Political debate brews over Massachusetts OpenDocument plan

I suppose they must mean that by having to support this format which isn't theirs to control puts the saved documents beyond their ability to ensure backwards compatibility over.

No I don't believe this but it is an idea of the sort of extended bogus argument you can expect. The next step from that of course is that if MS says this is the case to not deal with it is a threat to national security (huh?)....

It seems that the Commonwealth wants to name everything in its own peculiar way, making it rather hard for an outsider like me to understand the intricacies.

I think I understand what Governor stands for (Prime Minister?), but Secretary of the Commonwealth? ("Secretary of State" is misleading as it suggests foreign policy, like in State Department).

It seems like a mix of Home Secretary (Minister of Domestic Affairs) and some other things. Minister of Public Records? Anyone care to comment?

And precisely what kind of power/leverage do these guys have in this matter? I see that there are six "Constitutional Officers" with the Secretary being no. three.

Welcome to the joys of US state-level politics. I cannot answer all your questions (perhaps a Mass. resident can) but I can help make things a little more confusing.

The governor is directly elected, like our president, rather than the leader of the majority party, like a European prime minister. Consequently, he need not be a member of the majority party in the state legislature, and in this case he is not. Historically, Massachusetts is a very liberal, pro-Democratic state, home of the Kennedy dynasty and a "sure thing" for Democratic presidential candidates. Nonetheless, they frequently elect Republican governors, and Milt Romney is one.

The secretary of state is typically also directly elected- the job has some limited responsibilities but is often seen as a 'stepping stone' to higher office (for example, the governor's). In this case, the citizens of Massachusetts elected a secretary of state from one party (Democratic) a governor from another (Republican) so it is not surprising that they disagree over policy. I do not know the limits of the secretary's authority in the Commonwealth of Mass

My chief question (and perhaps someone from Mass. can answer this) is the motivation of the secretary of state- is he a) expecting large campaign donations from MS, b) genuinely persuaded, however mistakenly, that the open format policy is a bad one, or c) simply engaging in reflexive partisan politics.

Martin --

Welcome to federalism, American style.

I'm never sure exactly what a state Secretary of State is these days, but they seem to have responsibility for Driver's Licenses and voting, and I don't know what else.

You must remember that, in the beginning, the United States was a union of sovereign states with a central government too weak to actually govern. The 1789 constitution strengthened the central government considerably, as did the aftermath of the Civil War.