Massachusetts politicians lose influence

From the Boston Globe: “Bay State delegation copes with a new reality – Clout diminished in GOP Congress”:

The 109th Congress was sworn in yesterday, and amid the pomp, circumstance, and flashbulbs throughout the Capitol, the state's all-Democratic congressional delegation found itself further out of power than at any time in the past half-century.

There’s some karmic justice at work here. Ted Kennedy finagled the biggest sinkhole of pork in history: the $15 billion Big Dig. That leaky testimony to the folly of pork-laden federal projects, which is still siphoning highway funds from Western Massachusetts, stands as reason enough to take power away from Bay State politicians.