Correction to today's post on the 23rd Middlesex special election

Apparently, Suzanne Gordon does have enough signatures to qualify for a spot on the democratic ballot.
Interested parties have requested a campaign announcement from her. Gordon could be an interesting addition to the race, no one knows her from a cord of wood but she is the wife of super lawyer Steve Early and has connections to beat the band. It is thought around town that she has some as yet undisclosed fundraising chops.
All this disadvantages Jeff Thielman somewhat, since Gordon will undoubtedly run as a liberal where Jeff was hoping to lock up the progressives early.

BTW

Happy New Year to all, in 2008 Humble Elias promises that the Chimes at Midnight will be even more vituperative, poorly edited, indifferently written and thoroughly nasty in an unsubtle way...this blog stresses continuity you understand....

:D

Handicapping the 23rd Middlesex state rep's special election

As of yesterday the democratic primary shrank enormously, school committee member Susan Lovelace dropped out as well as Suzanne Gordon, a local scholar and writer.
Allegedly both candidates lacked enough signatures to get onto the primary ballot, Gordon I can understand she is new and no one knows her, but Lovelace is a school committee fixture and ought to have enough names in her rolodex to get certified fair -n- square.
I suspect the drop-out was was fixed up quietly, but that is only a suspicion.
This immediately turns the February democratic primary into a contest between two other school committee members, Jeff Thielman and Sean Garballey along with one Andrew O'Brien a complete newcomer to the game who is otherwise unknown to Humble Elias.
So at this point, it is Thielman versus Garballey...both have asymetrical strengths; Sean is affable and the darling of the boys and girls in the back room, but he is also barely twenty two years old and has yet to graduate college. Don't underestimate his backers though, Selectperson Diane Mahon despite not living in the 23rd Middlesex house district is clearly looking to recoup some of her losses from the recent state senate fight...and Sean would appear to be the best she could do.
Thielman on the other hand, is smart, articulate and has a proven record outside public service to go along with a job reasonably well done on the school committee.
However there is lingering and misplaced bitterness attendant on his involvement in the firing of a misbehaving middle school principal. Arlington despite it's increasingly gilt-edged appearance, is still a very provincial place in some respects...which means people can be ornery about stuff. Whether Jeff Thielman likes it or not, he will be talking about this issue in the weeks to come.

Whoever wins will have a tough fight in the general election, John Worden III, the Moderator of Town Meeting will be the GOP nominee, he has many friends and few wingnut bona fides and the state republicans might invest in the race if they think he can slip past the competition in a low turn out race.
So take this fella seriously sez Humble Elias.

McCain is up in the polls...

The pundits are all in a swoon and Mitt Romney is screaming for blood and dynamite. Oy veh...the NH Primary detonates in less than ten days with both races in a untidy frenzy.
The Chris Matthews' out there, are all under the sad delusion that John McCain is somehow gonna be the Robert F. Kennedy of 2008, a savior sent out of the iron womb of the US Navy to save the GOP and the Republic in the bargain.
As if any governing party that had screwed up as badly and thoroughly as the Republicans really deserves to be saved.
Well what of it?
Most of these jerks in the punditariat make seven figure salaries, they mostly wanna save their sweet deal on taxation, they confuse their own wallets with the good of the nation.
And anyway it is instructive to note that RFK didn't win nor did the democrats back in the 1968 presidential election.
So if McCain is the Hero, the Man on Horseback, this election's RFK, what does that make Hillary?
Richard Nixon?
Well what of it?
Nixon won didn't he?
:D

Benazir Bhutto is dead...

