From its start, the race for Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat seemed destined to be one of most expensive political battles in Massachusetts history. Challenger Elizabeth Warren, bank-scolding darling of the left, and Scott Brown, the Tea Party pinup who swept into office in early 2010 to strip President Obama of his congressional supermajority, are both candidates of national stature. It’s a rare and precious Red seat in a Blue state. Nothing less than control of the Senate may hang in the balance.
Back in early November, the Republican independent expenditure juggernaut Crossroads GPS wanted to take Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren down a peg, so they cut an ad insinuating that her attempts to rein in big banks had put spark to the dry tinder in Zuccotti Park. “Elizabeth Warren sides with extreme left protests,” a narrator [...]
Let’s stipulate that Elizabeth Warren should not have responded when debate moderators asked her to comment on Scott Brown’s decision to pose in Cosmopolitan magazine years ago to pay for college. In fact, let’s stipulate that no candidate should ever comment on another candidate’s physical appearance, clothed or unclothed, or say anything that causes voters [...]
In a speech to governors, President Obama just endorsed a plan to allow states to opt out of major provisions of the Affordable Care Act just as it’s set to kick in. Saying he recognizes that not everyone is a member of the “Affordable Care Act fan club,” Obama said, “I agree with Mitt Romney [...]
Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, has a knack for linking up with Republicans to introduce innovative health care policy that can garner real bipartisan support. When the Affordable Care Act was but a glimmer in President Obama’s eye, Wyden and Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, of Utah, introduced the Healthy Americans Act. This health care reform [...]
For all the talk of being the “41st Senator” (thus denying the Democrats their supermajority), Scott Brown sure has a knack for delivering numero 60 for Harry Reid and Co. in a pinch. You may remember the time he saved the Democrats’ jobs bill. Today the Massachusetts Senator, who won late-in-the-game concessions in conference committee, [...]
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd stood an hour ago in the Senator’s Retiring Room off of the Senate floor in an intense conversation with Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown – one of surely many they will have today. Dodd is trying to get Brown, one of four Republicans who voted for the Senate version of [...]
Here’s the latest on the health care front: * Speaking at a fundraiser last night, President Obama made another strong pitch for health care reform, this time with some more details on his preferred pathway and timeline. * But at least one observer thinks the big news is that Obama acknowledged the possibility that health [...]
Democrats are still smarting from Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts last week. Health reform seemed inevitable and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. As Karen pointed out, Democratic lawmakers are still searching for a path forward that might include reconciliation. They may succeed, but certainly not because the American people got on board with their plans. [...]
