January 14, 2010

"She is so tone deaf that she made fun of her opponent for standing outside Fenway Park shaking hands 'in the cold.'"

"A week before the election, Coakley was off the campaign trail entirely in Washington for a fund-raiser that was packed with the usual suspects. But undoubtedly it was well heated."

Ouch! That's Gail Collins in The New York Times.

66 comments:

vbspurs said...

Wow, Gail Collins used my exact same words in the previous post, "tone deaf" and phrased the Fenway incident also very similarly.

Gail Collins is really Vicki from Pasadena, isn't she? The hack.

J. Cricket said...

Yes, it is "stupid" -- to say that someone is "off the campaign trail" when they are at a fund-raiser for the campaign!

vbspurs said...

Collins about Ayla Brown:

Her talent was singing, not sentence construction.

Never let the popular kids forget that you're adults now, and in Adult World the smart kids finally get to make fun of the popular kids!!

Chase said...

Coakley is that most despicable of politicians - the ones who will say or do ANYTHING to get elected, but are so stupid and clueless that they they can't do it with style.

Coakley = deer in the headlights

Joan said...

Why isn’t 90 percent of the country marching on the Capitol with teapots and funny hats, waving signs about the filibuster?

Maybe because they know that what goes around comes around, and Democrats have used the filibuster, too?

Collins is in denial thinking that it's only 10% of the population that's against the health care "reform" atrocity. She's not too perceptive regarding the Coakley/Brown race, either.

vw: caryeau. Water carrier! No kidding.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Coakley is like the first time visiting player that hits the Fenway green monster in his first at bat..
He nonchalantly rounds first to go to second and gets thrown out by a mile.

Freeman Hunt said...

Oh bah, I should have put my little dialogues over here instead of in the stalker post.

knox said...

When he was 22, he won an “America’s Sexiest Man” contest, the prize for which was $1,000 and a chance to pose naked in a Cosmopolitan magazine centerfold. One of his daughters — this is perhaps the best-known factoid in the campaign — came in somewhere between 13th and 16th on “American Idol.”

“For our family, especially me being on ‘Idol’ but my dad being in politics, there are always so many people who have something negative to say,” Ayla Brown told The Boston Herald this week. Her talent was singing, not sentence construction.

A venerable NYT columnist has nothing more substantial to say about Brown than this? Critics of Sarah Palin's hair--and daughters--are taking notes from this column as we speak!

So, Gail, while we're doing the petty bitch act, I'd like you to please do something about those teeth and need I bring up those eyebrows? Really. You look like a cleaned-up homeless.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Who are these impudent scoundrels asking questions of me?!"
"They're reporters, ma'am."
"Reporters?! And to whom do they report?"
"The people, ma'am."
"The people? Really? How droll."

-----------

"Shake their hands?!"
"Yes, ma'am."
"You can't be serious."
"It's the standard thing, ma'am."
"You mean, I am to touch them?!"
"Yes, the candidates are generally expected to shake the hands of the people they meet at an event."
"God, save me from this prole hell!"
"..."
"..."
"No, ma'am. I don't think the surgical gloves will go over..."

vbspurs said...

Coakley = deer in the headlights

Martha!

M-A-R-T-H-A!

Martha?

LouisAntoine said...

Are you gonna post about the fact that Scott Brown CLAIMED TO BE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT? Even though he was at a Tea Party event THE WEEK BEFORE?

Scott Brown is a liar.

Freeman Hunt said...

Talked about this on Twitter yesterday:

Why do people care what their candidates look like?

I would vote for a brain in a jar if it would deliver the right votes on legislation.

(Remember "The Man with Two Brains"?)

AllenS said...

Coakley sounds like a perfect fit for Massachusettes.

vbspurs said...

You look like a cleaned-up homeless.

Snicker.

/smart kid hoping to brownie point her way into the cool kids table.

MadisonMan said...

I would vote for a brain in a jar if it would deliver the right votes on legislation.

Choose your brain Carefully!

John said...

When you consider that the Times employs not only Collins but also Tom Friedman, is there any surprise it is going broke? That a petty bitchy column. How can Collins be so unselfconscious that she can complain about the filibuster? Does she honestly think no one read or remembers anything her editorial page wrote when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency? And all she can say about Brown is that his daughter was on some garish reality TV show. Yeah, that is relevant. Collins writes with all of the sophistication and intelligence of a sorority slam book.

vbspurs said...

I would vote for a brain in a jar if it would deliver the right votes on legislation.

Unfortunately, he's term-limited.

Freeman Hunt said...

