The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: senate seat

Elizabeth Warren Announces Again In Spot-On Parody

Check out one of the funniest and most appreciative political parodies in recent memory: Elizabeth Warren’s veryunofficial announcement of her campaign for senate.

(Warning: this video contains strong language)

The video, which was written and produced by comedian and political activist Eddie Geller, perfectly captures the exasperation and polished folksiness of Warren’s actual campaign announcement:

The spot-on parody is just the latest in a long list of signs that the race for Scott Brown’s senate seat promises to be one of the most entertaining elections in recent memory.

Wall Street vs. Elizabeth Warren, Round 2012

She hasn’t yet come close to wrapping up her party’s nomination to take on Republican Senator Scott Brown, but consumer champion and Wall Street nemesis Elizabeth Warren had better watch out:

“The potential Brown-Warren matchup is on everyone’s radar,” said Scott Talbot, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable.

On the Washington cocktail circuit, banking lobbyists are chattering about how to take Warren on. They fear that a massive, public money assault might be more of a gift than a challenge for the Harvard Law School professor who built her reputation taking on big banks.

The powerful lobby is in wait-and-see mode, weighing its options as it plots a strategy designed to hit hard, but smart.

“You don’t want to make her sympathetic by landing on her with both feet,” said a financial services industry insider and former GOP Senate aide.

Warren’s problem is not that she won’t excite the base and bring out the faithful, but that Brown has actually voted like a moderate Republican (and in favor of the Dodd-Frank bill she has been integral in enforcing, most notably). She’ll need to nonetheless make him out to be a pawn of the industry and someone who went to Washington and got too close, too fast to banking lobbyists.

The Art Of Celebrating Blago’s Demise

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted on 17 out of 20 federal corruption charges yesterday, including conspiring to sell Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat. It closes a “sordid chapter”–as two different Illinois politicians, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D) and State Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R) put it in their statements responding to the verdict–in recent history.

The other current U.S. Senator from Illinois, Mark Kirk (R), merely referred to it an “unfortunate chapter.” Or maybe it a “long, embarassing chapter?” That was from the State Treasurer Dan Rutherford, who also added that Blagojevich “deserves everything he’s going to get.”

Blago’s successor, Governor Pat Quinn (D), said that his old boss had “deceived everyone” but allowed himself a moment of reflection. “I’ve known his wife for many years. She’s a very good person,” he said about Patti Blagojevich (who once was caught yelling, “Hold up that [expletive] Cubs [expletive],” as part of a rant implying that the Tribune should fire its editorial writers in order to get help.)

The Senate President called it both “sad but necessary” and “another sad event for Illinois,” while a reform advocate called Blagojevich a “pox on the Illinois political system.”

But there was also joy in Springfield–Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, his 2006 Republican opponent, said that she was “personally pleased to see him [Blagojevich] held responsible.”

And then there was the ex-Governor’s response, which no one else — except for maybe his wife — shared. “Frankly, I am stunned,” he told the press after the verdict was handed down. [Chicago Sun-Times]