O democrata Paul Kirk, um dos melhores amigos de Ted Kennedy, ocupará a vaga aberta no Senado pela morte de Ted. Tem 71 anos e foi nomeado pelo governador do Massachussets, Deval Pactrick, com John Kerry (que passa a ser senior senator do Massachussets) ao lado:
«Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has chosen one of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s closest friends and advisers, Paul G. Kirk, Jr., to temporarily fill the Senate seat left vacant by his death.
Kirk, a former Democratic Party chairman, paid tribute to Kennedy Thursday at a State House press conference announcing his appointment, by saying that he would be a “voice and vote” for the former senator’s causes and constituents.
“During our years together I was personally privileged to have had Senator Kennedy’s friendship, his trust and his confidence. He often said that representing the people of Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Senate of the United States was the highest honor that he could possibly imagine,” Kirk said. “It’s certainly nothing I ever imagined, but it would be my highest honor as well.”
In announcing his choice for the interim Senate position, Patrick said he was entrusting to Kirk what Kennedy called the “cause of my life” – health care reform.
“The issues before the Congress and the nation are simply too important to Massachusetts for us to be one voice short,” Patrick, a Democrat, said.
Kirk will serve in office only until voters go to the polls on Jan. 19 to elect a permanent replacement for Kennedy in a special election, but until then his appointment restores a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority for Democrats in the Senate – a victory that President Obama acknowledged on Thursday.
“I am pleased that Massachusetts will have its full representation in the United States Senate in the coming months, as important issues such as health care, financial reform and energy will be debated,” Obama said in a statement. “Paul Kirk is a distinguished leader, whose long collaboration with Senator Kennedy makes him an excellent, interim choice to carry on his work until the voters make their choice in January.”
Patrick selected Kirk after a lobbying effort by members of the Kennedy family, including the senator’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and his sons, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Edward M. Kennedy Jr.
Kirk, 71, currently serves as chairman of the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He was also as a special assistant to the Sen. Kennedy from 1969 to 1977 and worked on his 1980 presidential campaign.
He and Kennedy remained close in the ensuing years, and Kirk was said to be among a close-knit circle of friends who was allowed to visit Kennedy in the period before his death on August 25.
Kirk led a tribute to the late senator at the Kennedy Library last month delivering an emotional speech in which he called his former boss “the most thoughtful, genuinely considerate human being I have ever known.”
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has chosen one of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s closest friends and advisers, Paul G. Kirk, Jr., to temporarily fill the Senate seat left vacant by his death.
Kirk, a former Democratic Party chairman, paid tribute to Kennedy Thursday at a State House press conference announcing his appointment, by saying that he would be a “voice and vote” for the former senator’s causes and constituents.
“During our years together I was personally privileged to have had Senator Kennedy’s friendship, his trust and his confidence. He often said that representing the people of Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Senate of the United States was the highest honor that he could possibly imagine,” Kirk said. “It’s certainly nothing I ever imagined, but it would be my highest honor as well.”
In announcing his choice for the interim Senate position, Patrick said he was entrusting to Kirk what Kennedy called the “cause of my life” – health care reform.
“The issues before the Congress and the nation are simply too important to Massachusetts for us to be one voice short,” Patrick, a Democrat, said.
Kirk will serve in office only until voters go to the polls on Jan. 19 to elect a permanent replacement for Kennedy in a special election, but until then his appointment restores a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority for Democrats in the Senate – a victory that President Obama acknowledged on Thursday.
“I am pleased that Massachusetts will have its full representation in the United States Senate in the coming months, as important issues such as health care, financial reform and energy will be debated,” Obama said in a statement. “Paul Kirk is a distinguished leader, whose long collaboration with Senator Kennedy makes him an excellent, interim choice to carry on his work until the voters make their choice in January.”
Patrick selected Kirk after a lobbying effort by members of the Kennedy family, including the senator’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and his sons, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Edward M. Kennedy Jr.
Kirk, 71, currently serves as chairman of the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He was also as a special assistant to the Sen. Kennedy from 1969 to 1977 and worked on his 1980 presidential campaign.
He and Kennedy remained close in the ensuing years, and Kirk was said to be among a close-knit circle of friends who was allowed to visit Kennedy in the period before his death on August 25.
Kirk led a tribute to the late senator at the Kennedy Library last month delivering an emotional speech in which he called his former boss “the most thoughtful, genuinely considerate human being I have ever known.”»
in POLITICO.com