Martha Coakley’s slap-shots fired at Fenway Park fans and devout Catholics, her vacation in the middle of a special election, her refusal to debate one-on-one, her D.C. lobbyist fundraiser, and her denial that she witnessed the subsequent assault on a reporter, all have people bewildered as to how Coakley could be so “tone deaf” (in the words of The Gail Collins). But no one should be surprised. At the start of the primary season, Coakley was so tone deaf as to start her campaign for the seat before Ted Kennedy died, causing allegations that Coakley had shown disrespect for Teddy.
More at the link. Meanwhile, it’s more than just a Coakley problem:
The Democrats’ “bad climate” is a direct result of how they’ve governed. The populist backlash is fueled by a sense that Democrats are acting on their preferred agenda and by their own rules. From the shenanigans of the people who write our tax code and collect our taxes to special deals and secret arrangements for big businesses and legislators who play ball, the Democrats have abandoned transparency in favor of transparent arrogance.
Coakley is a creature of this climate. She hasn’t been running for “Ted Kennedy’s seat,” she’s been strolling to it like someone who knows it’s been reserved for her and all she needs to do is swing by the will-call window to pick it up.
White House plan for ObamaCare if Brown wins: “I don’t think Scott Brown is going to win”
UPDATE: OBAMA TO MASSACHUSETTS TO HELP SINKING CANDIDATE...
Scott Brown: Moves into lead in fresh poll...
Massachusetts: 'Bottom has fallen out' of Coakley's polls; Dems prepare to explain defeat, protect Obama...
Sen. Schumer Calls Brown a 'far-right tea-bagger'...
President Obama will grace the cover of Newsweek's January 25 issue with an essay on Haiti, adding his literary skills to the array of government and private aid flowing into the earthquake-stricken country. According to the Wall Street Journal, the magazine's editor Jon Meacham abandoned the previous cover story on Google and China's recent dispute after the quake and turned to Obama adviser David Axelrod to pitch the idea instead. Newsweek lost $25 million in the first half of 2009 and Obama's participation could lend a major boost to the magazine as it looks to solidify its new format.
The news that Jay Leno is expected to return to The Tonight Show, leaving Conan O'Brien out in the cold, prompted a bitter night of barbs on their respective shows Thursday, with a third late night host, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, hopping into the fray. "Sarah Palin has signed on to Fox News to be a correspondent," Leno said in his opening monologue. "Well, in a statement today, Fox said that—if Palin does a good job—they'll sign her to a long-term contract. If she doesn't work out, they'll just blame Leno."
In a satellite appearance on the same show, Kimmel left little doubt which side he was on with multiple attacks on Leno to his face. Asked by Leno to name the best prank he ever pulled, Kimmel said it was when "I told a guy that five years from now I'm going to give you my show. And then when the five years came, I gave it to him, and then I took it back almost instantly."
Finally, Conan addressed rumors that NBC might try to block him from going on air if he were to leave his show by suggesting "If NBC doesn't want people to see me, just leave me on NBC."
Newton 2.0? Apple tablet rumors got a boost Thursday when Apple's lawyers
sent Gawker a letter demanding it call off a contest that would have paid people
for sending in pictures or photos of the device (if it exists).
Thick coats of dark eye makeup partially made from lead may have boosted the immune systems of ancient Egyptians, a new study says.
Dinosaurs ruled the earth for millennia because they were better breathers than mammals, a new study suggests.
Discovered at the first permanent British settlement in America, the inscribed slate may show early colonist efforts to communicate with Indians.
I usually vote Democrat and probably would again, but will be out of the country next Tuesday. I have to say that this race may turn the world of Massachusetts upside down. There are a lot of people here (myself included) who are exasperated by the notion that this is the “Kennedy seat”. It has really stirred the seeds of revolt, and I have a feeling that a great many people may vote for Scott Brown just to send a message. Here are a few things I would point out:
(1) During the primary, the Kennedy family endorsements of Mike Capuano proved to be worthless;
(2) Martha Coakley was actually doing better in the polls before, a couple of weeks ago, she had the Kennedys finally line up behind her;
(3) She’s also faring worse now because of her belief that she needed to go negative on Scott Brown (who is generally well liked);
(4) Many of us are still annoyed at the Democrats in general for their hypocrisy last fall in the interim senator debacle, and wouldn’t mind seeing a price being paid for that one.
Mmmm – after reading this, maybe I would have voted for Scott Brown! But I’ll be in Puerto Rico that day…
Yet despite a remarkable uptick in gun sales, during the first six months of 2009 violent crime fell 4.4 percent, property crime fell 6.6 percent, homicides fell 10 percent, and car thefts fell 19 percent.
As Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute recently pointed out, the falling crime rate was particularly precipitous in big cities such as Los Angeles, where homicides fell 17 percent in 2009, and New York, where they fell 19 percent.
NINTH CIRCUIT: Police can’t refuse to arrest based on race of perpetrator or victim.
Somebody tell Eric Holder.
The issue of an over-zealous prosecution by Martha Coakley i
in the Amirault case [false charge of child abuse to a couple running a day care center in the 90s, a terrible miscarriage of justice] and also following up on a link by Instapundit to a Radley Balko item, I first went digging around to see if Coakley had ever commented on the Amirault case. Coakley declined to be interviewed for Dorothy Rabinowitz's recent damning article in the WSJ dealing with Amirault.
That's when I stumbled upon an extensive cached Boston Globe article from 1999. While perhaps a glowing portrait of Coakley at the time, in hindsight, it details how Amirault was not the first ultimately flawed case that taught Martha Coakley what a high-profile, over zealously prosecuted case could do for a prosecutor's career. Enter Louise Woodward,
the case of an au pair accused of shaking a baby to death. It gained international attention for Coakley and all but launched her career. But it has not held up over the years, despite serving Coakley and not justice well at the time. Oh, and she already had a PR guy in tow wherever she went way back then, too, it appears.
