Chimes at Midnight

• Tomorrow Belongs to She...

  Congrats to AG Martha Coakley who swept the boards last night and handily seized the nomination for the US Senate. Of course, Humble Elias got the numbers wrong, I figures a three to five point spread not the monster twenty point lead Coakley eventually rolled up...Ah well there is something [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:56am EST
  

• Austerlitz at High Noon....

  The great Massachusetts Senatorial Steamroller Fight lumbers on and on for a cold cold day in December.
  Rhetorically, the best fights were between Capuano and Pagliuca, but I'm wondering if the real election day threat isn't from Khazei. If Alan has a good day if his ground game is in [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 1:13pm EST
  

• Well I was the twenty ninth voter as of 7:27am

  this morning and suffice to say, Humble Elias cast a proud ballot for Martha Coakley for the United States Senate. Her time has come, if not now then when if not her then who? [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 8:52am EST
  

• Kudos to Governor Patrick

  for saying no to the Clover Club, despite all that has happened, Deval Patrick is still a change agent all of himself.
  It is never too late to disregard a bad idea no matter how hallowed and traditional it may be.
  If you want to get a good inventory [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 8:47am EST
  

• I was listening to Jeff Santos on 1510AM this morning...

  and heard Alan Khazei repeatedly congratulate himself for landing the Boston Globe's endorsement in tomorrow's democratic senatorial primary.
  Fair enough, clearly Alan "interviews well"...
  But then Khazei went to lambaste the "conventional media" for overlooking the vast covert citizen-driven ground game his campaign was ramping up for primary day.
  Hmmm...Last [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 8:48am EST
  

• On the other hand...

  
  Capuano could pull it off...
  Pagliuca could be fading this weekend as evidenced by his inexplicable decision to brandish the Celtic's NBA championship trophy at his campaign appearances like it was the Hammer of Thor or something. If he fades enough, the conventional wisdom seems to [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 7:38pm EST
  

• Should Alan Khazei really be in this race?

  IF he such a wiz at running no-profits and achieving the maximum public good out of sheer volunteerism and enthusiasm, then maybe the US Senate isn't the best place for him.
  US Senators have to serve long apprenticeships, the job is level about one's pristine ten point program and more' [...]
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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 7:04pm EST
  

• I'd take Alan Beam to task for calling

  AG Martha Coakley "a babe" except that Humble Elias once described Andrea Silbert (then a democratic candidate for Lt. Governor) as being "cute as a button".
  As Malcolm X once huffed "The chickens have come home to roost".
  However, Lynne Lupien labors under no such burden and rounds on Beam [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 8:50am EST
  

• An Endorsement:

  As Ghod is my witness this senatorial campaign has come off as naught but the proverbial steamroller fight, almost everyone we expected to get in fled the scene in the middle of the night and them what got in, are flailing away at each other seemingly in slow motion.
  Nonetheless, [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 8:53am EST
  

• Note to the Laity:

  There will be a Chimes at Midnight endorsement in the democratic senatorial primary tomorrow.
  
  Humble Elias welcomes all frantic last minute attempts at persuasion, anything though that does not include appropriate gratuities will be duly read & discarded. [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 9:09pm EST
  

• Mike Huckabee is as giddy as a

  professional sky grifter can be, and it doesn't surprise me that some of the pardons he signed off on as Governor of Arkansas were of a questionable nature.
  I mean, four cops get killed in a diner by someone set free by Mike Huckabee, that my friends is bad' [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 1:11pm EST
  

• Haymakers...

  are what politicians who can taste equally victory defeat habitually throw when the closing week of the campaign arrives.
  Such is the case today with Congressman Capuano who has staked all on convincing the democratic primary that AG Martha Coakley is a Cheneyite & a Falangist.
  The accusation itself, [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 8:46am EST
  

• Is it me or does anyone else out there think

  that CNN's John King would literally die of fright if he was so much as accosted by a five year old wingnut and accused of being a member of the "liberal media elite"?
  I'm not sure frightened people make the best journalists, and King has a hunted look in his' [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 8:48am EST
  

• Alan Khazei?

