Kennedy Confidant Named to Take Over Senate Seat
Reuters
BOSTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Paul Kirk, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and a close friend of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, was named on Thursday as a temporary replacement for the liberal champion in the U.S. Senate.
Kirk, backed for the post by Kennedy's wife Victoria and his two sons, will fill the seat until voters in Massachusetts elect a permanent replacement in January. His appointment will restore a 60-seat Senate majority for the Democrats that could help President Barack Obama's push to overhaul healthcare.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy with his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and Paul G. Kirk Jr., left, in 2008.
Lawmakers in heavily Democratic Massachusetts passed legislation in the past few days allowing Governor Deval Patrick to name an interim senator, something Kennedy pushed for before he died in August from cancer so his party would not lose a key vote during the healthcare debate.
"The issues before the Congress and the nation are too important for us to be one voice short," Patrick told reporters as he appointed Kirk after signing the legislation.
Kennedy was a towering figure in the U.S. Senate for nearly half a century and made healthcare reform his signature issue as he carried on his storied family's political legacy.
Without an interim replacement, his seat would have lain vacant until a Jan. 19 special election of a permanent senator to serve through 2012.
Kirk, a 71-year-old attorney who was Kennedy's special assistant in the 1970s and remains close to his family, was seen as a natural candidate to take over the Senate seat.
An eloquent speaker who was master of ceremonies at a memorial service for Kennedy last month, Kirk has indepth knowledge of Washington politics and backs Obama's plans to overhaul the ailing $2.5 trillion healthcare system.
The move to change state law to let an interim senator be named angered Republicans and some Democrats. They saw it as a hypocritical reversal of a law state Democrats passed in 2004 to prevent a Republican governor from naming a replacement for Democratic Senator John Kerry if he had won that year's preside
www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/09/24/business/business-kennedy-seat.html