Ted Kennedy wants to change Massachusetts succesion law (again) in order to save healthcare reform

  While on paper the Democrats have a filibuster proof sixty votes in reality they only have fifty-eight votes when you take into account Senator Kennedy and Senator Byrd and their illnesses that prohibit them from voting.  In reality they fall two votes shy of their sixty vote majority.

  Because of this Senator Ted Kennedy, or more likely somebody writing for Ted Kennedy, has written a letter to the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, and other state leaders asking that the state change the law of senatorial succession from a special election to a gubernatorial appointment.

  In this letter that has been attributed to Senator Kennedy he claims that it is vital to Massachusetts that “this Commonwealth  have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.” One has to ask if Senator Kennedy, or whoever wrote this letter, really believes that this is true. Massachusetts hasn’t had two votes since the senator took ill. If he truly believed what he, or whoever,wrote in this letter than wouldn’t it have been in the state’s best interest for the senator to have stepped down once his diagnosis was rendered? In reality Massachusetts hasn’t had two voices in many months. And evidently Senator Kennedy didn’t care or he would have resigned.

   Senator Kennedy has not been active since his diagnosis, he should have stepped down once it became evident he would not be able to fulfil the obligations he was elected to fulfil if he truly was doing what he now claims is in the best interest of the state. His seat would have already been filled and Massachusetts would already have two votes.

  But there is more to this story, in 2004 when it appeared that Massachusetts might lose a senate seat because John Kerry was running for president it was Ted Kennedy who led the charge to change the law from senatorial succession being a gubernatorial appointment to the state holding a special election. Ted Kennedy did not want Republican Governor Mitt Romney to be able to appoint John Kerry’s successor because the balance of the senate hung in the balance. He did not seem to care about a seamless transition that would assure Massachusetts two votes back then because he didn’t like the way he thought the second senator would vote. It wasn’t about having two votes, it was about having two votes that Ted Kennedy agreed with.

  So Massachusetts legislators were able to change the law and take the gubernatorial appointment away from a Republican governor, now he wants to lead the charge to take the vote away from the people because he wants the Democrat governor (who even in Massachusetts has an approval rating under 30%) to be able to appoint his successor.

  This is so transparent that I don’t believe that Governor Patrick will be foolish to go along with it. Even someone who is in over his head as deep as Deval Patrick is knows that this will be seen as exactly what it is– a blatant attempt at partisan politics that is so brazen that even supporters of this idea will be sure to shy away from it in fear of being outed as the hypocrites that Senator Kennedy has now proved to be.

  Why would Senator Kennedy be so afraid to let the people vote for his replacement? Surely a Democrat will be elected to replace him in Massachusetts where Republicans should be put on the endangered species list. The fact is that he does not want to take any chance whatsoever that Barack Obama will lose a critical vote on an issue that is close to Ted Kennedy’s heart– nationalized healthcare.

  This issue highlights perfectly exactly what is wrong with politics in this country today. These people do not give a damn what the voters want. They are so intent on advancing their agenda and holding on to power that they don’t want the people to have a vote. When it was good for the Democrat majority of Massachusetts to have a gubernatorial appointment for a senate replacement that is what Massachusetts had, when it was good for the Democrat majority in Massachusetts to have a special election that is what the state had. Now that it is beneficial for the Democrat majority in Massachusetts to have a gubernatorial appointment that is what is being proposed.

  These people put their agenda ahead of the will of the people and that is wrong. There is nobody who can defend the actions of Senator Kennedy in 2004 when compared to what he is proposing now. His motives are clear, in what could quite possibly be his last act as a senator Ted Kennedy has decided to screw over the voters of the state in order to insure that the majority in the  United States Senate will be unchanged. He has put the government ahead of his constituents.