It's The People's Seat

I watched most of the debate earlier between Martha Coakley, Scott Brown and Joseph Kennedy.  Brown was formidable and this was definitely one of his finer moments:




Coakley repeatedly resorted to cheap shots trying to cast Brown as supportive of a measure that would allow emergency rooms to deny treatment to rape victims. Brown shot back that her caricature of his position was abhorrent. Abhorrent is an understatement, here is the amendment Brown proposed:

Nothing in this section shall impose any requirements upon any employee, physician or nurse of any facility to the extent that administering the contraception conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief. In determining whether an employee, physician or nurse of any facility has a sincerely held religious belief administering the contraception, the conflict shall be known and disclosed to said facility and on record at said facility.

If it is deemed that said employee, physician or nurse of any facility has a sincerely held religious conflict administering the contraception, then said treating facility shall have in place a validated referral procedure policy for referring patients for administration of the emergency contraception that will administer the emergency contraception, which may include a contract with another facility. The referrals shall be made at no additional cost to the patient.

Brown merely proposed an amendment that would give religious hospitals or personnel the right to act according to their conscience.  The amendment clearly provides the patient a referral to a provider or facility that will administer contraception at no cost to the patient.  This is a long way away from denying them treatment altogether as Coakley implied.   It says a good deal that this is what she deems her best attack against him though.

David Gergen, as you saw in the video, was biased in his questioning of Brown.  I think they must have injected him with Democratic Kool Aid when he went to work for the Clinton administration.   Brown's response the seat was not Ted Kennedy's but the people's seat was pitch perfect.  Why should anyone vote for a bad health care bill merely because another bad one might not come along for 15 years, the logic astounds me.

Coakley appears to have taken the advice offered in the PPP poll and offers an attack ad tying Brown to Bush and Cheney:  H/T: Hot Air


Which party has all the sweetheart deals with Wall Street? Last I checked Wall Street funded the Obama campaign. The rest of the ad is a lame effort to taint Brown with weak associations. In short, the ad is pretty pathetic and screams desperation. Are Massachusetts voters foolish enough to buy this nonsense? Fortunately, Brown should have plenty of money to counter with his own ad; he raised over a million dollars today, which is double his original goal of $500,000 during today's moneybomb. The grassroots dug deep in their pockets today to support a candidate who would speak for them instead of the health care lobby.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection for linking. Be sure to read his latest post on his experience at Brown Headquarters Part 3. His coverage of this election has been superb.
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