Today, John Kerry was confirmed 94-3 to be our next Secretary of State. With his seat vacant, former Republican Senator Scott Brown could make for another run for the U.S. Senate. Brown was ousted by left-winger Elizabeth Warren last November, even though his approval ratings remained high. According to TPMLiveWire on January 25:
The latest survey from MassINC Polling Group showed Brown easily cruising in a hypothetical matchup against Markey. Fifty-three percent of registered Bay State voters said they would support Brown, compared with just 31 percent who indicated they would vote for Markey. But pitted against a generic Democrat, Brown was shown with only an 8-point edge.
The poll showed Brown continuing to enjoy sky-high popularity — as was the case throughout his brief stint in the Senate — with 55 percent of voters saying they have a favorable view of the Republican. Markey is a relative unknown throughout the state: 59 percent of voters surveyed offered no opinion of the longtime congressman.
Although the state and national Democratic establishment has coalesced behind Markey, 71 percent of would-be Democratic primary voters favor a contested primary — an encouraging sign for Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who will reportedly announce Friday that he’s challenging Markey for the party’s nomination in the special election.
If Brown still has his campaign infrastructure intact, he could mount a strong run to fill Kerry’s seat. He’s a natural campaigner, and his return to Washington would be a morale booster as Republicans prepare, yet again, to retake the U.S. Senate.
Lose.
It’s worth fighting. Obama lost that seat by tacking far too hard to the radical Left. Even in die-hard liberal MA it proved to be a liability. Brown ran on a platform of “this is how you put the brakes on Obama” and won.
Forcing the democrats to fight for the seat is worth it. Either Obama softens his positions in an attempt to provide cover for whomever the democrats nominate, or he sticks to his dogma and he and his party get pulled into the campaign. Even if we lose (and we likely will) we win. If nothing else, it helps us wait out the clock until on his lame duck term.
Brown will probably lose. Massachusetts has powerful symbolic value for the democrats, and they were frothing at the mouth to win the seat back. Warren was about as good a candidate as we could have hoped for: an out-of-touch radical academic who’d defrauded the affirmative action system and spent her law career defending corporate lepers like asbestos companies. Coakley was hampered by the same thing that got Romney: an assumption that she couldn’t possibly lose.
But even a loss is well worth fighting for us. Losing in the most liberal state in the union won’t be a surprise, but a surprisingly close loss will be noticed. And a win? It IS possible. That would be another sign that Obama’s gone a bridge too far. He won’t care, but the Senate democrats will. And the liberal Republicans will notice, too. In the age of Priebus, Boehner, and McConnell, that’s important.
So win or lose, making a serious run at it will be time well spent.