By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions
I don’t want to make it look like I’m in the tank for fellow Northeastern professor Michael Dukakis. So I’ll leave it at this: Paul Kirk will probably do a fine job as interim senator. But Gov. Deval Patrick could have made a better pick by choosing former governor Dukakis.
Joan Vennochi and Margery Eagan have more to say. And the Herald’s Jessica Van Sack and Hillary Chabot note some conflicts Kirk will need to avoid.
Last night I talked with old friend Jon Keller, of WBZ-TV (Channel 4), about President Obama’s latest media blitz aimed at bolstering his health-care-reform plan.
Two quick comments on the growing controversy over the missing City Hall e-mails:
Whoa. Though it’s certainly true that the e-mails — public records — may prove to be no big deal, it’s also true that they may be related to the criminal probe of former state senator Dianne Wilkerson. Coakley’s going to have to do better than that.
Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, worries that President Obama’s latest effort to pander to conservative critics of his health-care-reform plan will make it harder for women to obtain abortions.
Obama has promised that the legislation he ultimately backs will be abortion-neutral. Federal law already prohibits government funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or if the woman’s life is in danger. And regardless of what abortion-rights advocates might wish, it makes sense for Obama not to open up another front in the health-care fight. Among other things, it would be huge if the Catholic bishops could be induced into endorsing health-care reform — and very possible as long as the status quo on abortion is maintained.
But abortion rights certainly should not be cut back. The problem is, Bellows argues (citing a New York Times report), the president’s plan could lead some private insurers to drop abortion coverage that they now provide.
Ironically enough, the possible restriction on abortion rights would be the direct consequence of a public option. One more reason, perhaps, to drop something that, whatever its objective merits, has become little more than a contentious sideshow.
Andy Card decides not to run for governor senator. Although I find myself agreeing with Howie Carr — it would be better for the future of the Republican Party if Scott Brown can use the Senate race to build his name recognition.
Ed Markey’s not running, either. No surprise there — he’s got too much seniority in the House.
Not that Gov. Deval Patrick is looking to Media Nation for advice. But if there’s one way to break the impasse over an interim senator to replace the late Ted Kennedy until the Jan. 19 special election, it’s this: Patrick should announce his choice now.
It seems pretty clear that the state Legislature in 2004 did the right thing in taking away the governor’s right to name a successor and the wrong thing in not allowing for an interim. Once you get past the partisan squabbling over who’s the bigger hypocrite, the only real issue is whether Patrick might appoint someone who’d then have a leg up in the special election.
Kennedy, in his letter to Patrick, released shortly before his death, asked that the interim be someone who would promise not to run. Patrick has said that would be his goal. All that’s missing is a name. As I and others have said, former governor Michael Dukakis would be a fine choice, but I’m sure he’s not the only possibility.
With the health-care debate reaching a critical moment in Washington, Massachusetts deserves to have full representation.
In my latest for the Guardian, I round up pundit commentary following President Obama’s big speech on health-care reform — and consider whether he succeeded in charting a middle course between liberals and centrists, while marginalizing conservatives as unregenerate (“You lie!”) obstructionists.
The Massachusetts Republican Party may be at a disastrously low ebb. But, contrary to expectations, it looks as though it’s going to field the equivalent of its A-team in both the special election to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and in next year’s governor’s race.
Former state representative Andy Card, who was chief of staff to George W. Bush and a top aide in George H.W. Bush’s administration, has all but announced for the Senate seat, according to the Boston Herald.
Granted, Card was far better known several decades ago, when the Republicans regularly hoped he would toss his hat into the ring, and were invariably disappointed. Then, too, Card will have to answer for his tenure in the second Bush White House — especially his oft-cited 2002 pronouncement that the administration would not start pushing for war in Iraq until September because “from a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”
But the chances of a Republican succeeding Kennedy would appear to be non-existent in any case. Card’s presence on the ballot will help with party-building simply because he’s serious and credible.
Since Card knows he’s unlikely to win, the interesting question is: What does he want? And that’s where the Republicans’ other credible candidate, Charlie Baker, comes in. Baker, who was then-governor Bill Weld’s top aide in the early ’90s, is now running for governor himself.
Unlike the Senate, the governor’s office is a position that a Republican can reasonably hope to win, as Weld, Paul Cellucci and Mitt Romney proved. With Gov. Deval Patrick’s poll numbers down, Baker would appear to have a decent shot, assuming he can get by his primary opponent, Christy Mihos.
But is it possible that Card is looking past the Senate race in hopes of running for governor himself?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGqikIrNKw4&w=425&h=344]
Joel Brown calls a television commercial put out by Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s re-election campaign, featuring his empty desk, “a terrible spot” and — with a bit of rewriting — “an excellent ad for one of his opponents.”
Adam Gaffin adds: “Maybe this is what happened to Curley’s desk.”
In my latest for the Guardian, I take a look at the fall of Van Jones — and at how a far-right Web site and Glenn Beck, improbably enough, took him down with a clean hit.