links for 2010-01-17

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), speaking with a gaggle of reporters after the event, said that while state Sen. Scott Brown (R) offers voters a quick fix, in reality, the problems created by "George Bush and his cronies" are not so easily solved.

"If you think there's magic out there and things can be turned around overnight, then you would vote for someone who could promise you that, like Scott Brown," Kennedy said. "If you don't, if you know that it takes eight years for George Bush and his cronies to put our country into this hole … then you know we have a lot of digging to do, but some work needs to be done and this president's in the process of doing it and we need to get Marcia Coakley to help him to do that."

(Curiously, Kennedy mentioned Coakley repeatedly during his remarks to reporters, each time referring to her as "Marcia," not "Martha.")
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Pretty sad. Any Dem at any time to take Uncle Teddy's seat.
GAG…..

Two of the top Republican candidates for statewide office were in Thousand Oaks on Friday, both of them locked in tough primaries and spending millions of their own dollars on their campaigns.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate for governor, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a candidate for U.S. Senate, were the two biggest names at a candidate forum hosted by the Conejo Valley Republican Women.

Poizner will face former eBay CEO Meg Whitman in the June primary, with the winner likely to take on attorney general and former Gov. Jerry Brown in November. Fiorina is in a three-way fight for the right to challenge three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in the general election.
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Stay tuned for my photos and brief interview with Carly Fiorina.

Appointed Senator Paul Kirk will lose his vote in the Senate after Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts of a new senator and cannot be the 60th vote for Democratic health care legislation, according to Republican attorneys.

Kirk has vowed to vote for the Democratic bill even if Republican Scott Brown is elected but not yet certified by state officials and officially seated in the Senate. Kirk’s vote is crucial because without the 60 votes necessary to stop a Republican filibuster, the bill will be defeated.

Massachusetts 2010 Senate
Brown 51%, Coakley 41%, Kennedy 2%

nsideMedford.com / Merriman River Group
1/15/10; 565 likely voters, 4.1% margin of error
Mode: Automated phone
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A GOP pick-up lookw likely.

On Thursday, as the world anguished over the devastation in Haiti, the communications director for U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, Josh Treviño, posted this on Twitter: "Haiti: the best thing the int'l community can do is tend the wounded, bury the dead, and then LEAVE. That includes all UN and charity."

Not exactly an instance of compassionate conservatism.

IA asked Treviño what in the world he was thinking. Two responses: Though he often uses his Twitter account to weigh in on campaign matters, in this case Treviño said he was speaking for himself and not DeVore, a conservative state assemblyman from Irvine who's seeking Barbara Boxer's seat.
"I chewed him out," DeVore told IA. "It was very foolish to make that argument after a devastating earthquake that's killed tens of thousands of people."
Trevino called the episode a mistake on his part and an example of the limitations of stating one's opinions in less than 140 characters.
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Ok…
But makes one wonder about DeVore