Headline of the Day

Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate

Sad but true. Via Ben.

The Chrisanator has spoken

Massachusetts special election results

Update from Chris (9:10 p.m.): I am pretty sure, based on current returns, that Brown will win. Expect the race to be called for him shortly.

(1,357 of 2168 precincts reporting - 62.6%)

I'm going to go read up on the Libertarian Party and get drunk. See you guys in the am. (PS- I hope I wake up with a hangover and completely wrong.)

ADDED- 9:22MSNBC just reported AP called it for Brown, Coakley has called and conceded to Brown.

Video- The Daily Show: Mass Backwards

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Irish bookie pays off Brown Senate bets early

I'd be willing to bet that my fellow Paddys are dead wrong.

BOSTON --With 24 hours to go before Massachusetts' special election for a U.S. Senate seat, an Irish bookie already has paid off bettors who wagered that state Sen. Scott Brown, a conservative Republican, would win the seat held for nearly 50 years by liberal Democratic icon Edward M. Kennedy.

Enough is enough. It seems that Senator Brown just has to get out of bed tomorrow to win convincingly. As far as were concerned, this race is well and truly over," said Paddy Power, Irelands largest bookmaker.

Before shutting down the betting, Mr. Brown had gone from 5-4 odds to 1-5 (meaning if a bettors put down $5, they only stood to make $1 if Mr. Brown wins). The odds against his opponent -- Democrat Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general -- soared, from 4-7 to win to 3-1 to lose.

VIDEO: Over the top much?

By GottaLaff



O Fortuna-itude times infinity. Positively Omen-esque.

And these people didn't think BushCo was a disaster? Have they looked at their bank accounts and insurance policies lately? Oh... that's right. They haven't had those for about eight years.

But by all means, blame Obama. Yup, that's about as rational as this.

H/t: Pam

Poll-itics: Coakley one point up, race tightening

By GottaLaff

Get. Out. The. Vote.

Steve Kornacki reports Martha Coakley's internal poll from Sunday night puts her ahead by one point and that the three-night average for Friday, Saturday and Sunday also put her ahead by one point.

"That said, there's a catch: Coakley also apparently has numbers that showed Brown slightly ahead both on Sunday night and over the last three nights -- a different turnout model."

A glimmer.... but not much of one.

VIDEO: Obama ad for Coakley, "Every Vote Matters!"

By GottaLaff



Every vote does matter.

And every vote Scott Brown has cast, every vile word he and his followers utter (link to all Brown/Coakley posts) should matter.

Phone banks for Martha Coakley

By GottaLaff

Why should you bother? Go here for Scott Brown's greatest hits. Then read this. Then hit the phones.

Tomorrow, there's a special election to fill the Senate seat Ted Kennedy held for 47 years in Massachusetts.

This is a critically important election for the fate of health reform, for our work to curb Wall Street abuses, and for so much more.

With this election being held at an unusual time, we need to make sure Massachusetts voters know when and where to vote -- and how important electing Martha Coakley is to the entire country.

To reach key voters in this final stretch, we're holding phone banks near you.

Can you join us? RSVP to a phone bank near you.

No prior experience is necessary, and Organizing for America volunteers will be on hand to provide all the guidance you'll need to be successful.

Every voter you reach could tip the balance. RSVP here to as many phone banks as you can make it to:

http://my.barackobama.com/CoakleyPB

Thank you for your help,

Jeremy

Jeremy Bird
Deputy Director
Organizing for America

P.S. -- If you can't make it to a phone bank near you, please make calls from home. Click here to get started.

VIDEO: Scott Brown supporters call Coakley supporters Nazis

By GottaLaff



I just heard about this on the Thom Hartmann show. How mature and reasonable Brown's fans are. See?

We've all learned a very important lesson. This is what democracy is all about.

Not intelligent communication.

Not reaching out to understand the other side's point of view.

Not substantive discussion of the issues.

Noooonononono. It's all about "Nazi! Nazi! Nazi!" Now, that's how to get someone elected.

Lesson over.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Video- Fox News lies about attendance at Coakley rally

Yeah, they lied and it's becoming a meme for the right. Go figure.

