Scott Brown to be seated today

posted at 7:24 am on February 4, 2010 by Cassy Fiano
[ Politicians ]    printer-friendly

Scott Brown had initially scheduled his certification for February 11th. He’s now asked that it be moved up, and he’ll be seated in the Senate today.

U.S. Senator-elect Scott Brown, a Republican who won the seat held by late Edward M. Kennedy, will be certified today as winner of the Jan. 19 election so he can be sworn in later in the day.

Brown had been scheduled to be sworn in next week. His lawyer sent a letter to Massachusetts officials saying he wanted the election results to be certified “without delay” so he could enter the Senate today. When Brown takes his seat, he will end Senate Democrats’ 60-seat supermajority that has allowed them to overcome Republican stalling tactics on legislation.

“While Senator-elect Brown had tentatively planned to be sworn into office on Feb. 11, he has been advised that there are a number of votes scheduled prior to that date,” wrote his attorney, Daniel Winslow. “For that reason, he wants certification to occur immediately.”

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s spokesman, Kyle Sullivan, said in a statement that officials will certify the election results this morning.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Reid would be willing to comply with Brown’s wishes to move up his swearing-in ceremony.

“Once we have his certificate, there is no reason why he can’t be sworn in,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid.

And so, the Democrat super-majority will end as Brown will become the 41st vote in the Senate. This is causing Democrats to completely panic, for inexplicable reasons. All they need to pass health care is one Republican to lean their way (Olympia Snowe, anyone?) and they have their filibuster-proof vote again. Apparently, the Democrats in the Senate are so worthless that they can only get anything accomplished if they have a 60-vote majority. And even with that, they still have had a hard time getting legislation passed. It’s pretty pathetic.

Once he gets seated, we can begin to see what kind of fiscal conservative he really is. Right now, he’s the savior of the party, and unfortunately, when someone is put up on a pedestal like that they’re bound to fall eventually. Consider that he’s keeping some of Ted Kennedy’s staff on. Maybe it’ll be illegal immigration, maybe it’ll be something related to abortion, but I get the feeling that Scott Brown is bound to disappoint some people.

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!

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