I got a feeling what I am about to say isn't going to be very popular ....
Unless there are strong objections from Martha Coakley, I think Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin should certify the election this very second and Harry Reid should seat him as fast as Scott Brown can get to DC.
Now I know, I know if the situation was reversed the Republicans would never do the same thing for us (I mean see Al Franken as Exhibit A). But IMHO it is not as much about doing the "right" thing, but more about controlling the debate.
The Republicans are masters at a few things. One of them is turning the debate to meaningless topics that have no bearing on the future of our nation, much less the daily lives of our fellow Americans. This is going to be a perfect example. Even if we don't try to push HCR through before Brown is seated. Even if there isn't a single vote in the Senate, all we'll hear for the next several weeks from the Republicans is how "unfair" it is that Brown has to wait for the election to be certified.
I just don't think we should let that happen.
Far too often we allow the Republicans to control the terms, and therefore the direction of a debate. We want to talk about 35-40 million Americans not having access to health care, they want to talk about "death panels." We want to talk about the success of the stimulus plan and they want to talk about a computer and/or data entry glitch where zip codes that don't exist got entered at Recovery.org. We want to talk about how to protect our nation from attack, they want to talk about the fact Obama doesn't say "terrorist" enough.
What pisses me off to no end is WE ALLOW THEM TO DO THIS! We let them control and frame the debate in terms that work to their advantage. The only thing that pisses me off more is we have ample proof this is what they're going to do, and we're not ready for it.
And maybe worse of all the Republicans know we're going to allow it to happen. You can rest assured that every elected Republican has their talking points about not seating Brown ready to roll for the next few weeks.
Why let them use these talking points to distract from talking about HCR and maybe a jobs bill? We all know, baring something totally bizarre happening he'll be seated. So seat the guy and take this talking point away from them. We control the White House and the Senate and House of Representatives. We're in charge. We ought to act like it.
I often reference the strategies and tactics outlined in the Art of War by Sun Tzu, cause they work from a military, business, and even political point of view. Simply put you never let the enemy dictate the field of battle. Well you also don't let the opposing party dictate the terms of the debate either.
Yet we do it ALL the time, and then we wonder why we're not getting anywhere.