Brown wins Massachusetts Race

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Brown wins Massachusetts Race
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Wed, 01-20-2010 - 9:48am

Scott Brown Victory a 'Repudiation' of Obama, Health Care?


Republicans, Democrats Spar on Meaning of Massachusetts Race

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/scott-brown-defeat-coakley-means-obama/story?id=9609602


In the wake of Republican Scott Brown's stunning defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in the race to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, the debate has begun about what the outcome means for President Obama and Democrats nationwide.


Brown won 52 percent of voters to Coakley's 47 percent in Tuesday's special Senate election. Coakley, the state attorney general, had a 30-point lead three months ago.


Republicans believe a win in the bluest of blue states, where a Republican had not been elected to the U.S. Senate since 1972, amounts to a popular rebuke of the president's agenda.


"There's been a pattern here that began last spring and the administration has refused to acknowledge what the people out across the country have been saying," GOP chairman Michael Steele said on "Good Morning America" today.


"For the Democrats, this is clearly not the change they expected, but it's certainly the change the people of Massachusetts -- like the people in New Jersey and Virginia -- wanted," Steele said.


Steele called the outcome in Massachusetts a "repudiation" of Democrats' health care overhaul legislation pending in Congress, saying 41 Republican votes in the Senate now effectively kills the bill in its current form. Democrats needed to retain 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster.


"Start from scratch. Start by listening to the people," Steele advised his Democratic colleagues on health care.


For his part, Brown had campaigned in opposition to the Obama health care proposal, saying he would vote against the bill if elected.


"One thing is very, very clear as I travelled throughout the state," Brown, a lawyer and former model, said in his acceptance speech last night. "People do not want the trillion-dollar heath care plan that is being forged."


But many Democrats rebutted the notion that Brown's victory is a major statement on Obama and the Democrat's legislative agenda, including health care overhaul.


"We won the House and Senate in 2006, we won the White House in 2008. ... People sent the unmistakable message they wanted change. We have to deliver on that," former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said on 'GMA.'


"The Republicans have chosen their path: they are doing the bidding of insurance companies, just as they're going to do with big banks as it relates to financial reform. We have a good health care plan ? and we need to pass that," Plouffe said.



Obama's Reaction to Brown Win?

The White House has previously deflected suggestions that a Brown victory would amount to a referendum on the Obama presidency, vowing to move ahead on its agenda.


"I think there's a tremendous amount of upset and anger in this country about where we are economically," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday.


Asked whether he believed Americans are now attaching that frustration with Washington to Obama, Gibbs said, "I think there is certainly some attachment to us."


Still, the administration and many Democrats plan to continue pursuing their agenda "full speed ahead."


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday night the loss of the 60-vote majority will not change the Democrats' priorities.


"While Senator-elect Brown's victory changes the political math in the Senate, we remain committed to strengthening our economy, creating good paying jobs and ensuring all Americans can access affordable health care," Reid said in a statement. "We hope that Scott Brown will join us in these efforts. There is much work to do to address the problems Democrats inherited last year, and we plan to move full speed ahead."


Although Democrats no longer have the votes needed to thwart a Republican filibuster, they maintain the largest Senate majority either party has enjoyed since 1979 and still have the ability to pass legislation through reconciliation, a process that bypasses normal Senate rules by only requiring 50 votes.



What's Next for Health Care Reform

Brown has said he opposes Democrats' health care overhaul working its way through Congress, leaving Democrats scrambling to develop contingency plans for the bill's passage.


Several congressional sources say reconciliation or, forcing legislation though on a simple majority is off the table because it would mean having to start over and could risk losing some Democratic moderates, which in turn could cost Democrats the bill altogether. But a few Democrats have suggested reconciliation is be a viable option.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Monday, "Let's remove all doubt, we will have health care -- one way or another."


Another option: The House could pass the Senate version of the health care bill verbatim, which would send the legislation to the president's desk without protracted negotiations.


"Whether there are 59 seats in the Senate or 60, we still have to work hard to get our economy back on track. We still have to work hard to make the promise of affordable, accessible health care for millions of Americans a reality," Gibbs said Tuesday.


Meanwhile, public support for the president and Democrats' plan to overhaul the health care system continues to wane.


In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 51 percent of Americans said they oppose health care overhaul efforts, with only 44 percent in favor.


At its peak, in September and again in November, 30 percent of Americans "strongly" backed the proposed changes. With the plan still undergoing modifications, that has dropped to 22 percent, a new low. Substantially more, 39 percent, are "strongly" opposed, a number that's held steadier.



The Newest Senate Republican

Brown, 50, will become the 41st Republican in the Senate after he's sworn in in the coming days.


The state senator, lawyer and former model is married to Gail Huff, a reporter at the Boston ABC affiliate and former co-host of a parenting show on the Lifetime television network, and has a daughter, Ayla, who was a semi-finalist on American Idol in 2006.


Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said he would notify the Senate on Wednesday that Brown had been elected, even though he had said earlier it could take more than two weeks to certify the special election results.


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that Brown would be seated "as soon as the proper paperwork has been received."


