Four Councillors Endorse Brown at Bagel Bin Event

Several Revere City Councillors became the first elected officials locally to make a clear choice in the state’s Senatorial election, with four councillors endorsing Sen. Scott Brown at a Saturday morning rally that featured an appearance by Sen. (and 2008 presidential candidate) John McCain.

While most of the councillors and Mayor Dan Rizzo have been neutral in the hotly contested race, Councillors Charlie Patch, Bob Haas, Ira Novoselsky and Tony Zambuto made the official announcement at the Bagel Bin (Where else?) after the rally.

While Zambuto’s endorsement was hardly a surprise, as he has been working with the Brown campaign, the other three were unexpected.

“They had asked me to do a photo with Scott for the paper and publicity,” said Haas, a former mayor of Revere. “I know Scott from when he was in the state legislature and I do like him a lot and feel he has provided leadership in the Senate. So, I called up Tony and said that instead of a photo, why don’t we do a full endorsement.”

Patch, a Vietnam veteran, has voiced support in the past and currently for Brown due to his stances on veterans’ issues.

The same was true for Novoselsky, who made the decision just this week to endorse Brown.

“I was in the National Guard with Senator Brown,” said Novoselsky. “I’ve worked with him on some things that involved issues I had with the City and the state – some veterans issues too – and he has been very helpful. I felt very comfortable lending my support to him.”

The hush-hush event took place Saturday morning and it included Sen. McCain as the main speaker. Organizers said they wanted to keep it quiet because it was mainly for supporters of the campaign and also because they had experienced problems at other locations with Warren supporters disrupting the proceedings.

The packed house included numerous Revere Police Officers, off-duty and retired, as well as Chief Joe Cafarelli. Likewise, numerous Revere veterans and members of local veterans organizations packed the diner.

Brown led off the rally with a call for supporters to give their all over the next two weeks.

“I can’t do this alone,” he said. “We have 17 more days left. We can’t go to bed on Nov. 6th and say, ‘Darn, I could have done more.’ I should have taken more signs and more bumper stickers to friends and family – made sure my kids or my parents who are away have an absentee ballot. We can’t go to bed and know we missed opportunities.”

McCain spoke for the vast amount of time during the rally.

Mostly, he reinforced Brown’s military service and record with veterans, and also took some deep stabs at the Libyan situation unfolding within the current Obama Administration.

“We need a man like Scott Brown who knows what it’s like to serve in our military,” said McCain. “We need his experience and his leadership…We need Scott Brown to stay in the Senate and represent the people of Massachusetts and veterans all over America…He understands the role of the military in the world. He doesn’t want to fight every war, but he knows we have never fought a war because we were too strong. He understands what Ronald Reagan did and the simple phrase of ‘Peace Through Strength.’”

McCain then went on a long treatise about his distaste for the Obama Administration’s recent stories about Libya.

“Because this President of the United States believed in apologizing for America, for leading from behind, we are losing all over the world,” said McCain. “President Obama always says he got Osama Bin Laden and that Al Qaeda is on the run. Al Qaeda is on the run all right. They’re on the run back – back to Iraq, back all over Africa and all over Syria…That’s because nobody believes that this President leads – nobody in the world.

“What you just saw in Libya is very frightening with the death of four brave Americans including our Ambassador,” he continued. “Now they’re trying to cover it up. It’s not the crime; it’s the cover up. Do you believe that a President of the United States eight days after this ‘spontaneous demonstration bred by a hateful video’ would be still telling that to the American people? Why didn’t he know better and when did he know better? I’m telling you right now this cover up is as bad as anything I’ve ever seen in my time in the U.S. Senate because it’s got to do with the lives of four brave Americans. We need the hand of leadership Scott Brown will bring.”

McCain finished by speaking about the Massachusetts Miracle of two years ago and keeping that magic going.

“This guy was the Massachusetts Miracle and we’re going to make sure this Massachusetts Miracle stays for six more years,” he concluded, mentioning that he considers Brown his “strong right hand” on the Senate Armed Service Committee.