Oh The Irony

So there is now a US Senate seat vacant.  Oh the agony to Democrats everywhere... 

As the law currently stands:

the seat would have to remain vacant for the next 145-160 days -- thus busting the Democrats down to 59 Senate seats -- until a special election can be held. The Democrats would be heavily favored to win that special Senate election.

However, there appears to be at least a theoretical possibility that the seat could be filled sooner than that. In the final weeks of his life, Kennedy had called for the law to be changed to allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to make an interim appointment, selecting a caretaker who would represent the state and pledge not to run in the election.

Now you may be asking... what irony?

Well, the ability for the governor to appoint an interim Senator was the law until 2004.  It was used in 1962 when John Kennedy became President. 

But in 2004 when it looked like John Kerry might become President - guess who was governor.  Go on, guess... yes that's right, Mitt Romney - a Republican.

The Dems of the state quickly changed the law... just in case.  Thus making it impossible for the evil Romney to appoint a Senator the Dems may not like. 

Now, of course, this is coming back to bite them.  It's the most hilarious thing.  The dithering...

Most everyone in the state hates the current governor (Coup Deval), but he is a Democrat and he could appoint a Dem until the next election is held.

I'm pretty sure most of the state's Democrats see nothing odd at all in changing the rules on a regular basis as long as it benefits them. Imagine the uproar if Republicans were doing this.  The hypocrisy is astounding.  Yet all the people of this state keep electing them to office.  Amazing.

Posted by: Teresa in Politics at 10:48 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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