  Got the Boston Globe's endorsement in next month's senatorial primary???
  
  Well that one came as a shock lemme tellya.
  Truly Alan's years of cajoling various powerful entities into giving him money for charitable purposes must make him the best interviewee in the world.
  Either that or his campaign [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 7:44pm EST
  

• Maybe I am all stupid like...

  but could someone out there, who is "in position" so to speak, please ask Steve Pagliuca just how many jobs he generated here in Massachusetts as a managing partner in the Bain Capital Group?
  If he wants to talk about his job creation wizardry fine, but I'd like to know' [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 8:40am EST
  

• Last week the rumor was...

  That former CNN pundit-xenophobe Lou Dobbs wanted to run for the US Senate in New Jersey. This week the rumor is that Dobbs wants to cut to the chase and run for President in 2012.
  This particular paragraph is an outright scream:
  Dobbs, a controversial and outspoken critic of [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 8:50am EST
  

• Tisei?

  Well now, that is an in-ter-esting choice as a Lt. Gubernatorial candidate on the Charlie Baker ticket.
  I don't know if any of you have heard this before, but State Senator Richard Tisei is gay!
  Keep it on the QT willya?
  We don't want Willard to find out he [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:49am EST
  

• Roughly

  nine hundred billion USD has been spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This weekend the US Senate started debated extensive health care reform in the US that would theoretically extend medical coverage to all Americans.
  The cost over ten years of said senate healthcare reform package, roughly eight [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:07pm EST
  

• Strange as it may seem...

  Joanie Vennochi actually thinks there is a condition of moral equivalence between Sarah Palin and Secretary of State Hilary R. Clinton.
  To quote the old misanthrope, "what rubbish!"
  Sarah Palin is a liar and an oafish demagogue, Hilary Clinton is lied about and the favorite topic of demagogues, especially [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 6:55pm EST
  

• Apropos of nothing but

  some unscrupulous entertainment conglomerate could make a fortune selling a interactive video game built around a violent coup d' tat aimed at the current administration. Deeply dispossessed wingnuts would pay Big Bucks for something like this in the holiday season.
  Just sayin' thass all. [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:38pm EST
  

• The Massachusetts Shuffle

  Let me if'm ah kin get this straight:
  Tim Cahill has doused himself with high grade kerosene and is looking to get shot out of a cannon and into the governor's office as an independent next year.
  This means the Treasurer's office is wide open next year cue Steve Grossman' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:10pm EST
  

• Scot Lehigh takes opens up on Congressman Capuano

  compares him to Robert Penn Warren's populist/authoritarian "Willy Stark" character from "All the King's Men".
  Honestly, where was all this concern about fake populism when Scot's hero Mitt Romney was demagoguing it up on the campaign trail in 2006? Back when the Viceroy went into the South End and [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:52am EST
  

• Note to Mary Matalin

  (after having watched her on Larry King tonight fruitlessly defendng Sarah Palin), For Ghod's Sake woman, Give Up the Botox! Your poor face has all the plasticity of a block of New Hampshire granite. The only emotions you can convey these days is a sort of weird smug unctuousness, Stop [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 11:02pm EST
  

• Lou Dobbs for President?

  Time Magazine among others wonders if the fomer CNN yakker is considering a run for the White House.
  The early line is, Lou would run as an independent and avoid the GOP primaries entirely.
  Well, it is all speculation, personally, Humble Elias thinks Dobbs wouldn't get much traction' [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 1:08pm EST
  

• Ken Chase has too much time on his hands...

  He has started something called "Conservative Tours" apparently as a means to shake down frightened wingnuts who'd normally never travel to such socialist hell-holes as Normandy or the Brandenberg Gate.
  Chase has even finagled Howie Carr to come along on a trip to "Imperial Rome" where no doubt the' [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 7:23pm EST
  

• Women working for the RNC may no longer

  obtain abortions under their health insurance plan or so decreed Michael Steele today.
  My Ghod, in addition to being an ineptoid and a buffoon we can also add "petty fogging bitch" to Michael Steele's list of accomplishments.
  This is grimly hilarious, will Chairman Steele be pawing through men's wallets [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 1:03pm EST
  

• So far...advantage Pagliuca...