Dep't. of Bad Timing: Obama Advisers Think Coakley Will Lose

By GottaLaff

UPDATE #2 from Kos diarist:

Update: I am removing the word lie from the title because now that I have an actual transcript of what he said this morning vs. the twitter updates he is really walking-back an exaggeration not a lie.

Here is the transcript:

HENRY: In terms of that fear, I was told very reliably that a couple of the president's top advisers have told senior Democrats they think Coakley's going to lose.

Now, there may be some hyperbole in that. It may be about scaring the base, you know, turnout, if she's going down. But the way I'm hearing it is that there is real genuine fear inside the White House that she is going to lose. That's going to have dramatic implications, not just on health care but beyond.

In my opinion, the 2nd bolded section makes it sound like he heard those rumors directly, but the 1st bolded section is more along the lines of the twitter clarification.

So, I am apologizing to Ed for accusing him of lying. I think he is peddling unreliable rumors to help the GOP, but I have no proof he is lying.

And I apologize to the community for not being more accurate in my original diary. I am very embarrassed.

Please go here for more.

UPDATE (H/t: SeattleDan):

Ed Henryis now "clarifying" his lies on twitter:

@BLESSEDROSS to be clear, obama advisers themselves did NOT tell me Coakley will lose. CNN is reporting the obama advisers told other Dems

Ed is getting hammered for reporting unsourced rumors.

UPDATE: A fellow tweeter said this was misinformation given out by CNN's Ed Henry. Anyone have more?

The post below could help to explain this:

White House looks at bypassing another Senate health care vote if Democrats lose Massachusetts seat.

Just as President Obama gives a rousing speech, and just as there are rumbles of Brown's momentum leveling off, and just as there is an uptick in Coakley support, we get this:

Multiple advisers to President Obama "have privately told party officials that they believe" Martha Coakley (D) is going to lose Tuesday's special election to fill the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat, several sources told CNN.

"The sources added that the advisers are still hopeful that Obama's visit to Massachusetts on Sunday -- coupled with a late push by Democratic activists -- could help Coakley pull out a narrow victory in an increasingly tight race against Scott Brown (R). However, the presidential advisers have grown increasingly pessimistic in the last three days about Coakley's chances after a series of missteps by the candidate, sources said."

And they let that leak out? Not exactly helpful to their candidate.

Worst Person in the World at Scott Brown event

By GottaLaff

Nausea alert. Get your Pepto ready for this one.

A Scott Brown supporter suggested that the state Attorney General should be anally brutalized with a hot hair-styling device.

Isn't that kind of act called terrorism? It's certainly torture.

Stay classy:

Brown was in high spirits as he addressed a crowd of more than 100 supporters. The crowd responded enthusiastically as Brown made his case against AG Martha Coakley (D) -- even interrupting frequently to make Brown's case for him.

"I'll tell you what," Brown said, using a megaphone to address the crowd. "There's negative campaigning, and then there's malicious campaigning."

"She's malicious!" a man in the crowd cried out. "She's a phony!" shouted another. "Shove a curling iron up her butt!" a third man interjected a few moments later.

For once, Scott Brown was right. This was malicious... on steroids. And he did nothing about it. Not a reprimand, not an eyebrow raise, not a word, from what I can tell from this report. He just went right on attacking Martha Coakley.

Nothing maliciously hypocritical about that, huh?

For my other posts on this fine, upstanding patriot, including his vote against helping 9/11 Red Cross workers, plus much more of his ongoing reprehensibilitude, go here.

H/t: TexBetsy

Huge uptick in activity by Coakley supporters over the past 48 hours

By GottaLaff

Please go here for the rest, but this is encouraging news:

There has been a huge uptick in activity by Coakley supporters over the past 48 hours, especially grassroots progressive groups and the well-oiled, disciplined and certain-to-vote unions who came out big for Coakley in the primary: SEIU has quietly conducted numerous GOTV-prep sessions numbering several hundred volunteers each; teachers in Brookline, Newton and Watertown conducted day-long phone banks and canvassing; pro-choice womens' groups (including a large contingent of nurses) have been running an intensive outreach to female voters.

The piece goes on to say that this could just be a case of procrastination, and that things are finally, and quickly, starting to rev up.

Coakley CPR? Let's hope they acted quickly and effectively enough.

