Acting Governor?

In today's edition of The Lowell Sun the "Column" referred to then Governor Paul Celluci as Acting Governor.  I have gotten used to that sort of thing from The Boston Globe, but I expect better of papers in the hinterland.

Is there someone on the staff of The Sun who thought former Governor Bill Weld was coming back?

If Bill Weld had had to have an emergency appendectomy and had temporarily transferred the Governor's powers to the Lieutenant Governor, then the Lieutenant Governor would be "acting".  The expectation would be that the Governor would be back.  In the case of Bill Weld, and later Paul Celluci himself, the man was gone in the pursuit of other interests—in both cases an Ambassadorship.

What if Bill Weld had died?♠  Would we have been calling Paul Celluci "Acting Governor" in expectation that Bill Weld might rise from the dead and resume being Governor?

What if after Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman Jesse Helms refused to hold hearings on Bill Weld's nomination to be US Ambassador to Mexico Mr Weld had come back to Beacon Hill and said he wanted his old job back, since Paul Celluci was only "Acting".  Would the citizenry, and the punditry, have put up with that?  I doubt it.  Thus, the term acting does not apply.

This is just silly and it is the kind of silliness I expect from people down in Boston.  I expect better of people out away from "the hub of the universe".  For one thing, I expect a little more courtesy toward someone sitting in the corner office being rented from the General Court.

And, I have read the Commonwealth's Constitution and I never figured that the Governor was anything but the Governor.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  And thank God he did not.