McCain can't be excited about having Fred Thompson mentioned as the context for his question. He refuses to answer the question of whether or not Iran has committed acts of war.
  
  
• Looks like Tom Tancredo doesn't want this question. Something about the 12th Imam and bombs, no answer to the question. Boy he doesn't sound like he has the first idea what he'd do here. Maybe he'll just build a fence to keep the bad people out.
  
  
• McCain claims that Iran was so scared of Reagan, they released the hostages two minutes after he was inaugurated. What a crock of baloney. The Iranians had decided to release the hostages before he was released, they held them until the inauguration to stick it to Carter. (Fourth smooch of the night).
  
  
• Romney getting a question about his Osama faux pas last week.
  
  
• McCain says he will follow Osama to the Gates of hell. Many of us agree.
  
  
• Amend the constitution to allow foreign-born Americans Romney no, Brownback no, Huckabee no, Gilmore yes, Duncan Hunter no, Thompson, no, McCain maybe (only if he endorses me, probably his most honest answer of the night!), Paul no (Chris Matthews: "Oh God!"), Giuliani yes, Tancredo no.
  
  
• Romney can't come up with one thing he doesn't like about America? And another Reagan smooch. What a gasbag!
  
  
• Just tell us if you think global warming exists or not. The rest about being good stewards, etc. is a good answer.
  
  
• Does Tancredo have a plan to address shortage of organs? Weird question. Tancredo again has no idea what he's talking about.
  
  
• Duncan Hunter is a compassionate conservative who wants to show it by bombing people on the other side of the world.
  
  
• Roe v. Wade repealed good or bad: Giuliani: OK either way, ugh! Take a side, man!
  
  
• Gilmore says he supports abortion during first trimester, with limits. Good for him for not fudging.
  
  
• Thompson against Roe v. Wade because he wants to leave it up to the states, not to dump it altogether.
  
  
• Romney says he changed his mind because of cloning. Another Reagan smooch. Is it a flip-flop? Filibustering.
  
  
• Brownback with another Reagan smooch, would be able to support a pro-choicer if a Republican.
  
  
• Giuliani trying not to say he favors funding of abortions. Matthews has to go back at him three times before he stammers out an actual position. This is a perfect example of why Matthews is so much better at this that Brian Williams was with the Dems. He doesn't let them weasel out of many questions.
  
  
• McCain with what sounds like a closing statement. "I don't want to be president of a sad nation..." John McCain. He'll turn that frown upside down.
  
  
• What the...? Huckabee compares hikers stranded on a mountain with adolescent suicide bombers. Says the "culture of life" is what separates us from the Muslims. OK, sparky.
  
  
• Thompson thinks businesses should be able to fire homosexuals. Ooooh -boy.
  
  
• Romney: we don't choose a leader based on which church they go to. At least that's what you are hoping for. He's wearing a shirt with cuff links. That's always bugged me. I don't know, but I think I'm more comfortable with people who wear shirts whit button cuffs.
  
  
• Brownback: "Senator Lieberman, a Jew..."
  
  
• Duncan Hunter: "I built that fence." One board at a time, I'm sure.
  
  
• Jim Gilmore doesn't want to talk about Karl Rove. I don't blame him.
  
  
• Giuliani is going along to get along. He says he thinks the rise of the religious right has been good for the party. He doesn't think that, he's lying.
  
  
• Looks like Matthews has thrown his hands up and said "the hell with this." Tells Thompson to talk about whatever he wants.
  
  
• Tommy Thompson: "I'm a reliable conservative, I've vetoed 1900 things." I guess that says it all. Vote for me because I'm against everything. Another Reagan smooch! A big one.
  
  
• If I follow Brownback correctly, the best way to address the political scandals of the last six years is to cut the number of children born out of wedlock and clean up the language on records. Huh, didn't know Abramoff, Foley, and Cunningham were gangsta' rap-listening bastards...
  
  
• Another Reagan smooch by Tancredo. Has anyone said a centrist is necessary to win? I haven't heard anyone say anything about centrists? What station is he watching?
  
  
• McCain needs to stop pointing and pounding his lectern. I don't know who told him he needed to be gruff in order to look like a leader. He is coming across as an angry old man. A Reagan smooch.
• And another wet kiss from McCain. His first cut will be to defense. Huh?
  
  
• Too early to give the president a grade on Iraq? What have you been watching the last four years, Huck.
  
  
• Thompson smooches Reagan while evading a question on race.
  
  
• Tom Tancredo, who else should be the nominee if it's not you? Ronald Reagan! (just kidding.)
  
  
• Duncan Hunter didn't watch "An Inconvenient Truth" and he wouldn't admit it even if he did.
  
  
• Ron Paul, awakened from his nap, can't come up with a critical decision he's ever made.
  
  
• Jim Gilmore's answer to mothers in prison who leave kids behind is "we need to uphold the law" or some such pablum. Please, just a little nuanced thinking would be appropriate, unless you think most Republican primary voters are moronic automatons (don't answer that).
  
  
• Stem Cell research: mushy answer from Romney. Brownback, no. Gilmore, no. Huck, no. Hunter, no. Thompson, mushy. McCain, yes, and an unrelated smooch to Mrs. Reagan. Paul, no, because it's not constitutional. Giuliani, Yes. Tancredo, no.
  
