In a previous post on Big Government, I questioned why Senator Paul Kirk has not stepped down as the Senator from Massachusetts, as he should have on January 19th. Today, the attorney for Senator-elect Scott Brown stated in a letter Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick that Brown wanted the results of the January 19 election certified by 11 a.m. Thursday, so they could be forwarded to U.S. Senate officials for immediate action.

Governor Patrick’s office also issued this statement via email today:

As the Lieutenant Governor stated earlier today, the Governor will convene the Governor’s Council at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning and certify the results. This will ensure that Senator-elect Brown’s request to receive the final paperwork by 11:00 a.m. tomorrow is fulfilled.

This stunning move by Brown and fulfillment by the governor’s office forces Kirk to resign his seat–presenting problems for the Democrats as they move forward with the current Senate schedule, which includes the controversial M. Patricia Smith nomination.

This reversal comes days after several inquiries with the Brown campaign, in addition to Senator Mitch McConnell’s office, as to why interim Senator Paul Kirk is still voting on legislation–providing the 60th vote in some cases–and preserving the Democrat supermajority in Congress.

I explained the Senate rules and customary application, including:

Many states limit the term of office for interim senators to the date set for the special election. In these cases, the term of the interim senator expires immediately upon the election of the popularly chosen successor, who serves the balance of the Senate term, whether it is a few weeks or several years.

Moreover, when an interim appointment is made late in the term, it is often customary for the interim senator to resign his or her seat immediately after the election, and for the governor to appoint the special election winner to serve the balance of the term. It is also customary, for the purposes of determining seniority, for the newly elected replacement senator to be sworn in as soon as possible.

Ignoring Senate tradition in order to prolong the power of a 60-vote supermajority, the Democrats continued to abuse their power and allowed Kirk to vote, passing controversial legislation, including raising the debt ceiling and the vote on cloture for M. Patricia Smith, to be Solicitor for the Department of Labor. The GOP has held up Smith’s vote due to contradictions in her Senate testimony; Kirk provided the 60th vote yet again.

GOP sources in the Senate told me that they didn’t press the timeline of Brown’s swearing due to recent problems with seating Senator Roland Burris and Senator Al Franken. However, the issues surrounding Burris were self-inflicted by the Democrats, while the Franken controversy continued for months through a recount until resolved by the courts. (Lest we forget Franken trailed Coleman by 725 votes on election night.) The GOP falsely equates the Franken election and his requirement of an election certificate to the Brown election, which was a clean win.

To summarize the facts, the Democrat Illinois Secretary of State would not sign the nominee paperwork for Burris, the Franken election ended up in court, and MN state law forbids the secretary of state to certify an election that is legally challenged.

Additionally, on the House side, NY-23’s Bill Owens was sworn in almost immediately following his election even though the vote was not certified until December 15, 2009. In fact, even though Owens was sworn in on November 6, election officials were still counting the votes on November 20.

The Democrats continue to strongarm the Republicans and manipulate the rules to their benefit, while the GOP on the Hill sits back out of fear of what the MSM or the Democrat machine might say about them. The GOP should realize that Americans are craving leadership–and saying “no” and “enough” is leadership. By their inaction, they sit quietly on the sideline allowing the Senate rules to be ignored and disrespect the customs, traditions, and spirit of the Senate–as does the parliamentarian in this case. It will be interesting to see what happens with the next vacancies, as there are sure to be plenty more.

Scott Brown only proves that a little bit of moxie goes a long way in DC.