and predictably, the cry goes up that the whole crisis will "advantage" to such US candidates for President that have "strong foreign policy credentials".
Here the punditariat is highlighting Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton and to a lesser extent, Joe Biden and perhaps Former Ambassador Bill Richardson.
So as the world spirals new troubles and woes, it is worth recalling that by and large the current crisis was either created or immeasurably worsened by a whole bunch of US decisionmakers most of whole had "strong foreign policy credentials".
Starting with the incumbent Vice President, a former Secretary of Defense, a former White House Chief of Staff and a one time congressman from Wyoming and going right thru Colin Powell a Chief of Staff of the US Army and the nation's pick as Secretary of State and Donald Rumsfeld, a Secretary of Defense with a resume as long as Larry Bird's right leg.
All men of long experience and much intelligence, all leapt off the cliff with gung-ho gusto and took this glorious republic right along with them for the plunge.
Humble Elias thinks experience is a wonderful thing, he ardently wishes Bill Richardson was polling better, but he also knows that mere experience is worthless if it is not ruled by good judgement.
After all, Abraham Lincoln had one puny term in congress to his name before he won the civil war, freed the slaves and slaved the union.
Some would call him inexperienced, but his goals were clear and his judgement flawless...I'd rather that in the oval office than any ten old laggards from out the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
There is no stature gap here, there is no deficit of experience, what is missing today in the White House is leadership and judgement.
With judgement, you get a peaceful and secure end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, without it you get to watch as Pakistan, a nuclear armed nation ruled by a faltering military junta, slides into sectarian civil war...something with malign consequences for us all.
There are those out there who would dismiss today's post as a "blame America First screed"....but then you can't blame "America" for letting Bush steal two elections in a row...nor can you blame the republic because it's President has no ideas and worse judgement. America is only an idea after all, and the republic is a institution, a set of laws and particular attitude in the end.
Saving all this starts doing some hard and fast thinking our role and priorities in this world...and then we need good decisions, and we need them quick....just don't wait for any of that from George Bush Jr.

Humble Elias noticed something the other day....

the roads outside Romney's mansion in Belmont Mass are frickin' terrible! Rutted, pitted, rilled, full of potholes and the like, it's a bouncy ride much akin to the back country in Center Barnstead New Hampshire.
And the streets are lined with McMansions and huge-ass homes!
Inexplicable.
You'd think having been Governor of the Commonwealth, Mitt could've finessed some road monies for Belmont to get those streets properly pave...but no.
The Viceroy has too busy recruiting dead-heads for the state legislature, defying snow storms in a windbreaker and denouncing his constituents in front of auslanders.
God forbid he should direct $100k in blacktop to the Town of Belmont.
Take this how you will, but to me it demonstrates Romney's amateurism and lack of grounding in the basics of politics.

Feel the Post Holiday Man-Love...

as Jeff Jacoby marks out hard for John McCain's simple virtue.
Oh now there is a iconoclastic, counter-intuitive choice...John McCain all the other columnistas must be aghast at Jeff's curious choice.
Who ever heard of a pundit swooning over John McCain?

Well practically all of them that is who...and after months and months of sifting thru useless old hacks like Fred Thompson or grinning vacuities like Mitt Romney, it would seem Jeff Jacoby has been forced to settle for John McCain as the candidate most likely to start a war with Iran soonest. He has to put up with McCain's famous temper tantrums, his ineffectual record in the senate and his apostasy on various issues, but Jeff will get his war with Iran at the very least.
Meanwhile there is time for McCain to start seriously flip flopping on the issues if he really does pull off an upset in New Hampshire.
These days that is the best a republican can hope for.

Happy Festivus....

What did we learnt his year?

Again almost nothing, this is ideological warfare here at the Chimes at Midnight not an ABC Afterschool Special.

On the other hand:

Senator John Kerry declined to run for President.
Senator Joe Lieberman kept threatening to switch to the GOP
Left Ahead the local liberal podcast debuted.
Joanie Vennochi wrote a lot of stupid things seemingly with venom in her quill pen.
Fred Thompson yawned stretched, took a nap announced for President and hasn't been heard from since.
Steve Stark said the same thing over and over and over and over...and no one at the Phoenix has caught wise yet.
Senator John Kerry did a number of fine and noble things none of which you read about in the papers.
Senator Larry Craig broke out his shotgun and wailed dire threats against anyone foolish enough to bust down the door and drag him out of the closet.
Newt Gingrich pretended to want to run for President for two laugh filled months.
Andrew Meyer, a profounding stupid and naive young man got tasered at a political event down in Florida. By all accounts, the electrical shock did not awaken the dormant portions of his brain.
Imus went down, Imus came back...Imus still subsists on human bra-ins!
And Jeff Jacoby went light on the whole "My deerest darling Kaleb" columns...maybe the lad put his foot down who knows?

Anyhow merry christmas to all...

