To Massachusetts Dems: Do the Right Thing

I am an unabashed, card-carrying liberal and I refuse to accept "Liberal" as a bad word. I fail to see how any word whose Latin root means "Free" is a bad word. That having been said, I must say that I would be opposed to any effort to change Massachusetts state law so that Governor Patrick would be able to appoint a successor to Sen. Kennedy while waiting for the special election.

Perhaps a little background is in order. You see, in 2004, the Massachusetts State Senate voted that the governor could not make an interim appointment. At that time the Senate seat in question was that of Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry. Mr. Kerry, if elected president, would have held his Senate seat until his inauguration in January. The State Senate voted, almost entirely on party lines, to change the nearly century-old electoral rules and call for a special election to a Senate seat that would take place from 145 to 160 days after an incumbent senator vacated his seat. The mostly Democratic State Senate did not want a Republican Governor (Mitt Romney) selecting an interim U.S. Senator, fearing that he could swing the delicate balance of power a bit more towards the GOP.

Now, they want the Democratic Governor to be able to make such an appointment. Having watched Bush, Cheyney and the current batch of Republicans operate, I have no doubt that they would manipulate or maim the rules to suit their purposes and political advantage and then try to offer some clever doublespeak as to why the standards they pushed upon Democrats do not apply to them. Sen. Ensign, for example who uses some sort of serpentine logic to explain why his insistence that then Pres. Clinton should have stepped down in the wake of his infidelity scandal but now for some twisted reason, his case (Sen. Ensign's) is different and it is okay for him to stay.

As a Democrat, I want my party to be bigger than that. I want my party to play by the rules that they imposed on Gov. Romney. We can prove once again, that we are the better party, filled with bigger people who can behave in a consistent manner. I will be disappointed if The Massachusetts Dems behave otherwise.