It looks like there will indeed be an interim replacement for the late Edward Kennedy in the U.S. Senate.

The state Senate in Massachusetts has approved a bill giving Gov. Deval Patrick — a Democrat, as was Kennedy — the power to name a successor who would hold the seat through a special election on Jan. 19.

The Massachusetts House approved the measure last week. Both chambers now need to vote on it one more time before it goes to Patrick's desk. The governor has said he will sign the legislation. It's understood that the person who accepts the job won't run in that special election.

In 2004, when Republican Mitt Romney was the governor, the state legislature passed a law blocking him from making such an appointment in the event that Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, won the White House. Many Massachusetts legislators have flip-flopped on the issue since then.

As our Political Junkie pal Ken Rudin reports, one leading candidate for the interim slot is former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

At the age of 75, by the way, Dukakis would not be the oldest "freshman" senator in U.S. history. Ken says that honor still belongs to 87-year-old Rebecca Felton from Georgia, who was briefil a senator in 1922.

Kennedy, 77, died on Aug. 25 after a year-long battle with brain cancer.