The Massachusetts Senate has followed the lead of the Massachusetts House to pass a first-in-the-country law providing the governor of that great progressive state the authority to name an interim replacement for vacant US Senate seats with the provision that this law will only be applied in situations where the current governor is a Democrat.
This new law is being hailed as landmark legislation that will eliminate the need to change the law each time a different political party controls the Massachusetts’ executive branch.
Until now, when a senate seat was vacated, it was necessary to change the law to either block an interim appointment whenever a Republican held the governor’s seat or require an appointment whenever a Democrat held the office. This was critical to ensure that Massachusetts was properly represented in the US Senate…. not that they were fully represented… that they were PROPERLY represented.
Originally the Massachusetts House and Senate was looking into the possibility of requiring that the US Senate seat be filled by a Democrat regardless of who held the governor’s seat, but it was decided that would be way to obvious.
By having the law tailored in this way, Massachusetts clears the way to allow a Democrat to be appointed to support President Obama’s huge takeover of one sixth of the economy without the potential risk that sometime in the future that seat could be filled with a Republican via appointment.
There still remains the potential that a Republican could actually be elected to the US Senate by the citizens of Massachusetts sometime in the future.
Unfortunately, the Massachusetts House and Senate will not be able to address that concern, with a law limiting nomination to Democratic candidates, until after the US Supreme Court has been transformed sufficiently by President Obama for that law to pass a constitutional challenge.
What is truly amazing is that this bit of fiction is not too far off from the truth. (More here and here)
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