Massachusetts law stated that in the event a Senator could no longer perform his or her duties, the state was to hold a special election to determine a permanent replacement. Even before Ted Kennedy passed away, local newspapers and affiliates were speculating whether or not the state legislature would once again change state law to accommodate the state’s progressive, leftist, statist agenda. Ted Kennedy then issued a letter requesting the law be changed so that the Governor could quickly appoint a temporary replacement to DC and champion health care. In Teddy’s own words, health care was “the cause of his life” even though silly me thought the cause of his life was escaping the consequences of July 18, 1969. But you can read more about that here.
I never questioned whether or not the state legislature would acquiesce. I knew what would happen. I was here when it happened once before.
You see, when John Kerry and John Edwards (you know, the father of the love-child sometimes referred to as “furniture expense”) were on the national ticket for the Democratic Party in 2004, people here with their Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers actually thought they’d win! How laughable.
Even though John Forbes Kerry had the initials JFK, I knew the country wouldn’t be fooled for several reasons:
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1. He wasn’t able to have “JFK” printed on the ballots.
2. His charm is as winning as Lurch from the Addams family.
3. In explaining his opposition to the supplemental funding bill for US troops he famously quipped, “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”
4. Do you really need more reasons? Fine. Check out the Top Ten Flip-Flops as compiled by CBS.
The people of Massachusetts, however, seriously thought John Kerry would win! In order to keep then Governor Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican to replace John Kerry, the state legislature changed the law to remove the Governor’s authority to name a replacement.
What goes around, comes around. Unless you’re Massachusetts where laws are for suckers! You don’t need to follow the law. No, you just change the law. Sure, Barack Obama was guaranteed this state by having a D after his name but what sealed the deal was his catch phrase, “Change you can believe in!” Massachusetts should coin that as their official state motto or at least add it as a license plate option.
Just this week they changed the law back. This morning, Governor Deval Patrick (whose campaign slogan, thanks to David Axelrod, was “Together We Can!”) announced that Paul Kirk, former Kennedy staffer and longtime Kennedy friend, would serve as a temporary replacement.
Kirk is headed to Washington to represent Ted Kennedy and vote the way Kennedy would on all things health care, cap and trade, student loans and whatever other government-controlled bill is up for a vote. The special election will occur on January 19th and I’ll be doing what I can to keep another Kennedy-Kerry-Dukakis type out of office. In the meantime, I’ll just try to keep sane with all the candidate ads that have already begun to run on every single channel here in Massachusetts. It’s going to be a long 117 days!
We know how well the Illinois appointee Roland Burris is doing in Washington. For instance, would Paul Kirk vote to defund ACORN or would he go the way of Burris? We know how he’ll vote on everything else.
Sadly, this is no surprise whatsoever! I just can’t imagine the uproar in the MSM if this was done to fill the void of a conservative senator.
No kidding, Joe. The political class of Massachusetts could care less of what people here think of them because the lemmings will always vote for them. There’s no point in concealing their true agenda or making deals behind closed doors. All they have to do is say exactly what they’re up to and the majority of the people will go quietly along. If the Senator was from the other party, you’re right, it would hit the fan and the media would hyperventilate.
Hey, I really like your blog. I’ve added it to my blogroll. I found myself being what I described as a “Lost Republican” after the last election. I didn’t feel as though the GOP was doing a good job representing my conservative ideals. But there’s really nowhere else to turn. So, like many others, I put my frustrations to work – one of thousands of conservative bloggers trying to restore true patriotism, restore a regard and respect for the Constitution, and restore the principles that made the GOP a once-great party. I hope you’ll check out my blog at http://lostrepublican.wordpress.com
My goal is really to help others who are so frustrated that they want to get involved. But getting involved is harder than it sounds. So I’m going to move my blog more into that line of discussion over time. Kind of a tutorial for involvement. If I can motivate a few people, you motivate a few people and countless others do the same, maybe…just maybe we can restore America.
I can’t believe what the people of Massachusetts let their politicians get away with. That is ridiculous. I would hate life if I had to live among those people. Present company excluded.