Posted on 08/31/2009 2:22:41 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
As speculation swirls about which politicians will vie for the first open Massachusetts Senate seat in 25 years, the process of determining a successor for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy will hinge on the actions of the state Legislature.
Current law provides for a special election to fill an open seat five months after a vacancy, a provision enacted by Democrats in 2004 during the presidential election, when Sen. John Kerry was running for president. The law would have prevented then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, from appointing a successor to the seat.
Just days before his death, Kennedy sent a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, asking them to consider changing the law so that Patrick would be able to nominate a temporary replacement for Kennedy, who died last week following a battle with brain cancer.
Patrick is expected to pick a date for the special election Monday afternoon, according to multiple sources.
In the letter, Kennedy wrote that the state needs two U.S. senators during the five-month interim. As President Barack Obama pushes for major health insurance reform, an issue Kennedy called "the cause of his life," the viability of the legislation could depend on one or two Senate votes.
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
Massachusetts has a legislature?
The next thing you’ll be telling me is they actually elect their senators.
And the Democrats break their own laws again. :(
I guess some animals really are more equal than others.
Kennedy could have resigned months ago...and they would have representation.
What about the Will of the People? Guess not...
Met with dismissive snickers by the Sunday Rountable programs.
Repeal the 17th Amendment. Let the Legislatures of the various States elect the federal senator. The way the Constitution was designed to work.
If we must play politics, play it at the local and apparently more accountable level.
I noticed that too, especially on "This Week" with Snufagufalus. Gwen Ifill is especially irritating when it comes to all things Kennedy.
Is Roland Burris available?
Some Democrats are nervous that this might appear to be just political? Really? Do you think so? When they had a Republican governor they changed the law so Romney wouldn’t get to appoint a Republican Senator should Kerry win. Now that they have a Democrat governor they want to change it back? Do you think people might wonder if it’s politics? Do you think people might be that smart?
Is there anybody, anywhere who seriously thinks that the law won’t be changed to let Deval Patrick appoint a Dem?
I wonder if it’s legal to do that, though. Teddy died under the old law; wouldn’t that apply to him, no matter what they do now? We don’t have ex post facto laws here in the US, even in Massachusetts, to my knowledge.
In MA precisely 63% absolutely aren't that smart, and 37% might be, at least according to last November's election results.
They’ll appoint someone that reflects Teds standards thus I expect to see a welfare rat illegal homosexual that can’t swim who has a bunch of coat hanger scars all over their body.
The word hypocracy is defined by the demorat party. When will ignorant people finally wake up.
The flip-flopping continues, as long as it helps the Liberals mining for tax money to pay for their needy constituents.
“Is Roland Burris available?”
Seriously, this needs to be explointed. Whovever fill that seat needs to appear on billboards with Burris across the Commonwealth.
They have a show legislature, the MA Supreme Court really determines legislative policy.
roflol... hoist on their own petard.
..... I disagree. The function of the MA Supreme Court, whose members are secure in guaranteed lifetime jobs, is to implement by judicial fiat those programs that the Democrooks on Beacon Hill don’t want to go on the legislative voting records as supporting and passing.
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