It was just fine when Obama did it in 2008.
Now it's not with Romney?
The media thought it was very smart for the President to do it when he was running for the first time.
It's OK for Dems to do it, but not when Repubs do it.
Talk about hypocrisy.
In Massachusetts, where the succession measure won passage in the House of Representatives last week, the floor debate focused on the complaint of Republicans, and even some Democrats, that the bill was overly partisan. Governors here had the power to fill Senate vacancies until 2004, when the Democratic majority in the legislature changed the law to require a special election. Democrats worried then that if Senator John Kerry were elected president, Gov. Mitt Romney , a Republican, would appoint a Republican.
Any way you slice it, Senator Richard Tisei, the Senate minority leader, said of the bill, its bad precedent and bad politics.
All 5 Republicans and 11 Democrats opposed the measure. Therese Murray, the Senate president, remained publicly noncommittal until just before the vote, despite calls from the Obama administration and from Victoria Reggie Kennedy , Mr. Kennedys widow. Ms. Murray ultimately supported the measure.
The bill does not prohibit the temporary appointee from seeking Mr. Kennedys seat in the special election legislators feared that such a condition would not pass constitutional muster but Mr. Patrick has said he would ask the appointee to promise not to run.
New laws normally cannot take effect in Massachusetts for 90 days, but governors can put them into effect immediately by declaring an emergency. The bill must be put to a final procedural vote in both chambers of the legislature on Wednesday before being sent to Mr. Patrick.
Under current law, Mr. Kennedys seat would remain empty until the special election in January. But shortly before he died of brain cancer last month, Mr. Kennedy asked the state legislature to change the law and allow Mr. Patrick to name a temporary successor until the special election could be held.
Senator Robert A. OLeary, a Democrat who represents Mr. Kennedys home town of Hyannis, appealed to his colleagues to approve the measure out of respect for the late senator.
I for one think that is something we need to honor, he said.
Democrats, hyprocrisy at its best