  Since Monday's abortion dust up, I'd have to say the bigger winner has been Steve Pagliuca, only because he has the money to exploit the ideological rift between AG Coakley and Congressman Capuano.
  You might think that...if Pagliuca's adverts weren't all whiny in tone and full of desperate promises of [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 8:53am EST
  

• This mah frenz is whut we call a "flip flop"

  as Congressman Capuano essentially backtracks and asserts he too would vote against the health care bill if it contained abortion restrictions.
  So essentially, Mike Capuano was for the House Bill before he was against it?
  Geez Martha Coakley had but to stand her ground for a twenty four hour [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 8:52am EST
  

• Y'know if Martha Coakley wants to "decry"

  the loathsome use of pregnancy as a "pre-existing condition" in the current health reform bill, well more power to her.
  It is an open primary for an open seat and everyone has to set terms with respect to the current health care debate
  After all, not one month ago, [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 1:00pm EST
  

• Publicity seeking bullies...

  The Westboro Baptist Church (The Rev. Phelps' falangist concern of notorious repute) has taken to protesting out of Sasha and Malia Obama's elementary school.
  
  Class all the way, These people would copulate with chickens as a protest against homosexuality if it mean getting above the fold in the [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 1:15pm EST
  

• Steve Pagliuca can run those damn TV adverts

  until he is blue-in-the-face, but he will never convince me he is anything more than a Democrat Of Convenience (DOC).
  And that smug self-righteous insistance that he won't take PAC money, that is a laugh riot, Pagliuca was a macher at Bain Capital which is Political Action Committee unto itself' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 1:02pm EST
  

• "Presidential Leadership is...

  Party Leadership" or so Woodrow Wilson once opined.
  And to the extent that President Obama has been setting goals, writing the party's mission statement, acting as the democrat's key spokesman and driving the agenda, then it is clear that as far as health care reform is concerned, he" [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 7:08pm EST
  

• No one can quite downplay right wing extremism quite like

  the Associated Press.
  They artfully left out the arrests outside Nancy Pelosi's office, the signs equating health care reform with the Nazi Holocaust and the general tone of violence and intimidation that permeated said "protest".
  The problem with the AP is, that they look on this kind of' [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 8:56am EST
  

• Sad news...

  Storyteller and Harvard Square fixture, Brother Blue has died at the age of eighty-eight. [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 1:50pm EST
  

• So the army sez that 75% of recruitable US youth

  are not fit for induction into the armed forces? Drugs, education and obesity issues being the core problems?
  So when will the Pentagon declare high fructose corn syrup a threat to national security??
  Well, I snark but really a stat like this ought to spark some hearings in congress, git [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:54am EST
  

• So much for that whole quaint notion that

  Maine is full of witty Marshall Dodge type caricatures who just want to be left alone. Given enough money and enough of "Fear Factor" politics they will happily police the marriages of their neighbors with a gay abandon. [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 8:54am EST
  

• Congrats to Mayor Menino on his re-election last night

  the numbers were outside my predictions, but not by much in the weary wicked end.
  The pundits and pols may hate and fear Tom Menino, but the electorate has yet been given no good reason to break their compact with him. You can complain until you are blue in [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 8:45am EST
  

• A dinosaur spotted on the streets of Boston yesterday

  a big ole sound truck was heard extolling the virtues of citizen Michael Flaherty, candidate for Mayor in today's city election.
  No TV commercials at all, but Mike Flaherty and Sam Yoon have a sound truck, a campaign gimmick that went the way of the snap brim fedora over fifty' [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 8:54am EST
  

• Apropos of nothing

  but when Joanie Vennochi writes the venom from her pen fairly scars the desktop at which she works.
  When she calls in to the Jeff Santos show on WWZN Am 1510 though, Joanie is as decorously dull as dishwater, no middle school snarkage, no bitterness no nothing.
  As a radio [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 1:09pm EST
  

• Pursuant to Tuesday's Mayoral contest in Boston...

