Op-Ed

Aw, come on Walter & Monpo, get it right [Op-Ed]

Have a little patience Monponsett and Walter

Friday was not a good day for Elizabeth Warren on Cape Cod Today,

By  Richard Bartlett

Friday, February 17th was not a good day for Elizabeth Warren on Cape Cod Today, the favorite website of so many of us.

First the usually affable and always perceptive Walter Brooks wrote a lengthy piece telling her to fire her campaign manager. He seemed unduly concerned about a 9 point lead Brown had 9 months before the election.

After watching the GOP presidential circus with its clowns enjoying about a month of glory before plummeting to the scrap heap it seems entirely possible that gearing up later is the smart strategy.

I'm not suggesting in any way that Elizabeth Warren resembles those strange ones, only that people tire of campaign overkill. We don't need too much too soon.

The second article on the same day had an impressionable Monponset bedazzled by the photogenic Scott Brown and arguing he was the likely blue collar favorite.

Really? Scott Brown has been called "Wall Street's Best Friend in the Senate." His $12 million campaign chest is stuffed with big --- really big --- corporate gifts, and he has known how to show his appreciation to those donors whose generosity is prompted by favors from Scott. It's called "pay for play."

Brown co-sponsored a bill that would not only deny women contraception, but would allow any business or insurance company to deny any employee any part of or all of their health care insurance.Just as Mitt Romney wears carefully wrinkled blue jeans to prove he's one of us, Scott made a barn coat his disguise and a pickup truck his camouflage. He wanted us to think of him as an independent, but he voted the Tea Party dominated Republican party line most of the time.

He gave his support to the Ryan Plan to kill Medicare and Social Security as we know them. He consistently voted to filibuster needed judicial and agency appointments --- party over country.

With Sen. Blunt he co-sponsored a bill that would not only deny women contraception, but would allow any business or insurance company to deny any employee any part of or all of their health care insurance. This guy is from the dark ages.

Brown is from the dark ages with his hands in your pocket

Perhaps the reason he is co-sponsor of the Blunt bill is because he received $108,900 from FMR (financial lobbyists), $80,900 from Liberty Mutual  Insurance Company, $54,448 from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. That's just the tip of the iceberg of the "gifts" from legal firms, big banks, and insurance companies. (I wonder if the policy holders realize part of their premiums are supporting the Republican Party?)

Instead of cozying up to Wall Street, his opponent, Elizabeth Warren created a watchdog agency to protect small investors and home buyers against the unregulated policies that harmed so many and caused the recent financial mayhem. It is she who would be the champion of the blue collar and middle class in the senate.

So have a little patience, Walter and Monponset, the truth will out. It would be more characteristic of CCToday if your voices clearly gave support to the candidate who would help Obama keep the recovery rolling.

Brown - the "Filibuster senator" from Massachusetts

Remember Scott Brown's old pitch --- he would be "the 41st vote." He would be that one extra vote that would allow Mitch McConnell to filibuster everything with no threat of cloture, making it necessary to get 60 votes on everything instead of the traditional simple majority. So Scott Brown's gift to the nation is two years of governmental constipation. No wonder congresses approval is only 10%.

Richard C. Bartlett
Cotuit