Mass. Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei, left, is followed by Sen. Scott Brown as the Republicans leave the Senate Chambers at the Statehouse in Boston after the Massachusetts Senate approved a bill allowing the governor to name an interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. The legislature gave final approval Wednesday.
Mass. Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei, left, is followed by Sen. Scott Brown as the Republicans leave the Senate Chambers at the Statehouse in Boston after the Massachusetts Senate approved a bill allowing the governor to name an interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. The legislature gave final approval Wednesday.
The Massachusetts legislature has passed legislation to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The legislation, which Patrick requested, means the governor could name a replacement to Kennedy as soon as Thursday.
As we wrote earlier, the late senator's sons, Edward Kennedy Jr. and Patrick Kennedy have expressed their preference for Kennedy's old staffer, Boston lawyer Paul Kirk.
But others, including the Boston Globe, have suggested that former Gov. Mike Dukakis, the Democrats' 1988 presidential nominee, would be the best choice, especially since he has a strong knowledge of the health-care issue. Whoever Patrick decides to send to the Senate will land there amid the debate on overhauling health care.
The legislation is an example of everything old being new again. Massachusetts law before 2004 gave the governor exactly the power the new legislation provides.
But fearing that the then-Republican governor, Mitt Romney, would be choosing a replacement for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry in the event the senator won the presidency, the Democrat-controlled legislature changed the law to require a special election.
But that was then.
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