"I'm glad you agreed to come, ma'am."
"What is this Fenway Park anyway?"
"Ma'am?"
"Well, I mean it's got to be the worst park I have ever seen. I see no trees, no meandering water features...? Are they inside?"
"..."
"It looks like we're standing outside of some sort of coliseum!"
"Baseball, ma'am. It's a baseball park."
"Baseball?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Oh, a sport..."
"Yes, ma'am."
"..."
"You should probably smile, ma'am."
"Oh. Perhaps after I am deloused."

Freeman Hunt said...

Unfortunately, he's term-limited.

Ha ha. Maybe the term limit applies to the body.

traditionalguy said...

The American Revolution really started at a Boston Tea Party 234 years ago.

vbspurs said...

Don't laugh! Given our medical advancements, that sounds like a very credible Supreme Court justice decision one day.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

There are 100 members of the Senate. But as Brown is currently reminding us, because of the filibuster rule, it takes only 41 to stop any bill from passing.

U.S. population: 307,006,550.

Population for the 20 least-populated states: 31,434,822.

That means that in the Senate, all it takes to stop legislation is one guy plus 40 senators representing 10.2 percent of the country.


This tool doesn't understand that we are a representative republic. The founders set up this system PRECISELY so that smaller States, which are sovereign units, would not be trampled upon by the more populated States.

If it were a true democracy where we vote by majority rule, what incentive would there be for the smaller states to join the union in the first place? What incentive is there to continue to stay in the Union if you have no chance of having your voice ever ever heard and you are controlled by people who have no interest in you our your needs.

Without a representative republic like we have now, we would just resemble a dictatorship by a few geographic areas over the majority of the States.

The Constitution and our form of government was set up to avoid this type of dictatorship.

This woman is a total liberal idiot....oh wait.....that was redundant.

knox said...

Ha ha, Vic. Not cool so much as petty, but she really pushed all my buttons with her nasty remarks.

She didn't even bother to say anything substantial about Brown! It was just a string of cruel insults.

cryptical said...

DBQ, that's why I'd like to see the 17th amendment repealed, so the Senate represents the states interests again.

Deb said...

"You should probably smile, ma'am."

She should try using both lips.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Maybe Montagne needs to look up "liar" in the dictionary, or read the transcript of Brown's comments:

QUESTION: “Scott, what do you think about the Tea Party movement and what they are trying to do?”

SCOTT BROWN: “I am not quite sure what you are talking about, what are they trying to do?”

QUESTION: “The anti-smaller government, sort of anti-establishment organization that is trying to take over the country.”

SCOTT BROWN: “Taking over the country. I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration.”

QUESTION: “Well, they are all over the place and they are trying to take down moderate Republicans. . .”

SCOTT BROWN: “All I know is that. . . “

QUESTION: “Are you completely unaware of that organization?”

SCOTT BROWN: “I’m not quite sure what you are referring to. But let me just say that this is a big tent campaign. I have people who are Democrats, I have people who are Independents, Republicans, young, old, liberal, conservative, moderate involved in this campaign because people are looking past the letter behind my name and they are looking at my 30 years of military service. They are looking at the fact that I have been a municipal and legislative leader with over 6000 votes, and more importantly they are looking at the stark differences between Martha and me on health care on cap and trade, on the expiring tax cuts, on the war tax, on how we treat people who are trying to kill us, on the fact that Afghanistan has a very real and vital national interest. They’re looking at those issues, and I welcome everybody’s support, because, literally, it’s me against the machine.”

QUESTION: “You’ve been called everything from conservative, moderate and liberal Republican. Would you want to set the record straight?”

BROWN: “Yeah, I would. I am a Scott Brown Republican, and I always have been. You know Allison, you’ve covered me. I have always been independent, whether voting against Governor Romney on the stem cell bill, being the leader to try to restore METCO funds here in Massachusetts, being somebody who has always been strait up with all of you- answer a question, don’t duck it and make sure that when I tell you an answer it’s accurate and it’s factual and it’s respectful. To be labeled I think is wrong, it’s wrong for the people, and they are kind of tired of it. They want somebody who is going to be accessible, accountable, and more in the mainstream with their issues…”

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Montagne Montaigne-

Are you gonna comment that TPM issued a correction, with a link to the audio?

Brown never said he was 'unfamiliar' with the tea party movement.

He was asked a question along the lines of what did he think of the tea party movement and their goals and he said he was unsure what the questioner meant about their goals.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Freeman you are killing me.

vbspurs said...

Freeman you are killing me.

I can't top what Freeman wrote, but I can remind you of dear Sargent Shriver campaign on the McGovern ticket in '72.

He entered a local, working class Boston bar, and started slapping the burly regulars on the back. They loved it! An almost Kennedy asking for their votes!

