Chutzpah
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Edward Kennedy | Hypocrisy | Massachusetts | State Politics — Comments (16) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Now that it has been confirmed that Senator Edward Kennedy has a brain tumor likely to be fatal, attention has slowly begun to shift from the shock and sadness that diagnosis has elicited from both sides of the partisan divide to the question of who might succeed Kennedy should he resign or pass away in office. And this story informs us that the attitude of Massachusetts Democrats on the issue is "Heads: We win. Tails: Republicans lose":
The leader of the Massachusetts House says he will support giving Gov. Deval Patrick the power to appoint an interim successor to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy if that becomes necessary.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature stripped Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of that authority in 2004 because of fears he would name a Republican to replace U.S. Sen. John Kerry if he had been elected president.
Instead, state law now requires a special election for the seat no sooner than 145 days and no later than 160 days after the vacancy occurs.
But House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi said yesterday if Kennedy should step aside or have to be replaced because of his brain tumor diagnosis, he'd be in favor of a gubernatorial appointment.
"That was a good political reason (then)," DiMasi said of taking the power away from Romney. "It's a good political reason to change it back."
Must . . . try . . . to . . . comment. But . . . cannot . . . rendered . . . speechless . . . by . . . . DiMasi's . . . appalling . . . nerve.
Must . . . turn . . . over . . . microphone . . . . to . . . a . . . Massachusetts . . . Republican:
House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr. of North Reading said it was "distasteful" for DiMasi to respond to questions about changing the way the state handles vacant Senate seats. But, he criticized Democrats for their 2004 move against Romney.
"They said at the time they took this away for important public policy reasons," Jones said. "It would make them all out to be liars."
(Via James Taranto.)
Chutzpah 16 Comments (0 topical, 16 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
There has been an increase of Massachusetts residents moving to Maine, especially the southern York County region. The Real Estate bubble bursting might slow things down for a while but I see it growing again in the not too distant future!
Your Maineac "Taxationland" slogan makes me ask--does that mean folks from anywhere but Taxachusetts would immediately recognize that Maine has exorbitant taxes and never move there?
I have to admit that I thought Maine was very pretty the two times I visited there. But I hate mosquitos so I've no desire to be there after they hatch.
Democrats: Abandoning Allies, One Country at a Time.
license plate motto we used to have. The plates used to say "Vacationland". They changed it! We now have about 5 different styles! Someone actually had some labels made up that would fit ovet the word on the plates. I remember he did a brisk business with them.
People from New York and California might notice a slight drop if they moved here, but not much!! (LOL)
Liberals vote in their bad ideas. Taxes go up. Liberals move out to lower tax area. Then they vote their bad ideas in again.
There are lots of examples but maybe New Hampshire is the best.
then moves on to destroy another once healthy region. Sorry to say it, but absent effective conservative leadership, the only cure is often a healthy dose of falling flat on your face in the skid-row gutter.
Tim Schieferecke
What are the countermeasures:
1) vaccination - That happened with the Contract with America and the preceeding intellectual fervor that produced a conservative philosphy that could protect people from the allure of liberalism. Not sure if we have an effective vaccine no since we haven't updated our supplies to meet the various mutations in the cancer that have since emerged.
2) surgery - once the tumor spreads to another area, you cordon off that area to prevent futher spread. Unfortunately, metastatic cells have usually traveled elsewhere by the time the cancer eruption is detected. We may not be able to keep up, and we may include too many innocent bystanders.
3) chemotherapy - that's the Thatcher treatment; painful but effective if the treatment is allowed to continue to its end point. It tends to be hard to convince people of its need unless things are really fallen apart (in which case the odds of success are worse because the host is sicker, fewer healthy cells are present, the collateral damage is more extensive such that too few cell may survive). And when chemo is given a go ahead, it's hard to sustain it to the end.
4) radiation - that's the terrorists' remedy if we go too far and too long down the path of liberalism...
Why don't the Republicans propose a bill to save time and the hassle of changing the law everytime the governor's office changes hands?
The new law would simply read that if there is a Republican in the governor's office and a senator cannot complete his term, then a special election will be held within x number of days. If a Democrat is in the governor's office and a senate vacancy occurs, then the governor shall appoint his replacement.
If has the simplicity of at least calling the Democrats on their hypocrisy.
Fortuna Favet Fortibus
Because the public does not care and the MA media would bury it. If there ever was a 1 party state MA is it and basically, the republicans that are elected have no power. It's common acceptance that if a republican gets elected in MA it was a fluke and will be rectified by the next election.
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
--Aristotle
Mitt Romney, the only MA GOP figure I know of who can command a national platform, should comment on this loudly and often. Draw some media attention to it. Embarass the Globe into reporting on it.
This kind of hyper-partisan thinking doesn't sit that well with all that many people. If Speaker DiMasi's comments can be hung around the necks of other Mass State Dems, as evidence of a state party that's become so arrogant that it thinks more of its own interests than those of its constituents---well, comments like this are the kinds of things that start to sour people on a party, over time.
I remember a story in the Richmond papers I read when I was growing up. The VA House of Delegates, then long controlled by the Democrats, was run by a Speaker (whose name escapes me) who'd become a bit too drunk on power. As the story went, when a Republican legislator did something that irritated him, he was wont to hold up three fingers. That was a sign that, as punishment, he'd kill the next three bills that the opposing side proposed. Just because he could.
I'm still angered by that to this day. That one incident started me on the path to being a Republican.
Perhaps something similar just happened in Massachusetts.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
This kind of hyper-partisan thinking doesn't sit that well with all that many people. If Speaker DiMasi's comments can be hung around the necks of other Mass State Dems, as evidence of a state party that's become so arrogant that it thinks more of its own interests than those of its constituents---well, comments like this are the kinds of things that start to sour people on a party, over time.
Many are "soured" already--but they just leave. Massachusetts is the only state in the Union to have lost people--a declining population--in the last few years.
The geography of the state makes it possible to move just across the border, into southern New Hampshire, and commute to work at your old job along the Boston suburban beltways. Many do.
And from the people and reports I read, these states are becoming more blue in hue, much to the disgust of the natives, as the MA emigrants maintain their liberal voting preference (which must be genetically programmed, I suppose, in light of the arguments advanced in discussions of certain other preferences).
by state through 2007.
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_bo...
I had recently heard on the radio that Illinois was gaining population which, to me, was unbelievable considering its ridiculous one-party rule and taxing system, not to mention "temperate" climate.
We do have a healthy amount of minorities which tends to increase faster than non-minority population. Plus I think economic conditions in Michigan are even worse than here.
"It would make them all out to be liars."
And so it does.
Democrats: Abandoning Allies, One Country at a Time.
Demoncrats in Taxachusshetts,
should surprise no one.
Regards
Massachusetts is a one-party state, and what you see here is just more of the same arrogance you get when you live in a one-party state (or a one-party country like the old USSR).
The Democrats have had a veto-proof majority in the legislature as far back as I can remember. If Governor Romney vetoed anything, it got promptly overridden.
And some districts are so heavily Democratic that Republicans don't even bother to run candidates there: You go into the voting booth and there is only one major party candidate on the ballot.
If the public doesn't mind, nothing will change. And most of them don't mind. Those who do, have already fled to New Hampshire.