With several meaning this morning, as the worst news greeted my rising. Port-au-Prince was hit by another earthquake, a 6.0 aftershock, this morning just before 6 am local time. A CNN reporter said that morning that, despite his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, it was the scariest thing he had ever been through.

Honestly, I would like to write more about this, but I just honestly don't have the information. The best place I've found, CNN.com, didn't even have coverage of the Mass. election on its front page last night. It has turned to almost exclusive coverage of Haiti. Happy is the wrong word, but CNN's priorities here are certainly commendable. If you click on CNN International up in the far top left corner of the page, you get even more information.

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Obviously, the domestic news is the election in Massachusetts last night. Is it possible for something to be shocking, but not surprising at the same time? Because that would be what this is.

Scott Brown, the winner, talked for about the length of his upcoming term last night, promising that his seat is the "people's seat." He vowed to vote against the current health care people, albeit for an interesting reason: Mass., which already has universal health care and 98 percent insureed (thank you Mitt Romney, Republican), doesn't need it. That is a fair point. His job is to represent his constituency. Taxing it for something it already has isn't very good representation.

He also said that the election is not a referendum on president Obama, but did say that there's trouble across the country for Democrats.

But, obviously the questions are about health care. I'll share links with those, along with others.

(Interesting, as I write this, I watched T. Boone Pickens plug natural gas on Fox 'n Friends. They talked about his new commercials out pushing the abundant (yet, not renewable) resource, without once mentioning that he owns a ton of the land it is buried beneath. In other words, he stands to make billions. That said, I like Pickens, just an interesting point that whenever they talk about clean energy, they mention how much money people like John Kerry stand to make. Well, Pickens, who is a businessman rich because of oil, was pushing legislation that would make him truckloads of money. Just saying.)

Two New York Times writers say health care should be passed anyway. They make a valid point that continues to be made, but ignored - "But the problem isn't that health-care reform itself is unpopular. It is that people are turned off by the current debate about it. And those repelled by what is happening in Washington include a lot of liberals as well as conservatives."
This is a new dynamic that can be attributed to the 24-hour news cycle. Never before has the "sausage" been so transparent and the people don't like it. In my opinion, mostly because they don't understand it.

Scott Brown became the "Change" candidate, something not helped by Martha Coakley's admitted ties to the Mass. political machine.

"The idea is the problem." With all this talk about change, it should be noted that: "Yet for all the presidential election-time happy talk, Americans have this sturdy historical aversion to "fundamental" reorganizations of their society." Change is scary and people are fundamentally averse to it. At least quickly.

And just had to link this Boston Globe column.

Have a good day y'all.

That was the last year a Republican won the "Kennedy seat".

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. held the seat from 1947 to 1953, before a guy named John F. Kennedy beat him. After resigning the seat to take over the presidency, Benjamin Smith was appointed for two years. The seat then returned to the family, as Ted Kennedy won a 1962 special election and served in that capacity for nearly the next 47 years.

Following his death, it is a special election that may take it away, in the bluest of states, from the Democrats.

The last time a Republican held either one of the Senate seats in the Commonwealth was 1979, when Edward Brooke lost a re-election big to Paul Tsongas. And so it was written that Democrats shall be the voice of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Well, not so fast my friend.

As I write this sentence, the polls open in about 15 minutes, for a special election that, you'll have to pardon me for the insensitivity here, could be seismic in American politics. Yes, I understand that this seemingly pales in comparison to the devastation this weekend, but in the United States, many would say this election means life or death. If you are to believe the arguments that thousands of Americans die do to lacking health care coverage, well, this special election can mean life or death.

Republican Scott Brown, a state Senator, is a fiscal conservative who has pledged to be the "41st vote against health care." Right now, Brown appears poised to make that vote. As I noted last night, Brown has found his way to double-digit leads in several polls, an unthinkable feat considering that just a week ago he was in the neighborhood of 17 points down.

Here are Politico's "Five Things to Look for" in today's special election, one that purely comes down to voter turnout, as these things often do.

The candidates crossed the snow-covered state yesterday, making their final pitches to voters, with Martha Coakley hoping that her last pitch wasn't bad knowledge of the Boston Red Sox.

The finger pointing is well underway in the Democratic party. How in the world could this happen.

Undoubtedly the Fix will have great coverage all day. As quite likely will FiveThirtyEight. By the way, there is truthful mention on that site that the State of the Union will be held Jan. 27, meaning it will not conflict with the premiere of Lost.

I'll be around throughout the day, but especially on Twitter.


And, on a bright and cheery note, could a Mariners deal with Felix Hernandez be imminent?