RED, WHITE 'N TRUE™
GUNFIGHT AT THE MASSACHUSETTS CORRAL
THE BROWN, COAKLEY, OBAMA UNHAPPY TRAIL
by HALLI CASSER-JAYNE
Posted, January 20, 2010, 12:01 p.m.

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Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts is movie-star handsome, smart and apparently one heck of a campaigner.

During his cattle drive of a campaign to fill the seat vacated by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, Brown enjoyed telling the folks of his territory, Massachusetts, that he drives a truck, the modern-day version of the Western horse, and used the fact to stampede the independent-minded Massachusetts voters.

It worked. Brown lassoed in the votes to win the seat long-occupied by the Democrats and the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Easily, Brown rode roughshod over and defeated the Massachusetts attorney general vying for Kennedy’s seat, the lackluster Martha Coakley, more the choice of central casting for the role of the perfect schoolmarm in any classic movie Western than that of U.S. Senator.

The studio head of the Democratic Party ought to be shot in the back for choosing the tame Coakley to vie for the Lion of the Senate’s seat.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, in the D.C. Corral, President Obama and the Democratic Party surely are in shock. One imagines that behind closed doors they are pointing fingers, scratching their heads, wringing their hands, rolling their eyes not sure how the prairie dust is going to settle on this new saga tumble-weeding into Washington, D.C. We’re yet to learn who is going to be hanged in the town square for the Democrat’s staggering and embarrassing defeat.

The talking heads were out on the TV trail, the Democrat’s posse offering up the calm and cool David Axelrod, a Jewish Jimmy Stewart, in a stalwart performance spinning his aw shucks, we understand, we git it, pardners explanation for the catastrophic defeat of Miss Martha, a defeat which gives the Republicans the filibustering breaking 41^st seat in the Senate. The defeat is a shot in the belly to Obama’s signature issue, health care, looking to go down in defeat in the wake of the Massachusetts’s barroom brawl.

Much beleaguered Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was giddy in his appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, acting like he’d downed a swig or two of some good whiskey. Oh, it was a clear message to President Obama to stop riding roughshod over the American people; Steele swaggered with as much self-confidence as Duke Wayne in a John Ford western.

Miss Kitty Nancy Pelosi from out there in California, the owner of the House of Representatives Saloon, continues to strut her high falutin’ hat and is circling the wagons around her signature cause, health care, warning the new kid about to ride into town, Mr. Brown up there in the Senate -- or any others who might try to mess with her desire to pass the much-maligned health care legislation package -- that they’ll have her wrath to contend with if they try to stand in her way.

Watch your back, Senator Jim Webb of Old Virginny. Less than 15 minutes after Brown had been declared the winner, Webb pointed his Winchester rifle directly at Miss Kitty Pelosi.

"In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated," Sen. Webb strummed on his old guitar.

As to the President of the United States, whose poll numbers have water-tanked when it comes to people’s opinions of his performance, while his personal approval rating remains high, we’ll have to wait to hear his Spin and Marty on this latest gunfight on the Evening News, when he’ll appear on ABC in an exclusive interview with The Greek, George Stephanopoulos.

But if we are to believe the words of his cowhands, Axelrod and David Plouffe, who put on their Sunday best for their early appearances following the Massachusetts gunfight, the President appears to remain The Defiant One, ignoring what voters have been telling him in every election since his own: Rein it in, Mr. President. Stop acting so darn high and mighty like you know what’s best for the American people. It might do ya good to listen to the American people.

Or as the great Will Rogers once said, “If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.”

Sage advice, Mr. President. Take heed or happy trails to you, tra la la.

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Halli Casser-Jayne is the author of A YEAR IN MY PAJAMAS WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, The Politics of Strange Bedfellows.

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