First concrete fallout from Scott Brown victory?

The Obama administration's choice to lead the struggling Transportation Security Administration withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday, just weeks after revelations that he had provided misleading information to Congress prompted several Republicans to suggest his nomination would not move forward without a fight.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and homeland security specialist, was presented as a leader who would improve the TSA's sprawling operations and improve passenger screening to prevent such attacks as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner.

..."It is apparent that this path has been obstructed by political ideology," he said. "My nomination has become a lightning rod for those who have chosen to push a political agenda at the risk of the safety and security of the American people. This partisan climate is unacceptable and I refuse to allow myself to remain part of their dialogue."

Oh shove it up your ass. There were plenty of substantive reasons to vote against this guy, including his past history of breaking privacy rules (perhaps even laws), the possibility he'd support unionizing TSA workers and oh yeah, a rather nuanced view of the nature of the threats he'd be facing at TSA.

Getting cloture on his nomination was going to be a challenge before last night, this morning it likely became impossible.

Buh-bye.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:52 AM | Comments (122)
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So I put up the first Scott Brown post here a month ago. It was greeted with, uh, skepticism.

Umm..you want we should actually give money to a Republican senate candidate in Massa-two-shits??

Seriously??

There were 500K votes for democrats in the primary and about 140,000 for Brown. Democrats had 4 people running for the seat, Brown was virtually uncontested. I think he has a chance, I think many many people in the state are pissed off and they are pissed off at the incumbents, which she is identified as I'd say.

Don't count Brown out. Don't believe the polls. This is winnable. Believe.

[OregonMuse]Update: Let the correction of the record begin! Read this article: "President Bush deserves our respect, not our betrayal." Realize that the man who wrote these words was one of John Kerry's legal flacks in 2004. Now check out his website. I used to think that it was going to take at least a generation to set the Bush record straight, and to appreciate his accomplishments. Happily, I may have to revise my estimate downwards.

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:27 AM | Comments (232)
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People were supposed to get H1N1 shots, but were given insulin instead. Details, details, details. Whiners.

...While ABC News contacted people at the departments of health for the town of Wellesley and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the Wellesley School District, it remains unclear how the flu vaccine, which is distributed in pre-filled syringes, was mistaken for insulin, which is drawn from a vial because each dose needs to be calibrated when it is given.

Such errors have happened before...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:06 AM | Comments (78)
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Wuzzat?

Later: Yes, the date is wrong. I could barely crack my eyes open this morning and didn't notice. I'll just leave that as evidence of my moronity.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:17 AM | Comments (347)
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It's now January 20th on the east coast. One year ago today Barack Obama took the oath of office and became the 44th President of the United States. 364 days later his presidency as we knew it and he planned it, ended.

Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts (Mass-A-Fucking-Chusetts!) will mark the high water mark of Obama's leftist presidency. Don't get me wrong, he'll still screw things up wherever he can through executive action but the big society remaking legislative agenda of health care reform, cap and trade and immigration amnesty? Dead. The question is will he continue to try and ram those programs through what will be an increasingly hostile Congress (and fail) or move to the center and pass whatever pragmagtic/mainstream liberal policies he can.

My guess is the former.

Obama is a dyed in the wool liberal who knows nothing else. Rudy was on with Sean Hannity today and made a great point...Clinton was able to move right because he had practical experience in running a state and dealing with conservatives in Arkansas. Obama has none of that in his background. He only knows the hard left playbook.

Meanwhile, Scott Brown was able to tap into the anger here in Massachusetts (Mass-A-Fucking-Chusetts!) in a pragmatic way that appealed not only to independents but conservatives as well. If you listened to that speech tonight there was plenty of nods to the middle, to the vast number of independent voters but there was also a lot for hard core conservatives plenty to agree with (tax money for defense from terrorists, not for defense of terrorists, etc). It's a powerful combination and one that, with the right candidates, can be duplicated in states like NY and other traditional Democratic bastions in the coming cycle.

The cheer of "41!, 41!" went up tonight. It was uplifting because of what it means to health care and a host of other issues but it also shows just how far the GOP has sunk.

Tonight in a very unlikely place, a previously unknown Republican state senator began the Republican return from an unimaginably short trip to the wilderness and ended the Obama presidency as we knew it.

