Here is the back story of how the current law came to be:
Massachusetts governors used to have the power to fill Senate vacancies, as happens in many other states, until the Legislature made the change five years ago.
Democratic lawmakers, then as now in the majority, did not want to give Governor Mitt Romney the chance to fill Kerry’s seat with a Republican if Kerry won the presidency.
So, no MyDD, Ted Kennedy does not put health care and Massachusetts first. he puts his party and himself first.
In a personal, sometimes wistful letter sent Tuesday to Governor Deval L. Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Kennedy asks that Patrick be given authority to appoint someone to the seat temporarily before voters choose a new senator in a special election……
……..In his letter, which was obtained by the Globe, Kennedy said that he backs the current succession law, enacted in 2004, which gives voters the power to fill a US Senate vacancy. But he said the state and country need two Massachusetts senators.
“I strongly support that law and the principle that the people should elect their senator,’’ Kennedy wrote. “I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to 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.’’
To ensure that the special election is fair, the senator also urged that the governor obtain an “explicit personal commitment’’ from his appointee not to seek the office on a permanent basis.
Kennedy aides said the senator never liked the five-month vacancy created by the 2004 law, but his dislike took on new urgency because Senate Democrats could need every vote possible on health care legislation.
Well, it is now, since Deval Patrick and not Mitt Romney governs Massachusetts. Now, apparently, the needs of a democratic process can take a back seat to the needs of a, um, Democratic process. Suddenly, Kennedy sees the need to have Massachusetts represented by two Senators immediately after an opening, rather than wait for the will of the people.
If there’s a bigger pile of hypocrisy (outside of Washington DC), someone please be sure to mention it in the comments.
The rule of law prevails because it’s seen by most as a fair, non-partisan measure of public behavior. There are good arguments to be made for both gubernatorial appointment and special elections as processes for filling mid-term vacancies in Congress. However, actions by a state legislature and demands by partisan hacks to keep going back and forth depending on the party registration of the Governor makes a mockery of the rule of law and underscores the fact that machine politics runs Massachusetts.
Refer to:
Attention Kennedy Family Members: Senate Seats Are Not Legacy Gifts
Isn’t That Nice: Caroline Kennedy Will Settle On A Senate Seat
Once again, ChapaTraitor, as an example of the arrogant, elitist Oligarchists working to undermine our Constitutional republic, demonstrates his extreme hypocrisy. He stands stalwartly in favor of rules and laws when he stands to benefit, but those same rules and laws are little more than annoyances and inconveniences to be dealt with when they run counter to his interest.
If there was an American Political Hall of Shame, ChapTraitor’s statue would be in the lobby, the first thing visitors would see as they enter. Such is the breath and depth of his transgressions against tradiitonal America. he is arguably the filthiest pos ever to hold Congressional office. Every day he remains alive ceats Satan out of his eventual due.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday that after a wildly successful run, the cash for clunkers program will come to a close on Monday, August 24th at 8 p.m. EDT.
Sen Kennedy has worked tirelessly all his life and sacrificed his own personal presidential ambitions to save the country! If he had not saved America by now we would all be marching around with swastzstikas on our arms (right arms of course). Sen Kennedy is an icon, one of the greatest leaders in all of history. There is only one who is greater, and he’s our own President! So stop your slander and libel of this great hero! I wish he could serve another 50 years!
Lenny, I’m sure Mary Jo, may she rest in peace, would disagree with you.
This A Hole wouldn’t have been allowed to run for President because of the murder he committed many years ago. Money may buy you your freedom but the public doesn’t forget. The Democraps knew that and so he was lucky the idiots in MA didn’t care and continued to elect him their Senator.
Ted Kennedy should have gone to prison for felony drunk driving and manslaughter. His political career should have been over right then; would have saced this Nation a great deal of damage to the Republic and to our society. But the Kennedy influence and money kept local officials from doing their duty, and the family of his victim took a payoff in exchange for their conscience.
Having escaped justice, Ted went on to a lo g career in the Senate where he over the years he did incalculable damage to this Nation in almost every imaginable way. Not content with that, he seized the opportunity of the war in Iraq and more specifically, the Abu Ghraib scandal, to add treason to his resume.
So there you have it, Lenny and any other mentally terminally-ill cretins who think ChapaTraitor is just peachy. There’s all you really need to know about him, in a nutshell. I think the above two paragraphs should be chiseled on his tombstone as a reminder to subsequent generations. Truly one of the most reprehensible characters in American history imo. When I was a kid, in history class they talked about Benedict Arnold, the turncoat, whose name has become associated with traitors. I submit that compared to the depth and breadth of the damage ChapaTraitor has done, Arnold was a piker, a footnote. When ChapaTraitor breathes his last, the Devil will surely be right there to collect his due: a soul long ago sold in exchange for wealth and power on earth.
Other than that, I really have no opinion regarding Senator Kennedy…
Well, placed on his tombstone after running the spell checker…arghhh!
Good riddance. Now if Dancy Nancy, Osama Ben Obama, Hillary and Reid would do the same
Palin to Attack American Patriots Right Voices: Poll: Americans losing confidence in Obama and