MA is about to get a new Senator

[cali]

State Senate OK's interim senator bill
The bill, which would allow Governor Patrick to name an interim successor to Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat, must pass the state House and state Senate once more before heading to the governor's desk.
http://www.boston.com/

[babylonsister]

1. Hot stuff!! Great news! nt

[babylonsister]

2. We have some clever little freepers around here unrec'ing. nt

[PearliePoo2]

8. well ....I'll just cancel out the little freep-wads "unrec" then

with a big hearty REC and KICK of my own.
Welcome to the Senate Michael Dukakis!
:hi:

[zoff]

16. and just for good measure ...

... lemme cancel out another with my rec ...

[whistler162]

21. Or we have some smart Democrats who realize that

this move is a disaster!

Abide by the law THEN change it!

[kctim]

24. Absolutely!

This is a stupid move straight out of Roves playbook.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Call the Duke!

[DFW]

4. Second that!

[ronnykmarshall]

5. Yup!

[cali]

6. That would be so great.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I adore him. He over-estimated the intelligence of US voters. nt

[americanmutt]

9. G O!!! K&R n/t.

[tomm2thumbs]

10. kick & rec

[Iwillnevergiveup]

11. Come on down, Mike

we need you desperately on health care.

K&R

[TommyPaine]

12. Just glad it won't be Curt Schilling.

Sorry Curt, ending the curse doesn't make you senator material. Though we all know what a totally awesome American you are. :eyes:

[Fearless]

19. True story!

[burning rain]

13. Good for Massachusetts, & good for the US.

As much as I regret the fecklessness of Dukakis' presidential campaign, I think he's a good choice for an interim senator--smart and a reliable liberal. That's what we need. Glad to see him going to Washington for a spell--he's a decent guy and deserves some compensation for the drubbing he took in '88.

[burning rain]

14. Good for Massachusetts, & good for the US.

As much as I regret the fecklessness of Dukakis' presidential campaign, I think he's a good choice for an interim senator--smart and a reliable liberal. That's what we need. Glad to see him going to Washington for a spell--he's a decent guy and deserves some compensation for the drubbing he took in '88.

[Historic NY]

15. Senate Michael Dukakis that has a nice ring to it.

[Bonn1997]

17. I'm happy to get a new Senator but I have to admit there is some hypocrisy...

since the same Congress voted to take away this power of the Governor when the Governor was Republican.

[whistler162]

20. Shh.. if you don't say it to loud maybe the

Republicans won't notice and won't use it as a major campaign issue!:eyes:

Not a bright move on Massachusetts part. Should have repealed the law after 2004 or abide by the law and then change it afterwords.

[rhett o rick]

25. Bravo Mass, it is waaay past time for the Democrats to start fighting back. nt

[beac]

23. Hypocritical, yes. But compared to what the GOP has been up to over the last eight years, not

something I think we should apologize for. They would have done the same in a hot second. Nice to see the Democratic Party showing a little "f you, we're in charge" spirit for once.

[Jackpine Radical]

34. Elections have consequences.

Heh, heh.

[saltpoint]

18. Since we're where we're at in this, I hope Michael Dukakis' phone

rings real soon.

He's a good man.

[SuperTrouper]

33. Yes, a good man but 76 years old, an instant lame-duck. Paul Kirk, Jr. is 71 years old

so also instant lame-duck. It will give time for the GOP to place someone that is well-known to capture the seat, for example Paul Cellucci.

[saltpoint]

39. The special election is in January. It's understood that no one named to

fill the seat would run in that special election. No reason, so long as we're where we're at with this anyway, to deny either Kirk or Dukakis, had it turned out to be the Duke.

[polmaven]

22. Sort of...

Only problem is that it must pass this time with 2/3 of each house, and it did not get that split the first time around. Otherwise, it will not take effect for 60 days.

The Governor will most likely be, in the alternative, sending a letter to the state AG declaring the situation an emergency, and, once she signs it, he will appoint. The nays, however, are saying they will challenge that move.

[rhett o rick]

26. Democrats showing some backbone here. Time for the nuclear option. nt

[disndat]

27. Mike Dukakis?

I hope so, but is it for certain?

[cali]

28. it's not certain, but it does seem the most likely option.

[Obamanaut]

29. So, it was a bad change in 2004, but a good change this year? This

law should be put on the books with velcro, making the future changes easier.

Edited to add: The 2004 change must have been bad, or it would not need changing so soon.

[sofa king]

30. I don't know about MA specifically, but....

Most states have a provision which goes something like this: if a Senator dies in the first half of his six-year term, a special election must be held; if he dies in the second half of his term (or in the last two years, or whatever), the governor can appoint a successor. You may recall that Gov. Jesse Ventura appointed a buddy of his as Senator for the last couple of weeks of a term, giving that fellow Senate privileges for the rest of his life and automatically making him an important lobbyist as a result.

There is not a little bit of hypocrisy behind this particular move, because the power to appoint a successor was taken away in 2004, specifically in case John Kerry won and had to leave the Senate, leaving one of the Batshit Brigade (Mitt Romney) in position to appoint a successor, which in turn would have better secured the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate (remember that the Democratic party never controlled the Senate by more than one tenuous vote--like Joe Lieberman--in just four of the Bush years).

And you know what? That hypocrisy saved our ass. In previous years it was considered good form to resign one's Senate seat while running for President (see Bob Dole). Had Senator Kerry done so, he would have lost his current position as senior Senator from Massachusetts, would have had the election stolen from under him anyway, and Bush would have had the one vote he needed to control the entire federal government for another four years. There would be a quarter of a million dead and wounded American soldiers on the coastal plains of Iran right now, and who knows how many millions of dead Iranians.

Sometimes a state (or commonwealth) has the foresight to see the larger war looming above the battle, and that's what Massachusetts did, and that's what it's doing now.

[Obamanaut]

37. I see it now. If hypocrisy works in one's favor, it is good. I see. nt

[sofa king]

40. I think of it as a rational response to a dangerous situation.

It's not nearly as hypocritical if the situation is viewed as politicians acting against a criminal organization which almost, but not quite, has unchecked power.

I know that's how I was seeing things at the time, and time is only proving me more and more correct to do so.

[janet118]

31. Latest word is that it will be Paul Kirk . . .

because Duke may be too "independent" to vote with a Democratic "bloc." I'm not comforted.

[janet118]

32. Info on Kirk from Wikipedia

Paul G. Kirk Jr. (born 1938) was chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 1985 to 1989. He currently co-chairs the Commission on Presidential Debates, is the chairman of the board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and as a member of the board of directors of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

[horseshoecrab]

35. Paul Kirk

In the story in today's Boston Globe, Kirk is reported to have been requested by Patrick and Ted Jr.

Breaking at http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/09/victoria_kenned_2.html
Vicki Kennedy requests that Kirk fill the interim position until the election.


horseshoecrab

[janet118]

38. This sounds kind of promising . . .

From http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=86&subid=84&contentid=254411">DLC Website

At first, Party Chairman Paul Kirk tried to stop the DLC from forming. Three times in the DLC's first 18 months, the liberal columnist Jack Germond predicted the DLC would not last for six months. There were demonstrations by the Reverend Jesse Jackson and other party activists at the DLC's 1991 Cleveland Conference, where Bill Clinton laid out the platform on which he won the presidency. Even after three national tickets in a row composed of DLCers, Howard Dean called the DLC "Republican lite" and called the Clinton years "damage control."

[BrklynLiberal]

36. Yesssssss. Now just one more final request from Sen. Kennedy....UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE!!!