Massachusetts GOP files injunction to stop Deval Patrick’s senate appointee

   Yesterday the Massachusetts state senate approved a change in the succession law so that Governor Deval Patrick would be allowed to appoint Ted Kennedy’s successor to the senate. This was done as Ted Kennedy’s a sort of last wish for Ted Kennedy– the man who had the succession law changed so that if John Kerry won the presidency in 2004 Republican governor Mitt Romney would not be allowed to appoint a successor. Yesterday, just four years after changing the succession law to remove a gubernatorial interim senate appointee the state senate has reversed itself, Deval Patrick signed the legislation and appointed Paul Kirk as interim senator.

  Except in the case of an emergency, a law passed in Massachusetts can not go into effect for ninety days. Governor Deval Patrick actually declared a state of emergency and appointed Paul Kirk to the senate.

  The state GOP has now filed asuit in an attempt to block the appointment on state constitutional grounds. It is clear that Governor Patrick has misused his power in declaring a state of emergency for a reason such as this. This is just so brazen it is almost unbelievable. Ted Kennedy had been incapacitated for the last year of his life, he was not able to perform his job. Massachusetts only had one active senator for a year. There was no state of emergency then and there is not a state of emergency now.

  I don’t hold out much hope that the state court will do anything about this. Massachusetts lawmakers have a history of ignoring the state constitution and nothing has been done to stop them. Several years ago on a binding ballot referendum the voters voted to cut the state income tax– the legislature decided that they were not going to do it even though it was constitutionally mandated. And this isn’t even the first time that Deval Patrick has said to  hell with the state constitution. The people of the state followed all of the proper procedures to have the question of gay marriage added to the ballot as a binding referendum question, the state constitution mandated that this question be added to the ballot. One of Deval Patrick’s first acts as governor was to stop this question from making it to the ballot– he was successful. The will of the people, and the constitution, was thwarted.

  So this type of deal is nothing new to Massachusetts, they are used to having their state constitution trampled on. But that does not make a move like this any less insidious. The Massachusetts legislature was under heavy pressure from national Democrat leaders to change this law and appoint a pro-healthcare reform senator before the special election in January. That is what they did when they appointed the former healthcare lobbyist to Ted Kennedy’s senate seat.

  The state government put the will of the federal government ahead of the will of the people. There might not be anything more legislatively contemptible, or suspect, than what the Massachusetts legislature just did to their constituents.

  We will see if the court agrees with me at 8:00 this morning. Even if the court agrees with me it does not mean Governor Patrick will listen.