The Democrats Do It Again

I saw a piece on both Fox News and CNN last night that the Massachusetts state legislature has passed a bill giving the MA governor the authority to appoint a temporary replacement in the event of a vacancy in Mass.' representation in the US Senate, and said temp would serve until a special election could take place to permanently fill said vacancy. Ordinarily, that wouldn't warrant national attention...after all, the US Constitution specifically says that a state legislature has the right to grant their state's governor said power in the event of a vacancy. However, a couple things make this particular move by this particular legislature rather interesting, and I can't help but chuckle.

For one, the legislature has passed this bill in direct response to the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, which has created a vacancy in Massachusetts' representation in the Senate. Now don't get me wrong, I was saddened by Sen. Kennedy's death, and I've always had the utmost respect for his service, even if I didn't agree with him very often. A special election's already been scheduled for January to select Kennedy's permanent replacement, and one might argue that giving the governor the power to put a temporary senator in place isn't really all that bad an idea...but there's one very interesting twist to the story that puts this whole situation into the "politics as usual" category.

Up until 2004, the Massachusetts governor DID have the power to appoint an interim senator in the event one of MA's senate seats became vacant, but in 2004, the legislature stripped the governor of that authority. The reason? In 2004, MA's then-junior senator, John Kerry, was running for President. Had he won the presidency, he would have obviously had to resign from the US Senate to become president. This would have created a vacancy in the Senate, and the governor could have appointed a temporary fill-in to serve until Kerry's permanent replacement could be elected.

There was one slight detail, though...at the time, MA's governor was Mitt Romney (yes, sports fans, THAT Mitt Romney). When it looked as though Kerry had a real chance of becoming president, MA's then-senior senator, one TED KENNEDY, was deeply concerned that the GOP governor might appoint a Republican to replace Kerry, thus disrupting the Democrats' hold on power in the Senate. So, Senator Kennedy convinced the Democrat-controlled state legislature to change state law, preventing Governor Romney from potentially appointing a Republican to replace a Democrat. Now, however, MA has a Democrat governor, and suddenly, giving the governor power to fill a vacancy in the Senate is suddenly a good idea again.

Politics as usual....