The Other McCain

BOSTON — A rainy morning in Massachusetts and here’s my latest column at The American Spectator:

Tina Hood of Worcester said “it blew my mind” when she heard her congressman say, “I think the Constitution is wrong.”
Rep. Jim McGovern later called his statement a “slip of the tongue,” but to Ms. Hood — a citizen who questioned the Democrat during a debate Wednesday night at Shrewsbury High School — it seemed more like a contradiction of his oath of office.
McGovern’s words were one of those campaign moments that no one could predict, and which might conceivably change the outcome in Massachusetts’ 3rd District. The seven-term incumbent was expressing his disagreement with Supreme Court decisions that have voided key elements of federal campaign-finance laws when he uttered the blunt six-word sentence. This seemed to fit Michael Kinsley’s definition of a “gaffe” as what happens when a politician accidently speaks the truth. McGovern’s notions of unbounded federal authority — not merely in campaign finance regulation, but in nearly everything — cause conservatives to doubt the Democrat’s fealty to the Constitution.
Whatever McGovern meant to say Wednesday, what he actually said was said in front of video cameras and quickly spread via YouTube. It got McGovern’s Republican opponent Marty Lamb mentioned on Mark Levin’s nationally syndicated radio program and resulted in Lamb being interviewed Thursday on Howie Carr’s popular Boston talk-radio show. . . .

Please read the whole thing. Over at Alan Colmes’ “Liberaland” blog, Sandi Behrns dubs us a “right-wing attack site,” as if criticism is automatically discredited whenever it is directed at a liberal Democrat.

Doing reporting that discomfits liberals? You must be evil!

At any rate, there’s a Memeorandum thread, and I’ve got more work to do today. The main point of my column is that Marty Lamb needs more money if he is to hold Jim McGovern accountable. We’re 18 days away from Nov. 2. Time’s a-wastin’.

MARTY LAMB for U.S. CONGRESS

UPDATE: What would Sandi Behrns call the sites attacking Massachusetts Republican Bill Hudak?

The race between U.S. Rep. John Tierney and GOP challenger Bill Hudak veered into gutter politics yesterday as online attack ads surfaced that brand the Republican a “racist” and a “nut.” . . .

Keep in mind that Hudak is running against a guy, John Tierney, who is married to the mob. But of course, Bill Hudak must be evil. He thinks the Constitution is right.

The possibility of a Democratic meltdown is reported at “right-wing attack site” Ace of Spades.

UPDATE II: Howie Carr calls Jim McGovern “Castro’s man in the 3rd District.”