I wonder if this is what Tip O'Neil meant..........

[jesus marion joseph]

.........when he said all politics are local:


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Campaign antics in race for Senate seat get baaad
By Elisabeth J. Beardsley
Sunday, February 29, 2004

A battle of the political big guns erupted west of Boston yesterday - amid an outbreak of campaign shenanigans - as GOP Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] and Democratic boss Steve Grossman fought to push their state Senate picks across the special election finish line.

With three days left before voters in the Needham-based district head to the polls, antics broke out in the homestretch of a 12-week race that's been focused on jobs, taxes, health care, gun control and gay marriage.

First, Democrat Angus McQuilken seized on Republican Scott Brown's public schedule - hustling to beat Brown to all of his events and upstage Romney with Grossman.

The pre-emptive strike prompted Republicans to reform the day's theme - having Romney hammer McQuilken as a ``follower, not a leader,'' while activists rushed to buy a makeshift sheep suit.

By the time the four-stop GOP bus tour hit the Needham town common, the McQuilken troops had fallen behind - arriving to confront a costumed aide with a sign saying, ``Sheep for Angus.'' The outfitted operative capered between the dueling events - as angry McQuilken aides menaced him with signs and a finger-pointing Brown shouted, ``They're beating up the sheep!'' Animal suits are a favorite GOP prank - witness the chicken and dinosaur that haunted Shannon O'Brien in the 2002 governor's race.

``I think it shows a lack of class and it's not something that voters are going to care about,'' McQuilken said.

Grossman, McQuilken's campaign co-chair, blasted Brown as a ``part-time'' lawmaker who neglects his constituents to chase a $100,000 private lawyer's salary.

``All the shenanigans in the world are not going to wipe away the fact that Scott Brown has been in the Legislature for six years and not a single major piece of legislation that bears his name has benefited the people of this district,'' he said.

But it wasn't clear whether McQuilken, whose first name has been the butt of Romney jokes, got the sheep gag - wrapping up his event with this rejoinder: ``Apparently, my opponent doesn't even know that an `Angus' is a cow.''[