National Review has an amusing tale today of unintended political consequences. In 2004, Massachusetts Democrats changed their state’s law regarding US Senate vacancies. If John Kerry were elected president, they didn’t want Republican Governor Mitt Romney to appoint his replacement, so they rewrote the law to leave the seat vacant until a special election could be held.
Now, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who is battling cancer, is concerned that he might die at an inopportune time, denying his party a key vote in the upcoming health care battle. Now that the Massachusetts governor is a Democrat again, he is calling for the law to be changed back to allow a gubernatorial appointment once again. I have no doubt that the Massachusetts legislature will comply shamelessly.
If Kennedy were really concerned about a vacancy, he could have stepped aside months ago and a special election would have been held already. But Ted Kennedy doesn’t want to give up his seat until he is in the ground. It’s Ted Kennedy first, and Democrats second. The integrity of the system is a distant third.
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