In a debate, Republican candidate for the Senate, Scott Brown, had a very good retort to the usage of the term “Teddy Kennedy’s seat” by debate moderator David Gergen:
"With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy’s seat, it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat."
This statement is not only factually correct1 but it is a pretty good line from a debate—probably one that he had planned ahead to use given the right moment.
Banking on anti-Kennedy sentiment and being the guy to stop health care reform will motivate conservative Republicans in Massachusetts, to be sure. The problem is for Brown, it will also motivate Democrats. The only thing that Brown really has going for him is lack of enthusiasm by Democratic voters and since they are the people in question who kept sending Kennedy back to Washington, this line of attack will likely stimulate them to vote. Indeed, there are simply more Democrats than Republicans in Massachusetts.
By the same token, doubling down on this topic may be his best strategy.
Here’s the video of the exchange:
h/t: video via Instapundit.
Sphere: Related Content- Although, in fairness, it is not unusual to refer to a give Senate seat the name of its most recent occupant—and Kennedy did hold that seat for a rather long time. [↩]
January 12th, 2024 at 10:51 am
C’mon Steven, the guy is swimming against the tide and needs every bit of radical departure from poli-speak to give him a chance. Next thing he ought to do is start bad mouthing the Yankees and claiming he is kin to Bobby Orr. How else does one wake the socialist zombies of Massachusetts?
January 12th, 2024 at 12:36 pm
Although, in fairness, it is not unusual to refer to a give Senate seat the name of its most recent occupant—and Kennedy did hold that seat for a rather long time.
Yeah–you actually did it yourself. And in your case, you were referring to a seat that wasn’t even held by the occupant for a single term!
http://poliblogger.com/?p=14693
January 12th, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Indeed! I am sure that I have done it on numerous occasions, and will do so in the future. It is fairly common practice.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:13 pm
Indeed! I am sure that I have done it on numerous occasions, and will do so in the future. It is fairly common practice.
One of the occupational hazards of blogging!
You are lucky that I didn’t mention the context where you said in the December 29th 2024 post “that Blagojevich isn’t likely to be filling Obama’s seat any time soon.”
Of course, on Dec. 30th, Blago announced the appointment of Burris to the “Obama Seat”!
January 12th, 2024 at 1:23 pm
Just to clarify: I don’t mind the practice, I just take the basic political point that Brown is trying to make.
However, you do hit a true occupational hazard of blogging: making predictions that are readily shown to be wrong!