RIP Ted Kennedy

[owlmoose]

A sad day. Even though we knew it was coming. He will be sorely missed.

So okay, can we please stop screwing around and get this health care reform thing done already? For Teddy? Please?

Comments

[letters-to-ed.livejournal.com]

I agree. He wrote to the MA legislature last week to request that they allow the Gov. to appoint a replacement for him. The law in MA was that the Gov. can appoint a replacement for a senator if the seat is vacated, but the state legislature changed the law in 2004 because Kerry was running for president and we had a Republican Gov. They were worried that Romney would appoint a Republican to the Senate if Kerry had won. They changed the law to require a special election. Of course, now we have a Democratic Gov. and Kennedy realized that we don't want to lose a Democratic vote in the US Senate with healthcare on the line.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

That's Teddy Kennedy -- a political creature to the end. Do you think the legislature will go for it?

[letters-to-ed.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, no. We have a Democratic majority in the state legislature, but both the Senate president and the House speaker said that they did not think they could back an appointment over an election and pointed to the scandal in IL after Obama was elected as a major reason why. An election is a fair way to find a replacement, but the problem is going to be timing. Can we have an election before healthcare comes to a vote.