“Coakley and Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late senator, both addressed a crowd of about 100 electrical workers but it fell to a state representative from nearby Dorchester to deliver the closing remarks aimed at firing up the Democrats.

“‘I see there is some excitement in this room but there is not enough excitement in this room,’ Martin Walsh said, as the heavily male, Carhartt-and-jeans crowd stood with hands in pockets.

“There was no need for such an exhortation on Cape Cod as state Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican nominee, was enveloped by a couple hundred, sign-waving supporters as he attempted to walk into a local pub where another hundred voters waited for an afternoon rally.

“‘People’s seat, people’s seat!’ the Hyannis crowd chanted, aping the retort Brown gave at a debate Monday when asked about ‘the Kennedy seat.'”

***
“Paul Kirk, the interim Senator from Massachusetts, has told reporters that he would cast a vote for health care reform, even after the January 19 special election between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown. Due to the need to count military and absentee ballots, the Secretary of the Commonwealth may not certify a winner in the election until February 20, a full month after the election is held. During that time, the Senate may be holding key votes on health care and other matters.

“There has been controversy surrounding the notion that Kirk would vote for a health care bill even if (as seems possible, though unlikely) Massachusetts voters elect Brown, who has announced his opposition to the bill. But regardless of who wins the special election, can Kirk continue to vote in the Senate after January 19?

“My review of Senate precedent suggests the answer is no.”

***
“The president has to be better than this.

“If Brown wins, Brown should vote. And if Brown doesn’t get to vote, Obama should vote for him by vetoing the very legislation that he so badly wants to succeed. I’m not going to like that result. But I’m going to like it a whole lot less if we win the health care battle by stealing it through tricky maneuvers designed to deny the right of Massachusetts residents to have their say.”

***
“For the most part, that’s just the ratchet effect of Big Government, growing, expanding, remorselessly, under cover of darkness. What happened this past year is that Obama and the Democratic Congress made it explicit, and did it in daylight. And, while Barack may be cool and stellar if you’re as gullible as ‘the educated class,’ Nancy Pelosi and Ben Nelson most certainly aren’t: There’s no klieg light of celebrity to dazzle you from the very obvious reality that they’re spending your money way faster than you can afford and with no inclination to stop.

“‘The educated class’ is apparently too educated to grasp this insufficiently nuanced point…

“As Michael Barone observed, ‘the educated class’ was dazzled by style, the knuckledragging morons are talking about substance. They grasp that another year of 2,000-page, trillion-dollar government-growing bills offers America only the certainty of decline. Just before the Senate’s health care vote, Obama, the silver-tongued orator, declared that we were ‘on the precipice’ of historic reform. Indeed. On Tuesday, we’ll find out whether even Massachusetts is willing to follow him off the cliff.”