Ed Markey will vote yes, but at least we had a little fun making his aides squirm

Medford, MA just north of Boston is a blue city in a blue state, a middle-class college town that's home to our parents' alma mater, Tufts University. Local resident Martha Coakley won the burg but lost the Commonwealth to Scott Brown in January's special election, and Rep. Ed Markey maintains a local office there. It's just down the pike from us here in Chelsea, so we stopped by Markey's local headquarters Tuesday morning to drop off a letter to the Congressman — the same one we'd snail-mailed and e-mailed our own Rep Michael Capuano the other day — and do a little sign waving to motorists passing through the busy intersection of High, Main and Salem Streets, our on-the-ground contribution to the People's Surge against Obamacare 2.0.

Most of the drive-bys were not interested or not amused, but the occasional enthusiastic honker and wielder of thumbs kept our Tea-Party juices flowing.

As with phone banking for Brown to get out the vote in January, the best part of political activism for us has been getting to shmooze with wonderful folks of like mind. There were only two other stalwart Tea-Party types besides Tuck and ourselves and a passing mailman (see below) on Tuesday, but we few formed a multitude.

Best exchange of the day: Local mailman says "honk, honk, honk" in solidarity as he approaches on foot and stops to share his fervent disgust at the prospect of a government takeover of 17 percent of the nation's economy. Best quote of the day: "The only reason I voted for McCain was because Sarah was on the ticket."

At one point we ventured inside the Congressman's offices to deliver our letter and a small piece of our mind to a couple of carnival barkers pair of talking-point-programmed apparatchiks who kept interrupting us. No minds were changed, but at least we had a little fun making the two aides squirm a bit. According to Wikipedia, "Markey is speculated to be one of the leading Democratic candidates to challenge Brown in the 2012 election," and according to today's Boston Herald:

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Malden) said yesterday he’s leaning toward supporting the bill, but won’t officially make up his mind until he sees final language of the bill and how it will be voted upon.

In other words, he won't make up his mind until he sees which way the wind is blowing or succumbs to the President's powers of "persuasion."

Update: "You will have more fun when you run him out of office," quips Prof. Jacobson, who honors us with "Post of the Day."

Update II: "Heh. Good sign," writes The Anchoress, with a link and a couple of rousing, nerve-wracking videos.

Comments

[Scott]

Markey's got a lifetime ACU score of 3.4 over 33 years.

It's hard to have a more liberal voting record over such an extended period. I think a July Miami blizzard is more likely than Markey voting no.

[MCNS]

Ha! Good stuff.

[KingShamus]

Best quote of the day: "The only reason I voted for McCain was because Sarah was on the ticket."
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Why else would you vote for John McLame?

[reader]

There was a similar protest outside Congressman John Olver's office in Fitchburg.

[Teresa]

Looks like you had a great time! Just saw your tweet on the tea party tomorrow. Trying to figure out if I can make it or not. Wasn't planning on it, so I'll have to see. Would be fun though.