Jay Fitzgerald ponders the crowning of a guy most of us have never heard of as our Temporary Senator:

With an unerring instinct for political disaster, Deval Patrick looks like he's going with Paul Kirk -- and Patrick will look like a first-rate incompetent weenie as a result. He'll come across as having caved to the mildest criticism of Dukakis and the slightest hint a Dukakis appointment might be used as a campaign issue. He'll come across as having buckled to the wishes of the out-of-state Kennedy family and D.C. insiders. He should have cut his losses and just gone with the Duke. ...

Common Cause tweets the state Senate gave preliminary approval to the measure to let Deval Patrick pick an interim U.S. senator, 24-16. It now goes to a Senate committee for a final lookover.

Gov. Deval Patrick announces; says he will try to get legislation to let him pick an interim senator (hearing on Sept. 9).

Primaries are Dec. 8, according to this schedule.

The Globe reports on a letter from Ted Kennedy to Deval Patrick, House Speaker Bob DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray, asking they work to change state law to let Patrick appoint somebody quickly to his seat after he dies, to let Massachusetts have a full voice in the current health-care debate.

The legislature changed the way a Senate vacancy is filled in 2004, to prevent Mitt Romney from appointing a senator in the event John Kerry was elected president.

Jay Fitzgerald finds Kennedy's request profoundly sad:

... To know of anyone slowly dying of cancer is profoundly sad. It's so difficult for everyone concerned to say good-bye. The Kennedy family is handling this with a lot of dignity. ...

BN Cordeiro finds Kennedy's request appalling:

... I wish Senator Kennedy a long & healthy life after a victorious battle with cancer. I also am appalled, but not surprised, by the political games being employed by the Democrats in order to hold onto a dynastic seat. Be it by family or by political party it appears that the fix is in to hold fast to a seat about which they feel entitled. This is not about Senatorial representation for Massachusetts but rather Democratic control of the US Senate. This is about ensuring the next US Senator is acceptable to the liberal Democrat ruling elite. ...

Kennedy's full letter.

There's no point to feigning interest in the opinions of T riders until after a special commission takes its "top-to-bottom" measure of MBTA finances, the governor says. This statement just in from Transportation Secretary James Aloisi:

One of the first steps of the new regime at the MBTA is to table proposed fare increases originally scheduled for Jan. 1, to give a new outside panel enough time for a "top to bottom" review of T finances, spokesman Colin Durrant said this morning.

However, the T is going ahead with public meetings on possible fare hikes and service cuts. The first is scheduled for this Monday, 4-7 p.m. in the Gardner Auditorium in the State House. T officials have portrayed the "workshops" as a way for the public to help decide between either a 19.4% average fare hike or massive service cuts to help make up anticipated deficits over the next three years.

In the past, Secretary of Transportation James Aloisi - who helped maneuver T General Manager Dan Grabauskas out of his job last night - has said he would chose fare increases over service cuts because T services, once cut, tend not to come back.

Gov. Patrick is expected to name a three-member commission to look into T operations either today or Monday.

The Dorchester Reporter reports that Gov. Patrick says that if the legislature overrides his veto of some funding for the Franklin Park and Stoneham zoos, he might have to cut money from a program that subsidizes health insurance for legal immigrants.

Blames state budget cuts, Globe reports.

Jay wonders if Deval Patrick might have better poll numbers if only we knew him better.

Then again, we got to know his predecessor pretty well, and that didn't exactly help his Massachusetts poll numbers.