  I'm predicting Menino 55%, Flaherty 45%.
  If it rains and the Mayor's celebrated machine is on their game then the spread wil be much wider.
  Ideologically not much separates either man, the argument is over managerial ability, temperament and unresolved problems impacting the city.
  There, in almost every category [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 6:05pm EST
  

• Walking with the King...

  "Left Ahead" the Commonwealth's premiere progressive podcast moved heaven and earth to get me on the cyber airwaves today...I guess because my droning monotone is just the utmost ultimate. Personally, Mike Ball's summary over the MP3 link makes waa-ay more sense than the nonsense I was spouting.[...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 10:05pm EDT
  

• What I learned from the democratic senatorial primary debate...

  That Alan Khazei's dad was a doctor and his mom a nurse and he is of Iranian extraction. That and he has apparently thinks he is up on stage with three uncaught crooks...Honestly, has he sworn an oath on the Altar of Reform Sacred to campaing in an even more' [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 10:23am EDT
  

• (Another) Note to the Laity

  Scheduling issues prevent Humble Elias from calling in to the Left Ahead podcast today, we will try to get this straightened out for another try later this week.
  Meanwhile DO listen in to today's podcast, John Connolly, the Chair of the Boston City Council's Education Committee is making an [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 9:44am EDT
  

• Nothin' left but Left Ahead....

  Humble Elias will take his dignity in hand and be calling into the very fine "Left Ahead" podcast tomorrow at 2pm.
  Because clearly, the blogosphere can't get enough of my tuneless droning baritone.
  And as a note to the laity let me add that Humble Elias IS on vacation' [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 6:12pm EDT
  

• No one ever went bankrupt in the Boston Market

  by not stoking the fires of regional self loathing.
  Take Sam Allis column in today's Globe in which he all but blames the Civil War on "effete 19th Limousine Liberals from Boston".
  It seems a "Secret Six" of disgruntled wealthy anti slavery men bankrolled John Brown's attempted coup at [...]
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  Posted: October 25, 2009, 8:28pm EDT
  

• Like Napoleon Returning from Elba

  so too does the Bad Poets Society return unto Harvard Square tomorrow night. [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 8:58am EDT
  

• Congrats to Senator Kerry

  his timely intervention has bought us some much needed time to craft a sensible Afghan policy.
  Humble Elias doesn't expect a run-off election to achieve miracles, but anything that increases the legitimacy of the government in Kabul is a good thing in general and a specific benefit I would' [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 8:54am EDT
  

• For what it is worth...

  With respect to last night's mayoral debate, Tom Menino sounds terrible over the radio, incoherent, slurs his words, drops the definite article at random with a harassed tone as well.
  Flaherty threw some good haymakers but from what I heard over NPR landed no solid knock-out.
  To be honest, is' [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 8:44am EDT
  

• With respect to the big

  Mayoral debate in Boston tonight, Humble Elias is hard pressed to see just how Candidate Flaherty will be able to deliver a knockout blow to Mayor Menino's re-election chances.
  The bar is just set so low for Menino that short of gargling all his responses thru a mouthful of Clorox' [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 12:34pm EDT
  

• Jeff Jacoby Hearts Referendums

  today's column in the Sunday Globe is a keeper as Jeff Jacoby that laughing young senescence marks out hard for the public referendum, particularly California's brand wherein the state legislature cannot over-ride the outcome of a ballot initiative.
  This makes California a sort of berserker paradise wherein werewolves are [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 8:48pm EDT
  

• Thought for the day

  Michelle Obama must be the very last woman in her age and SES group to not have a salaried job outside the home.
  I mean, if you send the Secretary of Commerce to cut the ribbon on a nice new bridge over the Missouri River, the USA is effectively paying [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 1:06pm EDT
  

• I have no problem with Rush Limbaugh

  the wingnut radio tyrant bidding on co-ownership of the Saint Louis Rams.
  He'd be in good company there must be dozens of Falangists and book worshippers among the ranks of the NFL ownership class.
  However the spectacle of Rush Limbaugh the reputed drug fiend owning a professional football team' [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 8:50am EDT
  

• No surprise here...

  as Scot Lehigh runs amok on Congressman Capuano's ass.
  Serious political observers will recall Scot also dumped a rhetorical canvas bag of lugwrenches on Joe Kennedy a few weeks ago as well.
  This is a routine occurence in Scotworld, a special election looms, so Lehigh needs to shuffle democratic [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 1:22pm EDT
  

• Idle Thought

  To think it is likely that somewhere in the USA today, Mitt Romney is fundraising on the basis of his unswerving opposition to a Federal version of the same health care reform he happily signed off on in Massachusetts. [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 6:35am EDT
  

• Floon

  Joanie Vennochi was on the Jeff Santos show, blowing on the fitful embers of a tight mayoral race in Boston.
  Frankly, I don't see it, Menino lacks few organized enemies among the electorate in a city that prizes continuity in governance over innovation.
  The only conspicuous class opposed to Menino's [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 1:12pm EDT
  

• Jeff Jacoby whinges about the onerous

  
  task of grinding out yet another column.
  For once, I sympathize.
  Try filling this on-line bucket up six times a week...I could cut it down to five I suppose but then I'd lose props with my fellow anti-depressant gobbling, birkenstock wearing, living in dad's basement' [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 1:08pm EDT
  

• Plumb consternated to discover that

  Newt "The Cowardly Lion" Gingrich is a convert to Roman Catholicism.
  
  I mean we will let in just aboutany famous dingbat in won't we??
  
  You wouldn't mind so much but the R.C.C. won't marry you if you are gay or divorced or if you aren't a "good" [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2009, 8:55pm EDT
  

• President Obama wins the Nobel Prize...

  What next, an Oscar? An Emmy? A Cable Ace Award?
  
  Okay all kidding aside I think maybe the Nobel Peace Prize committee maybe thought this was a good way to stick it GWB on last time...
  Cheaper just to leave a burning paper bag full of dog dung [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 2:45pm EDT
  

• Ed Markey in Menotomy

  Ed Markey is hosting a health care forum at Arlington's Town Hall Monday October 12th at 6:30pm. While Humble Elias is not expecting much in the way of fireworks let us still make sure this doesn't turn into a freeper-fest or anything.
  
  I'm suspecting though, that the wind [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 9:01am EDT
  

• A hint from the peanut gallery for Mike-n-Martha

  Lets not make the opening salvo in the Great Democratic Senatorial Primary Debate all about a traditional and very effective GOP wedge issue like the Death Penalty, shall we?
  The electric chair and the gas chamber have polled pretty well down thru the years here in the Commonwealth, a [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 1:08pm EDT
  

• In Boston, it is still 1912

  The Mayor runs for re-election of the number of pot-holes he has filled, the wedding receptions he has attended, the wakes he has gone to, the sheer dazzling increment of voters who have met him, his assiduous status as a success merchant in the economy of favors.
  It is a [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 1:14pm EDT
  

• Idle political observation

  Hubert Humphrey bounced back in the polls in 1968 only after he started in on Richard Nixon with commercials such as this:
  
  Let that be an object lesson for any democrat in a tight race come next year. [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 8:47am EDT
  

• Howie Carr has been playing with the whole world by

  prison rules for years now, and no-one in the local punditariat has ever called him out on it.
  No, even the local liberal columnistas have for the most part either enabled Howie outright or else silently passed over his increasingly gruesome tirades on the radio and in the public prints.
  [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 8:52am EDT
  

• Capuano in Menotomy

  At the home of a very very very good democrat indeed Congressman Mike Capuano held a well attended meet-n-greet. Mike was funny, well informed, passionate articulate. He is clearly running as a sort of left wing "Rocky Balboa" citing himself with his blue collar background as "the guy who wasn't'" [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 10:01pm EDT
  

• Go Ernie GO!!!

