The Sandwich Republican Town Committee invites the public to attend its upcoming “Pancakes & Politics” fundraiser at the Sandwich American Legion hall (20 Main Street, Sandwich). The event is scheduled for Saturday, November 19 from 8 AM to 10:30 AM.
The morning will feature a presidential straw poll and a presentation honoring committeeman, activist, and past candidate Chris Fava.
Proceeds will be split between the SRTC’s scholarship fund and Republican candidates running in 2012.
***
On Monday, the Joint Legislative Committee on Redistricting released its proposed new Congressional district map, and we are now poised for some serious fun next year.
Go check out the map here and you’ll see that the current 10th Congressional District has, for all intents and purposes, been re-labeled as the Ninth District (you’ll Massachusetts lost one of our 10 districts), and its boundaries have been pushed farther west and south while its northern boundaries have been pulled back. As a result the town of Quincy — home of Congressman William R. Keating (D) — is no longer in the district.
But that won’t last long. In order to keep representing the Cape and Islands (and avoid a primary showdown with Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D) — whose current Ninth District will become the new Seventh District, which will encompass Quincy), Rep. Keating plans to make his Bourne home of 17 years his primary residence.
So the next question is: who might emerge in 2012 to challenge Keating?
Expect to see a lot of interest from the GOP in this seat in 2012. As a freshman lawmaker Keating will be more vulnerable than an entrenched incumbent, plus he’ll be a brand-new face for folks in the New Bedford area AND it’s a Presidential election year, which means there’s going to be a big push by the Republicans to get as many Dems out of office as possible.
Yes, because one-party rule is always such a good thing.
***
So. The Herman Cain thing.
Cain has a chance to come out of this thing — well, not unscathed, but looking better than he does now, but he blew that the minute he outright denied the whole thing every happened, then went on to have increasingly specific memories about what happened. Had he laid his cards on the table and divulged everything instead of, in order, lying, dissembling, shutting down, and finally trying to shift the blame onto the media (also called “The Palin”), he might have been seen as a man who confronts adversity and addresses it with quiet dignity — a president in the making — instead of, well, a slimy politician.
His recent cries of foul play by the media are especially laughable. He jumped into the biggest shark tank in the country by announcing a presidential run, and it’s either arrogance or naivete on his part to assume that he would never come under the media’s microscope — particularly when he, against all reason, pulled ahead in the polls. It happened with Michele Bachmann, it happened to Rick Perry, and now it’s Cain’s turn.
At this stage in the game, Cain’s best escape plan is to hope something about his accusers emerges that shatter their credibility so completely that Cain starts to look like the victim, but as far as I’m concerned, Cain revealed his true colors by failing to meet this challenge head-on. I wasn’t behind the guy to begin with — his “999″ tax plan is vague and flawed, and his stance on social issues is myopic and regressive — but his response has showed me the man is absolutely not presidential.
PS: For any readers getting ready to respond with, “Yeah, well, what Bill Clinton did in office…” or some similar, let’s be clear: what Clinton did was scummy and beneath the office of the president. Had he been accused of such behavior during an election phase, he should have been roundly roasted over an open media fire. Crummy behavior transcends political ideology, folks.