That is a good night.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:46 PM | Comments (491)
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I took this horribly unfocused with Drew's camera.

News: I can't reveal the source (I can say it's not Hannah, though), but the lawsuit is almost dead. ACORN, as many of you supposed, does not want to open its books for discovery.

"A bluff," a source close to Hannah (and yet not Hannah) says.

(No, seriously, I know I do a lot of sarcasm and wink-winking, but that's not from Hannah.)

Posted by: Ace at 07:43 PM | Comments (207)
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Totally wrong on the 11 point margin of victory, of course, but, as St. Augustine said, "Fuck you for noticing."

So fucking psyched.

You know, in a crazy way, this helps the Democrats and Obama. It forces them back to a more moderate path, and takes the scared shitless factor out of 2010; the public can now breathe a sigh of relief that the craziest shit these assholes think of won't get passed.

And that is politically problematic, for us. Cap and Trade? Dead. Card Check? Dead.

Health Care? Well, yeah: Dead.

A few more catastrophic defeats like this and it might be safe to elect Democrats again.

Anyway, always trust my damn hunches. I predicted the 2004 Red Sox sweep of the World Series before the season even began, for crying out loud.

Oh: And of course we know the media's story for tomorrow: Brown didn't really run as a Republican, so, like, this doesn't mean anything, or something.

Um: Except for his party ID as "Republican" and the sixty-three gajillion Coakley commercials calling him a Republican. And his vow to join the Republicans in filibustering ObamaCare (now dead letter), and his support of across the board tax cuts, and his desire to treat terrorists in a rather GOPish manner.

Yeah. They'll try. They won't mean it, and they won't really believe it. But they have to do it.

Because they're stupid, and they can only do what they must do.

Posted by: Ace at 07:36 PM | Comments (195)
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Victory Lap:

Americans cheered for Scott BrownÂ’s underdog campaign because they viewed his candidacy as a vote against the DemocratsÂ’ health care bill. You know that thereÂ’s something wrong with this legislation when opposition to it inspired a Republican victory in a state that currently has no Republicans in Congress and last sent a Republican to the Senate nearly 40 years ago.

Clearly this victory is a bellwether for the big election night ten months from now. In the spirit of bipartisanship, let me offer some advice to the Democrats on how to stem this populist tide. Scrap your current health care bill and start from scratch. We all want true reform, but government mandated insurance is not it. Scott Brown campaigned against this top-down bureaucratic mess. We need common sense solutions like reforming malpractice laws, allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines, giving individual purchasers the same tax benefits as those who get coverage through their employers, and letting small businesses pool together to provide insurance for their employees. Focus your efforts on jobs, not on job-killing legislation. Such a change in approach would show Americans that youÂ’re listening.

Posted by: Ace at 07:21 PM | Comments (100)
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UPDATE: Balloons just dropped. Dipped into the floor, in a way.

It's almost like they're demanding I do it.

13 minutes to the Grand Harmonic Convergence of Jock-Knockers and Pudding.

....

That is the time I'm calling for the Inaugural Mass National Coordinated Ceremonial Dipping.

All across America.

Freedom.

Postponed: Damn, I can't move, and besides, Brown is going to speak in the next 20 minutes.

How about 11:11?

Humpbot: At Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 07:00 PM | Comments (1055)
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Carter's Democratic Congress turned against him, too.

The circle is now complete.

Allah digesting:

Lieberman and Bayh all but warned Obama to back off earlier today. About an hour ago, just as news of Brown’s victory broke, Jim Webb chimed in: “[I]t would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.” That wouldn’t solve the ping pong problem, but the more Senate centrists there are speaking out against the bill, the softer the House Blue Dog coalition will get. Every last member of the 60-vote coalition needs to be asked if they’d be willing to vote for Reid’s bill again in light of what happened in Massachusetts. I’d be awfully curious to see how close you get to 60 again. Or 50, for that matter.

Scott Brown's got a message for Obama:

I won.

Remember that, Champ?

More Coverage, and Other Bloggers in Attendance... at the Other McCain.

Posted by: Ace at 06:46 PM | Comments (130)
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