When the president stumped for Coakley in Massachusetts on Sunday, he praised her humble ambitions: "She became a lawyer not to cash in, but to give hardworking people a fair shake. She became a lawyer to fight for working families like the one she grew up in." Oh, yes, and "she went after big insurance companies that misled people."
Members of the Fourth Estate always claim that hypocrisy is what they cannot stand. They are, they say, utterly nonpartisan scourges of that least forgivable political sin. Accordingly, they explain, if a Republican "family values" candidate is caught in a sexual indiscretion, he's fair game (even if he never has mentioned family values). But when Obama broke his solemn promise to abide by campaign finance limits and Coakley is passing the hat for insurance company cash, well, how about those Yankees?
Speaking of sports teams, Coakley is so fortunate to be a Democrat -- and ipso facto a woman of the people -- because she's a little rusty on her Massachusetts sports knowledge. Asked on a radio program about Curt Schilling's support for her opponent, Coakley dismissed Schilling as a Yankees fan. The incredulous interviewer could only stammer, "Curt Schilling? The Red Sox great pitcher of the bloody sock?" Now it was Coakley's turn to stammer: "Oh, am I wrong about that?"
She won't get hammered for it. She's a Democrat.
But in the final hours of the campaign, Coakley is an increasingly desperate Democrat who has stooped to slander. A lurid flier aimed at female voters claims that "1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown wants hospitals to turn them all away." Brown is, as it happens, pro-choice (though he's in favor of more restrictions than Coakley is). This vile lie was based on Brown's support for a conscience exemption (which also was supported by Ted Kennedy) for emergency room personnel who do not wish to prescribe the abortifacient "morning-after pill." That's a world away from closing hospital doors on rape victims.
Coakley will get a pass on all this from the press. It's good to be a Democrat. Except, perhaps, on Wednesday morning.