The news that Republican Scott Brown beat Democrat Martha Coakley last night in the race for the long-held Democratic seat for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts doesn’t upset me.
One has to expect little bumps in the road here and there. Plus, the fact that it was Brown — who once posed nude in Cosmopolitan – as victor makes the story even better. Brown even managed to thoroughly embarrass his two college-age daughters in his acceptance speech by telling the world his girls “were available.” I mean that is just plain wrong! That even disgusts me.
Such comments and Brown’s past has even given right-wing cable freak Glenn Beck the willies. Beck said he didn’t trust Brown and that the new senator’s tenure “could end with a dead intern.”
The reality was Coakley ran her campaign initially as if she was the chosen one, meaning she didn’t do diddley squat. Even if she was running against a corpse for the U.S. Senate she should have been out their campaigning her heart out.
As for all the dire predictions by the pundits and GOP talking heads and cable news constantly jonesing for political conflict, this might not be as big as everyone makes it. It might not stop health care reform. The Democrats still have a majority in Congress and they’d like to have a super majority, but because of Brown they don’t. Congress could pass health care through reconciliation — passing a budget bill in the Senate without fillibuster – or perhaps they could piecemeal it. They may drop it altogether, but I can’t really see that as Obama has so much invested in passing health care reform.