She's Irish, she's a woman and she's a democract. In a left leaning state like Massachusetts, what's not to love about Martha Coakley? Everything it seems.
Voters in Massachusetts are finally getting to know Coakley en masse thanks to her now disastrous campaign to succeed the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. For much of this special election Coakley has kept a low profile - a strategy that has served her well throughout her career as a district attorney and now the attorney general of the Commonwealth.
Coakley has always been a go-along to get-along kinda gal. During her years as a prosecutor she kept Gerald Amirault behind bars for an extra three years in the notorious Fells Acres sex abuse case despite overwhelming evidence that he was innocent of the alleged crimes. She could not afford to look soft on crime.
The continued loss of Amirault's freedom was merely collateral damage in crafting Coakley's political future. Coakley also dropped the ball when prosecuting a 2005 child rape case involving a local police officer. Despite allegations that the suspect had assaulted a toddler with a curling iron, Coakley opted to let him walk out of jail on personal recognizance. Fortunately, Coakley's successor corrected her mistake and won a conviction and two life terms for the child predator.
When Coakley ascended to the Attorney General's office, she continued to take the easy route focusing her attention on garden clubs, non-kosher delis and lite-brite artists as opposed to chasing after real wrongdoers. When a chunk of a Big Dig tunnel collapsed and killed a motorist in 2007, Coakley chose to settle the case against contractors Bechtel/Parsons Brinkerhoff saying quote, "It was better than going to court." We will never know who was ultimately to blame because Coakley once again took the easy way out. When the going gets tough, Martha curls up in a fetal position.
Which brings us back to her battle with upstart Republican Scott Brown. Brown, a Massachusetts state senator blindsided Coakley with a strong, grassroots populist campaign. Coakley figured the race was in the bag and never reached out to the voters because she felt she didn't have to. Once again, running an actual campaign would have been the hard thing to do. And let's face it, Martha Coakley has never shown that she's had the stomach for it.
A recent poll of Mass voters strongly suggests this is a protest vote againat Obama. If Coakley had had the charisma and integrity of a Kennedy, people would have supported her. If a Kennedy had been on the ballot Scott Brown could go back to nude photo sessions for women's magazines and be forgotten.
Keeping a low profile might work for the DAs office, but not in national politics, and whoever wins Ted Kennedy's seat is now in national politics.
One can only hope that Massachusetts voters think about the longterm consequences of their vote today instead of a Cosmo spread, or a vote in defiance of what they perceive to be the morass the current administration has created.
After all, it was under Mitt Romney, and George W. Bush, that working men and women were forced into bankruptcy, and foreclosure, and a vote for a Republican to replace Ted Kennedy will do little more than ensure even more economic misery for the state of Massachusetts, and the nation.
I don't think Amy Klobuchar is all that bad either. Remember, Representative Mark Kennedy (her GOP opponent in 2006) was gung-ho for the invasion of Iraq. We certainly don't need any more like him in the U.S. Senate, and we certainly don't need Scott Brown up there. Ugh!!! Klobuchar is who she is, a mainstream, left-of-center DFL Democrat. Coakley may be a lifeless gray suit, but she would become an indispensable part of the Democrats' filibuster shield.
Could Minnesota do better than Klobuchar? Sure ... and fortunately they have. By a whisker they chose Al Franken over Norm Coleman in 2008. Good for them. Good for all of us!
We have a similar senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, and she is one of the reasons the Senate health care bill is so bad, so very bad. It is interesting that many in MInnesota disliked Klobuchar before she was elected but held their noses and guts (they discouraage puking at the polls) and voted for her anyway. She is almost as bad as the Republican would have been.
I am a lifelong Democrat but my gut tells me that Coakley is so bad that we are better off with the Republican.