Stunner: Scared Mass. Dems Plot to Delay GOP Victory In Teddy Seat Until ObamaCare Passes

NewsBusters ^ | January 9, 2010 | Tim Graham

[Zakeet]

As Republican Scott Brown’s campaign warms up to take Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, Frank Quaratiello of the Boston Herald is reporting something shocking: if Brown wins, Massachusetts Democrats may drag out his certification as the victor to enable appointed Sen. Paul Kirk (the former DNC chairman) to put ObamaCare over the top.

"We want to get this resolved before President Obama’s State of the Union address in early to mid-February," Kirk told reporters at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast...

"Absolutely," Kirk said, when asked if he’d vote for the bill, even if Brown captures the seat. "It would be my responsibility as United States senator, representing the people and understanding Senator Kennedy’s agenda. . . . I think you’re asking me a hypothetical question but I’d be pleased to vote for the bill."

After all the rule-bending shenanigans of the Massachusetts Democrats, leaving a dying Kennedy in office, and then ramrodding Kirk's appointment to the Senate to help ObamaCare, now they're desperate enough to ignore the people's vote?

It's one thing to immediately swear in Democrats, claiming a public mandate, as House Speaker Pelosi did in the Scozzafava and Garamendi special elections last year. It's another scandal entirely to delay a swearing-in -- telling the people that their elected choice shall not be allowed to represent their most current wishes. Will the national media notice? It certainly has national ramifications. The Herald story elaborated:

Few have considered the Jan. 19 election as key to the fate of national health-care reform because both Kirk and front-runner state Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic nominee, have vowed to uphold Kennedy’s legacy and support health-care reform.

But if Brown wins, the entire national health-care reform debate may hinge of when he takes over as senator. Brown has vowed to be the crucial 41st vote in the Senate that would block the bill.

The U.S. Senate ultimately will schedule the swearing-in of Kirk’s successor, but not until the state certifies the election.

Today, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin William Galvin, who is overseeing the election but did not respond to a call seeking comment, said certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor’s Council would take a while.

"Because it’s a federal election," spokesman Brian McNiff said. "We’d have to wait 10 days for absentee and military ballots to come in."

Another source told the Herald that Galvin’s office has said the election won’t be certified until Feb. 20 - well after the president’s address.

Since the U.S. Senate doesn’t meet again in formal session until Jan. 20, Bay State voters will have made their decision before a vote on health-care reform could be held. But Kirk and Galvin’s office said today a victorious Brown would be left in limbo.

In contrast, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) was sworn in at the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 18, 2007, just two days after winning a special election to replace Martin Meehan. In that case, Tsongas made it to Capitol Hill in time to override a presidential veto of the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

If we had a national media that was truly nonpartisan and cared about fair play, this would be a big story. Instead, we often see a Democrat-favoring, Kennedy-adoring media that cares about liberal results first, and the rest is all poli-sci "process."

For his part, Scott Brown certainly had something to say:

"This is a stunning admission by Paul Kirk and the Beacon Hill political machine," said Brown in a statement. "Paul Kirk appears to be suggesting that he, Deval Patrick, and (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid intend to stall the election certification until the health care bill is rammed through Congress, even if that means defying the will of the people of Massachusetts.

"As we’ve already seen from the backroom deals and kickbacks cut by the Democrats in Washington, they intend to do anything and everything to pass their controversial health care plan. But threatening to ignore the results of a free election and steal this Senate vote from the people of Massachusetts takes their schemes to a whole new level. Martha Coakley should immediately disavow this threat from one of her campaign’s leading supporters."

Coakley offered the Herald reporter no comment.

[GQuagmire]

From Wikipedia......

On September 24, 2009, Patrick appointed Paul G. Kirk, former Democratic National Committee chairman and aide to Ted Kennedy, to occupy Kennedy's Senate seat for a term that expires when the winner of the special election takes office.


Prepare for MA sec. of state, Dingy Harry et al. to stall Brown out as long as possible

[Hamilcar_Barca]

What we as conservatives need to do is watch and learn. Every time a Democrat does something it is a precedent for when or if we ever take power again. G. W. Bush's “kinder and gentler” philosophy was a disaster. We are in a war with the left. Learn to fight or learn to kneel in subservience.

[mwl8787]

Notwithstanding any games the RATS may play in Mass, if Brown wins, it transform the entire political landscape and other RATS in the House and Senate will pull back. A Brown win will make BOcare almost impossible to pass.

[melancholy]

>>>AND - when they are thrown out by America in 2010, these SAME standards of operation will be applied to them by their new leaders.

They have changed the rules of the game and now so those same rules shall be enforced.<<<

Couldn’t have said it better! 50% + 1 Rule! No super majority for override, no 60 votes for repealing, etc.

Hate to say it, but to cleanup the aftermath our Communist dictatorship, you have to forget about Constitutional restraints to restore the Constitution!

It is/was unconstitutional to do what they do/did and for expediency, that should be unconstitutionally repaired/restored.

Maybe I’ll be flamed for the above opinion, but history will tell you that you can’t remove Communists without brutal force; therefore, this is the one-step before that.