Dear Brian McGrory....

How yuh weathering the snow? Has your hair frizzed out or anything?

In case you hadn't noticed, notorious Colorado xenophobe Representative Tom Tancredo has terminated his bid for the 2008 GOP Presidential nomination and duly endorsed Mitt Romney's candidacy for the same.

So Brian tell me, where is that nice moderate Mitt Romney, the one for whom you marked out so very very hard back in'02?
At the rate your boy Willard is going, in just two short weeks he'll be calling for the forced expulsion of everyone whose name ends in a vowel.
Well Brian, this is not one of those classic Chimes at Midnight "I tolja so" type posts...nope this is more of a friendly warning against the perils of excessive credulity.
THE NEXT TIME, some grinning CEO type marchs into your office, desperate to run for governor as a Moderate Republican, try with all yer might not to fall in a swoon at his or her feet...if you can't be skeptical then at least try to pretend.

Tancredo Outski?

So it would seem....

You can't say though, that Congressman Tancredo didn't have a big influence on the 2008 republican presidential race, six solid months of his exquisite 19th century xenophobia and nearly the entire worthless pack were screaming to lynch all illegals soonest.
If that isn't sheer persuasive power then what is???

Of course, the issue itself polls very badly outside the GOP's hardcore trogs, so when Mitt, Rudy or Mike go down in flames next November, you can apportion some of the blame to Tancredo.

The Tears of a Fraud

The Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney allegedly wept with joy in 1978 when the Mormon Church ended it's ban on negro clergy.
Good ghod what rubbish!
Mitt was probably shedding tears of joy all right, he was ecstatic that an embarrassing obstacle to political power was removed from his path.
***
Good grief gettin'all choked up is oldest corniest routine in the playbook, Richard Nixon did it all the time back in the day in a vain attempt to seem "real" and "normal" to the voters.
According to all witnesses, it was a cringe-worthy performance in every way.
Leaders are deviants by definition, whenever someone like Romney starts pretending to have a heart, all I can say is, Watch Out!

Idle Conjuration...

(File this under "Might Not Happen but it'd be FUN if it did")
If Mike Huckabee buries the field in Iowa and then John McCain engineers a last minute upset in New Hampshire...am I alone in thinking Mitt Romney will have a screeching infantile fugue on election night in Concord NH?
There is some precedent for this, Bob Dole was reduced to inarticulate snarling when Pat Buchanan beat his ass in the New Hampshire Primary back in 1996.
Mitt is clearly the repressed passive-aggressive type, a nice expensive and most of all humiliating loss up there to a hopeless doddering windbag like McCain might finally unleash the former Viceroy's pent up fury.
After all, there is nothing more embarrassing than losing to someone you'd written off in July.
Of course a lot of conjecture rides on this, the McCain resurgence in New Hampshire might be mostly be hot air from Old John's amen section on the op-ed pages...those jerks could build the slightest cooling breeze into an irresistible gale.
Nevertheless, Romney is too much the amateur to lose on this scale with grace...he'll have some sort of psychotic break, hopefully the news cameras will be there when it happens.

There is something hilarious about

Mitt Romney's increasingly irrational attempts to prove he is a bigger wowser and more truculent patriot than Mike Huckabee.

I mean...you half expect Mitt to bring a tape measure to the next debate or something...he went to pieces like this late in the game against Kennedy in 1994, let us not forget that.

But for the moment lets try and extract as much amusement as we can from Mitt's meltdown. I suggest that at Tonight's "Ask Mitt Romney Anything" event at the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College (Manchester NH) someone ought to solicit Romney's views on evolution and the efficacy of stump water as a sovereign against warts.

Apropos of the MLB...

steroid scandal Lyndon Johnson known how to handle it.
LBJ would have gotten on the phone with Senators Mike Mansfield & Paul Douglas and told him to write the toughest anti-steroid law imaginable.
And damn the owners and the players as well, are they any more bad ass than the forces of race-reaction that opposed Johnson's civil rights program?
I think not.
LBJ would have drove the measure thru Congress like drought stricken cattle...ah but those were the days of leadership in this country.
Nowadays when someone has potent political capital they just hold onto it too long or else exclusively use it to punish their enemies or those disinclined to vote for them.
Sad...but that is the world we live in.

