Riot On Broad Street

Sent to me via e-mail from commenter and Northeast Blogger dinner attendee Andrew is this troubling turn of events from the MA state house:

Scott Brown swearing-in would be stalled to pass health-care reform

It looks like the fix is in on national health-care reform - and it all may unfold on Beacon Hill.

At a business forum in Boston today, interim Sen. Paul Kirk predicted that Congress would pass a health-care reform bill this month.

“We want to get this resolved before President Obama’s State of the Union address in early to mid-February,” Kirk told reporters at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

The longtime aide and confidant of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was
handpicked by Gov. Deval Patrick after a controversial legal change to hold Kennedy’s seat, vowed to vote for the bill even if Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, who opposes the health-care reform legislation, prevails in a Jan. 19 special election.

Okay, so this doesn't sound too bad, right? Read on:

The U.S. Senate ultimately will schedule the swearing-in of Kirk’s successor, but not until the state certifies the election.

Today, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who is overseeing the election but did not respond to a call seeking comment, said certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor’s Council would take a while.

Read between the lines here. What they're saying, essentially, is that if Brown wins, the Secretary will stall the certification of the election until after the health care vote. Mind you, this is exactly the opposite of what they did when Nikki Tsongas won the special election for Marty Meehan's seat:

In contrast, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) was sworn in at the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 18, 2007, just two days after winning a special election to replace Martin Meehan. In that case, Tsongas made it to Capitol Hill in time to override a presidential veto of the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Got that? When it was President Bush (R) threatening a program, the state moved pretty damned quick to get the new congressional delegate seated - two days. Now that it's President 0bama (D), they are claiming it will take months. Nice try, guys.

Brown has some pretty strong words in the article should this come to pass. If the two unthinkables happen - Brown wins, and Galvin stalls the certification of the election - I hope that Senator Brown will stand fast on his convictions and vote against the party of cheap chicanery and petty partisan politics. Then again, that's pretty much how Barack 0bama won the state senate seat that positioned him to win the US Senator's seat...

Remember this moment. If the Democrats manage to pass health care despite Scott Brown's victory in MA - and his promise to vote against the health care reform bill - they can no longer be allowed to use "the will of the people" for any reason. They will have been ignoring the voice of MA voters - the bluest of the blue states - who have chosen Scott Brown over Martha Coakley (who, remember, has promised to vote against a health care reform bill that doesn't contain a public option; keep that in mind if Coakley wins...).

The only bright side to this whole fiasco is that it would mean that Scott Brown (GO SCOTT GO!) defeated Martha Coakley for the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy...

That is all.