WHEN MARTHA DISSED TEDDY:

Martha Coakley’s slap-shots fired at Fenway Park fans and devout Catholics, her vacation in the middle of a special election, her refusal to debate one-on-one, her D.C. lobbyist fundraiser, and her denial that she witnessed the subsequent assault on a reporter, all have people bewildered as to how Coakley could be so “tone deaf” (in the words of The Gail Collins). But no one should be surprised. At the start of the primary season, Coakley was so tone deaf as to start her campaign for the seat before Ted Kennedy died, causing allegations that Coakley had shown disrespect for Teddy.

More at the link. Meanwhile, it’s more than just a Coakley problem:

The Democrats’ “bad climate” is a direct result of how they’ve governed. The populist backlash is fueled by a sense that Democrats are acting on their preferred agenda and by their own rules. From the shenanigans of the people who write our tax code and collect our taxes to special deals and secret arrangements for big businesses and legislators who play ball, the Democrats have abandoned transparency in favor of transparent arrogance.

Coakley is a creature of this climate. She hasn’t been running for “Ted Kennedy’s seat,” she’s been strolling to it like someone who knows it’s been reserved for her and all she needs to do is swing by the will-call window to pick it up.

Ouch.

GLENN DERENE: Why China Needs Google More Than Google Needs China.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE:

The stories about Veterans Administration health care keep flowing in to counteract New York Times Nobel laureate Paul Krugman’s claim that the the VA system “manages to combine quality care with low costs.” The latest is from Senator Grassley, who reports that “the wrong filter was used in dialysis machines at the V.A. Palo Alto Health Care System last year, putting 83 patients and possibly more who were treated using the contaminated machines at risk of being infected with hepatitis, HIV, or other infectious diseases.” Says Mr. Grassley, “this is not the first incident of contaminated equipment in the VA health system. The Associated Press reported that in February 2009 the V.A. started notifying more than 11,000 patients treated at three VA medical centers to get their blood checked because they may have been exposed to infectious body fluids. It was discovered two months earlier that equipment used for colonoscopies at these three hospitals was not properly cleaned or sterilized.”

This report comes on top of news of the Philadelphia V.A. prostate cancer unit that, according to the New York Times, “botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years.” And on top of a finding that at a V.A. Medical Center in Marion, Ill., seven out of 180 patients between October 2006 and December of 2006 died during or after surgery. “This mortality rate was more than four times greater than expected when considering the patients’ physical conditions prior to surgery,” a government report said, in part because “physicians had privileges to perform procedures without evidence of competence to perform the procedures.”

On the upside, if enough people die prematurely, the Social Security crisis will be fixed.

STEVE CHAPMAN: When it comes to foreign policy, it’s hard to tell Barack Obama and George W. Bush apart.

Ironically, Obama’s polling better on that than on his own key issues of health care and the economy . . . .

MORE ON Danny Glover’s Pat Robertson moment. It’s true that he won’t be criticized the way Pat Robertson was, but that’s just because Glover is espousing a state-approved religion.

“THOUGHT-STREAMING” from S.E. Cupp.

NINTH CIRCUIT: Police can’t refuse to arrest based on race of perpetrator or victim.

Somebody tell Eric Holder.

THIS DOESN’T SEEM VERY BRIGHT: “Angry Haitians set up roadblocks with corpses in Port-au-Prince to protest at the delay in emergency aid reaching them after a devastating earthquake, an eyewitness said,” Protesting delays, with roadblocks? That’s like protesting fire with gasoline. But, you know, as with Katrina, getting aid into a disaster-devastated region where ports, roads and airports are in poor condition isn’t something that happens overnight. But perhaps it’s a sign of progress in the modern world, when even Haitians expect disaster aid to be like pizza from Domino’s or something.

DAN RIEHL: The Details: Coakley, Amirault, Woodward And Souza.

UPDATE: “Martha Coakley isn’t just a lousy US Senate candidate. She’s a crummy AG, too.”

U.S. TRENDS: More Guns, Less Crime.

COULD HAROLD FORD, JR. run as an Independent?

OH OH: Dems Comparing Coakley to Creigh Deeds.

UPDATE: A reminder: In September, Coakley was ahead in the polls by 30 points. “Since then, however, something has fundamentally changed. Since September, the country has witnessed the visible battle over ObamaCare — late-night votes, Cash for Cloture deals, and a bill that offends a wide array of groups. Democrats have never looked up or paused to consider the public’s views on the matter. . . . That arrogant defiance of public opinion and the unseemly legislative process that produced a grossly unpopular bill have fueled a resurgence of anger and determination among conservatives and even usually apathetic independents. They now are anxious to send a message to Washington: stop ignoring the voters. We saw it in New Jersey and Virginia. Now we learn that even Massachusetts may not be immune.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Is the Boston Globe Getting Off Coakley’s Bus?

BORED? Find a question you can ask Jim Treacher.

CARL VINSON arrives in Haiti.

CHUCK SCHUMER TO HAROLD FORD, JR.: “You Are One Great Candidate.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: Special Deal for Labor Unions in Health Care Bill. “If you think that the Nebraska deal was unpopular, just wait until the administration announces higher taxes on everyone but its friends in the labor movement. We may see if the popularity of the health care bill still has room to fall.”

STILL MORE ON GRUBERGATE. And a look back at the very, very different coverage of the Armstrong Williams scandal.

MICKEY KAUS: How Health Care Reform Could Crash. It seems to me that there are more and more members of Congress who would be happier if the whole thing just went away until after the election. . . .

“WE CHEATED, AND HE STILL BEAT US.”

CONSPIRE AGAINST THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS! That’ll show ’em.

They told me if I voted for John McCain we’d see a federal government with creepy police-state thinking on the rise. And they were right!

SO DID PETER BEINART CALL HILLARY CLINTON A CARPETBAGGER, with sententious language about England’s rotten boroughs and the perpetuation of privilege? Or is there something special about Harold Ford, Jr. that inspires such treatment?

PHYLLIS CHESLER: Honor Killers: Prosecuted in Europe, Seen as Psychiatric Victims in America.

OH, THAT’S A NEW ONE. BLAME THE COMPUTERS! White House budget director blames old computers for ineffective government. Funny, it seems the government was a lot more effective fifty or sixty years ago, when it hardly had any computers at all, but better people in charge . . . .

FROM CHUCK SIMMINS, lots of resources for Haiti Earthquake Relief.

Plus, Tony Woodlief is trying to help a Haitian orphanage. “These children are going to die if they don’t get help very, very soon. This is where all of you come in.”

MEGAN MCARDLE REMINDS PAUL KRUGMAN OF The Difference Between The U.S. And Europe. “I had roughly the same reaction that Matt Welch did: having lived in London for intermittent (short) periods, I found it noticeably poorer than the United States. It is not noticeable to tourists, mind you.” Or high-paid former Enron advisers. Related thoughts here. This stuff is embarrassing. The New York Times ought to get an economist on its oped page now and then to offer informed opinions on these matters.