Moorecol.11-05-2004 Number 14 HED : Tarring and Feathering doesn't work out here By BOB MOORE What a political year. Handsome Sir Romney galloping about tarring and feathering Democratic candidates and millions being spent nationwide to make Sen. Kerry and President Bush look unfit. Dirty. Nasty. Everlasting? There's a lot more to be said about the national campaign that was closely followed by local Democrats. We're at the point where "guns are drawn" and one more assertive remark could push the parties farther apart. Or it could produce something new for history. Well, in MetroWest, Democrats stood firm against some clumsy assault. Easily, they elected Rep. Karen Spilka of Ashland to the Senate seat held by retiring Sen. David Magnani of Framingham. And Democrats made sure that Spilka's friend, Atty. Tom Sannicandro, businessman, educator and education activist, will become Representative Sannicandro in the House seat representing Framingham and Ashland. Tom used an unusual sticker campaign to get the nomination and campaigned with Spilka for the seat she had held for three years. Spilka defeated Atty. James Coffey of Hopkinton. Coffey/s campaign was an odd one. Funded amply by Romney, Coffey was seldom seen. Coffey's mailings were abrasive. Spilka found them underhanded. I found them clumsy. Glossy photos and large type looked out of place in a local election. Romney also used GOP state committee funds to flood the area with flyers that did little but generalize in Mary Z. Connaughton's campaign for the House seat. In the closing days, four-by-six-foot head shots of Mary Z. showed up on the Turnpike and in Boston where she wasn't running. An able, hard-working candidate, she was swamped by the Spilka-Sannicandro combine. WHAT NEXT? - First of all, Bush's victory was so quick and decisive it left Democrats out in the cold. Bush had the White House and the majority in the Senate and the House, with the power to set the agenda and in a position to appoint successors to three or four Supreme Court justices expected to retire soon. Bush increased their anxiety when he held a press conference Thursday, scarcely 24 hours after election, and bluntly announced : "I earned political capital in the campaign, and now I intend to spend it." A threat? Or a reminder that now he had achieved power on his own? You don't have the power to act by words alone. A reminder that he has a "right-center" government awarded by popular vote can help. Words are carefully chosen at this point. On both sides. You can say that he will rush his plans to revise Social Security or the tax code. Or he can play his cards slowly. At this point, you might recall that his campaign was designed to make sure he pleased the Far Right, the Evangelicals. He has to think of them when it comes to filling vacancies on the Supreme Court? Yes. Promises made, promises kept. Observers have pointed out that voters found some sense of moral certainty in Bush's appeal. They liked it. Too late, the Kerry campaign caught on and began to talk that language. I've followed presidential elections since I cast my first vote for FDR in 1944 and one thing holds true : The losers learn from the winners. Only the Evangelicals hold to this line? Across the political landscape, such thinking is latent. I find it among Democrats. It has no relation to political parties. Bush simply made use of it. Democrats can, too. Perhaps for different ends? Or maybe some Bush-thinking creeps in, and the political dialogue is less strained. A lot depends on how Bush reaches out to "those who voted for my opponent." He has to please the Far Right forever? He is not running again and there is another factor at play. The cold eye of history. How does he want to be remembered? Now that he's achieved a second term - something his father did not do - what can he do for history? A willing compromiser at times, he could tailor his moves to let Democrats be a part of the action. A united not a divider? It's a thought. Just be careful on that first Supreme Court appointment. _____________________________________________________________ You can reach Bob Moore by edmoore4@aol.com or at 1-508-620-1449. To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@syslang.net with body unsubscribe frambors (the subject is ignored). Please read the Frequently Asked Questions maintained online at http://frambors.syslang.net/faq/about.html before posting or replying.