Category — Issue

Political analyst Taylor Marsh said on Huffington Post: 

There is no health care bill worth supporting that sells out women’s civil rights.

And on her website, responding to a columnist who called Pelosi the “lioness of the house,”  Marsh wrote: 

Meet the real lioness, the only person to stand up so far and to say Hyde should be rewritten to reflect current law, who also happens to be the woman vying for Ted Kennedy’s Senate Seat.

That lioness would be, of course, Martha Coakley.

MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow as a guest on Meet the Press:

It’s the biggest restriction on abortion access in this country in a generation.

National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neil as reported by Matt Viser in the Globe:

If women are going to be relegated to second-class status, let’s say so.  Mr. Capuano may want women to be in second-class status; maybe he’s happy with that.  My guess is Mr. Capuano has never worried about missing a period. [Read more →]

National pro-choice advocates today slammed the House-passed health care bill that increases restrictions on abortion.   Locally, after Martha Coakley said she would not have traded off women’s rights in order to vote for the bill, Pagliuca and Khazei said they would have, and Capuano doubled down on the fact that he did.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards issued this statement:

… the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has no choice but to oppose HR 3962. The bill includes the Stupak/Pitts amendment that would leave women worse off after health care reform than they are today, violating President Obama’s promise to the American people that no one would be forced to lose her or his present coverage under health reform. [Read more →]

View the video of Capuano speaking out about the reproductive health restrictions in the new house-passed health-care legislation.

I don’t receive Capuano’s press releases (gee, I wonder why) but KennedySeat.com does, and it’s stunning to compare that blog’s separate articles on the Coakley and Capuano press statements about the house-passed health care bill.  Coakley says

The House’s vote is in many ways a significant step toward the goal of health care reform. However, I am deeply disturbed that the House adopted the Stupak/Pitts amendment, which would deny millions of women access to reproductive services. The inclusion of the Stupak/Pitts amendment violates the very intent of health care reform, which is meant to guarantee quality, affordable health care coverage for everyone. I believe that the Senate has a responsibility to fix this by eliminating the provision in whatever reform legislation moves forward.

Capuano praises his work on the bill, and then regarding the restrictions on reproductive health care, he says nothing.  Nada.  Crickets.  On accounta he’s bold.

Three of 23 members of Kennedy's former committee attend the hearing on his civil rights legislation.

Instead of talking about issues that are trumped up and highly unlikely to come before the US Senate (gambling, death penalty), let’s take a look at an issue that actually is before the US Senate right now:  the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).  Last week the committee formerly chaired by Ted Kennedy, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, heard testimony on a bill co-sponsored by him.  S1584 bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  [Read more →]

Since I don’t follow Scott Brown, I’d have totally missed this one.  Luckily, KennedySeat.com was on top of it:

Republican Senate Candidate Scott Brown just released a statement ripping Martha Coakley for failing to include plans for Afghanistan and Iran in her national security plan… Apparently the Brown Camp wasn’t reading Martha’s blog two days ago when she unveiled her plans for Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, etc.

Note to Brown campaign:  Tomorrow’s rant should be about Coakley not addressing homeland security.

The Coakley campaign has posted a new “issues” web page on the Middle East.  The few paragraphs barely scratch the surface of very complex problems, and I’ll look forward to hearing more.  In brief, Coakley supports

• a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, affirming that Israel must be safe and secure. 
• withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
• diplomatic engagement and sanctions to ensure that Iran does not, under any circumstances, develop nuclear weapons.

Behind the fluttering coverage of the fact that both Rep. Tsongas and AG Coakley are (stop the presses!) female, there lurks an actual substantive issue: advocacy for veterans.  As Coakley pointed out,

We are both, Niki and I, daughters of WWII veterans.

[Read more →]