The Boston Globe reported late Wednesday evening that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) has privately asked Governor Deval Patrick, state Senate President Therese Murray, and state House Speaker Robert DeLeo to change the Massachusetts succession law so that the state will not be without a vote in the Senate if his seat becomes vacant.

According to the Globe, which obtained a letter sent by Kennedy to the states top Democratic leaders, the ailing senator wrote that he still backs the states existing succession law, which gives voters the authority to fill a Senate vacancy, but asked that Patrick be granted the power to temporarily appoint someone to the seat before a new senator is elected in a special election.

I strongly support that law and the principle that the people should elect their senator, Kennedy wrote. I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.

The Globe reported that the letter was drafted in early July but not sent until this week. Discussions about pursuing a change in the law began months ago, and involved Kennedy advisers and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

A brain tumor has kept Kennedy away from the Capitol for much of the past 15 months, and his absence from recent public events has generated concern about his declining health.

A change in the law to allow Patrick a temporary appointment would give Senate Democrats an additional vote that they may need to pass President Barack Obamas health care reform. Without the change, under the succession law Massachusetts lawmakers passed in 2004, the seat could remain vacant for as long as five months until a special election .

That succession law had a political design of its own: the Democratic-controlled legislature wanted to deny Republican Mitt Romney, then governor, the opportunity to appoint a Republican to Kerrys Senate seat in the event he won the presidency.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0809/Kennedy_asks_for_change_in_succession_law.html

 

We already know that.  Politics and sausage making are dirty business..  REF:  "redistricting" after the 2000 Census in Texas" .. 

If you expect your opponent to be "pure"... you'll have to purify yourself first.

Jim..

politics as usual.

He's a Kennedy by God and if he want's it...he should get it because he's a Kennedy! He got away with manslaughter and being the womanizing drunk mass of human shit he is and has been for decades! Those leftist idiots kept electing him and the Paper Hero Kerry and Elmer Fudd Frank so why not just let a dog take his seat... at least then there would be more character in Washington from the state of Mass. than there's been for decades!...

The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism.....Aneurin Bevan

Kennedy is still ruling the roost, even on his death bed.

Keep your chin up, he doesn't have long and then you can yell Hallelujah

***********************************

I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and
all the less important ones just never go away.
And the real pains in the ass are permanent.

Keep your chin up, he doesn't have long and then you can yell Hallelujah

   Thank God the subsequent generation of Kennedys were too spoiled and incompetent to get elected to national office.  Once old Teddy shuffles off, we'll be pretty much done with them.

gus.

 

Wishful thinking on your part. But I doubt it. It's in their blood.

***********************************

I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and
all the less important ones just never go away.
And the real pains in the ass are permanent.

Wishful thinking on your part. But I doubt it. It's in their blood.

LOL...Yeah, they've made such an impact so far.  They're all how old now?  tick tick tick...

gus.

 

Kennedy is still ruling the roost, even on his death bed.

Exactly how is making a REQUEST "ruling the roost", evelyn?  Your rampant paranoia is showing again.