Mike the Mad Biologist

MA: Did the Machine Break?

Posted by Mike on January 21, 2010
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I think this is only part of the story, but it seems that the ‘Democratic Machine’ in Massachusetts might have slipped a gear:

“Nobody likes her” says mom. What she means is, Coakley had no friends in politics. The Democrats in Massachusetts let this happen because – “I don’t know” says mom.

Maybe they weren’t about to let Western Mass manipulate them. Maybe it all comes down to nothing more than who is friends with whom.

All Scott Brown did was see an opportunity and turn it to his advantage.

There is no deeper national implication. This is not a death knell for the Democratic party or Obama. This is a story of a domestic spat between “parochial divisions” in Massachusetts.


If this is true, this is political malpractice of the highest order. Did the Boston pols (or the Western MA ones) really believe that they would be better off with a teabagger Republican senator who is the member of an obstructionist party that doesn’t believe in providing jobs?

Tristero is right: a firing squad would be a good idea…

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  1. #1 Moopheus
    January 21, 2010

    “Did the Boston pols (or the Western MA ones) really believe that they would be better off with a teabagger Republican senator who is the member of an obstructionist party that doesn’t believe in providing jobs?”

    How long have you lived in this state?

    The Democrats had, for at least a little while, a 60-vote majority in the Senate. They could have done any damn thing they wanted if they had been able to get their shit together for more than five minutes. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t do health care reform. They couldn’t do finance reform. They don’t need another party to be obstructionist; they’re perfectly capable of being obstructing themselves without any help from anybody. The only thing they don’t obstruct is the paychecks of lobbyists. The Democrats, as a party, are completely worthless and not supportable. Yes, the Republicans are just the same, just stupid in different ways. Why are these our only choices?

  2. #2 Oran Kelley
    January 21, 2010

    Anyone who thinks the 60 Democratic senators we had allowed the Democrats “to do anything” is utterly ignorant of those 60 senators.

    Those are the two choices you get because a majority of voters are also benighted. Though perhaps differently benighted.

  3. #3 Donna B.
    January 21, 2010

    I’m not sure that Scott Brown knew he had such an advantage at first, but he would have been an idiot not to exploit it.

    And idiot… what a descriptor of Martha Coakley. There is something truly wrong with a political system/machine… whatever you want to call it that not only CAN, but does produce such a truly despicable candidate.

    Republicans use the same system, so that’s a “bipartisan” statement.

  4. #4 llewelly
    January 22, 2010

    pshaw. This is just business as usual. With the exception of the actions of a few highly talented operators, most of the time, the “democratic machine” behaves as if its gears were missing teeth, as if its belts were all tangled up, and as if there were a lot of loose screws rolling about. The democrats only have a chance because the Republican machine is bound up in a monstrous delusion, wholly at odds with reality.