  Kick Howie Carr's teeth in, thass all I can say!
  From the looks of Howie's column today I'd say the whole campaign to boycott his radio advertisers seems to be getting under his skin...I mean the damn thing is nothing but a autistic litany of his favorite insults and' [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 8:52am EDT
  

• "A Military Coup has been Long Overdue"

  So sang Ray Davies in far palmier times, but this would also be The Bright New Idea earnestly espoused by wingnut columnist John Perry over on the conservative Newsmax site.
  Y' know what?
  I sympathize, when you are unpopular and out of ideas radical armed action sounds very seductive.' [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 6:26am EDT
  

• Mike versus Tom round II

  Well...credit Michael Flaherty with brains enough to realize that he cannot win without the goodwill and support of Sam Yoon. Running as a "team" (Flaherty for Mayor, Yoon for "Deputy Mayor") bespeaks some ability to think outside the box on the part of Citizen Flaherty. Alas they are gonna need [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 8:49am EDT
  

• Bill Safire RIP...

  Others are remembering the wry and puckish wordsmith, that de-lightful conservative contrarian who was nonetheless hell bent on avenging Richard Nixon no matter what the cost the polity.
  Indeed Safire's dishonest war-hawkery lead him to become Dick Cheney's servile stenographer in the lead up to the second Iraq War and [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 8:50am EDT
  

• I'm with the Governor on the whole Hyatt Affair

  Housekeeping is back-breaking labor set to a blistering pace at most hotels, and the "excessive" $15 an hour these women were making is a meager pittance by which to raise a family.
  So hell yeah Deval Patrick was right to threaten a boycott of the Hyatt, replacing those women with [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 6:29am EDT
  

• Senator Kirk...? Meh.

  He will vote the right way, oppose the inevitable filibuster and keep Edward Maximus' formidable constituent services office humming.
  I'd a preferred former governor Mike Dukakis who has made an effort to court the democratic base at the town and city level and thus deserves some recognition but in the [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 8:49am EDT
  

• And ANOTHER THING...

  Mike Dukakis is akin to Teddy Kennedy in one very important respect, you couldn't bribe him to save your life. Instead of these other well-heeled types who go hunting for monied clients after public life the Duke has happily consigned himself to a modest teaching position at Northeastern where by' [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 8:53am EDT
  

• The New York Times reported yesterday

  that former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis is no longer in the running to serve as an Interim US Senator in Edward Maximus' bow vacant seat.
  Un-named sources cited the Duke's rep for "independence" and his concurrent association with an era of "democratic defeat".
  In the words of Olde Misanthrope "What'" [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 6:51am EDT
  

• So it is Mike versus Tom

  and then it'll be Tom and then maybe...who knows? Tom all over again.
  Hate to say it kids but short of the Sons of Ragnar sacking the City of Boston on election day, this mayoral contest is a foregone conclusion, it will be Menino Uber Alles all over again.[...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 8:50am EDT
  

• My Prediction:

  that it will be Flaherty versus Menino starting tomorrow, I don't think Hizzoner will get 50% of the vote today, but don't take that to the bank.
  Sam Yoon is running an interesting campaign, if I lived in Boston I might vote for him, but his election day battle plan [...]
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  Posted: September 22, 2009, 8:52am EDT
  

• Brief thought on the current healthcare debate

  The one thing that is not being discussed, indeed everyone avoids this core aspect like the plague, is the essential class based character of the problem.
  Oddly enough, that stalwart pragmatist, Mike Dukakis gets close to the class aspect of the issue whenever he goes on the Jeff Santos Show [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 8:48am EDT
  

• Assuming WWE President Linda McMahon

  really does get the GOP nomination in 2010 then all Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd has to do to beat her is sponsor a new round of hearings in congress investigating steroid abuse among professional athletes. Promise new laws, discuss the evil health effects of steroid drug abuse, condemn the [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 6:32am EDT
  

• He voted for Romney in 1994??

