Say this about U.S. Rep. Eddie Markey: He will hit the ground running if he is lucky enough to take the place of John F. Kerry in the United States Senate.

Say this too: Markey, 66, the veteran congressman from Malden, has been in Washington for so long -- 36 years -- he might need help back home from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism to find his way around.

Naturally, he announced his candidacy in Washington, not Massachusetts, without even holding a press conference, as is traditional. The man is a stranger.

Clearly, though, Markey, who has been elected to the U.S. House 18 times, is the most experienced candidate running. That is one reason he was handpicked by Kerry to run for the Senate seat Kerry is giving up upon his confirmation as secretary of state. Kerry's term has two years to run, and a special election will be held to complete his current term.

With Kerry leaving the Senate, newcomer Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor whose Senate experience is zero, becomes the state's senior senator. If that doesn't give you buyer's remorse, nothing will.

Kerry believes Markey will provide Warren with much needed help. Massachusetts suffered a serious blow in its standing in the U.S. Senate when it first lost Sen. Ted Kennedy through death, and now Kerry through decision. Warren is so new she was not even assigned an office, according the Boston Globe, but is working out of a double-wide trailer, and will be until April.

Markey could fill the void -- provided he can get elected.


But Markey, despite all his years in public life, has never run statewide before. So it was in his interest -- as well as in the interest of the power brokers of the Democratic Party -- for Kerry to try to force other serious candidates out of the race to give Markey a clear shot at the nomination.

This is what took place when Markey, the dean of the state's congressional delegation, in a coordinated move announced his candidacy Dec. 27 and was endorsed by Kerry, Kennedy's widow Vicki Kennedy and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee a day later.

This blitzkrieg caught other potential candidates by surprise, namely U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano of Somerville and Stephen Lynch of South Boston. Both were miffed that Kerry would attempt to force them out of the race before a primary is even held.

It is funny that they should complain, though. No leading Democrat complained when the same party leaders -- Kerry, Gov. Deval Patrick, and John Walsh, the party chairman, cleared the field of candidates for Warren in the last Senate primary.

Democratic Party leaders feared then, as they do now, that a primary contest would only have weakened Warren, as it would now weaken Markey -- Warren because she had no public voting record, and Markey because he has too much of one.

While Warren made much of Republican ex-Sen. Scott Brown's two-year voting record when she beat him in November, think of what an opponent could do with Markey's 36-year voting record in the U.S. House. Markey is so far to the looney left that he makes Warren look like Margaret Thatcher.

And Markey does at times say silly things, as when he said he was running because the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and the mass shootings at a Connecticut elementary school. Those events, he said, made it clear that the Senate needed a person "with the right priorities and values." Huh?

Markey can win this thing -- if he doesn't defeat himself. This contest will be a special election that will take place between 145 to 160 days after Kerry resigns and an interim replacement is appointed. So it will be quick, and there may not be much time to flesh out Markey's voting record, or some of the controversial positions he has taken. In addition, Markey has a campaign war chest of some $3 million and can quickly raise more money. No other candidate mentioned has that kind of money.

What it boils down to, though, is that the Democratic Party in Massachusetts -- once a party that was "honest, open and accessible to all" -- has morphed into something out of the Kremlin or Beijing, where the party elite dictates who will run for what.

But Kerry, Patrick and the others will do just about anything to make sure that Brown does not return to the U.S. Senate.

If Brown does run, he will be running against the wind. The deck is stacked against him.
