Then and Now

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a politician's mind might change with the political climate. In 2004 (only 5 years ago!), Mitt Romney (a republican) was the governor of Massachusetts. If you know anything about the politics of that state, you know that having a conservative leader is somewhat of a miracle in and of itself. Naturally, the state legislature was, and is, controlled by Democrats. At the time, John Kerry was was running for president. The legislature recognized that, if he was elected, the Republican governor would have the power to appoint his successor. So, they declared the practice of allowing the governor to appoint a senator "undemocratic" and pushed through legislation requiring a special election to determine the new senator.

Well, we all know what happened.

Skip ahead 5 years. It's now 2009 and Senator Kennedy has just passed away. This is an important political issue in a climate where Democrats have declared that they will force through their power-grabbing agenda with or without bi-partisan support. Let's face it, there isn't much chance of Massachusetts electing a conservative. Only 13% of registered voters are Republicans. But, that's not good enough for the Democrats. They don't want to depend on the people to elect the correct candidate any more. You see, the current governor is a Democrat. The very same people who had called allowing the governor to appoint a successor "undemocratic" are now pushing hard for the new senator to simply be appointed before the special election can take place.

Ironically, Senator Kennedy was among the big supporters of the special election in 2004. But more recently, perhaps sensing his own mortality (brain cancer will do that to you), the late senator wrote a letter to state legislators asking them to change the policy so that the governor had the power to appoint.

Isn't it interesting how little faith these people have in their own constituents? Perhaps they all, like Bill Mayer (see yesterday's post) think Americans are stupid.

So...anyone want to move to Massachusetts?