The game is afoot in New Hampshire...

Clinton's lead is slipping and Obama seems to have regained his footing...meanwhile Edwards and the pack are out in force desperate to take advantage of any sudden twist of fate.
Well at this point, it is worth remembering that for all his charisma Bill Clinton still lost the New Hampshire back in 1992.
Back in those days, the Commonwealth's official Presidential Man on Horseback was the late Paul Tsongas who beat Clinton like a gong in the Granite State.

Of course, Bill rose up to carry the day all the way to the White House, but it is worth remembering he was not a done deal then and his wife is not a done deal now.

Marzilli Uber Alles Part II

Well, Jim Marzilli romped to victory yesterday winning Bob Havern's fourth Middlesex State senate seat in a cold and wet special election.

The rough numbers can be found here:

Alas though, there is talk from various reliable sources that Kenny Donnelly might make another try at 4th Middlesex senate seat next year (this after he gave Marzilli a resounding endorsement on primary election night no less. Although Humble Elias has also heard that Donnelly allegedly has some 40K left in his campaign coffers and that would give him a big leg up if he ran for Marzilli's vacant seat in the House.
Other potential democratic candidates in that upcoming special election include School Committee members Jeff Thielman and Susan Lovelace as well as long time democratic party activist Tim Shannon.

Ah well...what of it? It was still Jim's night last night, whatever else you can say about him, Marzilli is a man of the future, he has a profound understanding of the issues and challenges that are a-coming.
On that basis along, absent Jim Marzilli's energy and honesty, the district made the right choice last night.

Not even the National Review can find a worthwhile conservative

in this election and so thus is forced to endorse Mitt Romney and simply pretend that Willard is a true blue conservative they way Scot Lehigh and Brian McGrory once pretended he was the moderate republican messiah.
Mitt seems to bring out the delusional in people...it is a consistent element of his storyline.

Elias Nugator Sr.

One of FDR's noble spartans, was conjuring with Barack Obama this weekend. He had a theory that perhaps a comma was missing out of his name making him Senator O'Bama our boyo so to speak.
The Son of Destiny sees Irishmen everywhere it seems.
However today he was muttering "Fill the Bill with Hill and Bill"....and so thus he shuffles the cards seeking a candidate...

Peace to his contemplations sayeth I.

Marzilli for state senate...

Serious Chimes at Midnight readers (all seven of you) will recall that Arlington state representative Jim Marzilli has been duly endorsed by this blog in the race to replace state senator Bob Havern in the Four Middlesex District.
Well, the general election is tomorrow, the weather prediction is clear and cold so lets everyone get out and vote!
Jim needs it, let us take nothing for granted and pile up a big majority for our candidate.

Meanwhile the Cangiamila campaign is sending out bizarro mailers that somehow link Jim Marzilli with the Grinch who stole Christmas....

Such class Republicans we got in the fourth Middlesex, so committed to the lofty combat of ideas.

