In 2002 Paul Wellstone's senate seat went to that smarmy creep Norm Coleman

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

and it was really tough to deal with. Wellstone was killed less than two weeks before the election, and Walter Mondale ran in his place. It would have been pretty close even if Wellstone had lived, but Coleman manged to defeat Mondale by about 2%. Six years later, Al Franken took the seat back from Coleman, but only after a squeaker of an election that led to an 8-month recount. For that matter, Wellstone himself won his first election in 1990 by a very small margin, and possibly only because representatives of his opponent, Rudy Boschwitz, wrote a letter to the Jewish community accusing Wellstone of being a "bad Jew" because he had married a Christian and wasn't raising his kids as Jews.

The reason I mention Wellstone is because there seems to be some similarity to today's election in Massachusetts: the seat held by a revered liberal is somehow lost to a creepy wingnut Republican, and we wonder how this could have happened in a "blue" state. The point is, the "blueness" of both MN and MA isn't solid. In some places it's downright red. For all that MN has had a long-standing reputation for being hardcore liberal, the unfortunate fact is that the state that produced progressive politicians like Wellstone and Keith Ellison is the same state that produced Teabag Queen Michelle Bachmann and Timmy "The Tool" Pawlenty. I am totally unfamiliar with MA politics, but I suspect MA also has wingnut enclaves like Bachmann's 6th district.

Although it's not the end of the world, six years is a long time to have to put up with an asshat like Brown, just like six years with Coleman was pretty loathsome. The stunning loss of Wellstone's seat really got Democrats stirred up, though, and I believe it inspired Al Franken to run in 2008. So what's my point? Dunno, except that we press on and hope for something better to come out of this, as it finally did in MN.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Good news, VO. Brown will be up for election in 2012!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Excellent! I had assumed he got the whole six years.

I do feel a bit better knowing that.

[Arkana]

3. Brown's up again in 2012--so it's only two years before we get another

crack at him.

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. I hope to Hell they can find a better candidate by then.

I'm sure Brown will prove himself to be the fucking embarrassment that we all know he is. Massachusetts voters might tolerate a William Weld type, but I don't see them wanting to keep an extremist teabagging fuckwit for too long.

[Arkana]

11. We've got one--Mike Capuano, if he decides to run, is perfect.

He's a natural campaigner, which will beat Snotty Scotty at his own game.

He's enormously popular with the unions--so the cops, firefighters, and SEIU will get behind him immediately.

And it helps that he's a member of the House Progressive Caucus.

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. He seems to have a lot of fans here at DU, so why didn't he win the primary?

Admittedly I didn't follow the race closely, not being in MA. All I knew is that Coakley was clearly the corporate-favored candidate before Teddy's body was even room temperature, and I could see that was bad news even then. :evilfrown:

[Arkana]

19. Martha had money, name recognition, and enormous popularity.

She's a fantastic attorney general.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

17. How did Coakley win the primary?

Was he in it?

[texasleo]

4. Mass. learned nothing from the Minn. blunders.

"Let's win this for ____ " just doesn't cut it anymore.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. There really weren't blunders in MN.

I was just making the point that you can't assume a state is reliably "blue" and that sometimes elections take nasty turns -- but that it doesn't last forever. MA has to put up with Brown for only two years; we were stuck with Coleman for six.

I also don't see this as a referendum on any bigger issue, since it sounds like Coakely's campaign wasn't very good in the first place.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Your is the only post tonight that offered me some sense of hope and consolation

about what is happening tonight.
Thanks for that.

I hope your long-term optimism is not misplaced...

:thumbsup: :hi: :pals:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Thank you. I am an eternal optimist.

And I'm old and have been watching politics for a long time. You win some and you lose some. And then after you lose you come back and win again. I'm not happy any time a teabagger wingnut wins, but I know that it's only temporary.

[Scurrilous]

6. K & R

:thumbsup:

[rockymountaindem]

7. Don't despair too much, the term they're vying to fill ends in 2012

So even if we don't win there will be plenty of opportunity for someone worthwhile (like Michael Capuano) to run soon enough with a real campaign and send Brown packing if he wins tonight.

[gateley]

10. Thatnks for the perspective. I feel better -- really! nt

[mreilly]

12. It's very true

I live in Massachusetts and we're not all the latte-drinking Volvo driving hippies we're protrayed as. Maybe in Cambridge and Boston, but outside the metropolitan areas it can be quite different. The town I live in is up near New Hampshire and it's actually quite red because there is a heavy blue collar element that votes Republican.

When I moved here many years ago there were quite a few "Bush/Cheney" bumper stickers around but thankfully many more Boston-area suburbanites like myself have been coming here over the past few years so the tone has gotten a bit more progressive. The schools are having major funding problems and whenever a vote to increase spending is put to the town of course the Republicans rush out in droves to shoot it down. Their ability to do that has decreased over the years so I hope to see the day when they become a minority in my neighborhood.

Brown is a total asshat as you said and it's going to be difficult, should he win, to deal with the aftermath. We'll be going from a hard-working knowledgable Senator who cared about and worked for all the people to just another rich asshole sent to Washington to toe the GOP line and obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. Furthermore, I no longer take comfort in any notion that a Republican will prove to his supporters that electing him was a mistake; these people have entire campaign staffs to protect their image and make sure their fuckups are swept aside or covered up, such that nobody is ever allowed to realize "Gee, I voted for this puke and all he ever did was help millionaires. Meanwhile I've got no job and this piece of shit just voted to cut my unemployment benefits." However, as you said, we'll press on if it comes to this and hope for something better

It is just very frustrating to me that the people have to learn the same lesson over and over and over again: "if you vote for a Republican, that Republican is going to give you a wrecked economy, bankrupt schools, more pollution, less rights, and a shattered world image of the U.S."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. But just think how good it will feel when a Democrat finally defeats Brown.

You can't imagine the joy and delight of MN Democrats when the election was finally certified for Franken (who, by the way, seems so far to be turning out to be an excellent Senator).

[TicketyBoo]

24. Ain't it the truth?

there is a heavy blue collar element that votes Republican

This always amazes me, how "Joe the Plumber" types can think that voting for the Republican party is in their best interests. Pure stupidity.

It is just very frustrating to me that the people have to learn the same lesson over and over and over again: "if you vote for a Republican, that Republican is going to give you a wrecked economy, bankrupt schools, more pollution, less rights, and a shattered world image of the U.S."

The problem is, they never seem to learn. If they ever do, it is a short-lived lesson.

[AspenRose]

13. Good post and on point.

[Odin2005]

15. The Media made up a BS fake "controversy" about Wellstones's memorial service...

In order to get Coleman a victory. That was when I first discovered that the MSM was evil.

[alsame]

16. Excellent post, thanks for putting this in perspective. nt

[quiet.american]

21. That made me feel a little better, thanks. nt

[newspeak]

22. I have never lived in Minnesota

but I always donated to Wellstone. I remember when Wellstone died, I was devastated. A volunteer called me to donate to Mondale, since I had already donated to Wellstone. I remember them stating that they were not going to count those who already voted by absentee ballot for Wellstone-Mondale did not have those votes. But, Coleman got to count his absentee ballot votes--it stunk. Maybe that's how Coleman won.

[jimlup]

25. Agree, I've drawn some parallels with the Minnesota too.

I think there are some similarities. My daughter who lives in Minnesota reports that there was controversy and disenfranchisement for the Coleman election. Honestly, I believe some very very dark forces were behind part of that one. I've never accepted that Wellstone's death as an accident.