In 1996, Bill Weld and I held a series of eight substantive debates that cut to the core of the issues Massachusetts constituents care about. We debated the economy and education, health care and social security, tax reform and civil rights, all with the aim of presenting our positions to the voters so they could make an informed decision on Election Day. Back then, the Boston Globe described the exchanges “issue dominate[d]” and that we consistently highlighted our “familiar differences on policy issues.”

Two nights ago, Jeff Beatty, who used this space Monday to engage in a host of hollow accusations and misguided blamesmanship, showed Massachusetts the exact direction the Republican Party has traveled since that time – directly backwards. In a debate that should have honored Massachusetts by addressing the issue that affect us most, my opponent was unable to offer one constructive plan to solve our state’s and nation’s pressing issues. No plan for health care. No solution for an ailing economy. No strategy for Iraq. Beatty provided nothing but the empty, hateful rhetoric typical of a candidate incapable of providing answers or solutions.

Sadly, we’ve seen this happening across the GOP’s field of candidates this year. From the Presidential election to state and local races, we see candidates without substance resort to the name-calling, low-brow, hate-filled tactics that escalate every day. Beatty has contracted the worst form of this disease – a penchant for baseless attacks with zero substance to back it up.

Beatty’s policy positions, while hidden from Monday’s viewing audience, will only lay harm to Massachusetts. He’s called to abolish the Commonwealth’s income tax—a reckless and disastrous measure that would lower Massachusetts’ quality of lives and take tens of thousands of middle-class jobs away from firemen, cops, and teachers at a moment when we already face a deep budget shortfall.

Again and again, he has supported the politics and policies of George Bush, John McCain, and Sarah Palin. The tax cuts for the rich. The disastrous plan to tax health benefits. Staying in Iraq indefinitely.

It’s no surprise, then, that he’d rather trade snarky attacks and loopy conspiracy theories that somehow place the blame for 8 years of a Republican White House and 14 years of Republican Congress on the Democrats. I’m proud of what I’ve gotten done for Massachusetts and America—and I’m happy to discuss and debate it anytime– but I’d rather be talking about the issues that matter.

The American people demand better. Look at all the challenges we face: Two wars. A broken financial system. A middle class that’s feeling the pinch. These are the issues our politics should be focused on—not the old Karl Rove attack-obsessed playbook that tells politicians to “shoot, ready, aim.”

Watching Jeff Beatty’s campaign these last months, as the country’s economic crisis reach historic proportions, Jeff Beatty’s response reminds me of nothing quite so much as the words of an aide to his candidate, John McCain: “if we keep talking about the economy we’re going to lose.”

Let’s keep talking about what matters to real Americans—not us, but our ideas—and then let the people decide.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized .