It's up to Massachusetts

Date: 1/11/2010

Many maybe most Massachusetts voters would naturally want to vote for Martha Coakley to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate, but there is a very good reaon why this should not happen. Electing Martha Coakley will give Harry Reid the 60th vote he needs to continue to run the most corrupt Senate leadership we've seen in a long time.

Remember the Senate's disgraceful actions during the health care debate last month:

Nebraska Senator Nelson was given a permanent exemption from Medicare costs for his state in exchange for his vote. The other 49 states will pay for Nebraska's Medicare costs in perpetuity.

Louisiana Senator Landreau was offered $100 million for her vote. She defended her actions, explaining that "I didn't sell my vote for $100 million; it was actually more like $300 million!"

Connecticut Senator Dodd got millions for Hartford's insurers.

The bill was so larded up with pork and earmarks that New York Senator Schumer proudly stated "Every state got something!"

The Senate leadership withheld the details of the bill even from its own members until the debate was well under way.

Reid inserted a subsection in the bill that actually makes it illegal to modify parts of the bill by future Congresses forever!

Reid scheduled these votes in the dead of night, on weekends when the press was asleep, and even on Christmas Eve. You'd think this was the Massachusetts State Legislature, not the U.S. Senate.

No matter where you stand on health care reform, these actions are wrong. They are unethical. They are undemocratic. They should be un-American. They should be unthinkable. But they happened, and all 60 Senate Democrats voted their approval, three separate times. Therefore Senate leadership must be recalled and new leadership elected who will stand up and clean their house. Only the Senators themselves can do it, and Massachusetts is the only state with a chance to start the process in this senatorial election on Jan. 19.

If the Senate's actions don't bother you, you can vote for business as usual by electing another Democrat to Congress, which will give Reid the 60th vote, and solidify him and his cronies in power. Or we the voters can stand up to this corrupt Congress by electing Scott Brown on Jan. 19 and maybe begin the process of bringing the Senate back to honor and integrity.

R. Patrick Henry Jr.

East Longmeadow