When I spoke with Rep. Richard Neal, the veteran Democratic congressman from Springfield, Mass., on the afternoon of the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, he told me, “It’s an alarm-clock moment for us.”
That is no exaggeration. Scott Brown, the little-known candidate who pulled out a victory over state Attorney General Martha Coakley, is the first Republican to win a Massachusetts Senate race since 1972 and will be the only Republican in what has been an all-Democratic congressional delegation from the Bay State.
Ron Kaufman, the longtime Republican National Committee member from Massachusetts, said that “it was a perfect storm” that made it possible.
“We had a really good candidate,” Kaufman said. “A military veteran, a family guy, a fiscal conservative, moderate on social issues, a pro-choice Catholic. But it was bigger than that. The Democrats didn’t understand that people here are very upset with the way things are going in Washington, just as they are elsewhere. They see big sums being spent, big deficits piling up, and they want to send a message.”
Can you folks out there enlighten me? If I read this article correctly then Scott Brown is being described as a pro-choice Catholic. Is this true? If memory serves me correctly, Martha Coakley is also a Catholic, of sorts, and pro-choice. In this case at least, the voters were presented with tweedleleft and tweedleright. How depressing. Are there no Catholics prepared to take a stand when seeking public office?
Brown has said that “Roe-v-Wade” is settled law, in that since he’s pro-choice. He also supported legislation which had a strong conscience clause for health care workers and opposes tax-payer funding of abortion, in that since he’s pro-life.
Coakley opposes any conscience clause (and if fact one of her gaffs was suggesting that devout catholics shouldn’t work in emergency rooms…) and supports tax-payer funding of abortion.
Does that clarify it?
Thanks RandomJoe. Given what you have written, the article sounds like another example of sloppy journalism.
In addition, Senator elect Brown is not Catholic. He attends a Christian Reformed Church. Coakley, I believe, is. And of course, Kennedy claimed to be.
That being said, he does appear to be rather [url=http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Scott_Brown_Abortion.htm] Wishy Washy[/url] on the subject.
The rest of the country does not realize how corrupting (especially of Catholics) the Kennedy family has been here in Ma. on social issues. They are the reason other parts of the country with many Catholics –like Penn.–are far more pro-life than Mass. It was the Kennedy’s and a few radical priests who came up with the bogus arguments that make Catholics afraid to actually bring their Christian consciences into the voting booth.
deaconjohn25, while we’re on the subject of corrupt Catholic politicians from Mass., we mustn’t forget the late Father Drinan. He stands at the head of the class. May God have mercy on him.