Massachusetts passes law to allow the governor to name Ted Kennedy’s replacement

  Today the Massachusetts senate passed a bill that would allow Governor Deval Patrick to appoint a temporary replacement for Ted Kennedy’s senate seat until the special election can be held in January. The bill will now head to Deval Patrick’s desk for his signature. The rumor is that Governor Patrick will declare an emergency to allow him to appoint the replacement without delay.

  Before I delve into this topic a little history lesson needs to be provided for those who are not familiar with Massachusetts. In 2004 Massachusetts’ law stated that an interim senate vacancy was to be filled by gubernatorial appointment. There was one problem with this law in the eyes of the liberal state legislature; John Kerry was expected to be elected president and Mitt Romney, a Republican, was the governor. The state legislature was scared to death that a Republican governor would be able to appoint John Kerry’s replacement. That was not acceptable so the push was on to change the law so that the residents of Massachusetts could elect Kerry’s replacement. Needless to say it was rightly assumed that Massachusetts voters would elect another Democrat to John Kerry’s senate seat.

  Ted Kennedy led the charge on this issue, he was the leading voice on the issue of taking the appointment away from the governor. The claim then was that it was un-American to not let the people decide who their voice should be in the senate. Needless to say– the law was changed and the decision was taken away from Mitt Romney. A choice that events would prove was never required.

  Fast forward to 2009.

  Just before Ted Kennedy died he wrote a letter, or probably more accurately someone wrote a letter for him, stating that it was of the utmost importance that Massachusetts had two voices in the senate. In order to ensure that result Ted Kennedy wrote that the governor of Massachusetts should have the authority to appoint an interim senator until a special election could be held. Suddenly the argument went from it being un-American for the people not to elect their senator to it is vastly important that Massachusetts voters have two voices in the senate. It didn’t matter that Massachusetts only had one voice in the senate over the last year that Ted Kennedy was on his deathbed.

  Ted Kennedy’s last act was one of stupendous duplicity. He championed changing the senatorial appointment law in 2004 to ensure that no Republican was appointed to John Kerry’s seat but just before his death he set the wheels in motion to overturn his own law to allow a Democrat governor to do what he would have denied Mitt Romney from doing. And today that wish came to fruition.

 This is what happens when a state has one party rule, they make up the rules as they go along to ensure that the stay in power.

  With that history lesson in the books we must now look at why this change of heart took place in the state legislature. There is no doubt that the voters of Massachusetts will elect a Democrat to replace Ted Kennedy, but that is not the issue at hand. There is one reason and one reason only for the change in Massachusetts law– healthcare reform.

  There is still going to be a special election in January for the people to decide who should represent them, this law does not change that. But there is an imminent reason that Massachusetts felt the need to appoint a Democrat to Ted Kennedy’s seat before the January special election– the healthcare reform bill will come up for a vote before January and the federal government wanted to ensure that they would have the votes to pass it. With Ted Kennedy gone and with former grand master of the KKK and current Democrat senator Robert Byrd incapacitated the Democrats need all the votes that they can get. Political pressure was applied to Massachusetts at the federal level from Harry Reid to have this law changed for the sole purpose of gaining a yea vote on healthcare reform, after that bill passes Massachusetts voters will be able to decide their representation.

  The state legislature doesn’t give a damn about whether voters have two voices, neither does the federal government. They just want to ensure the passage of the healthcare reform bill. 

  It goes without saying that as a state rights advocate I find this intrusion by the federal government into what should be a state issue to be repulsive but that is what occurred in this instance. This had nothing to do with giving the people two voices in the senate. If Ted Kennedy truly believed that Massachusetts needed to voices in the senate he would have stepped down as soon as he realized that he would not be able to adequately perform the responsibilities that the voters of Massachusetts entrusted him.