Massachusetts for Brown

Massachusetts voters sent a stunning rebuke to the Democratic national party. In a Senate special election that hinged largely on national issues and candidate personalities, voters preferred an unknown quantity from the opposition to a robotic Pelosi clone. Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley, despite her massive ground game run by top New England operative, Lynda Tocci (this Herald story puts the numbers of door-knockers at 150 for Brown to 7,000 for Coakley).

Whodunnit? Mainly independent voters, but that's obvious in a state where 49% of voters are unaffiliated and only 15% are registered Republicans. Secondly: minority Democrats, by not turning out. There's not much about Coakley to motivate the diverse minorities of Massachusetts, as Kevin Cullen's excellent Globe article pointed out. Lastly: working class moderates voted Brown, including 22% of Democrats who voted.

The Globe's town-by-town results map shows Coakley winning the cities and the Berkshires, plus liberal enclaves, and Brown carrying the rest. But Coakley didn't win the minority-heavy cities by much, due to the low minority turnout. In fact, Brown even won Lowell and Quincy! Meanwhile, Brown won the white working class cities of Weymouth, Gardner, Fitchburg, and Leominster. Brown's bread and butter were populous suburban and exurban communities where he won by enormous margins: Attleboro, Plymouth, Walpole, Peabody, Tewksbury, and even Barnstable, home of the deceased Ted Kennedy.

Now, Bay Staters will learn who Scott Brown is. All we know is that he drives a truck and has a new job in Washington. Whether he'll be a constructive force there remains to be seen.

More from Haiti

My sister has been able to upload photos a few times, and has contact info for her own agency and the large relief agencies she can observe making a difference on the ground: Catholic Relief Services, American Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders.

A week after the quake, no serious aid has reached her neighborhood. Keep praying, and give if you are so inclined.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Close Senate Race in Mass

How bad are things for the Democrats nationally? In Massachusetts, a well-known local Democrat with decades of elected service is being beaten by an unknown Republican from Wrentham. It seems Massachusetts independents really, really don't like the idea of a federally-run health care system or punitive taxes on investment. Hub Politics has the view from inside the GOP movement.

Bay Staters! Send Scott Brown to Washington as the emergency brake on the Obama-Pelosi-Reid troika. We need a little gridlock when the pork, the deficit spending, and the frankensteined reforms get out of hand. Global Review firmly endorses balanced government and uncomfortable incumbent parties.

Pray for Haiti

As some of my readers know, my wonderful sister Keziah is a nurse and lives and works as a volunteer in Port au Prince, Haiti. I only heard about the earthquake in Haiti today (the 15th) because I´m in the Yucatan on my honeymoon. My sister is safe and well, praise God! and she´s doing a hero´s work in Port au Prince. Right now, things look bad there. Food and water are running out in the city and in her neighborhood there has been no evidence of aid teams arriving.

My parents are posting updates on her blog , and she is apparently featured in ABC news stories. Your prayers are appreciated.

Bachelor Getaway

So I had a great surprise this weekend - my buddies flew me to D.C., and met me there for a 48-hour bachelor getaway. Some highlights:

• Ali Baba's dog eating Craig's toothbrush.
• "YOU DIDN'T LET MY DOG OUT OF IT'S F***ING CAGE!?!?!?" Sorry, Ali.
• Dubya and I ambushing Ali Baba in the snow in his t-shirt... and getting tackled in a foot of powder.
• Dubya sinking into depression as he won game after game Monday night... while watching his Fantasy Football playoff lead trickle away into ignominious defeat on MNF.
• "It's afternoon, why aren't we drinking beer?"
• Sucking at Wii MarioKart.
• Alhambra, La Citta, Thurn and Taxis, Antike - all great games
• Embarrassed New Englanders trying to talk about sex.
• One astounding revelation.
• "Hey Jon, what are you doing for dinner - I'm in Baltimore".
• More snow in DC than in Western NY. Say what?!
• M&M's, Pub Mix, corn chips, salsa, kosher franks, cheeseburgers, asparagus, beers, ice cream, peanuts, coffee.
• The junkfood hangover on Tuesday. I barely ate all day long. OK, that's a lowlight.

Thanks, brothers!

Three Cheers

Three cheers to Arne Duncan for starting to cut the financial middleman out of the federal college loan business. Subsidizing higher education for needy students is an appopriate use of taxpayer money, in my opinion (drawing on research by Gonzalo Castex, among others), and I'll take the Sec. of Ed. at his word that the new way is more efficient and gives less welfare to bankers.

The Gore Effect

The Gore Effect is hitting Denmark with a vengeance. Odin is rolling his eyes as Freyr plays his jokes on the earnest scientists and unctuous politicos in Copenhagen. This is the funniest prank in Valhalla in the last several centuries!

Bonus silliness: The Danes have so much time on their hands that they have a government definition of "white Christmas".

Hat tip to Drudge.