Interesting from Barney Frank on Kerry '08

[globalvillage]

<snip>
He would run for Senate if Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., campaigns for president again in 2008 and his seat is open. But there's a caveat: Frank would not run if Democrats win the House in 2006.
"Yes, I would run for the Senate," said Frank, who chided others for masking their own political ambitions. "I have a new rule for politicians: try to avoid saying something that no one will believe."
Frank and other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation jockeyed for Kerry's seat during the 2004 presidential contest briefly when it appeared Kerry might win.
Kerry's 2008 White House prospects will depend on President Bush's popularity, he said.
"For John to win, people have to say, 'I was wrong to vote for Bush over him,'" Frank said. "That's a hard thing to do ... So by the middle of 2007, John's chances depend to a great extent on how Bush is perceived."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/29/frank_sees_bitter_battle_over_2008_gay_marriage_ballot_question/

[TayTay]

1. I like Barney, but....

I don't actually want him to run IF there is an open Senate seat in MA in '08. I agree that he will be too old. (And this topic is odd.) Doesn't Barney Frank's sister, Ann Lewis work for Hillary Clinton? (Or is it the DSCC? I can't remember.) Wow, an open Senate seat in MA for the first time in 24 years. That would be a free-for-all and would really shake things up. (But, but, but, ahm, geez, who could fill that seat, ahm, geez, that's odd to think about. Can we clone the present occupant? I am still too tired from the Holiday hoopla to get into it now, I'll think about it tomorrow. Geez, an open seat. Not just anybody could even think of taking that seat that deosn't belong to a Kennedy. Huh, that's risky. Ahm, that could be loads of fun too!)

I think there could be some 'buyer's remorse' in 2007. I think there is some now from people who voted for Bush. We shall see.

[rox63]

2. It would be a crowded race

Half of the MA congressional delegation would jump into the race, including our own rep., Marty.

[TayTay]

3. Marty would, Barney would

John Tierney from Salem would, Jim McGovern would and maybe Ed Markey. (Ed Markey ran for that seat in the open Dem primary in '84, but dropped out. Huh, I don't think he would run again, but you never know.) Martha Coakley would also run. (I like her a lot. I worked for her once in a long ago race.) But then I would have a new Senator. Huh! That would take some getting used to. Senate seats tend to be occupied for a very, very long time in Mass. On the other hand, Massachusetts might have a chance to enter the 21st century and finally elect a woman to a statewide office. That would be very nice. (Okay, I like MArtha, but I also like Marty. And ahm, I'm not ready again. I was ready last year but now I have to think about it again. A new Senator, hmmmmmmm.)

Marty, btw, has 3.4 or so million in the bank and it sure as hell ain't for his uncontested race in the 5th District next fall. I think he's up to something. (I shall have to listen carefully to see if he starts telling my greatly esteemed Jr Senator to run again. It might not be an altogether altruistic act. :rofl: )

[ginnyinWI]

7. I like Markey

--what I've seen of him, that is. Are all your Dem reps fairly liberal, or what? How to they all shake out? Do you have any repubs or are they all Dems? We have eight, half are Dems. How many does MA have? MA seems like my adopted state now, after all. (Hey, and I had a great-grandfather from Boston--does that count?)

[TayTay]

8. Ah, yup they are all Dem.

They range from very, very liberal, like Jim McGovern to merely liberal like Stevie Lynch. (Truth here: Lynchie voted FOR the Terry Schiavo Resolution, sigh. But he voted, as did every other MA rep to the Congress, against the Bankruptcy bill and against CAFTA. I was so proud.):

ADA ratings for Mass delegation to the House

Olver: 100
Neal: 95
McGovern: 100
Frank, B.: 100
Meehan: 100
Tierney: 100
Markey: 100
Capuano: 90
Lynch: 85
Delahunt: 95.

http://www.adaction.org/votingrecords.htm

(Obviously, with an ADA rating of 'only' 85, Stevie Lynch is a DINO. LOL! Well, check out the Massachusetts forum some time. They think Lynchie is a troglodyte Rethug.)

Sen. Kennedy has a lifetime ADA rating of 90 and Sen. Kerry had a liftime ADA of 92. (Which shows you that they are also in the middle for Massachusetts. See, they are middle, ahm, well, for Massachusetts.)

We are Dem all the way down. 87% of office holders in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are Democrats. However, as Robert Reich observed, there are indeed two political parties in Massachusetts, but they are both Democratic. We have an ongoing moderate vs liberal thing here in the Dem Party. My own rep to the Mass statehouse is pretty conservative on social issues.

Come to think ot it, we may just be the most Democratic place in America, save for the District of Columbia. Huh! Well, the rest will catch up eventually. LOL!

Please do adopt us. We are a lock to lose one of these seats in the next census. I just hope we don't lose two seats. Sigh!

[ginnyinWI]

12. impressive!

Which begs the question: Gov. Mitt Romney????? :crazy: Even light blue WI has a Dem governor.

[TayTay]

13. The elecorate puts in a Repub to keep an eye on the Dems

And the Romney we got was not the Romney who ran. He is a liar, pure and simple. And soon he will be gone. (Fireworks will be set off throughout the Bay State.) I just hope and pray that the Dems get it together and put all their efforts into electing a Dem and not fighting each other. Cuz we don't need Kerry Healey, Barbie doll extraordinaire as the next Gov. (She is such a lightwieght and she slammed my Jor Senator in '04. She can bite me vertically.)

[rox63]

14. Even though Mittens has anounced he's not running

I'm still not hearing much out of Barbie. You'd think she'd be going for a much higher profile.

Do you think he waited as long as he did to doom her campaign? She and Jane Swift should form a support group for rethug women screwed over by Mittens.

[whometense]

15. Vertically????

:rofl: :rofl:

[TayTay]

17. Yeah, vertically!

Cuz horizontally would be crude. (Think woman, think. We have to set a good example for the people from out-of-state here. They think we are proper and reserved and well-spoken and stuff. Vertically is more proper than horizontal which can be misconstured in a rather dirty way.)

Kerry Healey is too busy trying to stiff the citizens of Vermont on her property taxes and hasn't yet completely focused on how she is going to lie her way into the Governor's office. (Which is called 'the corner office' in MA all the time. We don't have a Gov's mansion here cuz we are too cheap to build a house for one public official, and who does he or she think they are anyway wanting housing on the public dime and they are getting above themselves and all la-ti-da and putting on airs and screw them and the horse they came in on. A corner office in the state house was good enough for John Hancock, it should be good enough for any modern day Gov. Frickin bunch of leeches, swiping public housing when they already have perfectly good houses in 2 states. Gov mansion over my dead body. Get lost you blood-suckers.)

What was I saying, I got sidetracked. I had this date with my husband tonight. We saw a movie, went to dinner, had a good time. Lovely evening. Put me in a really good mood.

[whometense]

18. That's really nice.

I've taken a lot of time off, so am spending a lot of time with my husband, but our romantic sushi dinner last night included our younger son.

What movie did you see? We all went to see Walk the Line on Christmas day.

Mostly we're still hacking around the house, and by that I do mean hacking. It seems like this cold will never completely leave the building, though it's fading each day.

[TayTay]

19. The Producers

It was pretty good. We laughed. (Though the play was funnier.)

I want to see Walk the Line. My son said it was great and I just love JHohnny Cash. My daughter wants me to see Harry Potter with her, so I might go on Sunday. (Or I might go shopping. I need curtains. Either way.)

A new jazz club is opening soon in my town. (Which will mark one club in my town. Wow!) So, we have a date in the future to go hear some jazz. Yummy!

[rox63]

9. Do you think Delahunt would run?

I think Delahunt might also jump in the ring. Capuano probably wouldn't. I hear that he really doesn't like DC all that much, and that he considered running for MA governor so he could come back home. Eventually, he decided against it, probably because Reilly is much better positioned for that race.

OMG, if all those people ran for Senate, there would be a ton of open House seats here. We would have to keep on guard against rethug bastards trying to steal some of those seats.

[TayTay]

10. I agree. Man the barricades

The Rethugs would try to slither out of their zoo cages and try and come out in the open. Gawd, it would be awful. (Yuck. Can you imagine a Romney clone trying to run for Congress.)

That said, the delegation is aging and some of these guys are in their mid to late 60's. (Olver is 71 and he just had extensive treatment for a brain infection.) A shakeup is inevitable within the next decade anyway.

[ProSense]

4. I didn't know Ann Lewis and Barney Frank are related

I believe I heard somewhere that Ann was working for Hillary, but I also recall getting e-mail from her through the DSCC (I think that was the group).

[JI7]

6. i know she worked in the White House when Clinton was President

there was some sad news for them not too long ago when Lewis' daughter (Barney Frank's neice) was killed by her husband.

[babylonsister]

5. How old is too old, and how old is Barney?nt

[whometense]

11. Barney is 65. n/t

[elshiva]

16. Go Barney Frank GO!

I'd love to see an openly gay Democrat Senator.