  In my best Major Hockstedter voice I bellow "Who IS this maaa-an??!!!"
  
  Honestly I can't say Pagliuca is off to a good start with his Senate race, nobody knows him from a cord of wood outside of the basketball court and he has been giving Romney money and' [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 1:11pm EDT
  

• Rep. Joe Wilson "Rebuked"

  by the US House of Representatives, well it is the least they can do sez Humble Elias.
  Otherwise money-hungry congressmen will be tempted to pull similar or even worse stunts the next time the President speaks on Capitol Hill in hopes of reaping a big cash windfall has Congressman [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 9:13am EDT
  

• My Ghod!

  Doesn't anyone WANT to be a United States Senator from Massachusetts anymore??
  
  Now Steve Lynch has bailed on the project, a few frowns from the AFL-CIO and he tears up his nomination papers sans demure.
  
  I'm beginning to think that Hillary Clinton's rear guard in this state [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 11:19pm EDT
  

• Congressman Tierney sez "no"

  to running for Edward Maximus' seat.
  Didn't even know he was thinking about it qquite frankly.
  Anyone else out there wanna decline to make the race?
  Congressman Olver?
  Average Joe Malone?
  Whitey Bulger?
  Ben Affleck?
  
  Meanwhile who is this mook Stephen Pagliuca and other than money and [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 6:36am EDT
  

• Three and some change?

  I thought this was gonna be a bigger democratic primary so far the heavy hitters are Steve Lynch, Mike Capuano and AG Martha Coakley plus Alan Khazei and some other small fry.
  No Ed Markey no Barney Frank no Joe Kennedy, I thought for sure this was gonna be all [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 8:49am EDT
  

• Sorry Jeff...

  If a fetus has a "right to life" then it also has a "right to affordable health care".
  You can't be a bleeding heart about the fetus and a social Darwinist about the resultant child or adult.
  And your precious free market has had forty years now to cover' [...]
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  Posted: September 13, 2009, 9:54am EDT
  

• Jock Itch Part 2

  Couldn't Curt Schilling run as a "Petitioning Republican" in the special election? Technically he is registered as an independent in the Commonwealth and cannot run as a Republican, but as a "petitioner" he could promise to caucus the GOP once elected and switch in as soon as the law allows.[...]
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  Posted: September 12, 2009, 11:03pm EDT
  

• If Representative Joe Wilson is so darn apologetic

  over his outburst ("You Lie!" he screamed at the Chief Executive) at the President Wednesday night, then why doesn't he call a moratorium on his congressional fundraising?
  It seems he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from joyful birthers and other vengeful book worshippers in the wake of' [...]
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  Posted: September 11, 2009, 8:40am EDT
  

• A-Andy Card for the US Senate?

  That old golem? Good grief the state GOP really is scraping the bottom of the barrel aren't they?
  Wait til they find out that his decades as a Bush family lackey didn't make him a wealthy man at least not enough to self finance a campaign for the US [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 1:21pm EDT
  

• If Max Baucus is really serious about

  going forward on a healthcare bill with or without GOP support, then all Humble Elias can say is, he is gonna want that "Interim" US Senator's vote from Massachusetts at some point in the process.
  As the stakes get higher in this fight, the necessity of that 60th vote [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 6:22am EDT
  

• Back in the mid-1950's

  whenever his TV ratings took a nose dive or his producers would hound him to freshen up his material, Red Skelton would hit the vodka bottle hard, strip down to his shorts, arm himself with a loaded pistol and defy the whole world by climbing the nearest tree on his [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 8:40am EDT
  

• The wingnuts are

  in a lather about President Obama's speech to the nation's school children this week which is nothing but mute testimony to his fearsome powers of persuasion. Neither they nor even I, as a liberal blogger could care less when it was George Bush Jr. touring elementary schools making a [...]
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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 8:43am EDT
  

• GAWD DAMMNIT!

  Joe ain't gonna run!
  
