The only thing major about the bill is the timing, coming as it did when total gridlock was the order of the day. The contents are peanuts and not worth breaking a sweat over, ...unless your name is Jim Bunning! WTF, Over.?

I don't know if anyone is still keeping up with this, but the question of why was Ted Kennedy seated right after he won the election and Scott Brown had to wait was never answered here.

So....

Ted Kennedy was elected when Congress was not in session. As I recall he was sworn in just before everyone left for the Thanksgiving break since ten days after he was elected no one would be there. He was sworn in, but he was not seated. Only the Senate, which must be in session, can allow a Senator Elect to be seated, and until they are seated they have no powers as a Senator.

However, being sworn in is a ceramonial thing. To be a voting member of the Senate you must be seated, and to be seated you have to have a Cert. of Election from the Sec. of State of the Senator's state. This is not issued lightly, and typicaly takes a few days.

The swearing in for Kennedy meant nothing since Congress was not in session and there was no way he could vote on anything.

When Congress resumed in January Kennedy was seated by the Senate and became a voting member of the Senate. By that time he had received his Certification of Election proving that he had won the election.

Sen. Elect Brown was elected when Congress was in session and could not be seated until he had the Election Cert and the Sec. of State could not issue it until they were sure the election was settled. After the Cert was issued he was sworn in and then he was seated. Federal law is no Cert, no seat.

The difference between Kennedy and Brown in this respect is that in Kennedy's case Congress was in recesss. In Brown's case Congress was in session. It may seem like a small point, but if Brown's opponent has contested the election, like Sen. Franken's opponent did, a person would have been seated who was not entitled to be there and could have cast votes that would have been thrown out later.

He didn't win because he was any good.

He won because the opponent, Coakley or whoever she was, acted like she was "entitled" to the seat, would not deign to engage with the "plebian" voters - the very people she needed to get the seat, and she acted arrogant, snotty, and superior when instead, she should have gotten out there and kissed babies, shook hands and talked to the (aggrieved) voters personally.


Idiot.

There are a LOT of uneducated, anti-intellectual, working class, pickup truck driving folks in Mass. outside of Boston, I have seen, even met in Pittsfield, Wayland and other towns like that, that have no use for that kind of condescending attitude.

She got exactly what she deserved, right in a national moment of disgust at politicians in Washington, ~~~ Brown just seized the moment.

He himself will NEVER be mistaken for some Rhodes scholar.

Plus she was ugly as hell. Looked she got whooped wit da ugly stick!! DID NOT inspire any middle age/old white guys sexual fantasies, like the Palin moron did ... !!

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