In a press release issued this afternoon, Capuano said, “The race for Senate is about succeeding Ted Kennedy. He would have never supported this position. Ted Kennedy understood that being a U.S. Senator is about being a leader not a lawyer.”Responding to the Globe's Matt Viser in today's article:
"Coakley and her aides argue that her signing the brief had nothing to do with the death penalty and that they were purely concerned with the legal implications of allowing federal courts more discretion in reviewing decisions that state courts have already made, which Coakley asserts would take additional time, money, and resources...“I have positions that I’ve presented during the campaign, but I’m still the attorney general and I have to do the job as attorney general that I was elected to,’’ Coakley said. “If I did otherwise would I not be criticized for doing something political?"Capuano didn't accept her rational for getting involved in the issue:
“Ms. Coakley claims her duties as AG compelled her to be involved in this case. That is simply not true. AG’s in surrounding states did not participate and Massachusetts should not have either. She is obliged to defend cases in Massachusetts. She is not required to sign on in support of a case involving a death sentence for a developmentally disabled individual in the state of Alabama.”Capuano also compared Coakley's stance to the Bush administration, and labeled her a supporter of the PATRIOT Act:
“The foundation of Ms. Coakley’s position is that reaching finality in a case is more important than due process rights. That is the same position the George Bush and Dick Cheney took and it is exactly why their terror detention policies have been successfully challenged at the Supreme Court. This view is probably why she has supported George Bush’s PATRIOT Act, and I have consistently opposed it.”The sparks are starting to fly.
4 comments:
The only way Capuano can win is to go negative- and it will not be pretty-
The old boys club will rally around him- I suppose he'll get Joe and the gang- they will twist and distort Martha's record. That's politics as usual-
what a shame- The press will embrace this form of interaction because they want fireworks- it sells papers. Too bad my kids future is at stake.
I'm sorry, but that is complete BS.
A way for Capuano to win is to distinguish and criticize his opponents' records. It is not about going negative.
Coakley has received almost no criticism about her record, and she's been lucky about that. Even a cursory review of her record reveals her to be a hardline law-and-order candidate who is less than stellar on civil liberties issues (ending an open-file policy as DA, the Fells Acres debacle, going after the mooninite viral marketers, being extremely conservative and just plain wrong on drugs, and this current decision to sign onto a brief advocating a bad policy and an especially bad result in the specific case).
Her record does not need twisting - it speaks for itself. The problem is that few care to look since she's already been chosen as the inevitable winner.
And referring to Capuano's supporters as part of some "old boys club" is just pure sexism.
Sorry- I have 221 years of no women in the Senate from MA and only 4 congresswomen to prove my point. I have the fact that Ma voted for Hillary Clinton by 15% and yet our guys in the Senate and the House supported the inexperienced male candidate overriding the will of their constituents. We have good reason to believe that Joe and the rest of the gang will come out in force. You can't be a women in MA politics and not notice the way we've been treated. The guys allowed us to lick the envelopes, make the phone calls, canvas for them but hey, no room on the bus if we wanted a real seat at the table. Time to move into the 21st century. We'll have our first woman no matter how much distortion occurs.
Mike has been throwing darts since his opening salvo and if you haven't noticed you must be on his full time team.
"We'll have our first woman no matter how much distortion occurs."
And if some of it isn't distortion? You'll still have your first woman, regardless of how many poisonous viewpoints she may hold? Supporting the PATRIOT Act alone should be a dealbreaker.
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