A delay could give Democrats time to try to push through final passage of Obama's health care plan, though some have suggested Brown's victory should put the process on hold.


"In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process," Virginia Democrat Sen. Jim Webb said in a statement.


"To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."



GOP Says Brown's Senate Victory Sends a Message to Obama

While the many Democrats deny that the Massachusetts race is a preview of what's to come in the November general election, Republicans say the symbolism of Brown's victory is hard to deny.


"As we look forward to the midterm elections this November, Democrats nationwide should be on notice: Americans are ready to hold the party in power accountable for their irresponsible spending and out-of-touch agenda, and they're ready for real change in Washington," National Republican Campaign Committee chairman John Cornyn said after Brown's victory.


Massachusetts, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than three to one, has long been a Democratic stronghold, sending two Democratic senators to Washington for each of the past 31 years.


The last time a Republican senator was elected in Massachusetts was November 1972, when Sen. Edward Brooke won the coveted seat.


Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee said the message voters sent in Brown's victory was not lost on the party.


"I have no interest in sugar coating what happened in Massachusetts," Menendez said. "There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now. Americans are understandably impatient. The truth is Democrats understand the economic anger voters feel, that's in large part why we did well in 2006 and 2008.


"In the days ahead, we will sort through the lessons of Massachusetts: the need to redouble our efforts on the economy, the need to show that our commitment to real change is as powerful as it was in 2008, and the reality that we cannot take a single thing for granted and cannot afford even a second of complacency."

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sun, 01-24-2010 - 1:05pm

I just find it funny that so many on these boards like to bash an opponent for what they have done many years ago. But, for some reason, Obama is excluded from this.


What about the blatant lies that were spread about Obama during the campaign?


iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
Sun, 01-24-2010 - 6:52pm

((As for Brown...I think it's less bashing & more the fact that it's hysterically funny that he posed nude (ick!) and then went on to espouse 'values'...ROTFLOL!))

Oh please! The fact of the matter is that the DEMOCRATIC voters of MA liked him and voted for him...whether he posed nude or not in his younger years has nothing to do with it. What IS hysterically funny is that the far far left fringe still refuse to see that the American people (most democrats and republicans and independents) do not want what Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are trying to sell.

Anybody that has stood out against them has been bashed, ridiculed, insulted, etc. Well, guess what....it looks as if Obama is starting to FINALLY listen. I think he's the ONLY smart one in the bunch and he really likes the white house and wants to stay in it for the full 8 years.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-28-2009
Sun, 01-24-2010 - 7:19pm

<>

I'm not on the far far left fringe, nor even on the fringe, yet I'll be voting for Reid in the upcoming election. :-)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Sun, 01-24-2010 - 7:42pm
Could you even imagine if a nude picture of Hillary when she was say, 20 something, suddenly appeared. There would be rioting in Washington D.C.. The tea bag people would demand she resign.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
Sun, 01-24-2010 - 11:37pm
LOL! Okay...that just made me picture something in my mind.

 

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Mon, 01-25-2010 - 8:44am
Blatant sexist double standard. A woman would never get away with anything close to that. Posing nude got Vanessa Williams title of Miss America, a BEAUTY pageant, taken away from her? Personally, I think we all do foolish things we're not proud of, in our past, and that's where it should stay. I think it goes for Obama's previous drug use, Bush's DUI, this photograph, as long as the person has learned and moved on. None of them would be doing it today.










iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 01-25-2010 - 1:14pm

Actually, the info they've gotten was that the voters in MA were frustrated more than anything.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 01-25-2010 - 1:41pm

>"That such a message would resonate here was poignant, given that no one had fought harder and longer than Kennedy for universal health care, something that the terminally ill liberal lion had referred to before his death in August as "the cause of my life." And it was all the more ironic considering that Massachusetts has come closer than any other state to assuring coverage to all of its citizens, thanks to a 2006 law that was championed by a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, who was celebrating onstage with Brown on election night.


Although the rest of the country sees Massachusetts as the bluest of blue states — it had not elected a Republican Senator since Richard Nixon was President — its political complexion is actually more subtle. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1, but fully half the state's voters are registered "unenrolled" — not affiliated with any party. And four of its last five governors have been Republicans, albeit ones of a more moderate stripe than that of the national party."<


>"He won his first election as a local tax assessor in 1992 and was elected to the state senate in 2004. His politics tend to be standard conservative on issues like taxes and guns, but he supports Roe v. Wade and in 2007 earned a 100% rating from the Massachusetts Audubon Society."<


Segments from. The article is worth a read......


Mass Mutiny: How Scott Brown Shook the Political World


http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1955410,00.html

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Sun, 01-31-2010 - 8:39pm

>>In early January, the National Republican Senatorial Committee quietly dispatched staffers to Massachusetts and shifted $500,000 to the state party — a huge plug of cash that wouldn't show up on its campaign filings until after the election was over.<<

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1955410,00.html#ixzz0eFCLYmEE

Wow.






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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 02-01-2010 - 8:33am
Plus he ran the better campaign IMO. Sounds as though Coakley thought she was a shoo-in.

 


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