The Insight: Setti Warren and the Brown-out facing the Unemployed...

 **UPDATE** Editor's Note: In response to a comment, we wanted to add a clarification on the post itself.  The comparison between Scott Brown's and Setti Warren's service is NOT intended to cast aspersions on National Guard service.  There is a difference between touting one's own service retrospectively as opposed to prospectively securing that service so as to retrospectively tout it.  The comparison below is intended to suggest the Mass GOP perceives Warren as a threat, not speak to an individual's service or how that service qualifies a candidate.

Mayor Warren with Rexene Picard (WMassP&I)

Yesterday in Springfield Newton Mayor and candidate for the Democratic nomination in next year's Senate race toured Futureworks, the jobs training and labor exchange based at the STCC Technology Park opposite the college  Rexene Picard, the organization's executive director showed the mayor around the facility and explained the importance of funds form the Workforce Enhancement Act, especially at a time when so many are looking for jobs.

Warren met with both job seekers and the people whose job it is to take the less out of the jobless.  Futureworks programs cater to a wide range of people from all skill levels, education and age group.  Picard noted that the organization often helps people, who are looking for work for the first time in twenty years, navigate the more complex and often electronic aspects of modern recruiting.

WMassP&I spoke with Mayor Warren at the conclusion of his tour about a range of subjects affecting both the Springfield area and the commonwealth at large.  On a local level, Warren was asked about the Environmental Protection Agency and how it relates to the controversial biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard in Springfield.  Specifically, the question related to Sen. Scott Brown's vote to gut the EPA's rule-making ability, just as the agency began a 3 year evaluation on the impact of biomass plants and Springfield was locked in a high-stakes fight with a developer over the same issue.

The Newton mayor said he was "deeply concerned" about Brown's positions on the environment, particularly his vote on the EPA and the senator's questioning of the science of global climate change.  Warren encouraged a movement toward renewable energy, but remained cautious about biomass.  Energy produced by burning dead plant matter needs "deeper study," he said.  Fundamentally for Warren, the concern is that the health and environmental effects of these plants were unknown.  When asked, Warren did say he had met many residents of Western Massachusetts who also expressed concerns about the unknowns of biomass plants' health and ecological impact.

The Old Seal of FEMA (wikipedia)

Under President Bill Clinton, Setti Warren was the New England Director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  As a result Warren was asked about the fiscal impact that reckless budget cutting could do to imperil federal disaster relief from which Springfield and its neighbors have recently benefited.  Warren, who has visited with tornado victims at the MassMutual Center, took a moment to point out that FEMA, under Pres. Barack Obama's leadership, has vastly improved itself since Hurricane Katrina.  The president "values this agency," Warren said adding that the Bush administration had "dismantled" the work of James Lee Witt, the Agency Director under whom Warren served.  As a result, the current talk in Washington over the debt and deficit has thus far been "irresponsible." It is neither focused on investing  in our workforce nor maintaining adequate preparedness for disasters to the benefit, Warren suggests, of tax cuts for the wealthy.  Warren was unequivocal, "We need to invest in recovery."

WMassP&I mentioned that Senator Brown was in Springfield recently.  At Brown's appearance, this blog posed a question to Brown as to whether he was telling his colleagues, namely the anti-government ones, about the good work being done in Springfield by government.  Brown deflected and did not answer.  So a similar question was posed to Warren.  As Senator, would Warren go to Washington and inform his colleagues there about the good work public service and servants are doing in Massachusetts in order to counter the anti-government sentiment prevailing there?  Warren spoke more broadly.  Yes, he would bring those positive observations back to Washington, but he would also be telling his colleagues about what his constituents are most concerned about.  Having held 24 town hall meetings across his own city of Newton, Warren says that his constituents are more interested in jobs and how budget cuts will affect them, not vapid demagoguery about government.

Our 100th: Warren and Peace...

Sen. Gillett (Wikipedia)

The last Senator for Massachusetts from Western Mass (the four westernmost counties if you think Worcester is Western) was Frederick Gillett.  Prior to serving one term in the US Senate, Gillett represented the 2nd Massachusetts Congressional district, the same that Richard Neal represents now.  Gillett would also serve as Speaker of the House from 1919-1925.  Like Neal, Gillett was from Springfield.

This bit of historical trivia is not directly tied to the questions among Democrats in their quest to unseat Scott Brown in 2012.  It does, however speak to some of the challenges that will face the nominee whoever, he or she is.  Western Mass went hard for Brown, save the cities, but then swung back hard for Gov. Deval Patrick last year.  It seems that while Western Mass has lagged the rest of Massachusetts in terms of growth, it often becomes the margin of victory for statewide campaigns with a possible assist from the Cape & Islands.  For the moment, Democrats' problems do include geography, but not east and west.  Rather there problems lies between here and Washington.

Sen. Murray (Wikipedia)

The Boston Globe , perhaps overplaying the discord a bit, did highlight the chasm between the national Democratic party and the State Party this past Saturday.  Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is tasked with defending the Democrats' 23 seats up in 2012 and possibly grabbing one or two from the Republicans' 10 seats up next year.  She said earlier this week that a strong challenger would be coming forward "within weeks."  The Globe reported that this has rankled the declared candidates notably Alan Khazei, a philanthropist and Bob Massie, a former Lietenant Gubernatorial candidate.  Setti Warren, Mayor of Newton, notably, had no comment.

In some ways the implications of a better candidate is insulting and could, as some in the story suggested, hurt fund-raising in the future if one of the declared candidates does become the nominee.  Some also suggested that it was wrong for the national party to dictate terms as to who should become the nominee.  

