Friday, January 15, 2010

"American Thinker" article on Martha Coakley

If you or someone you know votes in Massachusetts, please read this before you vote in the Senate election, and please think long and hard about the fact that even I would vote Republican in this case.

Yes, American Thinker is a conservative site. Yes, I noticed the insulting use of "Democrat" where it should be "Democratic" and the gratuitous swipe at Barney Frank (what I wouldn't give for him to run for Senate, by the way), and the rather odd comment about Louise Woodward that seems to conclude that she was guilty. But unfortunately, it gets most of the facts right. The seat will be up again in 2012, and if Brown wins, he'd probably lose next time to just about any other Democrat. If Coakley wins, as the article says, she'll probably be senator for life. And we are talking about someone who has no qualms about destroying innocent lives for her political gain.

Speaking of which, the 1980s daycare sex abuse witch-hunt has always been a favorite target of the "men's rights" crowd, partially because Janet Reno was behind one of the false convictions and partially because they always blame feminists when an innocent man goes to prison, as many did in this case. (A certain ex-girlfriend of mine - those of you who know me personally don't need a clue as to which one - actually told me once that a few false convictions were perfectly acceptable it it meant keeping women and girls safe from the bad guys. She probably didn't really mean to say it, but she did say it.) As I always say when this topic comes up, don't fall into the trap of guilt by association here. Smoking isn't good for you just because Hitler didn't do it, after all. Having a female senator who built her career on false convictions would only hurt our credibility against the "men's rights" crowd, if it comes to that.

Incidentally, one thing in that article really jumps out at me: "Periodic internet polls in Massachusetts show that more than two-thirds of the respondents think the Amirault family was unjustly prosecuted and convicted." When I first started following the Amirault case back in 1998 (I worked for a polling firm whose clients included Scott Harshbarger, who helped railroad the Amiraults and then ran unsuccessfully for governor), polls showed quite the opposite. Of course, Harshbarger lost that year, and Tom Reilly (who also had his finger in the case) managed to lose to Mitt "Divorce is mandatory in France" Romney for governor in 2002, so maybe there is hope. [CORRECTION: Reilly ran in 2006, not 2002, and he lost the Democratic primary to Deval Patrick. Thank God.]

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