No Fake Fairness for Dems

There are ways, ways and other ways to view Elizabeth Warren supporters drowning Marisa DeFranco's hopes and expectations for a US Senate primary. Yet at its base the point is that MA Dems want that seat badly enough to transcend cliché.

Many of us, including party officials were sure DeFranco would get the requisite 15% of delegates at the convention to advance. It has always been the sop handed to sincere, energetic campaigners, the thanks-for-playing prize, the C for trying.

It's like the wider electorate sending two chambers of lawmakers filled with Dems and mischievously picking a Republican governor. Large numbers of voters will provide an addle-pated justification of not giving one party all the power. Yet even cursory analysis indicates that with the RINO/DINO/moderate levels, that's crap and doesn't balance or control anything.

So yesterday, with forearm touches and sincere stares, The likes of ex-Gov. Mike Dukakis and literally thousands of Senate-starved delegates held the day on the aptly dark floor. DeFranco got about 4% of the votes and there's be no primary.

Dems chose not to reward DeFranco with the consolation prize. They chose to act with the efficacy of Republicans who did as much to Christie Mihos two years ago when he ran for governor and the elephants wanted Charlie Baker without a distracting primary.

In fact, the Mihos case better illustrated the stated fears of Dems this year, that a primary would sap resources and anger or confuse voters. He was an is much more conservative than Bib the Michelin candidate, Baker. The party regulars and independents would have a stark choice.

DeFranco is the same but different from Warren. She is more progressive, has concerns and platforms that deal  more below middle-class problems/solutions, and has concentrations like immigration reform that Warren does not. Yet their basic left values and approaches are close enough that there'd been no party splintering or turning off the unenrolled sorts.

I would have welcomed a primary. I would have loved for Warren to attend debate-like-events throughout the campaign. I have no question she was the best debater in the field, even when it was substantial.

Yet we have a direct and limited fight now. Incumbent Scott Brown v. Warren and their combined sordid, sundry funds.

Until debates begin, all indications are that Brown's side will continue to distract and lie, while Warren's will spray all with truth and sincerity. So far too, to their disgrace, the media, particularly the two real Boston dailies have manufactured issues, particularly the Cherokee-heritage one, where the Herald and Globe pretend they have substance instead of moot trivialities. I don't expect them to up their games, just to begin reacting like dogs to electronic collars when the debates put real topics in huge letters right in front of them.

Brown should not be nervous. His record is pathetic and ill serves us here in MA. He's probably hidden almost as long as he can behind made-up crap about Warren. His facade of voting against his party is based only on selected bills where his made no difference. When it came to substance, such as jobs bills, economic recovery and student loan costs, he spits and stomps on his constituents and the larger nation.

Shame on those who gave him cover for so long. The princeling is not only naked. This is not a silly magazine centerfold either. It's been governance and he's exposed in the worst ways..

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, DeFranco, Elizabeth Warren, Congress, U.S. Senate