As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Larry Hogan should have partied alone

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/07/larry-hogan-maryland-senate-race-independent/

 

Excellent opinion column by Matt Bai on Larry Hogan’s decision to run for the Senate as a Republican.

 

“Hogan had an option here. He could have formally left his party and run as an independent. This isn’t crazy. In my native state of Connecticut, the Land of Steady Habits and Mean Drivers, two political giants pulled this off after they were bounced from their parties for being insufficiently doctrinaire: Former Republican Lowell Weicker won the governorship in 1990, and former Democrat Joe Lieberman was returned to the Senate in 2006. Right now, in Nebraska, an independent candidate for Senate, Dan Osborn, has effectively drawn even with the Republican incumbent, Deb Fischer. … For all his defiance, when it really mattered most, Larry Hogan chose the path of party tribalism over the harder road of going it alone.”

 

Larry Hogan is certainly not a MAGA Republican. But Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell (who begged Hogan to run), and every MAGA Republican wants him to win. The alternative is to go with Angela Alsobrooks, who’s supported by Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden, among many others. A subtle point: U.S. Senators serve six-year terms. So, even if Maryland doesn’t wind up being the tipping point for which party has the majority in the Senate next year, electing Hogan would improve the odds of Republican control after the 2026 and 2028 elections as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment