Scott Brown to start book tour in February

Scott Brown to kick off book tour during President's Day recess
Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown 's upset win in January's Special Election for the seat of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) instantly propelled him onto the national stage. It seems only fitting that as he gears up for a tough re-election bid in 2012, he's doing it by opting for the route most national figures travel: by launching a book tour. Brown adviser Eric Fehrnstrom tells The Fix that the Bay State's junior senator is planning to embark on a "mini-book tour" of Massachusetts during...

Scott Brown to tour Scituate storm damage Thursday
Sen. Scott Brown will personally inspect storm damage in Scituate Thursday afternoon, joining state Sen. Robert Hedlund and Rep. James Cantwell for tour that leaves town hall at 3 p.m. Brown, Hedlund and Cantwell will visit the Sand Hills neighborhood, which Hedlund’s office on Wednesday described as still under water. They will also review an area off Turner Road where a 60-foot seawall section was knocked down. Hedlund hopes Brown’s visit will generate Federal Assistance for the t...

Obama appoints five officials whose nominations had stalled
WASHINGTON — President Obama has bypassed the Senate and directly appointed four ambassadors whose nominations had been stalled or blocked by lawmakers for months. The White House said yesterday that Obama would use his power to make Recess Appointments to fill Envoy posts to Azerbaijan, Syria, and NATO allies Turkey and the Czech Republic. Recess appointments are made when the Senate is not in session and last only until the end of the next session of Congress. They are frequently used w...

Man of the Year Finalist No. 4
Over the last two weeks of 2010, I will count down the finalists until I reach the Man of the Year at the Don Surber blog. Last year’s winner was Sarah Palin. It was the Scott heard round the world. On January 19, voters in Massachusetts elected a Republican senator for the first time in 21 years. The Senate seat that Jack Kennedy once held went to a Republican for the first time in 60 years. An amazing rebuke of ObamaCare from the home of Ted Kennedy and Romneycare. How did Scott Brown beco...

Predictions for 2010
Our friend Basil suggested that it was time for me to get around to writing my predictions for 2010 column. I still have a few days. Besides, let us look at the predictions that others made in 2010. From the Boston Globe: “Democrat Martha Coakley, buoyed by her durable statewide popularity, enjoys a solid, 15-percentage-point lead over Republican rival Scott Brown as the race for US Senate enters the homestretch, according to a new Boston Globe poll of Likely Voters.” From David Wh...

Tea Party, Scott Brown Good for GOP in 2010
Since Robert Schlesinger came up with reasons 2010 was good for Democrats, here are as many reasons why it was a great year for Republicans: [See a slide show of 7 reasons 2010 was good for Republicans.] Scott Brown : The election of Scott Brown to the United States Senate was the political “shot heard around the world.” His emergence was perceived as a sign that Democrats had overplayed their hand and that Americans were rebelling against Big Government. During a debate over the ...

Does Scott Brown have Mass? | James Antle
During his 1996 Reelection campaign, Congressman Peter Blute ran a clever ad. The two-term Massachusetts Republican sat at a table between pictures of President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, using the props to demonstrate his independence. When the Democrats wanted to raise taxes, Blute voted with Gingrich, he explained as he pulled the speaker's mug toward him. But when Gingrich proposed radical Spending Cuts, Blute told viewers he voted with Clinton and reached for the presiden...

Tea Party: Scott Brown losing support
One of several national Tea Party groups, Tea Party Nation, recently put out a list of republican targets for the 2012 Senate Elections. One of the five is Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.  Even the local Boston Tea Party is joining the call for another republican to run against Brown. This raises some interesting questions for Tea Party members. First, whether you love him or hate him, Scott Brown has done exactly what he said he would do when he ran his campaign last year. He consistent...

Republicans defend party chairwoman
Republican politicians rushed to defend Massachusetts GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Nassour yesterday, after she told the Herald she deserves another chance as she prepares to fight off a challenger in the new year. State Rep. Jeff Perry (R-Sandwich), who failed in his bid to win an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Nassour has done the best she could for the party. “I think the party in Massachusetts is heading in a new direction, and I think it’s going to get better a...

The Decay of the Kennedy Kingdom
The Bluest State has never felt so blue. Fifty years ago, Massachusetts had just helped elect its junior senator to the presidency. Two years into his presidency, John F. Kennedy enjoyed dealing with another native son, Boston pol John McCormack, as Speaker of the House. The political power of the tiny state in the country’s eastern extremity seemed boundless. Today, the Bay State stands poised to lose yet another Congressional Seat—its fifth in as many decades. Massachusetts looks i...

Laurence K. Flynn, head of Providence Board of Canvassers retires
Laurence K. Flynn stands in front of Providence district maps in the offices of the city’s Board of Canvassers. PROVIDENCE — The world of politics was introduced to Laurence K. Flynn when he was just 10 years old. Standing with the crowd and his grandmother, Flynn watched with interest while the late Gov. John A. Notte Jr. was inaugurated in 1961. The teenager doled out election fliers for Candidates a few years later, and at 23, Flynn successfully won his first of two terms on the ...

State GOP chief pleads to keep job
The embattled head of the Bay State’s beleaguered Republican Party made an impassioned New Year’s plea yesterday to keep her job as she tries to beat back a move to oust her after the GOP’s astonishing election-year wipeout in the congressional and statewide races. “Don’t give up on us,” Jennifer Nassour implored the state’s GOP faithful yesterday in an interview with the Herald, pointing out that the number of Republican seats in the State Legislature ...

