AP: Scott Brown Wins Senate Election in Massachusetts

From Bloomberg

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late Democrat Edward Kennedy, a political upset that imperils health-care legislation in Congress and sends a warning shot to Democrats ahead of November’s elections.

Brown was running ahead of Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley by about 5 percentage points with roughly 80 percent of the state’s precincts reporting. Independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, no relation to the late senator, was running a distant third.

Brown, 50, a previously little-known state senator, cast himself as an independent voice who would help thwart President Barack Obama’s health-care plan and keep a check on Democrats in Congress, particularly on tax-increase proposals.

Brown’s victory increases his party’s Senate numbers to 41, which would enable Republicans to stall votes in the chamber on an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, Obama’s top legislative goal.

His victory, in a state Obama won by 26 percentage points in the 2008 election, is the third recent high-profile Democratic loss. In November, the president’s party lost the governor’s mansions in New Jersey and Virginia. It follows decisions by five House Democrats since November to retire instead of face potentially tough races later this year.

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Featured comments:

What i enjoy most about tonight mark, is watching democrats freak out...they brainwashed themselves into thinking that the 2008 elections actually meant something substantial, as opposed to bush and war fatigue...so suddenly they are forced to realize that voters haven't really shifted from their small government theme much at all...

health care falls apart now...there is no way a coalition will hold against this...for heaven's sake, voters just destroyed kennedy's legacy with vengeance...imagine what they will do in states that are more favorable...

dems might lose 75 seats in november...

stop the bailouts, stop the spending, stop the stimulus and stop the wars...

DB

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Comments

[James H]

Booyah! Never in my life have I been so happy to see an establishment political hack win an election. Regardless of Brown himself, everyone knows what this election was about.

Awesome.

[Oberron4life]

Jan. 19 Massachusetts. -- Ding Dong, the witch is dead. After nearly 500 years, the seat that has essentially been owned by the drug smuggling, moonshine selling family since the beginning of time, (or at least the inception of the US) has been wrangled away! In graves all over the northeast, ritual and synchronized spinning is heard!

Bye-bye health care reform. Take your rightful place next to the post-office.

Suck on that one, you bloated, bail-out, power wielding freaks. Suck on that one.

I'm going to have a beer.

[James H]

Well and judiciously said, Oberron4life.

Looks like these AP reporters get it:
"One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama's swearing-in, the election played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, WALL STREET BAILOUTS, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_massachusetts_senate

[Oberron4life]

Thanks, JamesH. This beer is delicious. Better than normal.

[allie]

Geez, leave the country for a couple months and I missed all of this?!

Top 10
1. Dodd is OUT?!! Fuck yeah!!!
2. Healthcare wasn't passed? I guess I overestimated the Democrats powers of corruption.
3. Bernanke was reconfirmed? Puke.
4. Ron Paul is still as awesome as ever? Yay!
5. Everything is going to be taxed to shit? Well, we all saw that coming.
6. Geithner is still a prick? Yep.
7. It was the coldest winter since the 1800s and snowed at my house (in FL)?! Glad I missed that one.
8. Unemployment is still high? Duh.
9. Oh good, the exchange rate back to the dollar is even less. I think I’ll keep my NZ currency as an investment.
10. Brown won? I didn’t even know who he was. I guess I’m glad he won for the filibuster—hope he’s not a scumbag.

Missed ya DB! Yeah, I suppose I could’ve read the news from New Zealand, but didn’t and it was great. Are you going to CPAC in February? C4L/YAL are putting on a big event...

[DailyBail]

3. Bernanke was reconfirmed? Puke.

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we missed your wit, allie...hope the backpacking/trekking/hiking was phenomenal...

by the way, #3 hasn't happened yet..but there are rumblings that the Senate might try to vote on Friday...he did advance out of committee about 3 weeks ago...that's likely what you read...

glad to have you back...

[DailyBail]

good times tonight...

i advanced a thesis at dinner...feel free to poke holes...

it goes something like this...democrats mis-read the 2008 results...they were more about anger at the wars and bush, than they were anti-republican...the majority of folks still support small government and limited spending...tonight's election confirmed this...

i'll say this...if the republicans don't start massively cutting gov't spending when they take over later this Fall, then you will see anger like you've never seen...

i think the message of tonight is stop the stimulus, stop the bailouts, stop health care and stop the motherf**king deficit spending...

[Sonic Ninja Kitty]

Welcome back, Allie!

[mark mchugh]

Hey Allie!

Well, according to the mainstream media, these "populists" are an uninformed, misguided, boisterous, bunch of cranks. Hmmmmm maybe after tonight they'll realize that we're smart enough to flick levers in the voting booth, and there's more of us then they thought possible.

By the way, I'm really proud of the people in Mass, tonight too!

I'm listening to MSNBC right now.....oh the stoopid hurts so bad.....

And DB, THANKS for staying in the battle. What you do here really does make a difference.

Who knows, maybe we'll see Bernanke get kicked in the nuts on Friday, lest a whole lot of incumbents will get "Coakleyed" in November!

[mark mchugh]

MSNBC says Obama has a 60% approval rating in Massachusetts......Um, I think maybe somebody should re-crunch those numbers.

[DailyBail]

what i enjoy most about tonight mark, is watching democrats freak out...they brainwashed themselves into thinking that the 2008 elections actually meant something substantial, as opposed to bush and war fatigue...so suddenly they are forced to realize that voters haven't really shifted from their small government theme much at all...

health care falls apart now...there is no way a coalition will hold against this...for heaven's sake, voters just destroyed kennedy's legacy with vengeance...imagine what they will do in states that are more favorable...

dems might lose 75 seats in november...

stop the bailouts, stop the spending, stop the stimulus and stop the wars...

[James H]

DB,

In answer to your questions, yes, yes, yes, and fuck yeah! I didn't vote for him, but I thought with Obama we'd get some kind of wind-down on Iraq, an end to bone-headed belligerency and an improvement on civil liberties. Had McCain opposed the bailout (what a wasted opportunity), I would have followed him "through the gates of hell" -- at least until election day.

So yeah, as bad as I thought Obama would be, I never in my life thought the Dems would pass an 800B "porkulus" bill, or that they would really try to do socialized medicine (or worse). Those things both surprised me and pissed me off.

Absolutely, the reason Obama beat McCain (and beat Hillary) is because of the wars, the belligerency and the disregard for civil liberties. It was about Bush, not how great Obama is (in his own mind).

Long-winded way of saying you're exactly right as far as I'm concerned.

[Tom Degan]

The good people of Massachusetts told pollster after pollster that they wanted to send a message to Washington. Well they certainly did that, didn't they?

"WE'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!"

Congratulations, Massachusetts!

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

[John S]

Brown won? I didn’t even know who he was... hope he’s not a scumbag.

One thing we know for certain, his opponent Coakley is a first class corrupt scumbag. She's not going to Washington and Mass. is still stuck with her as they should be. Maybe the voter's sanity will last until the fall and she'll be dumped from her AG job as well.

[S. Gompers]

Welcome back Allie!

[allie]

Woops, I was reading about the committee vote DB. Maybe I jinxed it for him and he won't get the nomination... ha.

Thanks DB, Gomps, SNK, mark, Jamesy! Nice to see you all here again :)

[call me Roy]

Scott Brown's win isn’t just about the people disliking incumbents. I voted for President Obama (like many Independents) hoping he was a centrist but I was wrong. Like many Americans, I did not do my research on the people who surround this President. Now, I realize that this Administration has many socialists who want to fundamentally change our country by pushing their Progressive agenda down the American people’s throats. The Bush administration was no better, they failed our country miserably by outsourcing all of our jobs (manufacturing) out of America and buy taking care of Wall Street instead of Americans. The mistakes that Obama has made (besides not standing up to China about the currency problem so we can change the trade laws) are piling up and the Democrats in charge of health care need to be tar and feathered. They are worthless and corrupt. We need a health care system created by politicians who work in the open, not behind closed doors. Lastly, we have terrorists who would love to destroy our country and who hate us. What does this administration do? They get them lawyers and band-aids. Does this Administration remember what Al Kaeda does to Americans if they are captured? They are beheaded on video. And we have people who are worried about the terrorist's rights? Our President apologizes to the world about how bad we are, when this country has fed hundreds of millions of people for decades. Our brave and blessed soliders died to save the world from pure evil twice (World War 1 & 2) Then yesterday we finally had lawmakers criticizing leaders of an internal Pentagon inquiry into the deadly Fort Hood shootings for refusing to discuss why the accused gunman moved through the U.S military's ranks despite repeated concerns over his performance and behavior. The American people can easily see how politial correctness has filtered up to the highest levels in our military. Why would anyone turn in this guy knowing if you did, this administration would go after you and courtmartial you for racial profiling. Look at how this administration is prosecuting the Navy Seals for alleged crimes. Just how stupid is this Administration to prosecute 3 Navy Seal heros for giving a terrorist a fat lip when they should have shot and killed the SOB on the spot. There are too many terrorists going to trial and not enough going to Allah! Why is this Administration doing this? Apparently, many people in Massachusetts have made a conscious list of the boneheaded moves by our President dealing with this terrorist problem. The list has become so big, many Americans do not trust our President anymore. This time in history is just like when Woodrow Wilson was in office. The fundamental problem with the Progressives is that they believe they are smarter than those they govern. You can see it in Obama's speeches. He recently said of the health care bill, "The American people will realize that this bill is a good thing...and doesn't do what they say it does." That's more or less saying, "These peasants simply don't understand what we, their great leaders, are trying to do for them." People are upset. People aren't buying what the left is selling, and continuing to try to force this agenda will only serve to hurt them even more. The Progressives always thought they were smarter than the old dumb masses. The American people know when something is wrong. The worst part of this mess is we have three more years of more of the same.

[James H]

call me roy,

I think you're right-on about most of what you wrote, but I think the best thing Obama has done is to consider trying suspected terrorists in a criminal court. I don't know why people don't understand this, but it's not about THEIR rights, it's about OUR rights. That's what I'm worried about -- Bush or Obama. It's patriotic and conservative to worry about your own rights and those of your countrymen. Further, I don't see this as a partisan issue like Dick Cheney tries to make it out to be.

[DailyBail]

great post roy...you will find many like-minded thinkers here...stick around and join our discussions...