"Gee, you guys are great. Beers on the house! And a Courvoisier for me."

The Fenway crack was Maaatha's Courvoisier moment.

Peter V. Bella said...

Coakley figures the election is in the bag- she is a Democrat. Why should she have to lower herself to shaking hands or interacting with the unwashed peasants (constituents).

Cedarford said...

cryptical said...
DBQ, that's why I'd like to see the 17th amendment repealed, so the Senate represents the states interests again.


Few things in America would be worse than replacing popular vote with Senators sent forth by dysfunctional one party rule State Legislatures with only one mission assigned both Senators. Get money for us. Write earmarks, bring home the bacon, blackmail on each and every vote to get more than our share of Federal dollars.

Some states are so big that there is a population bigger than CT, RI, VT, NH, Mass & Maine put together that have no representation at all in the Senate (Inland Empire of California, Upstate NY.)

If anything, given America is now nothing like what the Founders envisioned - huge states, judges that are treated as nobility and have 50 years of lifetime appointment sometimes, no check on runaway Fed spending...The Amending process broken. The livelihood of the masses sold out for Ruling Elite generated bubbles they get huge bucks for win or lose, sold out to cheap foriegn labor for the profit of a fes..All power concentrated in one corrupted city now surrounded by 13 of the 15 wealthiest counties in America.....

Lets just say that we are one day closer to the Sacred Parchment having to be returned to The People for a major rewrite.

The Drill SGT said...

Coakley is gonna end up with less votes, but given the Dem penchant for recounting till the number is right, she may win.

why is she gonna get less votes?

She is clueless and won't stoop to "asking for your vote". She thinks she deserves the seat without having to grovel for votes. Brown, meanwhile is groveling for votes out at Fenway.

as for Collins, that 10% stuff was sooo much NYT "fly-over country"

Mark said...

A subset of Bostonians aren't going to be pleased about Fenway Park being used in a slur against anyone, regardless of politics.

Coakly just keeps giving Democrats more reasons to sit this one out.

former law student said...

I love Gail Collins' gentle wry humor. Week-in and week-out, she is the only source of chuckles on the op-ed page.

First, is this Coakley woman really the logical successor to Ted Kennedy? Sure doesn't sound like it. More like a Gore who kept a chair warm for eight years. Hint: put a starter out there, not a utility infielder.

Second: Who the hell goes to Fenway Park in January, anyways? Hockey fans enthralled with a chance to watch their team playing outside. On New Year's Day. In the cold. When they could be inside, warm, watching college football, where Coakley likely was, on a big screen tv, eating nachoes with her family.

And a Courvoisier for me.

Courvoisier has always been cool, long before SNL's Ladies Man pointed it out on TV.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Some states are so big that there is a population bigger than CT, RI, VT, NH, Mass & Maine put together that have no representation at all in the Senate (Inland Empire of California, Upstate NY.)

Preaching to the choir here. I live in California and probably in one of the 'reddest' districts you can imagaine. This means of course that in Calif. we are not represented and in fact our so called representatives vote against our interests and actively try to hurt us. If the people of the State want to elect all one party all the time based on population, that is the way it is. We can either change it by encouraging people to switch their votes.....or we can vote with our feet and go to a location more compatable.

Nevertheless, I think it very important that each State be an independent entity and that the Senators and Representatives represent the interests of the State as a whole. I know....naive.

As a Nation, Connecticut should have the same voice as Texas. To do otherwise defeats the entire purpose of being a cooperative United States with individual states. Why bother to belong?

The election of national representatives within each State is a democracy or popular vote. At the National level, however, the States should all be equal with the number of votes in the Senate and somewhat less equal based on population in the House.

Anyone who can't see that should just consider moving to Haiti or some other third world dictatorship, because that is the ultimate result if we screw up the unique system that we have been given by the founders.

Anonymous said...

Incidentally: those 40 obstructionist small-state Senators? 23 Democrats, 16 Republicans, and Bernie Sanders.

Unknown said...

As I said, a Dixie Chicks moment. It may not cost her the election in and of itself, but it's what medics in the CBI used to call, AOE, Accumulation of Everything. All these little things add up.

traditionalguy said...

The American Revolution really started at a Boston Tea Party 234 years ago.

Not really. The foundations began showing up during the French and Indian War and kept accumulating as colonists demanded what they saw as their rights as Englishmen.

If there was an act of violence to which one could point, it was the Boston Massacre, but there were tea parties in every major port in the Colonies, although, in most cases, the organizers did not hire a gang of thugs to vandalize a British ship. Most "tea parties" were like the one in Philadelphia where the responsible people of the city - unafraid to show their faces BTW - went down to the docks and told the ships' masters that their tea was not going to be offloaded in that particular port.