  I had my Grenadier's uniform dry cleaned and my assegai professionally sharpened!
  ***
  All bombast aside, today officially marks the end of the Kennedy dynasty one or the other in that family has represented this Commonwealth in DC since 1946, the curtain has at' [...]
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  Posted: September 07, 2009, 8:57pm EDT
  

• Joanie Vennochi in Love?

  It would appear that the Boston globe columnist has found her candidate for the US Senate, and that would be Attorney General Martha Coakley.
  No venom aimed at the candidate's supposed bullying tendencies, no snarkage at their lack of political courage...I mean you'd think Joanie had fallen in love' [...]
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  Posted: September 04, 2009, 6:23am EDT
  

• This just in...

  Apparently per Massachusetts electoral statute, Curt Schilling can't run in the special election for Ted Kennedy's seat as a republican.
  It seems that he is still a registered independent and missed the deadline to change up before the primary...
  If so, I bet the Schilling for Senate meme dies' [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 1:29pm EDT
  

• Jock Itch...

  Curt Schilling wants in as a GOP candidate for Edward Maximus' senate seat?
  Didn't see that one coming...
  On paper though it makes some sense, he can self finance a race and as far as the local republican's are concerned he is a reliable wingnut in his views.
  However, [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 8:48am EDT
  

• Coakley Piles In...

  Kudos to the AG for decisiveness, she has made up her mind while others mull & dither.
  She has clearly internalized that notion that a long tenure as Attorney General of the Commonwealth can be an impediment to a wider career in politics, you just make too many enemies [...]
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  Posted: September 02, 2009, 8:40am EDT
  

• Orrin Hatch on Imus in the Morning today...

  Despite the recent death of his best pal Teddy Kennedy, the Senator for Utah remains remarkably sound of wind and even a bit fey.
  He combined a sentimental remembrance of his old friend Edward Maximus with a long sorrowful denunciation of "government run healthcare on a single payer plan". His [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 8:43am EDT
  

• And on the Third Day...Politics Sets In...

  The Boston Herald is hyping a senatorial candidacy for Edward Maxiumus' second widow Victoria Reggie, however the Globe is talking up the alleged ambitions of former US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III.
  So it would seem the family has resoved to find themselves a candidate...and on that much may turn' [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 9:01am EDT
  

• Ideological quicksand

  the philosophical dry-rot of movement conservatism extends even down as far as Jeff Jacoby's level. Yes indeed the Sunday Globe's own laughing young senescence goes staggering out into deep mire trying to prove that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was really a wingnut with welcome bona fides for any Kampus Konservative [...]
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  Posted: August 30, 2009, 6:11pm EDT
  

• When Edward Maximus first ran for the US Senate

  his slogan was "Kennedy: He Can Do More".
  
  Did ever a politician pay off so relentlessly on an off-hand cliche'?
  
  ****
  Hearts are heavy right now, but on Monday, I promise you politics will set in, and those dauntless campaigners, the Spartans of Menotomy will take up their' [...]
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  Posted: August 29, 2009, 8:29pm EDT
  

• Wasn't gonna do any special e-lection

  polly-tix til after Edward Maxiumus' funeral rites, but this item had me guffawing loudly in the Alewife T-Station parking garage this morning.
  Scary Kerry Healey wants to run for the US Senate?
  Oh ghod that...is...a...riot!
  I guess her husband has unfrozen her allowance so she is free to seek' [...]
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  Posted: August 28, 2009, 8:38am EDT
  

• Oh and congrats...

  to our new Senior Senator from Massachusetts, John Forbes Kerry, hope that hip of his heals up quick cause' his job just got waa-ay more challenging.
  ***
  
  BTW, the talk show tyrants are in a bluster over democrats "politicizing" Ted Kennedy's death, but then again these are the same' [...]
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  Posted: August 28, 2009, 7:11am EDT
  

• An anecdote and a quote...

  regarding the death of Senator Kennedy can be found over at Channel Zero. [...]
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  Posted: August 27, 2009, 6:30am EDT