Sunday, January 17, 2010

Palinized In Beantown

There were so many red flags in the campaign of Barack Hussein Obama regarding his unsavory associations and his unknown history that one would think a journalist - or a cadre of journalists - would find it impossible to keep the drool from the chin. But instead of multitudes of bib-adorned broadcasters, we saw nothing more than a classroom full of bored children whose only curiosity laid in what to do after school.

Story after blockbuster story was strewn about "newsroom" floors, discarded as insignificant, while teams of dumpster-diving investigators flocked to a little town in Alaska known as Wasilla, searching in vain for anything they could conjure on the republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. And charges of media bias were summarily dismissed despite the obviousness of their extra-curricular endeavors.

What was supposed to be a walk-off home run for the Democrat in the Massachusetts special election for the Senate seat vacated by the passing of Ted Kennedy has turned into an edge-of-your-seat, extra-innings nail-biter. (The analogy is fitting since Martha Coakley referred to former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling as a New York Yankees fan).

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is the Democrat candidate facing Republican state Senator Scott Brown in Tuesday's special election. A few weeks ago it was a foregone conclusion that this would be no real contest at all, with Coakley enjoying a huge polling lead. Brown has since closed the gap and, in some polls, is ahead. So, it's become time for the "non-biased" media to spring into inaction.

In a December article by Paul Kix on Bostonmagazine.com, we learn of the selective prosecution by AG Coakley in which she avoids potentially politically harmful cases. Kix writes:

Savvy politics doesn't always make for great policy, though. Take, for instance, the cases Coakley didn't prosecute as AG. Though she's gone after public officials, the three biggest public-corruption cases of the past three years—the only three that anyone remembers—saw her sitting on the sidelines. The indictment of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi for allegedly receiving payments for state software contracts that he helped push through; the indictments of state Senator Dianne Wilkerson and Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner for allegedly accepting bribe money from undercover FBI agents—Coakley didn't charge any of these people with crimes. The U.S. Attorney's Office did. The FBI had video proof of Wilkerson stuffing bribe money into her bra. Coakley did nothing. The Globe and Secretary of State William Galvin hammered DiMasi and his 
(allegedly) shady friends for 14 months. And the best Coakley could do was indict DiMasi's golfing buddy Richard Vitale? On misdemeanor charges?
Add to this dereliction of duty the allegations of campaign finance chicanery by Coakley and it would appear that there is plenty of fodder to keep journalists busy. And they have noticed something worthy of alerting the American voting public, indeed.

No no, nothing to do with the Democrat, don't be silly. But, while not actually known as a media outlet, Cosmopolitan magazine thought it might be pertinent to dig through their archives and report on a most seismic event in the past of one of the candidates. That would be the Republican Brown, of course.

Truthfully, this is nothing new, as the "exposé" in Cosmo is from September 2009, and that was long before anyone even cared who Scott Brown was. But now, as he is poised to upset the Democrats' apple cart, look for tomorrow to bring media headlines splashed all over the place warning that a man who nearly thirty years ago posed in a women's magazine is not qualified to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Also pay close attention to the lack of concern over a state Attorney General who cannot utilize the power of that office to prosecute crimes unless politically expedient, but uses the same acumen in an effort to circumvent state and federal campaign finance laws. That's the one we need.

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