It was about this time Americans began cultivating a taste for coffee.

Jeremy said...

i always get a kick out of the local pack whining and bitching to high heaven about the horrible NYT...right up to the point where someone writes an article or OP-Ed with which they agree.

then all is well with the NYT's.

h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e-s

Zach said...

Not to pile on, but the continuation of that quote on the next page is pretty rich:

“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’ she fires back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that. ...“This is about getting people out on a cold Tuesday morning,’’ she says.

Love said...

"Coakley is that most despicable of politicians - the ones who will say or do ANYTHING to get elected, but are so stupid and clueless that they they can't do it with style."

You betcha!!!

Jeremy said...

The lates GOP savior appears to be a liar:

Just 11 days before he claimed to be unfamiliar with the Tea Party movement, Massachusetts Republican senate candidate Scott Brown attended a fundraiser that was sponsored by one of the state's major tea party factions.

On January 2, Brown's Senate campaign hosted a breakfast at the Doubletree Hotel in Westborough, Massachusetts that was sponsored by the group: the Greater Boston Tea Party.

Freeman Hunt said...

"What was that strategist screeching about? 'Lose the seat', as if I don't know where it is!"
"He's worried that you'll lose the election, ma'am."
"What election?"
"The Senate election, ma'am. The one you're running in."
"There's no election."
"Yes, ma'am, there is."
"Oh please, you say that as if the people were allowed to vote in it or something."
"They are, ma'am."
"They are? That's ridiculous. The people don't even know anyone important; that's why they're 'the people'. I don't believe you."

Freeman Hunt said...

Jeremey, somebody already debunked that on this blog.

Kylos said...

If Collins is going to play with numbers, then she ought to give a better representation of the situation. She is relying on the absolute worst-case scenario as her basis for complaining about the filibuster.

In the present situation, however, representatives of ~35% of the population (yes, I tabulated it all) are threatening to hold up health care legislation. While over-represented, Republicans still represent much more than the 10(.2)% Collins is complaining about. Indeed, they still represent more than a third of Americans.

traditionalguy said...

Editcher...Speaking of the French and Indian War, the British determination to drive out the French from control of the wealth of lands to be sold to settlers in the Ohio country made Pitt's regime spend vast fortunes in borrowed money here for ten years to hire militias and indian allies. Then when that was over, the British turned on the Colonies to repay those debts with new taxes without limits. That meant sure ruin for the Colonists here for 100 years to better set them up for being bought out cheap by the new investors and aristocrats being given grants of land by the King who "Owned the Royal Colonies". No, no, no you don't,said the colonials, and then the British government said it was all a mistake, but redeclared they had power to impose taxes at will. The Tea Tax was the first such re-enacted tax that blew up in the faces of the King's government here. The European King's method of running up a high debt for a side purpose of the King and his gang, and then saying debt must be repaid by the local Americans until they were all in poverty and powerless against an onslaught of these Government favorites coming to buy them out is not new after all.

Freeman Hunt said...

"We have to leave immediately!"
"Ma'am?"
"My allergies. It's horrible."
"Your allergies, ma'am?"
"Yes. My God, I fear I will be stricken blind by them at any moment. We must leave at once!"
"We've only just arrived. The people have assembled here to hear you speak. Perhaps we can fix whatever is causing you offense. What are you allergic to?"
"What do you think? Look at them! It's a sea of synthetic fibers out there!"

Jeremy said...

"Jeremey, somebody already debunked that on this blog."

here it is:

On Wednesday, however, the state senator seemed to distance himself from the tea party movement altogether. In an interview with The Boston Globe, Brown claimed that he was unfamiliar with the "Tea Party movement" despite being endorsed by a national Tea Party group. Here is the exact transcript, as obtained by The Plum Line's Greg Sargent:

QUESTION: "Scott, what do you think about the Tea Party movement and what they are trying to do?"

BROWN: "I am not quite sure what you are talking about, what are they trying to do?"

QUESTION: "The anti-smaller government, sort of anti-establishment organization that is trying to take over the country."

BROWN: "Taking over the country. I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration."

QUESTION: "Well, they are all over the place and they are trying to take down moderate Republicans. . ."

BROWN: "All I know is that. . . "

QUESTION: "Are you completely unaware of that organization?"

BROWN: "I'm not quite sure what you are referring to. But let me just say that this is a big tent campaign..."

are you saying he didn't know what the tea bagger movement was?

BULLSHIT

former law student said...

