Therese Murray cozies up to Tea Partiers

Senate President Therese Murray — the face of the state’s Democratic political machine in the eyes of her critics — backpedaled yesterday from her past comments blasting Tea Partiers as “nut cases,” as she braces for a tough re-election bid in a Tea Party stronghold Scott Brown carried in a landslide.

“There are a few members of every party, including my own, that can make people uncomfortable. But I know the Tea Party is a legitimate movement with concerned people,” said Murray in a considerably sweeter statement to the Herald yesterday.

“I share many of the same concerns about streamlining government and creating a better environment for businesses to create jobs — things I have done and will continue to do.”

Murray’s desperate about-face comes after an explosive video surfaced last month in which Murray brushed off Tea Party activists as “nut cases.”

“You know, you can use tea bags over and over and over. And I’ve gotten to meet a few of them as they stand at our rallies and events and film them and try to intimidate us,” Murray told a crowd at the Radisson Hotel in Hyannis.

“While they’re listening to Sarah Palin and paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars on Boston Common, Democrats are the ones under the golden dome getting the work done.”

At least one Tea Party member believes the Democratic insider has ulterior motives for making nice.

“She must have gotten her polling information back. She must have found out she isn’t doing so well,” said Christen Varley, Greater Boston Tea Party president. “I’ll never understand. These people really have nothing to gain by coming out and saying nasty things about a significant portion of their constituency.”

More than 60 percent of voters in Murray’s district backed Brown in January in his upstart victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley to fill the seat vacated by the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. Murray introduced Coakley before her concession speech.

Murray’s district encompasses eight largely conservative towns in Plymouth and Barnstable counties. The Plymouth Rock Tea Party has also become a bastion of the loosely knit grass-roots movement.

Murray’s GOP rival, Tom Keyes, a Sandwich businessman, said yesterday he chose the perfect message — ending corruption on Beacon Hill — to take on Murray, and hopes to ride an expected throw-the-bums-out tide to an upset win Tuesday.

“She knows she’s got to run a really hard and aggressive race,” Keyes said. “Politics is all about timing and message — and I’m delivering the message that the public wants.”

Murray has not faced an opponent since 2004. But this year, records show, she has spent a whopping $300,000 to defend her seat against Keyes, a relative unknown.

Murray’s Senate spokesman, David Falcone, took a leave of absence to join her campaign shortly after her Tea Party firestorm last month, and she has dumped $15,000 on radio ads, records show.

“I’ve faced tougher opponents before,” she said, adding she feels good about her polling numbers. “Polling since July shows that Scott Brown and I share the same favorability number.” Murray said she’s remained connected to voters because she’s a fiscal conservative, but Varley disagreed.

“She’s still not good with us on policy, regardless of her thoughts on the Tea Party,” said Varley. “We are voting based on her record and we don’t intend to re-elect someone like the senate president.”

Some of the comments are great

==This lady reminds me of every DMV (Registry) woman I ever ran into as a kid growing up there. She has that government worker look of “tell someone who cares” (because I don’t) if you don’t like what I have to say. “Now, get in that line and wait 3 hours - then the next line and wait some more.”

—Look up what she said on YOUTUBE!!!!!
About Illegal Immigration, Tax Reform, Job Creation Cape Wind she is on the wrong side of every issue

__Hey Therese, have you changed? Are you still proud of all the state tax money that goes to illegals? Why haven’t you stopped it? Someone who likes the Tea Party would have tried to stop the state support for illegals. You are a typical, lying liberal PHONY!

&&& just amazing how these Dems come out and say this stuff now. the endless TV commercials of Dems portraying themselves to be fiscal conservatives is sickening enough, and then you get the despicable Murray throwing a bone to the Tea Party. these Dems really are deranged.

—If Theresa is really sorry for his horrible remarks about the Tea Party, she should go on tv and publicly apologize and explain why she did it. It would be funny to see the liberals convulsing in disgust. She needs to explain comments about illegals getting a road to citizenship. She was very mouthy when talking about it among her own kind, then denied it when she got exposed.

—”Murray has not faced an opponent since 2004. But this year, records show, she has spent a whopping $300,000 to defend her seat against Keyes, a relative unknown.”

How’d she handle that last challenger?

See:

Sen. Murray’s thugs attack Republican challenger’s family
Photos / Video
http://cltg.org/cltg/clt2004/04-05-25.htm
(that last post was by Chip Ford of Citizens For Limited Taxation And Government, Barbara Anderson’s organization)

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