[Clintonfatigued]

Spread the word, make it go viral!

[CottShop]

[[Culture of corruption is open under new management.]]

NT you’re exactly right, and if Brown wants to win hands down, all he needs to do is show ads where Nazi Pelosi kept calling the republicans the party of the ‘culture of corruption’ then Brown needs to hsow how the corrupt democrats pulled their corrupt stunt to get their guy into office, and now are goign to delay brown’s position until AFTER they ram through the unpopular healthcare system BEHIND the backs of Americans who are overwhelmingly against it, and then Brown needs to ask in his ad “I ask, which party is the REAL culture of corruption?’

[greyfoxx39]

What I want to know is has Mitt Romney come out and deplored this kind of corruption in his former home state?

Yeah, right.

[AuH2ORepublican]

As I wrote here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2424385/posts?page=92#92, I don’t think that the courts would become involved if the MA Secretary of State waited 10 days for overseas votes to come in before certifying the winner or if the Senate waiting for a recount or what have you before seating Brown. Remember, the Indiana Secretary of State certified the Republican as the winner in 1984 and the Democrat House used its constitutional authority as judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its members to refuse to seat him and conduct its own recount, eventually declaring Democrat Frank McCloskey the winner and seating him; the courts never became involved, because such matters are judged by each house of Congress.

[melancholy]

I should add this to my previous post:

We need an Amendment to the Constitution that simply (I’m not a lawyer) says: if you do/did NOT respect the Constitution, you are NOT entitled to the protection of the Constitution.

LucyT, hope everything is fine at your end, have a good weekend.

[LucyT]

"This is a stunning admission by Paul Kirk and the Beacon Hill political machine," said Brown in a statement. "Paul Kirk appears to be suggesting that he, Deval Patrick, and (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid intend to stall the election certification until the health care bill is rammed through Congress, even if that means defying the will of the people of Massachusetts.

"As we’ve already seen from the backroom deals and kickbacks cut by the Democrats in Washington, they intend to do anything and everything to pass their controversial health care plan. But threatening to ignore the results of a free election and steal this Senate vote from the people of Massachusetts takes their schemes to a whole new level. Martha Coakley should immediately disavow this threat from one of her campaign’s leading supporters."

[Thank you, melancholy.]

[bitt]

well, THIS pic should be pretty good for raising some funds! Please ping your list for donations! Win or lose, this candidate is worthy of our support and geez, he's within a whisker! If the dems keep shooting themselves in the foot, he is going to sail in.

https://www.icontribute.us/scottbrown

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2010/01/07/guard_service_a_key_to_candidate_brown/

[bitt]

Boston papers

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/healthcare/view/20100108scott_brown_swearing-in_would_be_stalled_so_health-care_reform_could_pass/srvc=home&position=0

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20100109senate_race_intensifies_in_contentious_debate/

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20100109dianne_wilkerson_hasnt_kept_up_deal_on_ag_martha_coakleys_watch/

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20100108kirk_cautions_coakley_on_cape_wind/

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2010/senate_race/

[bitt]

start yelling

phone numbers:

John Kerry - DC - 2022242742
John Kerry - Boston 6175658519

Paul Kirk - DC - 2022244543
Paul Kirk - Boston - 6175653170

http://www.billgalvin.org/

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/

[bitt]

yes he has, he was spitting mad on Greta last night. I’ll look for a video, he was terrific. Stop with the dumping on our own, unless you like being a disrupter. This is not only a MA fight, this is a national fight.

[WVKayaker]

https://www.icontribute.us/scottbrown

[szweig]

What if a few Demorat senators failed to make it to the chanber for the crucial vote? Car trouble perhaps? Any delaying tactics. I’m not advocating violence or physical harm, just a few absentee tp prevent passage.

Prochain!!!

[greyfoxx39]

Stop with the dumping on our own, unless you like being a disrupter. This is not only a MA fight, this is a national fight.

Mitt is NOT FR's "own" as you would know from the site owner's posts. Mitt is the "disrupter", as he proved in 2008 with his minions' bashing of Palin.

[Political Junkie Too]

I checked the Massachusetts Election Law on the special appointment to fill a Senate vacancy. Interestingly, the on-line text has not been amended with the text from the new law, which can be found here.

SECTION 1. Section 140 of chapter 54 of the General Laws, as appearing in 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after subsection (e) the following new subsection:–

(f) Upon failure to choose a senator in congress or upon a vacancy in said office the governor shall make a temporary appointment to fill the vacancy; provided, however, that the person so appointed shall serve until the election and qualification of the person duly elected to fill such vacancy pursuant to paragraph (a) or paragraph (c); and provided further, any person so appointed shall be of the same political party as the person vacating the office and thereby creating the vacancy.

Note that it says that the term of the special appointments lasts until "election and qualification" of the duly elected person.

-PJ

[azishot]

What is so sad is the fact that the democrats will more than likely get away with it. Makes me sick.

[Lady Jag]

On the flip side of that coin, would the election of Scott Brown scare some of the Senate and cause them to vote no?

Mass. elects Republican Senators every couple of generations. Brown winning would send a pointed message to Congress on January 19th. The message won't wait.