Is Republican the New Democrat?

To those of my readers and friends and relatives who live in Massachusetts: WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE? Ted Kennedy is groaning in his grave; his seat went to a Republican, tipping the balance sheet on the health care bill he championed, putting it effectively into the red.

Far better analysts than I are out there scribbling their perspectives on how this loss of a Senate seat to the Republicans in what is arguably the most Democratic state in the Union can be interpreted and what its consequences will be. But I would like to hear from those of you who live there: What happened?! Coakley ran an inadequate campaign, while Brown ran a flawless attack; that seems incontestable now. But why did she run an inadequate campaign? Are there not vigorous political minds at work in the Northeast who might have realized what was at stake here in the vote? Did Democrats not go out and vote? Was it too cold? Are you NUTS????

Please tell me. Because you know, I am writing letters to Russ Feingold, the utmost Democrat of Democrats, often the Lone Wolf of Democratic Conscience in the U.S. Senate, as he begins ten months of campaigning to claim his present seat in that challenged body for one more set of six years. He is faced with wealthy opposition in this race within a body politic that is more damaged and facing a crueler terrain to surmount than we have seen in many decades. So Massachusetts makes me worried. Losing Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold in one year, while Smarmy Joe Lieberman is still smirking from his concealed corner like Mad Ludwig II would do me in. Cynicism is out there waiting in the wings for the cue to take center stage. We must send her back to the dressing room, expeditiously, strip off her gowns and her cosmetics, expose her for the skeletal apparition she truly is.

Russ, it's time to step it up. Your jobs credit proposal: Get it going! The empty GMC plant in your hometown of Janesville: Get it going! Where are the public works projects we dared to think were going to begin: Get them going! Everywhere, recovery is stalling. Unless something starts moving, unless we see the machinery starting to produce again, November is going to be the cruelest month.