The Winter of 1984

Ahhh that was when the last shreds of my charmless youthful naivete' died on the icy streets of Manchester New Hampshire...somewhere between Bridge Street and North Adams Road if you must know.
In those days, Humble Elias was a feckless undergraduate at one of southern New Hampshire's TOP Benedictine Roman Catholic colleges, thus he had a front row seat to the whole gaudy miserable presidential carnival.
So I've always had a somewhat jaundiced view of the whole "First in the Nation Primary" mishaugas...millions are raised out of state, thousands of volunteers are drafted and sent in...all to convince a xenophobic, surly and entirly homogenous electorate that they are a heroic breed to put The Seven Against Thebes to shame.
These days, Manchester NH is actually even seedier and more hopeless than when I was living there under the frosty aufklarung of Governor John "Fishguts" Sununu. The streets are chillingly empty at noon on a Sunday morning, "I Am Legend" could easily be filmed there sans recourse to CGI effects.
Manchester is a perpetually dying new england mill town, ruled by petty indignataries who try their wan wasted best to tart up for the presidential candidates. It's a town that actually looks older and more haunted every four years despite sporadic efforts to breath new life into it's brittle bones.
Credit Chris Dodd for having a huge walk in headquarters on Elm Street (th' main drag as my grey haired old mother would put it) which was decorously closed as of 1pm today.
I recall that Senator Lugar had just as huge a headquarters for his run in 2000, didn't do him much good though.
Mitt Romney's headquarter's was a few doors down and open as well, but only for show purposes with one lone staffer to roam the whole joint. He was nice enough to point out where some of the other playas were camped out locally. He also pointedly and primly noted that Ron Paul was "in Concord" as if to say that a candidate only matters if they are set up on Elm Street in Manchester NH.
Giuliani's headquarters on the tonier north side of town, was fairly active, I even managed to score a button off the very nice receptionist (thanks and I really do collect these baubles).
Hillary Clinton's headquarters seemed faily well hidden...I got contradictory directions from several worthies in the approved "Burt and I" fashion...ultimately I gave up the chase.
Barack Obama on the other hand is firmly dug in at what amounts to a warehouse farm off Valley Road. The office was bustling with activity, but then the candidate and OPRAH were gonna make an appearance tonight at the "Verizon Wireless Center".
What all this points to, is that Elm Street, the very center of town in the state's largest city, is no longer a player in presidential politics, the myraid of empty storefronts and languishing office spaces only underscore the unhappy truth, campaigns can really stretch a rental dollar a mere mile away in some shopping plaza near the highway.
It's a sad town too cold to be wistful really. On the other hand one thing I've noticed from my college days til today, small retailers are all uniformly honest and even kind after a fashion. I bought two slices of pizza at a local shop this afternoon for lunch and got a third one fresh and for free, the owner opined "You look hungry"...I think he even discounted me.
That is pretty much the case all over town, the numerous second hand stores have great bargains and everyone looks like they just got over a crying jag.

"Scientologists for Romney"

Now that Mitt has legitimized all other religions beside his own, don't you think he should reach out to the scientology community? I mean supposedly L. Ron Hubbard is his favorite author...it seems like a natural match.
They could show up at rallies give free screenings...and the fundraising potential...WOW!

Think about it Mitt there are worse things in the world than having the backing of Tom Cruise and Jenna Elfman.

Seriously though, friday's speech does raise the legit question as to what religions Mitt considers cult-like.
be an interesting inquiry that would make him flee the room no doubt.

You know, it occurs to me that...

IF Mitt Romney gets elected President, "ah could be inna heap o' trouble boy!"

Exhibit A: I have the geographic misfortune to live barely a mile from Mitt Romney's damn mansion in Belmont Mass...da secret service will no doubt do a data-mining sweep and score heavily on Humble Elias.
But hell a bunch of my damn neighbors will come up on that list as well, so I'll be in companionable company.
Exhibit B: This, the Little Blog that Cried, since 2003 it has proudly held to a admittedly crude and indifferently edited anti-Mitt line trust me, the SS ain't gonna like dat neither.

Yup come January 2009, this blog could be coming to you from the shores of the Baja peninsula.

That is, IF Romney wins, the nation would have to go a long ways to find a politician less trustworthy and more bereft of ideas than Willard Mitt Romney. Whether or not the Republic figures that out in time is an open question though.
***

BTW how about that speech yesterday? Pretty much a sonorous collection of focus group tested vacuities he? Mitt said nothing objectionable by the lights of a Baptist shaman, that is his idea of being a good civil libertarian. Nevertheless, Mormon or no, I wouldn't trust Mitt Romney with a plugged nickel let along my religious liberties.
Of course, staging this mishaugas at the Bush Presidential Library is a de-facto endorsement from La Famiglia Arbusto and a subtle hint that brother Jeb might yet end up on the Republican ticket as Mitt's VP.
I urge the former Florida Governor to give the sinecure careful thought, Scary Kerry Healey didn't profit much by her association with Willard.

I'm running behind this week...so much to discuss so little time...

Mormon youth make the front page of the Boston Globe today.

They all sound like nice kids but I wonder how many of them will be calling in sick to school on January seventh in order to go door to door in New Hampshire for Mitt Romney?

Which they can do with my blessing it is after all a national election in which Romney seeks a place. Dress warm kids, lotsa layers and cover those ears sez the old misanthrope.

Of course things were a lot different a mere six years ago.