On the ground in Massachusetts, some Democrats seem to agree with Gov. Patrick's call for an organic process.  However, the reality is that the field is weak, perhaps as the New York Times noted in a misleadingly titled story, because Ted Kennedy outshone any efforts to build up a bench for Democrats in Massachusetts.

Ex. State Sen. Rossi (Seattle Weekly)

While Sen. Murray could be a bit more tactful in her language, her fear and her desire for a stronger candidate may come about due to her own experiences.  Although on the winning side, Murray witnessed what happens when candidate rise with a track record of failure and the party on the outs lacks a bench.  Dino Rossi an ex-legislator in Washington state, challenged Murray in last year's Senate election, but lost.  Rossi had earlier run for governor in 2004, lost (after an acrimonious recount) and then went for a rematch against incumbent Christine Gregoire only to lose amongst the Obama wave by a larger margin.  Why did Republicans pick him to run?  They had nobody else.  Republicans seem doomed to repeat this in 2012 against Murray's fellow Washingtonian, Senator Maria Cantwell.

While Rossi was hardly an "organic candidate," he was well-known in Washington State's Republican circles.  His candidacy may be instructive for both supporters of an organic nominees and those who want somebody with star power (it may  be a stretch to say Rossi had star power or was organic, however).  Essentially his candidacy exposed the Republicans for reaching "into the Pickle jar" to quote Rachel Maddow.  The organics should worry about an untested candidate lacking name recognition (like Setti Warren) or one with a track record of failure or no political experience...or name recognition. (like Massie, Khazei).  Remember, Brown's best non-monetary strength is name recognition.

Sen. Brown (Wikipedia)

While Scott Brown came from nowhere, his path cannot necessarily be replicated.  Brown's candidacy and term thus far, were/are an exercise in political manufacturing.  Once Coakley let her guard down, the Republican message machine led by Eric Ferhnstrom and others sensed their moment and swooped in.  A combination of out-of-state financing and well placed tropes about Brown's Everymanhood shot him from Wrenthem to Washington.  A Democratic candidate can become likewise known, but should not assume that mirroring Brown's path is possible or without its own perils.

Taking all of this in, risks and all, this leaves the field with three possibly four candidates, declared or otherwise, that can/could overcome the hurdles ahead.  Mayor Warren, Elizabeth Warren the Harvard professor struggling to set up the Consumer Finance Protection Agency against generic Republican tripe about liberty and Mike Capuano, the Congressman from Somerville Coakley defeated in 2009. Other Congressmen are possibilities, but they seem more remote than Capuano.

Our 100th: Worse for the Wear...

**UPDATE** This Post has been updated to reflect News about the Cape Cod Times Editorial referenced below and news on Setti Warren's Senate Announcement on 5/13 & 5/18.

(Created from Fair Use image of Brown and other)

Last week should have been a good week for our Senator Scott Brown.  Despite the big news that Osama bin Laden had been taken out by a Navy Seals Special Operations team, Brown's delightfully self-serving tidbit about doing his two-week National Guard stint in Afghanistan was dutifully picked up by a swooning media.  It was largely buried, but anybody who follows the news probably saw it.  Perhaps Brown had probably hoped for more adulation from a media establishment prone to pleasur..err, gratifying him, but the understated delivery of his message was enough.  Even as Brown blamed somebody else for leaking the story, Politico's Ben Smith was quick to note the leaker was none other than Brown himself.  This was planned.

Then, last Wednesday, as President Barack Obama was weighing whether to release photos of bin Laden's bullet-ridden corpse, Scott Brown took to the airways.  He agreed with Obama's decision  not to release the photos and affirmed that he had seen them.  Except the photos that Scott Brown saw were fakes, the very same that had been discredited by numerous news organizations as much as 48 hours before Brown's television appearances.  So Brown got punked.  Big deal, right?  Maybe, except that Brown led the interviewers on NECN and another Boston television station to believe he had seen them in an official briefing.  So, did Brown, as a member of the Armed Services Committee see the pictures, but was otherwise not supposed to blab? 

Bin Laden Graffitt in Romania (wikipedia)

That is unlikely because according to numerous news outlets the classified briefing which all senators were invited included zero photographs.  Borderline Christian Extremist Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire junior senator and Georgia's Sen. Saxby Chambliss (also a Gang of Six gangster) also claimed to have seen the same photos, but their goofs thus far merely reflect being taken in by low-quality hoaxes.  Brown, on the other hand implied he saw what he thought was bin Laden's body, that is the fake, in an official briefing.  Except no briefing available to him included those images., unless Brown got non-official illegal look at the classified pictures.  Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee claims she could have seen them, but declined.  Feinstein, it is worth noting, probably saw her fill of closeup fatal shots to the head when she found the bodies of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

When Brown refused to respond to requests for clarification from Boston Phoenix reporter David Bernstein, the latter engaged Twitter in a concerted and hilarious effort to ridicule the commonwealth's junior senator.  Armed with the hashtag #scottosawit, several days of tweets filled with what "Scott saw" flew back and forth ranging from the serious to the silly.  Many including a few tweeted by WMassP&I poked fun at Scott Brown's incongruous political positions.  Neither of Brown's twitter accounts appeared to acknowledge the Twitter assault.

While Twitter guffawed over what Scotto saw, the traditional media did not miss a beat.  Columns and opinions from BOTH the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald took swipes at the senator.  Brian McGrory, a Globe Colunist, mocked Brown's sloppiness and called his response to the League of Women Voters EPA ad "whiny" (it is and we will get to that).  McGrory also derided Brown for attacking the media sales tactic (re: bin Laden photos) while being the ultimate salesman himself. 

"This admonition from a guy who posed with next to nothing on for Cosmopolitan and is pushing his ghost-written memoir so hard that his constituent meetings are held at Barnes & Noble and Borders — in other words, a guy who has never shied from salesmanship."