Any chance he’ll suggest to Governor 'Baby Barack' Deval Patrick that a driver’s competency test also be a stipulation for any replacement?

Uncle Teddy always looking out for the little guy, ask Mary Jo!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/20/ailing-sen-kennedy-urges-seat-filled-quickly/

Ailing Sen. Kennedy Urges Seat Be Filled Quickly
Cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a poignant letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress.


BOSTON - A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a poignant letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress.
The note has been sent to Gov. Deval Patrick and the state's Senate president and House speaker while Congress considers an overhaul of the nation's health care system, a life cause of Kennedy's.
The letter acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election within five months to fill any vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats -- with a wide majority in both chambers -- were concerned because then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney had the power to directly fill any vacancy created as Democratic Sen. John Kerry ran for president.
But Kennedy writes "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."
While Democrats hold a potentially filibuster-proof margin in Congress, the outcome of a health care reform bill could hinge on a single vote and some moderate Democrats have been wavering.
The letter was sent Tuesday, but Kennedy aides insist there is no material change in his condition since he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008. Kennedy was initially treated with surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
The 77-year-old has been convalescing at his homes in Washington and in Hyannis Port, as well as a rental property in Florida, but his absence from last week's funeral on Cape Cod for his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, prompted a flurry of questions about his own health.
An aide said the letter was one of several written by Kennedy in early July. Another was to Pope Benedict XVI and was hand-delivered by President Barack Obama during a visit to the Vatican.
In his succession letter, Kennedy suggests the governor ensure the fairness of any appointment to replace him by seeking an "explicit personal commitment" his appointee will not seek the position on a permanent basis.
Despite speculation that Kennedy's wife, Vicki, is interested in the seat, family aides have said she is not interested in replacing her husband either temporarily or permanently. One of Kennedy's nephews, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, has also been described as interested, along with a number of the state's remaining congressional members and local lawmakers.
"For almost 47 years, I have had the privilege of representing the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate, Kennedy wrote in his letter. He added that serving in the Senate "has been -- and still is -- the greatest honor of my public life.
Amid similar speculation about a Senate vacancy last fall, when Kerry was under consideration for secretary of state, Senate President Therese Murray was adamant that the law not be changed. After recent inquiries from The Associated Press, aides to both Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo said they are unlikely to back any change.
Aides to both leaders say an election was more democratic than a gubernatorial appointment, and they cited the legal and political problems that plagued former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and New York Gov. David Paterson when they filled vacancies for President Barack Obama and former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, respectively.
Murray is also a strong backer of Martha Coakley, the first female attorney general in Massachusetts and someone who has quietly laid the groundwork for a special-election campaign.
In a joint statement to The Boston Globe, which first reported news of Kennedy's letter, both Murray and DeLeo were noncommittal.
"We have great respect for the senator and what he continues to do for our commonwealth and our nation. It is our hope that he will continue to be a voice for the people of Massachusetts as long as he is able," they said.
Patrick said in a statement: "It's typical of Ted Kennedy to be thinking ahead and about the people of Massachusetts, when the rest of us are thinking about him."
Patrick was the top civil rights official in the Clinton administration, and he has argued about the importance of the public vote. But last fall he noted more than 40 other states fill congressional vacancies by gubernatorial appointment. He also cited the state's deteriorating fiscal condition as one argument to skip a special election and empower the governor to fill vacancies.
"These are always sensitive calls, but there are sensitive calls and decisions that governors have to make," he said in December.
Under the current law, the governor must call an election within 145 to 160 days of receiving a resignation letter. A primary would be held five or six weeks beforehand, reducing the time candidates would have to raise money for a campaign.
Besides Joseph Kennedy and Coakley, Democrats who might try to succeed Kennedy include Reps. Stephen Lynch, Michael Capuano, Edward Markey, James McGovern and William Delahunt.
Former Rep. Martin Meehan, now chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, has $4.8 million in his federal campaign account, the largest sum of any potential candidate. That would give him the advantage in any special election sprint.
On the Republican side, potential candidates include Cape Cod businessman Jeff Beatty, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and Chris Egan, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Cooperation and Development.

“What Mr. Kennedy doesn't volunteer is that he orchestrated the 2004 succession law revision that now requires a special election, and for similarly partisan reasons. John Kerry, the other Senator from the state, was running for President in 2004, and Mr. Kennedy wanted the law changed so the Republican Governor at the time, Mitt Romney, could not name Mr. Kerry's replacement. "Prodded by a personal appeal from Senator Edward M. Kennedy," reported the Boston Globe in 2004, "Democratic legislative leaders have agreed to take up a stalled bill creating a special election process to replace U.S. Senator John F. Kerry if he wins the presidency." Now that the state has a Democratic Governor, Mr. Kennedy wants to revert to gubernatorial appointments.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204884404574362541012511408.html

The age of conservatism has come to a close.
Get real, and get onboard. This is my personal invitation to you.
We are magnanimous.
moveon.org

It may take the neo-cons awhile to figure out that they're the new liberals, but they'll catch on.

Can't he just hurry up and join John and Bobby.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Just another dead Kennedy

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I'm sick of .sig files

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Guess that why libs are the minority is all 50 states now and are 10-20 percentage points down overall in the US.

__________________
MB-less

I heard it differently.

Maybe in your dreams, but certainly not in real life.

By referring to"libs", are you referring to Democrats? Last time I checked, all 3 branches of government were overwhelmingly Democrats. Not all Democrats are liberals, but most liberals are Democrats.

__________________
Question Authority before it Questions you.

Could I get some of what you are smoking?

I think this guy is having some dillusions of granduer after attending one of dick perrys tea parties-You know, Texas seceeds from the USA and the counties then become states of the new republic of Texas

"The age of conservatism has come to a close.
Get real, and get onboard. This is my personal invitation to you.
We are magnanimous.
moveon.org "


http://www.gallup.com/poll/122333/Political-Ideology-Conservative-Label-Prevails-South.aspx#2

"Political Ideology: "Conservative" Label Prevails in the South Conservatives outnumber liberals in nearly every state, but not in D.C.by Lydia Saad"

Maybe in limbaugh-hannety-coulter land.

Only if you can't read!

http://www.gallup.com/poll/122333/Political-Ideology-Conservative-Label-Prevails-South.aspx#2

Yawn, After seeing obviously manipulated polls of gwb since1992 I would certainly want to know how when and where the surveys were done and I would probably find the answers highly subjective.

As for conservatives, 40 percent is not a winning number," he said.
Democrats had a different take on the numbers.
"What is striking is that even though 40 percent of the country considers itself conservative, over 60 percent of Americans give President Obama a positive job approval rating," said Israel S. Klein, a former Democratic congressional communications strategist now with the Podesta Group. "So either every single moderate/liberal American approves of his work to date, or the president is appealing to conservatives, moderates and liberals broadly, which is much more likely.

So did Conservatives just decide to stay home and have some more coolaid and play with their unicorns last nov4th?