Rachel Maddow read a lengthy — and surprising — statement on her show tonight from Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Reacting to Republican Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts’ special election for Ted Kennedy’s senate seat, Frank said it would be wrong for Democrats to try to muscle health care reform legislation through Congress now that they only had 59 Senate votes.
Brown’s win gives Republicans 41 votes in the Senate and robs Democrats of the fragile 60-vote supermajority.
Frank seemed to suggest that without support from at least some Republican senators, health care reform, at least in this iteration, wouldn’t happen.
Here’s Frank’s statement, as presented by Maddow:
I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results. If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the senate, that approach is no longer appropriate. I am hopeful that some Republican senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of health care reform. Because I do not think that the country would be well served by the health care status quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened. Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the senate rule which means that 59 are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of this process.
