In the days before the election, I kept trying to make the point that much of the dynamic driving the MA Senate election was local and not national. Today, all the pundits are saying Coakley's loss will have a national impact on the Democrats and Obama, and they're right.

But it still went down because of local shit.

Here's a prime example.

Back when Kerry was running against Bush in 2004, Republican Mitt Romney was governor of MA. The rule in MA was that the governor has the power to replace a departing Senator, and the buzz on Beacon Hill was that, if Kerry should beat Bush, Mitt would appoint a Republican to take Kerry's seat.

So the Democrats in MA changed the rule in the legislature and stripped the governor of the power to make Senate replacements.

I don't remember what my opinion of this was at the time - 2004 was a pretty busy year - but I'm pretty sure I was right up there with the amen chorus saying "Strip Mitt of this power!" because of course Kerry was going to win, and we can't have a GOPer taking his seat.

Oops.

So they changed the rule, which became moot when Kerry lost and returned to the Senate, and then Democrat Deval Patrick won the governor's race, and then Teddy died, and they didn't change the rule again to allow for governors to appoint Senate replacements.

Which is why that fucking election happened yesterday. Because we changed the rule and didn't change it back. Or, more accurately, because we changed the goddam rule in the first place. Patrick could have appointed someone and this whole disaster could have been avoided.

But it happened, thanks to local shit.

Pardon me while I go punch myself in the face.