Mass. lawmakers clear way for Senate selection

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts House and Senate gave final approval today to a bill that would allow Democratic Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim US senator to take the seat left vacant by the death of the legendary liberal Edward M. Kennedy.

The bill now heads to the desk of the governor, who plans to sign it and could name an appointee as early as Thursday or Friday.

The bill was enacted by the House, 95-59, and by the Senate, 24-16, after only brief speeches by lawmakers. Lawmakers did not pass, however, an emergency preamble to the law, meaning that the governor would have to send a letter to the secretary of state requesting early implementation of a law.

Supporters have said the state needs two senators in Washington when crucial issues are being debated, including President Obama's health care reform plan. Critics, who included the small contingent of Republicans in the Legislature, argued that the move was hypocritical, pointing out that the Legislature rejected the same proposal when the governor was a Republican.

The interim senator appointed by Patrick would serve until voters elect a new senator in a Jan. 19 special election. That person would serve the remaining three years of Kennedy’s term.

UPDATE: Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele blasted the Democratic-controlled legislature -- and President Obama for encouraging its action.

“It is stunning how quick Bay State Democrats were to bow to political pressure from Washington in an effort to provide life support to President Obama’s faltering government-run health care experiment," Steele said in a statement. "Democrats will stop at nothing to force their tax-laden health care plan on Americans. First, the president’s Health and Human Services Department put a gag order on health insurance companies who tell seniors about the consequences it would have on Medicare benefits. Now, Massachusetts Democrats are changing the same laws they put in place just five years ago to stymie a Republican governor so they can have a Democrat in place to rubber-stamp the president’s health care plan. It’s hard to tell which aspect is more astonishing about this blatant political ploy: the brazen arrogance or the sheer hypocrisy.

“This summer, the American people took a look at President Obama’s vision for health care and didn’t like what they saw. With Americans overwhelmingly concerned about increased taxes and decreased Medicare benefits, it is clear that the president’s plan to restructure one-sixth of the American economy is on the ropes. Unable to afford time for the existing democratic process to play out, the president and his allies in Massachusetts have rigged the process and rewritten the rules in their own partisan image.”