ACT II Massachusetts Political Theatre

ACT II of the Massachusetts Political Theatre of Corrupt Politics
Screenplay by the Boston Herald.

SCENE ONE
Enter stage left SEN. ROBERT O'LEARY. (Utters words paraphrased by the Boston Herald "he would “absolutely” sponsor legislation granting the gravely ill senior senator’s wish that Massachusetts not go unrepresented in the Senate in the case of a sudden vacancy."

Reenactment behind a desk.

O'LEARY: (picking up a phone for an interview)
“Given his role in health care, it would be tragic if he wasn’t able to have a vote in that and it took one vote to get it done.”

BOSTON HERALD WRITER suddenly illuminated stage right, faces audience and confides.

O’Leary said he planned to call Senate President Therese Murray on Friday and discuss the proposal with her. “If there’s a need to sponsor, I’d be proud to do it,” O’Leary said.

O'LEARY: (brushing off the suggestion that appointing a successor would be hypocritical)

“I think of this not as a turning back on that, but a small, little adjustment, and I think it’s a wise one considering the stakes involved in Washington around health care,” O’Leary said.

Curtain closes amid audible gasps from audience.

SCENE TWO

A DAY PASSES. (Illustrated by newsstand receiving bundled newspapers. The bundled papers land with a resounding thump.)

ENTER LEFT (always Left) BOSTON GLOBE REPORTER, anxious to remove the smell of hypocrisy and political corruption, pretending not to notice the stench.

REPORTER: (thumbs through his notebook and reads his storyline.)

A personal plea from Senator Edward M. Kennedy to grant the governor power to appoint an interim successor in the Senate . . .

Reporter lifts head to look more sincere and show a straight face and to emphasize the importance of his next words..

drew little public support from Massachusetts lawmakers yesterday, with the state’s Democratic leaders publicly silent on the proposal and most Republicans attacking it as a partisan power grab.

Audience titters. Endless mumbled contradictory speech until the audience becomes restless.

FRUSTRATED AUDIENCE MEMBER SHOUTS: What will you title this stupid play?

HEADLINE WRITER (shouting from the wings): "LEADERS COOL TO KENNEDY'S REQUEST"

AUDIENCE MEMBERS laugh as they exit avidly reading Howie Carr's biting column.

No, no, a thousand times no to this last Kennedy play.

Here’s what this naked political ploy boils down to: Sen. Ted Kennedy is basically asking the Massachusetts Legislature to repeal a law that he personally pushed through that very same Legislature in 2004. He would gut his own law in order to give a very unpopular governor the right to appoint a rubberstamp who might - might - provide the 60th vote in the Senate to ram through this Obama-care monstrosity that is vehemently opposed by an ever-growing majority of the American people.

"No, no, a thousand times no."