RSS Feed MenuI kept an open mind when Scott Brown was elected senator in Massachusetts where I reside, though I confess I didn’t vote for him. Nonetheless, I encouraged my Democratic friends to put their cynicism aside. “He may surprise us,” I insisted, because the truth is his campaign promise to be an independent thinker appealed to something deeper in me than partisan leanings. I have a profound belief in the necessity for a functioning two-party system. Politics aside, as an American, I worry about the GOP’s scorched earth strategy. So, like Olympia Snowe, I welcomed Scott Brown to the United States Senate, imagining that this moderate Republican would help break the stalemate. His vote for the jobs bill seemed like validation and frankly, it was easy to live with his vote against healthcare since we in Massachusetts already have it, thanks to Romney’s program for which Brown voted.
I am having a harder time, however, understanding a recent action, which confounds me. The new senator sent a fundraising e-mail to GOP donors claiming the Democratic machine is trying to recruit television pundit Rachel Maddow to challenge him in the next election. Maddow’s response? “I was just surprised because it’s a factual assertion that they’re making that is just not based in reality.” To set him straight, she tried repeatedly to reach him by telephone but the senator returned none of her calls, which I readily believe, because he also returned none of mine. In the Boston Globe, senior strategist Eric Fehrnstrom denied that Maddow tried to contact Brown and continues to assert that Maddow is being recruited.
What to make of this? After the election, Brown’s daughter revealed that her father’s famous truck was actually purchased to transport her horse to equestrian events. I rationalized this misrepresentation as a political tactic, perhaps even a symbol for a populist heart. But what spin do I put on Brown vs. Maddow? And why does a line from Joseph Conrad keep playing in my head? ”You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie,” Conrad wrote, “not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me.”
Kevin B // Apr 7, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Has this stunt helped Maddow’s ratings?
balconesfault // Apr 8, 2010 at 12:21 am
Has this stunt helped Maddow’s ratings?
Actually, Maddow herself declared that discussing Brown probably hurts her ratings more than helps, since it’s not why people tune in.
She apparently just doesn’t like being used as a fundraising tool on false pretenses.
Carney // Apr 8, 2010 at 1:25 pm
CentristNYer, what past Republican president supported allowing open homosexuals to serve in the military? When was it a mainstream position in the Republican Party or conservative movement to embrace the gay-rights agenda?
The answer is: never.
I challenged you to name ONE issue in which you take a more right than left tack, on anything. And you come up with gays in the military?
Do you even realize how extreme-left you sound? How out of touch?
I realize when issue I take are more left (energy policy) or right (race relations) than the conservative mainstream. But on balance it can be said that I am a conservative.
You are not conservative on ANY ISSUE. You relentlessly take the left wing stance, on any matter in serious contention between left and right.
Therefore, your claim to centrism is false, as so many are, adopted for the sake of convenience and easier infiltration and undermining of conservative groups.
msmilack // Apr 8, 2010 at 6:05 pm
To everyone (and Carney in particular),
I like the idea of people of differing opinions writing in. I don’t think a person has to be a conservative to have a valid opinion about any subject, even about conservatives: I like the dialogue and exchange of ideas and find the value of this forum in the dialectic. For what it’s worth . . .
forkboy1965 // Apr 10, 2010 at 8:18 pm
I’m confused Ms. Smilak… you state “…it was easy to live with his vote against healthcare since we in Massachusetts already have it, thanks to Romney’s program for which Brown voted.” Why would you live easily with this obvious double-standard?
If universal healthcare was good enough for Romney and Brown in MA, why is it not good enough for us all? It smacks of hypocrisy.
msmilack // Apr 11, 2010 at 7:17 pm
forkboy1965
The answer has to do with how I wrote it rather than how I really feel. At the time, I was more interested in squeezing in the fact that Romney created the program he later voted against just as Brown did the same, both acts seeming highly hypocritical to me. My short-term goal was to squeeze in that fact about both of them and I did so in what I thought would sound sarcastic. From your question, I see that it didn’t work; I can see why you would draw that conclusion from my sarcastic remark which, on paper versus in person, apparently does not sound sarcastic. I assure you, I never meant to convey that I feel it is okay if I have healthcare and no one else does. I’ve learned an important writing lesson from your question, so I thank you for asking it.