Sunday, May 9, 2010
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Mass. GOP challenger to Barney Frank announces bid - '...Sean Bielat, a former Marine Corps lieutenant, will formally announce his campaign Monday morning at the Coolidge Corner Theater in his hometown of Brookline. Bielat says two of his top concerns are national security and fiscal responsibility. He says he's collected enough signatures to get on the ballot for the Sept. 14 primary elections...'
Could he pick blue-er, more pro-Barney turf than Coolidge Corner to kick off his campaign?
Hasty Pudding once gave their Man of the Year award to John Wayne. That year, the prize was what the press accounts called "a pair of small, round spherical objects made of brass." Maybe Sean Bielat should take a cue from John Wayne. When he came to Cambridge to receive the honor, the he rode into the hostile, enemy territory of the PRC in an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier), courtesy of the National Guard. Unlike Dukakis in the tank a few years later, he didn't look silly wearing a combat helmet.
Nappy wishes Sean well but that notes that he'll need a lot of luck to win. Barney's horribly gerrymandered district is contrived to make it a Jewish, and therefore liberal, seat. Even without BHO's thumb on the census scale, MA will probably lose a seat due to redisticting, but Barney's seat and his district are probably safe.
Nappy likes the idea Jeff Jacoby floated in 1997 and again last year about increasing the number of seats to keep Congressional districts small, Congressmen accountable to their constituencies and the Congress itself diverse.
Ah, memories. They can play tricks.
As Parade Marshall for the Hasty Pudding, the Duke rode atop the M-113 APC in 1969, nearly 20 years before Dukakis's embarrassing tank photo.