Blue Mass Group

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Kirk confirms he will not run in the special election

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Interim Senator-to-be Paul Kirk just announced at the presser that he’s not running to keep the Senate seat that he will likely be sworn into tomorrow.  So at least there’s that.

UPDATE: He also said he is resigning from the Hartford board.

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  1. Paul Kirk may not be a flashy choice but as a former aide to Senator Kennedy he can step in with the late senator’s staff without a major learning curve. Anyone else would have been ready to leave the temporary position in 5 months before they knew what to do.

    • While there might be one or two lifers who still remember him I doubt it will give him any advantage in terms of familiarity.

    • Could the process have played out in a way that didn’t make Patrick look like he was weakly rubber-stamping the Kennedy family’s choice?  The optics of this are really pathetic.  

  2. From Obama’s statement:

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    p>”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…

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    p>How will Kirk vote/recommend about Cape Wind???

    • But I did meet Congressman Capuano this past Saturday, and asked him flat out something almost exactly like:

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      p>stomv: Regardless of how much Senator Kennedy may or may not have worked against Cape Wind over the past eight years, it was clear that Senator Kennedy was opposed to Cape Wind.  What’s your position?

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      p>Capuano: It’s a good project.  If we’ve got to eliminate a few turbines to make it happen, fine.  We’ve got to get these kinds of things done.

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      p>stomv: Words are important, and so are votes.  But will you work to make it happen?

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      p>Capuano: You bet I will.

      <

      p>

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      p>Color me a Capuano supporter until AG Coakley changes my mind.  A few minutes later, I overheard Congressman Capuano talking about the importance of strengthening building codes nationally, because we’ve got to start building quality buildings if we’re going to reduce our consumption of oil, gas, and electricity.  He wasn’t saying it to me or for me, but man did he tug on a heart string with that one.

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      p>Just FYI.

  3. And, according to reports, Dukakis would have been too “outspoken” about health care while Kirk will help “moderate” the proposal.  Not to mention that the magic 60th vote is already being discounted down in Washington.
      So I guess the big emergency is that there weren’t enough pharmaceutical company lobbyists there to water down the bill.
      So in the name of incrementally increasing the chances of some kind of health bill passing, the legislature and the governor have substantially reduced the chances that the bill will provide any meaningful reform.

        • Here’s the quote:

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          p>

          Some Kennedy insiders who support Kirk’s appointment, though, have argued that Dukakis is too outspoken on health care issues, espousing liberal positions that could complicate Democrats’ attempts in Washington to moderate their approach on the legislation.

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          p>I don’t see any analysis of Kirk’s position on health care there — this reference is talking about Dukakis’s position. I suppose if you reflexively believe that former lobbyist = evil horned beast, though, then the connection is there.

          • Before I believed that Michael Dukakis, who was the consumate cautious (to a fault) politician during his entire time as governor and also during his presidential campaign was some kind of loose cannon that had to be kept away from the Senate–yeah, I would believe that Paul Kirk has horns. If he doesn’t have horns, he has a lot of baggage.  I also don’t believe that his appointment is simultaneously no big deal and an emergency.

    • …can we search for the cloud in this silver lining…?

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      p>Seriously…  How many different ways can we think of this negatively? Just exactly how much cynicism are we going to pile on here?  

      • Or at least start counting 1) There’s the cynical switch back and forth of the election laws which has already been discussed 2) the cynical way Dukakis’s name was floated as a candidate 3) the cynical way Kirk’s name was kept out of the conversation, so noone would bring up his connections to the healthcare industry until he was already appointed. Just as important noone has any idea where he stands on any other issue.  Where is he on cap and trade? on Afghanistan? On anything?  4) If reading about someone on the eve of being appointed to the US Senate not taking calls from reporters doesn’t make you cynical, what does?

      • from the scene.

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        p>If there is one thing this appointment suggests to me, it is that the public option is history.

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        p>But then, we already knew that, hopes for change to the contrary.

        • I’m sitting in a heaping pile of cynicism right now, but I’m not thinking Kirk would undermine TK’s life’s work.

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          p>Kirk needs nor wants for anything. Why would he sell his friend out?

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          p>Unless you have data, I’m putting my bet on friendship and loyalty.

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          p>Sue me. I’m a hopemonger.

        • If there is one thing this appointment suggests to me, it is that the public option is history.

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          p>You lost me here… The Baucus bill already lacks the public option and has some 500 amendments.  Presumably, some of the early votes for soon-to-be Senator Kirk will be on these amendments and then on the bill altogether.    To date, I’ve seen no other bills from the Senate. The public option, according to Pelosi, is guaranteed to be in the House version of the bill. If the White House stands firm for the public option during reconciliation then Kirk will be pressured to vote with dems to override a filibuster. I don’t see where his appointment affects this situation one way of the other.

          <

          p>I have, however, seen my share of anxious lefties peering desperately around corners looking for defeat in every new development…  In fact, most lefty blogs are more excercised over the imagined defeat, that hasn’t happened yet, than they are excited about the real possibility of reform.  If this were a movie, Apollo Creed would be pounding the snot outta Rocky Balboa in the third round, about now.   Of course, if the movie were written by any one of the despairing left, Mickey’d have thrown in the towel well before now…

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          p>

          But then, we already knew that, hopes for change to the contrary.

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          p>I dunno… This time, four years ago, we were talking about a wholesale privatization of Social Security.  Imagine that?  Americans voted, in 2004, for a tough talking cowboy who promised protection for gay arab terrists.  Upon being elected said cowpoke turned around and tried to privatize social security…. Bait and switch.

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          p>Come 2008, Barack Obama campaigns on health care reform and gets elected and, surprise, we’re talking about health care reform. Who’d a thunk it?

          <

          p>

  4. Good to see that Michael Stanley Dukakis got shafted out of the temporary senate seat.

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    p>We are still paying for his failure to file for 90% reimbursement for the clean up of Boston Harbor under the Federal Clean Water Act.

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    p>As a result 31 cities and towns were forced by the sludge judge Garrity to clean up a national and international water resource – Boston Harbor [ actually not a clean up but a future of non poluting the harbor].

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    p>”Stanley’s” failure also brought about that hackdom known as the MWRA. Great job they do…Every summer half of the beaches from Boston to Nantasket are still closed because of polution and high bacteria count.

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    p>So, Michael Stanley Dukakis you lose. Will break out a bottle of my best champagne on this one.

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    p>Get back in the tank you old fool !  

  5. Is any participant here close enough to Mike Dukakis to know that he wanted the appointment? Have any of us worked closely enough with Mike Dukakis in the past few years to know that he is ready for the brutal war-zone that Washington DC is today?

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    p>I have enormous respect and admiration for Mike Dukakis. The mere fact that Paul Kirk is a friend of the Kennedy’s and a Democratic Party insider does not, in my view, mean that Mike Dukakis or Massachusetts residents were shafted in some sort of back-room tawdry political deal.

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    p>It might mean that all parties involved — including Mr. Dukakis — came to the conclusion that Paul Kirk was a better fit.

    <

    p>If somebody with more inside knowledge wants to comment, I’ll certainly welcome it. I’m a little weary of continued speculation from essentially uninformed outsiders, though (and I include myself in that category).

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