Jeremy, from your own quote it's obvious Brown is asking to clarify what the questioner considers the goals and strategies of the teabagger movement, not that he's pretending never to have heard of them.

bagoh20 said...

I love how the questioner says the Tea Partiers are "all over the place" and "trying to take over the country"

Sounds like the people are trying to take over their own country. How dare they.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Jeremy, from your own quote it's obvious...

Jeremy could have his head sown to the carpet and it wouldnt' be obvious to him.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I love how the questioner says the Tea Partiers are "all over the place" and "trying to take over the country"

All over the place! Under your bed! Maybe in the cubicle next to you! OMFG!! There's a warehouse down the street full of teabag pods!

Whatever happened to the good old days days of angry marching hirsute women in pink t-shirts wailing about the Bush dictatorship?

KCFleming said...

"...angry marching hirsute women..."

Russian women's track and field, circa 1983 .

JAL said...

Heh.

Any politician shaking hands in the cold outside Fenway Park is going to pull some votes.

What state is Martha really from?

C'mon lady.

Hey! Did you hear that Coakley is a Yankees fan? All her life.

wv diandumb
HONEST!

JAL said...

fls why should any of us here who trend to the middle and right even read anything that you write when you persist in descibing some of us (without evidence) who participate in expressing first amendment rights as participants in sexual acts involving sticking scrotums in mouths?

Childish.

Disgusting.

Disrespectful.

I'm Full of Soup said...

John said:

"When you consider that the Times employs not only Collins but also Tom Friedman, is there any surprise it is going broke?"

That is a mystery of life. News Corp [Fox News parent] actually tries to get new customers while the rest of the MSM chases its customers away with warmed-over and failed liberal ideas served by the 1960's ex-hippie libs like Collins and Friedman and Bob Herbert.

[This also explains why News Corp is one of the few stocks I own].

Unknown said...

traditionalguy said...

Editcher...Speaking of the French and Indian War, the British determination to drive out the French from control of the wealth of lands to be sold to settlers in the Ohio country made Pitt's regime spend vast fortunes in borrowed money here for ten years to hire militias and indian allies.

Excellent point, tg. Those Indian allies were then used to attack the American settlements west of the Alleghenies the Crown forbade. Ironically, the French Crown spent itself into similar ruinous debt during the American Revolution - and it cost them their heads; something our current administration might want to ponder.

FWIW, always a please discussing with you, tg.

WV "medonein" What a Viagra-addled Willie answered when Hillary asked him how many interns he'd interviewed.

knox said...

Hoosier, triple word score for using "hirsute" !!

careen said...

@freemanhunt

And I'd vote for a corn beef sandwich if it would at least refrain from voting and deal making for bad legislation.

former law student said...

sticking scrotums in mouths

Conservatives are disgusting.

vbspurs said...

What election?"

LOL! I am loving Freeman's Martha Dialogues. It's like the Vagina Monologues, but with less smell.

Unknown said...

vbspurs said...

What election?"

LOL! I am loving Freeman's Martha Dialogues. It's like the Vagina Monologues, but with less smell.


Oy!!! My blushes, vb. Such language!!!

In any case, Instapudit brings us another Maatha moment:

Catholics shouldn't work in ERs because of the possibility you might come into contact with birth control.

Tell me again how "inevitable" this woman's election is.

WV "handla" Somebody at Logan International who moves your luggage.

vbspurs said...

LATEST: Martha Coakley thinks us Catholics shouldn't work in hospital ERs. Excuse me?

Ken Pittman: Right, if you are a Catholic, and believe what the Pope teaches that any form of birth control is a sin. ah you don't want to do that.

Martha Coakley: No we have a seperation of church and state Ken, lets be clear.

Ken Pittman: In the emergency room you still have your religious freedom.

Martha Coakley: (...stammering) The law says that people are allowed to have that. You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn't work in the emergency room.


Is she nuts, stupid or what?

Links: Ace. Audio.

Cheers,
Victoria

JAL said...

Now if Sarah Palin had said that .. . .

Kirk Parker said...

Freeman,

"I would vote for a brain in a jar if it would deliver the right votes on legislation."

Ewwww, that's way to close to That Hideous Strengh for my comfort! (And since Britain really does have an organization called N.I.C.E. now, saying "But that's fiction!" isn't as reassuring as it used to be. Shudder...)

Revenant said...

If Coakley loses, there will be 26 states with Republican senators. Those 26 states contain 47.12% of the country's population.

Just FYI.

Revenant said...

Is she nuts, stupid or what?

She is, at a minimum, a truly incompetent politician. Even Al Gore couldn't lose a Massachusetts Senate race to a Republican.