  
• Romney defending the Mass. health-care plan. He's repeating himself. Market, market, market. Now he wants to cut capital gains taxes to zero. I'll bet he does.
  
  
• The problem with McCain's plan to give a $3,000 tax credit for people to buy health insurance is that it would essentially be a huge government giveaway to big insurance companies.
  
  
• Duncan Hunter isn't as clever as he thinks he is. The best thing about the government is the ability to bomb al Zarqawi. Har Har.
  
  
• Giuliani is hoping that he's correct about the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims. He doesn't look like he's sure.
  
  
• Gilmore with a Reagan smooch.
  
  
• Giuliani refuses to come up with a weakness. I don't think that flies with people. We don't expect our candidates to grovel at our feet, but be honest. We can all tell you what your weaknesses are, can't you see them yourself?
  
  
• A national ID card, another bad idea. Hey, something I agree with Tancredo on.
  
  
• Mitt Romney with a "Gang of Three" reference, Clinton, Pelosi and Reid. There's a blast from the past. He ran against a "Gang of Three" in 2002 when he was running for governor. I believe it was Tom Finneran, Shannon O'Brien, and Robert Travaligni.
  
  
• Duncan Hunter with a Reagan smooch in reference to Schiavo.
  
  
• Ron Paul ends by saying he'll "never abuse habeas corpus." Now there's something I can get behind.

Tags: Election 2008 Republican Primary Mitt Romney Sam Brownback Mike Huckabee Jim Gilmore Tommy Thompson Duncan Hunter Ron Paul John McCain Tom Tancredo Rudy Giuliani

Blame me for the Schilling stories

BREAKING NEWS...MUST CREDIT NO DRUMLINS!
CURT SCHILLING MAY RUN FOR SENATE

So, three-and-a-half months after I started the whole Curt Schilling for Senate thing by explaining exactly why Schilling would make a great candidate, the story finally has some legs. Sure, it took a talk-show caller to get the ball rolling. But I didn't really expect a whole lot to come of it in the first place.

I kind of thought it was going to take off back in November when I first wrote the article here and cross-posted it at Blue Mass Group. Universal Hub linked to the post and the Hub Blog pooh poohed the idea, but after a couple of days of traffic, things settled down.

But not completely. Out of the blue about a month later, I received an email from the political editor at an in-state TV news organization, wanting to do an on-air piece about my post:

From: TV Personality [mailto:TV Personality@WXXX-TV]
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 2:34 PM
To: nodrumlins@comcast.net
Subject: schilling gop

I saw your posting about Schilling saving the GOP and wondered if you got any feedback. I'm the political editor at XXXXXX and might do something funny about it. Let me know. Write back or call at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

I was a little wary, I got the impression that he thought the post was a joke. Or at least he thought the idea was a joke. After replying, I received another email which confirmed my suspicions:

From: TV Personality [mailto:TV Personality@WXXX-TV]
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:59 PM
To: nodrumlins
Subject: RE: schilling gop

did you post it just as a joke or do you think schilling might actually be interested someday? Would like to talk to you on phone about it. you can call me if you want at XXX-XXX-XXXX

I tried to convince the editor that there was a real story here:

From: nodrumlins [mailto:nodrumlins@comcast.net]
Sent: Tue 12/5/2006 4:59 PM
To: TV Personality
Subject: RE: schilling gop

No, I was serious. I don’t know if he’d be interested or not, but with all the stories after the election about how the Republican party had essentially lost viability in the state, I was trying to think of a Republican who might be able to compete in a state-wide election. I’d bet if you polled voters today about their preferences, Schilling would lead any other Republicans in a potential primary match-up, and would lead at least a couple of potential Dems in a general election.

For instance, I listed Kerry Healey, Paul Cellucci, Wayne Budd, and Ralph Martin as other potential Republicans, and the more savvy readers at Blue Mass Group mentioned Charlie Baker. If you were to poll those six names among likely Republican primary voters, I’ll bet Schilling would have a double-digit lead.

Among potential Dems, if you match him Schilling up against Jim McGovern, Marty Meehan, Ed Markey, or Stephen Lynch, I’ll bet he’d be even or ahead. He would probably trail Barney Frank or John Kerry, but Kerry’s negatives are so high even that might be close.

In the end, I don’t know that he would win, but I imagine he could energize the campaign and turn Mass. into a top-tier Senate race for ’08.

Essentially, I gave this editor the story six weeks before WRKO found it. I declined to go on camera--both because I wished to remain somewhat anonymous and because I feared he would be making fun of me more than taking me seriously--and apparently that was reason enough not to run with the story.

And now, the story has taken off on its own. WRKO started a petition drive to draft Schilling. Channel 7 included it in their 6 o'clock news. The Herald fronted the story in this morning's paper, and made more news when Schilling wouldn't rule it out:

“I couldn’t rule it out because it’s not something I ever thought about in a serious capacity,” Schilling told the Herald.

“I envision that I will probably be pretty busy in 2008,” he said. “But I’m flattered as hell to even make this phone call.”

And I'm flattered as hell that someone is running with the story.

Tags: Massachusetts Election 2008 Senate John Kerry Curt Schilling Republican