The Chicagofication Of America

From the Associated Press:

Massachusetts’ top election official says it could take weeks to certify the results of the upcoming U.S. Senate special election. That delay could let President Barack Obama preserve a key 60th vote for his health care overhaul even if the Republican who has vowed to kill it wins Democrat Edward M. Kennedy’s former seat.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin, citing state law, says city and town clerks must wait at least 10 days for absentee ballots to arrive before they certify the results of the Jan. 19 election. They then have five more days to file the returns with his office.

Galvin bypassed the provision in 2007 so his fellow Democrats could gain a House vote they needed to override a veto of then-Republican President George W. Bush, but the secretary says U.S. Senate rules would preclude a similar rush today….

Ezra Klein in the Washington Post:

Democrats will wrap negotiations and pass the bill before he gets there. It will take some time before Massachusetts certifies Brown’s election, and then the Senate has to schedule his swearing-in. It also looks like those dates can be monkeyed with a bit….

From the Boston Herald article cited by Klein:

Another source told the Herald that Galvin’s office has said the election won’t be certified until Feb. 20….

Rep. Barney Frank:

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve been asked in a long time. That is insane, the suggestion could only come from a demented right wing source,” erupted Representative Barney Frank (D – MA), when asked by The Washington Times about what he thought of assertions that Massachusetts Democrats would stall the certification process should Mr. Brown win. “There isn’t the slightest possibility of it happening — a way of doing it. That is conspiracy theory at its most contemptible.”