VIDEOS: Obama Speech, Plus Interruption by Heckler At Coakley Event in Boston

By GottaLaff

Here is most of President Obama's speech, plus a bonus excerpt of just the segment in which he was heckled. I haven't found the rest of the speech on video yet.

The heckler held up an abortion sign that read, "Jesus loves all babies". Obama asked the crowd to give him chance to talk. But the crowd chanted "Martha" loudly and repeatedly. The man and his young son were escorted out.

VIDEO: Watch President Obama's speech live

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

RedState trying to jam Coakley phone banks

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Republicans were prosecuted for doing this in 2002. (thanks for tweeting me the link, Bob Cesca)

The antics never end, do they? First Brown files a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democrats, then a video surfaces of Brown implying that Obama was born out of wedlock, and now this:

Erick Erickson has posted the addresses of Coakley phone banks at redstate.com. [...]

the comments make various suggestions to show up and disrupt the phone banks. A couple of examples:

Jot down there callback number… put it on autodial…
Reminisce about “the good old days”…
Ask about their grandkids and family and ask if they’re voting for coakley… are any of them in the military? Why not? What’s wrong with that…
when they eventually hang up start calling them back on autodial to talk…

Anyone have access to any robocall setups?
just a thought… Off to conventionland again in AM… Good luck up North next Tuesday-don’t forget to be ready to call shenanigans etc...

and

Post callers numbers so we all can call them back. We can tie them up more!

Please read the whole thing over at Kos.

As I said in my last post, and at the risk of sounding redundant, classy stuff. The question is, what is the Coakley campaign going to do about it?

VIDEO: Scott Brown wondered if Obama was born out of wedlock

By GottaLaff

Brown is all class, isn't he? Earlier I posted about his filing a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democrats, most likely because he thinks he smells momentum. Actually, he smells, period.

Then, via AMERICAblog, we watch him try to slime President Obama and his mother (more details here). This was recorded during the 2008 Republican National Convention:



I'd love to see him say that to President Obama's face when he shows up tomorrow to support Martha Coakley. I'll bet that little smirk would fade quickly.

Scott Brown Files Criminal Complaint against MassDems

By GottaLaff

Gloves? What gloves? They're so criminal complaint ago:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 16, 2010 617-335-8333

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TODAY

Dan Winslow, counsel for the Scott Brown for U.S. Senate campaign, will hold a media availability to announce the filing of a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democratic Party regarding a recent mailing paid for and sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Winslow will make a statement and take reporters' questions at MassGOP Headquarters in Boston TODAY at 4:00 PM.

Massachusetts GOP Headquarters
85 Merrimac Street, 4th Floor
Boston.

This is getting way too messy:

Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after a report that a union backing rival Martha Coakley used state resources to urge workers to volunteer for Coakley's campaign.

The report by FOX25 said the Service Employees International Union used state computers and e-mail addresses to direct state employees to volunteer for Coakley, the Democratic state attorney general.

Coakley is referring questions to the attorney general. (corrected)

Brown is none too happy about this mailer, either.

H/t: Hippie_Cyndi

Call for Coakley!

By GottaLaff

I get e-mails:



The race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts is coming down to the wire.

And if Martha Coakley loses, her opponent could be that final Senate obstructionist the Republicans need to defeat health reform and the rest of President Obama's agenda.

We need to do everything we can to make sure voters know how important their vote for Coakley is -- and that they get to the polls Tuesday.

So I need you to keep calling voters in Massachusetts -- or start today if you haven't yet. Click here to log-in and start making calls.

And this time, we're going to do it a little differently.

On Sunday, supporters from around the country will call in to a national conference call.

We'll recognize the top callers from today (Saturday), talk about what we're about to do, get the lay of the land from some folks in Massachusetts right now, and set some big goals for each other.

And then we'll get calling.

Can you join us for a conference call at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 17th, followed by a round of calls to Massachusetts?

It'll be a fun way to start our calling off with others around the country -- and it could well make the difference in the fight for health reform.

The call-in Number is (712) 432-0075, and the participant code is 404-284.

Please sign up for your call, and submit any questions you'd like:

http://ma.barackobama.com/MAn2nCall

Let's finish this,

Jeremy

Jeremy Bird
Deputy Director
Organizing for America

P.S. -- There will also be a conference call at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. You can sign up for whichever is more convenient for you here: http://ma.barackobama.com/MAn2nCall