Massachusetts: Don't Let Scott Brown Win Kennedy's Senate Seat

Today, November 17, 2010, President Barack Obama will be in Massachusetts to campaign for Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley. The president is to stump for Coakley at 3:00 p.m. at Northeastern University.

Running against Coakley for the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy's seat in the Senate is Republican, Scott Brown. We are worried. This race is tight. It takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster and Ms. Coakley would be number 60.

More importantly than "just numbers" (Although they translate into what I am going to write about) would be the fact that a Republican, who stands against everything Ted Kennedy stood for, would sit in his seat.

I do understand that many people do not like the Kennedy's. I certainly understand that many people did not like Senator Kennedy; however, whatever personal issues you have with him and his family must be put aside for this important election.

Senator Kennedy and his family have spent their lives in public service. The lion of the Senate for 47 years fought his entire career to reform health care so that everyone could get medicine for their children; so that even the people without means could see the best doctors rather than just the rich; and in general, "justice for all." That is what you pledge to our flag, isn't it? Scott Brown opposes justice for all. Brown voted no on the Constitutional call for universal health care.

The ads on television tout Brown as a guy for the people. As Ms. Coakley states, "Just because you can drive around the commonwealth in a truck doesn't mean you're going in the right direction," source

Scott Brown was not well known before December 2009. He has brought buses of people to various towns. People ask him for his autograph. I saw it myself in my town. It truly was a circus. Brown is 50-years old and quite good looking. I have no doubts his political aspirations are no longer the Senate seat. The Senate seat would be Ms. Coakley's life's work and that is what we need.

Senator Kennedy stated this, "That experience with Teddy (his son who lost a leg to cancer) made it clear to me, as never before, that health care must be affordable and available for every mother or father who hears a sick child cry in the night and worries about the deductibles and copays if they go to the doctor. But that was just one medical crisis. My family, like every other, has faced many-at every stage of life. I think of my parents and the medical care they needed after their strokes. I think of my son Patrick, who suffered serious asthma as a child and sometimes had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment. (For this reason, we had no dogs in the house when Patrick was young.) I think of my daughter, Kara, diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002. Few doctors were willing to try an operation. One did-and after that surgery and arduous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, she's alive and healthy today. My family has had the care it needed. Other families have not, simply because they could not afford it. source

On September 12, 2009, Brown announced his intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy, saying the state "needs an independent thinker." Brown has been described as a moderate New England Republican with socially moderate and fiscally conservative views. On December 8, 2009, Brown won the GOP Primary for the open U.S. Senate seat. Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne, has called Brown "an insurgent who was somewhat disconnected from the national Republican Party". Brown has said, "I'm going to be the only person down there who is going to be the independent voter and thinker" and "I've always been the underdog in one shape or form." source

Let's take a look at Scott Brown:

In the special election campaign in 2010, controversy erupted over an amendment Brown had sponsored in 2005, which, according to The Boston Globe, "would have allowed a doctor, nurse or hospital to deny rape victims an emergency contraceptive if it 'conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.'"

Brown referred to a lesbian Democratic opponent's decision to have children as "not normal", but he quickly apologized for the statement.

In June 1982 Scott Brown was 22 and a law student at Boston College. He posed for a nude centerfold pictorial in Cosmopolitan, with his hand covering his genitals. He won the magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" contest. At that time he had political ambitions marrying WCVB-TV reporter, Gail Huff. Brown has also worked as an actor in his early careerappearing in a variety of television commercials.

The man who drives a truck and his wife own five pieces of real estate, including a 3,000-square-foot home in Wrentham, three condos in Boston, a Rye, New Hampshire home, and a timeshare on the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Martha Coakley said that Scott Brown" doesn't pay for health insurance for his campaign staffers, adding "If he won't stand up for the people he employs, how could we ever trust him to stand up for us?" Brown denied the allegation at first, but now admits that his employees are "happy" to pay for their own health insurance." [Boston.com]

In all fairness I did not vote for Martha Coakley. I voted for her Democratic opponent. However, Ms. Coakley must win. Massachusetts has tended to do the right thing going as far back as I can remember to 1972. Massachusetts was the only state to vote for Eugene McCarthy rather than Nixon.

Come on, Massachusetts. Remember your roots, Remember we spawned President John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. I truly believe if Bobby had not been assassinated the world would look a lot different that it does. Don't let a Republican sit in Ted Kennedy's seat! Vote Democratic on Tuesday, January 19.

Sources
Boston.com
wikipedia
Newsweek