Posted on 01/09/2010 5:24:34 AM PST by Zakeet
As Republican Scott Browns campaign warms up to take Ted Kennedys 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 Obamas 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 hed 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 Kennedys agenda. . . . I think youre asking me a hypothetical question but Id 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 Kennedys 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 Kirks 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 Governors Council would take a while.
"Because its a federal election," spokesman Brian McNiff said. "Wed have to wait 10 days for absentee and military ballots to come in."
Another source told the Herald that Galvins office has said the election wont be certified until Feb. 20 - well after the presidents address.
Since the U.S. Senate doesnt 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 Galvins 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 Childrens 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 weve 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 campaigns leading supporters."
Coakley offered the Herald reporter no comment.
Mitt interview on Greta:
......Greta is an excellent interviewer and pulled a lot out of him.
Really gets into it.....starts spittin’ fire and talking like a grown-up.....at nine minutes he is really on a roll!
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3964206/romney-on-the-record
second part - Scott Brown
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3964205/romney-on-the-record-part-2
.....look at the three minute mark
Republicans are being careful to come out for Brown but not pile on and thus scare off the Indies, IMO.
Look, FRiend, obviously nothing I say will make you think differently...I am tired of saying I support a certain candidate and some people come out on the bell to slash me up. I think he is an honest man with great intellect and presence...and he is a LOT more acceptable to me than many many other politicians. I think he has a lot to say about the state of the nation. I think you would agree with 98% of his politics. I would think that you would be grateful to hear that he is coming out swinging to stand up for the Scott Brown race...and that he says it so well. I would also think that you would give your left arm to have him as President now rather than Obama.
Er, uhm, no.
In a closely-fought (but democratic-losing) election, the democrats employed every lawyer they could buy to THROW OUT every military ballot they could find.
FL Nov 2000. Never forget.
If Scott wins, wouldn’t Kirk’s be an illegal vote in the Senate???
But he is a ghost!!!
And what does “qualification” means???
I'm guessing that it means certified by the controlling authority, in the case of Massachusetts meaning the Secretary of State certifying the election results.
-PJ
I liked HillBuzz’s suggestions on what to do:
http://hillbuzz.org/2010/01/09/advice-on-what-to-do-when-harry-reid-refuses-to-seat-a-senator/
That and many of you going to your capital and demanding that the will of the people be followed! Scare them all!
Yep time for republicans to learn to fight down in the mud with the Dems. Take no prisioners, no quarter.
That is what I get from the law so any vote by the appointed senator after Jan 19th is illegal and if made could/should be vacated?
The Dems always play loose with the election rules, which is why they can seat a House rep-elect within 24 hours of the election while simultaneously arguing that they need 30 days to seat a Senator-elect.
-PJ
Sorry, your mind-reading through the interwebs isn’t working.
I wouldn’t vote for Mitt under any circumstances.
I agree.
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.
Again, I agree.
The RATs will never allow him to win precisely because of your reasoning! They most likely ACORN the election, find missing votes in car trunks in Alaska, recount once more until ACORN Al-Frankens the result.
Meanwhile, Scott stays out of the crucial votes.
Anyone wonders why violence might erupt when, NOT IF, this will be repeated in the '10 elections in our new 0Banana Republic?
c’mon, you are saying if it were a head to head, Mitt vs. Obama, you wouldn’t vote for Mitt?
Please consider giving a donation to Scott Brown. SEIU and MOVEON.com are coming into the state to join up with the evil forces...
BTTT
Jim thanks for the dates, on when a Republican Senator served in Massachusetts. I do not remember hearing of Brooks.. I was in Massachusetts in 1984.. when Dukasis was Governor. Even then it seemed like the whole state was run by the Democratic Party.
The last Republican Senator from Massachusetts..
Edward William Brooke, III (born October 26, 1919), is an American politician and was the first African American to be elected by popular vote to the United States Senate when he was elected as a Republican from Massachusetts in 1966, defeating his Democratic opponent, Endicott Peabody, 58%42%. He was also the first African American elected to the Senate since the 19th century, and would remain the only person of African heritage sent to the Senate in the 20th century until Democrat Carol Moseley Braun in 1993. He remains, as of 2009, the last Republican senator from Massachusetts, and the last elected African American member of the U.S. Senate to come from the Republican
Party.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Brooke
Now isn’t he the one Barbara Walters was having an affair with?
Massachusetts was the only state to vote for McGovern in 1972. They went for Reagan twice, but that was their only speck of sanity.
But Reagan was a Democrat before he was a Republican.
I've lived in the Northeast my whole life, and I lived in MA for 22 years, and in a liberal hellhole, at that.
Even in MA, there are tons of conservatives. All of them are registered Democrats, but they're conservatives, none the less.
Reagan appealed to them because he WASN'T a Republican. Oh, yes, he was running as a Republican, but he wasn't born Republican.
And there were many other things that made him different from the species Republicanus newenglandensis.
He didn't look down his nose at them.
He didn't care that they smoked.
He disn't care if they had a few drinks (He won Massachusetts the day he visited the Erie Pub in Dorchester and hoisted a few, no Republican has done that before or since).
He didn't care that their children didn't dress up for church, or what parties they went to.
He even knew that people occasionally let fly a few curse words, and he didn't hold that against them.
None of the born Republicans that these people knew were ever like that. And very few of them are like that today.
The more **** like this the Rats pull, the worse it will be for them in November.
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