"A man's religion is his own business" so I foolishly opined in 2002 as Mitt Romney ran for governor.
Imagine my chagrin on election day as my little bed room suburb was flooded with dozens of out of state Mormon volunteers happy and hell bent on putting their bishop in office.

Nowadays I say, a candidate's religion IS the public's business whenever he or she intend to use revealed religion as a guide to public policy.
Then all bets are off.

Romney's speech today won't change any of this, whatever he says, the reality is he must still convince the wowsers he can be trusted despite his religion to give them their own personal eschaton.
JFK told the ministers, 'My faith is no threat to you, the separation of church and state will be strong if I win'.
Romney is telling us 'Forget I'm a Mormon, I'll do whatever you ask once I win...'
See the difference?

So Iran's nuclear bomb program halted four years ago?

That is interesting....

So how long before Marty Peretz and Charles Krauthammer start screaming that the United States Central Intelligence Agency is rife with tea drinking poufy anti-semites?

Nice to see Mitt Romney finally taking some heat from...

The Boston Globe. It is nothing compared to the four month long search and destroy mission that got dropped on John Kerry in the lead up to the 2004 New Hampshire primary...but it is still nice to see.

BTW is it me or is Mitt Romney starting to panic? This cockammamy speech to the legions of wowserdom promising to remain their bitch even when they mutter that he is a cultist betrays some tell-tale flopsweat to Humble Elias. I mean the dumb twit can't even fire illegal immigrants without a do-over!

Ahhh but Willard is hardly a seasoned professional is he? Romney's electoral score is a paltry "one and one" and the guy has never been under serious sustained attack at all in his political career to date. The shots he took running for senate and governor were frickin' pity-pats compared to the potential shit storm he is sailing into now.

Question for the day...

Why IS Howie Carr such a fag-basher?
I bought Elias Nugator Sr. the Sunday Herald this weekend so he could ponder BC's loss in more detail. Carr's sunday column was for the most part an exercise in rhetorical masturbation at the possible repeal of the state income tax...then Howie started ranting and raving about gay marriage before lurching back to his main thesis.
Which gave me to think just why does Howie hate gays so?
He isn't a particularly religious man, that I know he rarely discusses matters of faith in his column...so that can't be it.
Was he buggered by the quarterback at that exclusive private school he attended?
Again doubtful, he is an unappetizing specimen and can't have improved much with age.
So what is it?
Is it his radio audience, either he makes like a fag-basher or loses all to Jay Severin?
Which is a cynical explanation but lacking any other data seems to be the most likely.
He works in an industry with it's share of gays, I wonder if anyone has ever taken time to ask him what his beef is?

Grenade Soup?

A charming yuletide vignette can at the Channel Zero Blog.

According to the Boston Globe, Mitt Romney is about to...

speak on the subject of "Religious liberty".
This is a wondrous opportunity to watch a craven flip-flop executed in public all by Mitt Romney who a mere month ago said he didn't need to clarify his faith or affirm his reliance on religious tolerance in any damn speech.
Ahh but that was before th' Reverend Mike Huckabee started coming up in the polls, evidently the wowsers of Iowa would rather lose with one of their own than rely on a Mormon's good faith.
The problem for Romney is simple and damning,he has been fawning over these people for two long years, he has promised endless special rights and powers for the religious right at the expense of women, gay and all the usual out groups.
All he asked in return is that they ignore his religion and vote for him...and in the end Huckabee still nips at his heels!
Mitt has edged out pretty far onto that wingnut branch, it's gonna be hard to edge back especially when he has nothing much to show for it.
As for Mitt's new found love of religious tolerance, I wouldn't put much stock in it if I was a GOP primary voter. Religious freedom can't exist without the separation of church and state, Romney cannot embrace the former without affirming the latter...which is just exactly what the religious right doesn't want to hear.
So look for a very Orwellian speech from Romney, something that sounds like he is all for religious tolerance while at the same time reiterating that he is still running as a lackey of xian wingnut politics no matter how much they may disdain his Mormon faith.
Frankly at this point, Romney's only viable option may be to announce he is converting to a Charismatic Church and start shaking behind the podium in an ecstasy of divine communion.
But trust me, whatever he does say, it won't be anything akin to JFK's famous speech to the ministers in Dallas....in fact it will be quite the opposite.