Curmudgeon's Corner
cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
You Can Have It Both Ways...
You can have it both ways IF you are a Democrat and you live in Massachusetts.
I'm sure you recall that when there was some thought that a Republican governor might get to appoint a replacement for Sen. Kerry if he were to be elected president, the Democrats pushed through an amendment that said that could only be done through a special election thus assuring that then-governor Romney wouldn't be able to put another Republican in the U.S. Senate.
Of course, that sort of got in the way upon the death of Sen. Kennedy given that 60 votes in the senate is a magical number called a "super majority" when one looks at a government-run health care plan vote.
So, Sen. Kennedy wrote a letter, a week or so before his death, extolling the virtues of a governor being able to appoint a replacement to preclude the people of the Commonwealth being subjected to having only one senator for several months. Behind that cover, the Democrats mounted the effort to change the rules back to the way they were before Romney sat in the office, and voila...a new interim senator has been appointed.
The person named is 71 year-old Paul G. Kirk who is an attorney, a lobbyist and the one-time chair of the Democrat National Committee. He has promised that he'll only be a place-holder and that he'll not enter his name in the special election to be held in late-January, 2010.
This gives Harry Reid the ability to get sixty votes (the super majority) for a health care bill and thus avoid having to use the "reconciliation" manuever that would've been problematic for him. He'll have to get every one of the Democrat votes and the two Independent votes, as well. He is also working very hard on Olympia Snow, the RINO from Maine so that he can claim a "bipartisan victory".
So, you can have it both ways, so long as you're a Democrat and you don't have any problem with charades that can be seen through from miles away. I will be surprised if the mainstream press does anything more than mention this on the evening news.
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