State House Roundup: Glimmer at end of COVID tunnel
Matt Murphy
BOSTON - The historic Hoosac Tunnel, running through the mountains between North Adams and Florida, is four-and-three-quarters miles long. The Big Dig s Tip O Neill Tunnel goes for a mile and a half under downtown Boston.
And the tunnel we unknowingly descended into sometime last winter when the novel coronavirus first arrived in Massachusetts? That one s measured not in miles but in months, and we still have a ways to go before coming out the other side, or even before knowing exactly how much of the trek remains.
But somewhere, off in the distance, is a faint glimmer, in the form of vaccines that will be complicated to distribute, require a bolstering of public trust and still have to work their way through the rest of the federal approval process.
investigators and calling people rats who are telling the truth. that s in the background, everybody knowings about it. but all politics is local. i learned that from tip o neill tunnel all those years ago. for example, we have about eight to ten seats that we could flip in california. some of them are on the coast and the issue is shall we do you have a shore oil drilling or protect the coast? there are farmers who are concerned about tariffs. so, yes, all of this is in the background and i think candidates have to address it. we re waiting for a report from mueller and we have no control about when that will happen. so i would stick to tip o neill tunnel s voice. i would. i respect the senator greatly but i m a republican today who can t believe my own party and i am looking for somebody to believe in. the reality is if you re not willing to talk about that impeachment should be on the table, right? the fact that the democratic
power. that s right. but i do think that the democrats are wise not to run on impeachment. because i ran so many times, four times for the united states senate, five times for the house, twice for local government and what you have is the kind of two factors, you have to background which is what s happening in the nation. and we know what that is. we ve got a president acting like a mob boss, praising people who will not talk to investigators and calling people rats who are telling the truth. that s in the background, everybody knowings about it. but all politics is local. i learned that from tip o neill tunnel all those years ago. for example, we have about eight to ten seats that we could flip in california. some of them are on the coast and the issue is shall we do you have a shore oil drilling or protect the coast?
there are farmers who are concerned about tariffs. so, yes, all of this is in the background and i think candidates have to address it. we re waiting for a report from mueller and we have no control about when that will happen. so i would stick to tip o neill tunnel s voice. i would. i respect the senator greatly but i m a republican today who can t believe my own party and i am looking for somebody to believe in. the reality is if you re not willing to talk about that impeachment should be on the table, right? the fact that the democratic party is suggesting the president has now become so compromised that the senate should not entertain his nomination of kavanaugh, how do we stop short of suggesting he s so compromised we can t have a broader conversation about impeachment? and i understand the electoral convenience of trying to get through next 75 days. i get it. both parties do that. you have to win in november but at some point, listen, the republican party sold their soul at th
different from president trump if he was elected to the senate. the most rank-and-file house members are sticking with the president because they re not sure where their voters are unless they get the trump support and trump base. george will, you and i, at least, are old enough to remember i guess i ll throw howard dean in on this one as well. definitely. what happened to the republican party in california when they went for the short term win with pete wilson. it s like somebody dropped a political neutron bomb on the state and there haven t been republican elected leaders since unless you talk about arnold schwarzenegger for a couple years. what is the long-term impact of this for reagan s party? for lincoln s party? well, tip o neill tunnel famously said all politics is local but as the years roll by that becomes decreasingly true and this year i think it is