By adamg - Thu, 09/24/2009 - 10:09am.
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Kirk's comments
"This appointment is a profound honor and I accept it with sincere humility."
Will not be candidate in special election. Thanks Vicki and Ted, Jr.
Privileged to be Teddy's friend and confidant.
"It will be my highest honor."
"I will be a voice and a vote for his causes and constituents."
Hope to keep Kennedy's staff. "They work harder than any staff I know of." 800 open cases from constituents.
"We should always continue to give thanks to Ted Kennedy and pray for his peace."
I voted terrible choice
I voted terrible choice because I did not agree with the Gov picking anyone to begin with.
As for possible choices it is not a bad choice. Nobody outside the beltway or State House has a clue who he is but he is buddy buddy with the movers and shakers. He knows the Kennedy staff , a staff that has been running on autopilot for a while before Kennedy died I assume, and will be willing to just be a figurehead for a few months to let them finish their jobs before the new guy shows up. With no name recognition even if he wanted to run he would have no chance so I guess in a way he is a good choice. It will be as it was in July.
Shameless weasels.
Shameless weasels.
How so?
Care to elaborate some? But hold on a sec, need to get something to drink first :-).
No need.
I think it's pretty obvious.
Weasels
I've never known a modest ferret nor have I heard of a remorseful fisher. Otters, of course, play and frolic and shame is entirely absent.
In order to be shameless, one needs some shame to start with.
Best thing Paul Kirk can do
He should hire a great social media/IT staff and setup polling for any semi-important or important issues that he'll face for the next 4 months. If you're engaged enough in politics to give him an opinion, then he'll give it strong weight for his votes.
Since he's not elected by any of us (ever), we have no sway over how he might vote or any reason to believe he'll best represent our interests. So, since he's basically a placeholder waiting for us to appoint our own chosen representative, then our decisions should be directly represented for the next 4 months by him...and the best way to do that is to give each of us an opportunity to tell him directly via online polling of some kind as to how we want him to vote.
Well in his case with his
Well in his case with his close alliance with Kennedy and the fact that I believe the Kennedy staff has been running on autopilot for a while now on 95 percent of the issues in that office (including Health Care, I am sure they are doing what the Senator wanted but were most likely doing all the work for him) you will not see much of a change in how business is done from his office. I find it hard to believe that while fighting his battle with cancer and the numerous other health issues he had that he was in fact making many decisions for a while now anyway.
Because online polling tends
Because online polling tends to be a great reflection of actual public opinion, right?
There's nothing temporary about Kirk's appointment. When he's sworn in tomorrow, he'll be a United States Senator. Period. End of story. Yes, he wasn't elected. But for half our history, senators were selected by state legislatures, not by popular vote. And the annals are replete with examples of appointments to fill vacant seats.
There's absolutely nothing to bind Kirk to any particular set of policies or voting behaviors, nor should there be. He's not a mannequin, as so many here have suggested. The legislative process is incredibly complex, and involves far more than the votes on the floor. Kirk is going to have to make decisions about problems that Kennedy never addressed. I don't want him standing there, thinking to himself, "WWTKD?" I want him standing there, thinking to himself, "What decision advances the interests of the people of the Commonwealth, and of the United States?" And if he disagrees with Kennedy, I hope he votes his conscience.
All of which reflects why Kirk was a horrendous choice, and his selection an act of craven cowardice by our governor. He's never been elected to office. No citizen of Massachusetts has ever pulled the lever next to his name. His record has never been publicly vetted.
That's why Michael Dukakis would have been an ideal choice. He won repeated election to statewide office, and has no unaired linen in his closet. Barring a former elected official, I would have liked to have seen someone with demonstrated abilities that would advance our interests. Atul Gawande's name was batted about - think about a floor debate in which Dr. Gawande engages in a colloquy with a distinguished colleague from the GOP. Alternatively, the appointment could have gone to someone seeking the office. At least then, there would have been built-in accountability.
This is the worst of all potential outcomes. The appointee has never been elected. They're entirely unaccountable. Their record is largely unknown. And what passes for qualification is what's more generally known as 'clubbability' - Paul Kirk gets along with insiders. He's part of the team.
Meh.
It can still be considered temporary
There will be an election in January to choose the next person. Unless he wins it, then his 4 month placement is far more temporary compared to the 6 year term of a normally elected Senator.
Sure, he'll have the title, etc. of any other Senator for 4 months, but considering he'll be the most junior Senator in the room AND serving for only 5.6% of a normal term, it's hardly likely that he'll be power dealing for anything with anyone.
I completely agree with you on not having someone who has even an ounce of elected credibility. Patrick has just been so disappointing on a lot of levels.
Closest to Kennedy?
I was kind of hoping to see Dukakis in there, but I suppose Kirk is the closest thing to having Kennedy still in office - he's probably been pretty involved with the Kennedy staff all along, etc.
Kennedy is Dead
Senate positions are not hereditary property of the deceased. The point is to have a representative of the people, not a representative of Ted Kennedy.
Too much emphasis on personality, not enough on doing the job.
Personality?
I was thinking more about the fact that Kirk will just be finishing out what was Kennedy's term of office, and Kennedy was elected by the people of Massachusetts. We'll have a new representative of the people after the election.
Meanwhile, I assume the governor appointed someone he thought would represent the state basically the same way Kennedy would have, someone who can do the job.
As in ...
CULT of personality. See also: why there ain't much of a bench.
Again, Ted did not own the seat. He was elected to serve as Senator until his term expired, he resigned, or he died. It isn't his seat or his term now - it belongs to Massachusetts.
Republicans seek injunction
Basically, the governor got around a 90-day waiting period by proclaiming an emergency, and the state Republican Party wonders where the floods/earthquakes/volcanic eruptions are. The Herald reports.
Try Blue Hill Erupting
Or, maybe, crippling dust storms from the outback - just photoshop the Zakim in here:
I came for Star Trek jokes
...and I'm terribly disappointed.
Perhaps tomorrow's Herald will have a good KIRK headline.
KIIIIIIIIIIRK!
Set fazed pols on stun!
Dammit, Deval, I'm a hack, not a bricklayer!
His condition for Kirk
Liam Sullivan tweets:
Damnit Jim!
I'm a doctor, not a politician!
What does Khan think?
There's nothing on Khan's Web site yet.
No problem with Sen. Kirk
Chris Devers tweets:
Here's your first one
Both Kirks cheated to win their positions.
They should have had the announcement at the Harvard Club
As the Crimson reports: