PrintSeptember 3, 2009
Senatorial folly
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.~Article I, Section 3 of the United States Constitution ~
Through the chance of history and some political maneuvering, the fate of ObamaCare could fall upon the decision of a single man who has never been elected to national office. If the circumstances weren't so serious it would be a comedy of errors that leads us to where we are today.
On Monday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced that on January 19th the special election to fill the seat left vacant by Senator Kennedy's death would be held. Governor Patrick said he continues to "press for a change in the state law to allow him to appoint an interim replacement." In his final days Senator Kennedy also urged the state to adopt legislation to allow Governor Patrick to appoint an interim (Democrat) in hopes it would give the Senate the filibuster-proof majority needed to ram a universal healthcare bill down the throats of an increasingly skeptical American public.
The grand irony of this donnybrook is that in 2004 Senator Kennedy urged the state to adopt the current law to prevent then Governor Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican to serve out Senator John Kerry's term if he had been elected President. This progressive "I can have my cake and eat it too" mantra is just another turgid display of arrogance in their fluid understanding of law and the motions they take to change the rules to meet their expectations. But this comedy has an earlier chapter.
In 1913 progressives led the charge that changed the way America has selected Senators ever since. "We The People" are represented in the US House of Representatives based on population. Senators are the states' representatives and were appointed by their state legislatures (usually nominated by the governor). The Senate was typically the more conservative legislative house, which did not suit the populist needs of the progressive movement. So summoning an emergency -- political infighting in state legislatures leaves states unrepresented in the Senate -- and passed the Seventeenth Amendment.
The Seventeenth Amendment created direct elections for Senators which resulted in the destruction of the founders' intent for the Senate and created a second "at-large" house of representatives that emasculated state sovereignty and made it susceptible to progressive populism. Ironically, (again) if the progressives who enacted the Seventeenth Amendment had left well enough alone we wouldn't even be having this discussion and Governor Patrick would nominate the Democrat of his choice which would immediately be approved by their compliant Democrat legislature. It will be done under the notion of an "emergency" that the state is not fully represented in a major national debate, despite the fact that Kennedy has been (understandably) absent most of the year and John Kerry has one of the most abysmal Senatorial attendance records in history.
But there is something more revealing in this. Why can't Massachusetts wait until the special election? Congress could easily put off the bill to "get it right for the American people" (and give Harry Reid his super-majority). The problem is that the progressives have reached too far too soon. Suddenly in a hot bed liberal state like Massachusetts there is suddenly no guarantee that a Democrat will be elected to a seat that has been held by a Kennedy for 54 of the last 56 years and was last held by a Republican in 1953 (Henry Cabot Lodge). The eggshell holding the progressive agenda together is beginning to show some cracks and they know it.
America's growing weariness of Obama's fast and furious politics has put the brakes on the populist movement that swept the Democrats in office, and now that tide seems to be working against them. So in an effort to leave nothing to chance the progressives are "damning the torpedoes" and setting the course of government control over one sixth of the American economy through the power potentially wielded by one man -- Governor Deval Patrick of the Great State of Massachusetts, and personal friend of President Barak Obama.
