New York Times op-ed bridesmaid Gail Collins takes a whack at Arlen Specter in today’s piece, which explores the limits of Barack Obama’s support for the embattled born-again Democrat.
The president appreciated Specter’s help in shoving the stimulus bill over the finish line last year, when the senator was still a Republican. And he really did love the fact that Specter’s party switch gave the Democrats what would turn out to be a very temporary 60th vote in the Senate. But he is not so grateful that he is going to go to Pennsylvania to campaign for him and risk adding yet another political carcass to the list of uncharming Democrats who went down the drain while clinging to his coattails.
Collins then does a little drive-by snarking on a couple of other pols.
(Martha Coakley, Jon Corzine, Arlen Specter. What’s with all these unpleasant people running for office? I have a very clear memory of politicians as lovable rogues. Or at least reasonably affable rogues.)
Lord knows Coakley verbified herself with that stinker of a race against now-Sen. Scott Brown (R-Scott Brown). But “unpleasant?” I dunno.
Maybe we should have a Facebook faceoff between Gail and Martha. Let’s check the numbers:
Martha Coakley Facebook page: 4980 friends, 15,489 like her profile.
Gail Collins Facebook page: No friends listed, 2203 like her profile.
Sometimes it’s the truth that’s unpleasant.
Campaign Outsider 
OP-Ed columnists are a little like entertainment critics, and sports columnists, if they’re not being schmucks and generating controversy, they don’t get space in their publications. Of course, there’s always the question of why, with all the races in the country, she picked Martha Coakley to insult? The answer could be a simple as the shared ownership of her NYT paper and the Globe.
Yeah, but . . . we might be underestimating how Martha played nationwide.
I guess the only thing that can be said in Gail Collins’ favor is that she gets paid more for doing less than Martha Coakley
The last part of that may be debatable.
Photo finish, eh?
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Unpleasant?
“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’
Guilty.
I dunno, Nial – clueless applies just as well.