This and that: - Democratic Underground

TayTay

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Sun Feb-04-07 09:15 AM
Original message

This and that:

Congratulations MBS! Nice letter in the paper!

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Boston Globe Eileen McNamara column about Marty Meehan possibly leaving his Congressional seat in the Mass 5th to become head of U-Mass Lowell:

Say this for John F. Kerry: When the junior senator from Massachusetts realized that his presidential aspirations were dust, he went back to work at the job we elected him to do. He didn't toss his hat into the ring for the presidency of Harvard.

The impetus for Meehan's new job flirtation, on the other hand, is his own thwarted ambition. For as long as he has been in the House he has had his eye out for some other elective office with a higher profile. He toyed repeatedly with a run for governor. He filled his campaign war chest with nearly $5 million -- even as he volubly denounced the influence of money in politics -- anticipating a run for the Senate if Kerry had chosen to reprise his role as presidential candidate.

Kerry's decision to seek re election to the Senate and Democrat Deval Patrick's pledge to serve out his full term as governor locks the Lowell Democrat in place in the House. In this 110th Congress, with the misguided war in Iraq headed into its fourth bloody year, there is no more important place to be.

As chairman of that Armed Services subcommittee, Meehan is in a position to do more than support symbolic, nonbinding resolutions opposing President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq. He could join Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy's efforts to advance legislation that would prohibit the president from spending funds for additional troops in Iraq without first receiving authorization from Congress, a long-overdue assertion of legitimate congressional authority.

Meehan is scheduled to visit Iraq later this month and has promised to hold subcommittee hearings on the squandering of federal money meant for the reconstruction of that war-ravaged country. Now is not the time to leave Washington.

More at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/04/the_me_in_meehan/

See, best therapy in the world is to go back to work. Highest calling in life right now, fight against that unjust and immoral war. Nice to see in print.

Also, another item in the Lowell Sun about a possible run by a (OMG, no!) Republican for that 5th congressional district seat should Meehan give it up. This guy, I can do without:

* Chris Egan. Active in Republican circles. Loaded. Last known residence was Hopkinton. That community is just outside the 5th, but candidates do not have to live in the district to run. Egan knows the 5th well. He recently produced the documentary Eclipsed By The Sun, which followed the 1972 congressional race in which John Kerry, battered by hard-hitting editorials and news stories in The Sun, lost to the late Andover Republican Paul Cronin. Cronin was the last Republican to hold the seat.

More at:http://www.lowellsun.com/fastsearchresults/ci_5156565

Slimeball. Here is an article on Egan and his slimey hit film: http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irishinamerica/news/EganMakesKerryFilm.asp

Bastids. Geez, the articles lists 3 Repubs who want to take Marty's seat. Right here, in my own backyard. Sigh! Man the barricades already. They are coming. Oy!