"All politics is loco," Senator Ed Markey told a gathering of the New England Council on Monday, paraphrasing a favorite saying of House Speaker Tip O'Neill of Cambridge. Just part of the craziness this week is the President's unilateral decision to activate the California national guard and use active duty Marines to control crowd protests …
Continue reading Markey fights Trump assault on Massachusetts – and beyond
Two genuinely decent men and upstanding elected officials got really unpleasant in Tuesday night's U.S. Senate debate. Four-term Congressman Joe Kennedy III had a more polished and coherent presentation than in previous debates. Four decade former Congressman, now Senator Ed Markey, after a slow start, finished strong. But the whole event just made me want …
Continue reading Markey, Kennedy fight nasty with 20 days left
Today is One Boston day, the seventh anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, when the Tsarnaev brothers set off two crude pressure cooker bombs that resulted in three deaths, wounded hundreds of others and sheared off limbs brutally and indiscriminately. The terrorist attack bloodied one of Boston's most iconic events and shattered our sense of …
Continue reading Grasping bits of optimism and glimmers of hope
Last week's WGBH debate between Senator Ed Markey and challenger Congressman Joe Kennedy took me back to August, 1979. Joe Kennedy's uncle Ted was about to challenge fellow Democrat and incumbent Jimmy Carter for the Presidency. Seasoned CBS News correspondent Roger Mudd went to Hyannisport to interview Kennedy. The network set aside a full hour …
Don't snicker at Donald Trump's high unfavorable ratings and lack of legislative achievements. He's doing better than you think. Trump may not have succeeded yet on his promise to repeal/replace the Affordable Care Act. He may not have succeeded in building a wall or ending immigration. He may have reversed himself on the Export-Import Bank, …
Continue reading How Trump is succeeding in his first 100 days
Ed Markey's 40+ year political career has come a long way. His biggest state legislative accomplishment (a bill eliminating part-time district attorneys) incurred the wrath of then-House Speaker Tommy McGee, who threw Markey off the Judiciary Committee and moved his desk into the hall. Markey, a tall and skinny 29-year old two-term state rep from Malden, went from …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 