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Vice President Joe Biden fired up a Massachusetts crowd on Saturday for Democrat Ed Markey, who’s running in the state’s Senate special election to replace former Sen. John Kerry. Markey is facing off against Republican Gabriel Gomez, who has tried to sell himself as a “new kind of Republican”. But Joe ain’t buying.

Biden pointed out that if Gomez looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, he is a typical Tea Party Republican duck. Speaking at the Ironworkers Local 7 union hall in South Boston, the Vice President scoffed, “This guy looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. That is a new Republican. That’s a new Paul Ryan Republican. That’s a new Ted Cruz Republican.”

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Not about to have a repeat of 2010, when faux, packaged “moderate Republicans” sneaked into governor’s mansions across the country only to enact extremist right wing agendas, Biden took Gomez’s rhetoric apart — going for the policy jugular. Biden called out Gomez’s opposition to ObamaCare, which is just another way of pointing out that he’s another Republican who would have voted no on a Republican idea only because a Democratic president supported it.

Since Gomez is against ObamaCare, it suggests he is another Republican puppet running so he can deploy Heritage Foundation missiles and ALEC legislation. In other words, Gomez backs the same policies as Republicans in Washington.

Biden thundered, “Why does Mitch McConnell want him so badly? Why does Newt Gingrich talk about him like he’s the second coming? Why does Marco Rubio want him so much? Look at how they vote. Look, I know Mitch McConnell pretty well, and if he wants Gabriel Gomez in his caucus, it’s not because he thinks he may ever disagree with him, it’s because he wants a Republican majority and because he knows he can count on the guy to vote on everything that he needs.”

Markey is polling above Gomez, but Democrats aren’t leaving this race to chance. The Senate is the last vestige of sanity, holding the tea crazed House in check from their extremist Republican agenda of limiting rights for women, minorities, and gays while obstructing jobs bills and handing out corporate welfare with no oversight or regulation.

Biden highlighted what Markey will bring to the Senate, noting his 36 years of legislative experience on climate change and health care, “This is going to be the most informed senator in the history of U.S. government. Ed has always been ahead of the curve his entire career.”

This race is important. Every seat in the Senate is precious if this country is to have a fighting chance. The party knows it’s a BFD. They’ve sent President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and top Democratic leaders to Massachusetts to fire up the base and get out the vote. It isn’t hyperbole to suggest that this race represents a firewall against legislative hell.

A “new kind of Republican”? Nope. Just another attempt to repackage the same kind of crazy.