State GOP chief pleads to keep job
The embattled head of the Bay State’s beleaguered Republican Party made an impassioned New Year’s plea yesterday to keep her job as she tries to beat back a move to oust her after the GOP’s astonishing election-year wipeout in the congressional and statewide races. “Don’t give up on us,” Jennifer Nassour implored the state’s GOP faithful yesterday in an interview with the Herald, pointing out that the number of Republican seats in the State Legislature ...

Tea Party Dominates Google's Top 10 Politicians In 2010
Google released its list of the top 10 politicians who were most searched by Americans in 2010, and the results reflect the ups and downs of an important election year. “We aggregate billions of searches that were done over the year to try to get an indication to get what the United States was interested in the past 12 months,” said a spokesman for Google of the Zeitgeist 2010. “The lists help better identify what’s new, what’s interesting, what people are more cu...

Klobuchar most popular '12er
-- AP Photo Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar is the most popular senator facing Reelection in 2012, according to a new survey released by Public Policy Polling. The former Hennepin County attorney clocks in with a sparkling 59 percent Approval Rating, giving her a 30-point spread over her unfavorable number. Third-term Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe posts the highest approval rating among Republicans, earning the nod of 56 percent of voters. Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, also up for Reelection in two ye...

3 candidates seek 1 School Committee seat in Barrington special election
“About a year ago, we decided to take a more active role in our kids’ education,” he said Tuesday. His wife is co-president of the Sowams School Parent-Teacher Organization. “When this opening came up, I thought I could make a contribution if there was someone on the School Committee [who] could speak for the parents of younger Children.” Barrington, he said, “has given a lot to us. We’re looking for an opportunity to give something back.” Berlinsk...

The Insufferably Pompous Senate
The Washington Post reports that Scott Brown ruffled feathers in the Senate: After his election, he turned some senators off by exhibiting a swagger unbecoming a freshman and flipping closed the briefing books that colleagues read from in the chamber. Good heavens! Swagger! Flipping closed the sacred briefing books! He has violated the hallowed rites of discipline and obedience: ...

The Insufferably Pompous Senate
The Washington Post reports that Scott Brown ruffled feathers in the Senate: After his election, he turned some senators off by exhibiting a swagger unbecoming a freshman and flipping closed the briefing books that colleagues read from in the chamber. Good heavens! Swagger! Flipping closed the sacred briefing books! He has violated the hallowed rites of discipline and obedience: ...

Primaries For Palin
A website has sprung up with instructions for Democrats on how to vote for Sarah Palin in states that will hold open primaries in 2012. From the site's FAQ page: Our purpose is to have Democrats and Independents help to nominate Sarah Palin as the Republican Candidate for president in state primaries. In numerous head-to-head polls, Palin is the only likely Republican Candidate who would soundly lose to Obama in the General Election. All other likely Republican Candidates either beat Obama or ...

Whatever happened to renaming UH-Downtown?
It’s been more than two years since regents at UH-Downtown first proposed changing the school’s name to something that didn’t include “UH” in it. An attempt to get a bill through the Lege in 2009 failed, in part to there not being an accepted alternative. Earlier this year, a consulting firm proposed a couple of possible new names, “City University” and “Houston City University”, but nobody liked them. With another legislative session about...

20 Democrats and Republicans to watch in 2011
Each year, there tend to be a few politicians that garner a fair share of the political headlines. Some based on their position like President Obama and others based on their comments like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. There are good and bad reasons that elected officials generate those headlines. 2011 will be important in two regards: 1)it will be a year where the results of 2010 will be reviewed and election outcomes will produce legislative consequences and 2) 2011 will set the stage fo...

Charles Krauthammer: GOP must cap spending but force cuts on Democrats (Video)
Krauthammer thinks the  midterm voter message that swept away the Democrat House majority was  "rein in government, a smaller government, Limited Government and a government of enumerated powers." I think the  Republicans  learned a lesson from what happened with the Gingrich revolution in 1994.  The Republicans were so heady in those days. They thought you could govern from Congress; and they had control of the House and the Senate and they could not. They were defeated...

Funeral for Sen. O'Pake set for Monday
A Funeral is scheduled Monday for State Sen. Michael O'Pake, who had been the legislature's longest-serving member. Senate officials said Tuesday public viewings would be held at St. Margaret Roman Catholic Church in Reading from 3 to 8 p.m. on Sunday and from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Monday, followed by a Funeral Mass at noon. Interment will be private. O'Pake died Monday of complications from heart-bypass surgery at Reading Hospital and Medical Center. A Democrat, the 70-year-old O'Pake was first el...

Two new rules will give Constitution a starring role in GOP-controlled House
Source: Washington Post "When Republicans take over next week, they will do something that apparently has never been done before in the 221-year history of the House of Representatives. They will read the Constitution aloud. And then they will require that every new bill contain a statement by the legislator who wrote it citing the Constitutional Authority to enact the proposed law. Call it the tea party-ization of Congress." Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20......

Both sides now
Should suburban Shelby County voters be involved in the vote to surrender the Memphis City Schools charter? “We want to make sure everything is in order” before setting a date for the election, Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Bill Giannini said Wednesday. Once set, that date can’t be changed. “There are qualified legal experts that say state law would allow, even demand” that voters in the county participate in the vote to transfer city schools to the cou...