Hey Ed….Why the Long Face?

Edward J. Markey, the 20 term Congressman who claims to be from Malden, by way of Maryland (go figure) should be the happiest guy on earth.  He’s certainly the luckiest (politically speaking) for now. Markey has been the anointed successor to the Massachusetts Senate seat formerly held by now Secretary of State John Kerry. When it appeared Kerry would be nominated by President Obama and that the seat would provide yet another special election in Massachusetts, we talking heads were all a-gaggle over the possibility that like a Phoenix, defeated Senator Scott Brown would rise from the ash heap Saint Elizabeth of Cambridge subjugated him to in the November election, when Our Lady of Harvard beat Brown convincingly.  There was so much hope.  This was, after all, a “Special Election”, like the one Brown won in 2010 claiming the “Kennedy Seat” as “The People’s Seat,” making Brown a rock star at home and in Washington.  But Brown demurred, clearly understanding another special election for the remainder of Kerry’s term would mean he would have to stay in perpetual campaign mode from the time he took office.  Brown is smart.  So smart, he’s earned himself a handsome FOX News deal and a gig with legal giant Nixon Peabody’s Boston office.  Good for Brown and his family….bad for the rest of the Commonwealth!

Without Brown, or Bill Weld, or Charlie Baker who is clearly eyeing a race for Governor, the Mass GOP was left with… nothing.  There is a 3 way GOP primary among Gabriel Gomez, Dan Winslow and Mike Sullivan.  These three guys don’t have enough name ID to get themselves arrested, never mind elected. They are all good decent guys, but if Scott Brown couldn’t do it, I dare say none of them will, even in another special election.  Brown caught lightning in a bottle. He was the perfect candidate at just the right time.  Massachusetts is suffering from election fatigue after the special election, the endless TV ads aimed at primary and swing state voters who reside in New Hampshire, but who can only be reached using Boston television, and of course the Brown/Warren donnybrook that went down the bar and out into the alley.  Yes, the voters of the Commonwealth are tired of politics.

Enter Ed Markey, the Congressman from the 5^th District who has been in DC longer than the monument.  That’s really not fair to the monument, because it likely has more intellectual heft and a far better sense of humor than Markey.  Markey is gliding to the nomination and ultimately to the US Senate.  He will roost there, obedient to the far left of his party, until such time as he is tapped on the shoulder and informed that young Joseph P. Kennedy III has passed puberty and is ready for a promotion.  With that, Markey will bid public life good bye.  That’s the deal.   He’s a toady, a “Coat Holder.” Markey won’t make waves, he’ll vote left of the party line and he won’t get too comfortable.  The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is in on the racket, as is the Massachusetts Democratic Party.  Warren, Kerry, Obama and even the mayor all seem to be giving Markey the nod. Now comes one Stephen Lynch. The Southie Congressman who was told clearly not to mess with the party guys.  Lynch did.  He jumped into the Senate race with both feet and has been the typical happy warrior he always is on the campaign trail.  Facing an uphill battle against the Markey establishment, the former SEIU labor lawyer watched this week as his own union announced they were backing Markey.  Lynch is a good and decent guy, but he’s also nobody’s fool. He got into this race for the right reasons and has chosen not to take orders from anyone on his own political future.  

So far Lynch is having a hard time getting oxygen.  So too are the 3 GOP candidates. It appears to most that the seat is Markey’s to lose. So why is Ed Markey so glum?  Well for one thing, that’s the way Markey always is.  Uncharismatic, timid, a sheep who goes along to get along (unless of course that means coming home to his house district which, based on his absence, may be a little too long for him) Markey is the single most uninspiring, under-achieving, dim-witted franchise candidate any party could put forward, and he’s winning the thing so far in a walk!  Yet Markey is as glum as ever.

In his first TV spot, “Courageous Ed” takes on guns, speaking to camera from what appears to be a spot just outside the gates of Mount Auburn Cemetery.  There he is in all his glum mediocrity. Glassily reading teleprompter copy, dark circles below his eyes, the 1970’s Bee-Gee’s haircut and the black undertaker’s coat.  You half expect the guy to step into the front seat of a hearse, or maybe to take the arm of a grieving widow and walk out of camera frame at the end of his read.  Ed Markey needs to lighten up!  He’s unfortunately about to become the next United States Senator from Massachusetts and yet he appears to be the unhappiest man on earth.  Maybe Ed’s not so sure.  Maybe he’s anticipating those debates with Lynch.  Eddie’s never taken a political punch and he knows Lynch can deliver one.  Maybe Ed Markey’s in mourning.

Because despite the establishment, the backroom deals, the anointing by the party bosses and union guys, he’s still going to have to step on the stage by himself and explain why he’s the best candidate for the job.  That’s no easy task, and that’s likely why Ed Markey is indeed feeling glum.