Massachusetts to Have Special Election to Decide Which Kennedy to Appoint

Massachusetts is mired in a debate on how to fill the late Senator Kennedy's place in the U.S. Senate.

By the current law, the state is to have a special election to replace a senator who leaves his seat before his term expires. However, the good senator lobbied to have the law changed to allow the governor to appoint someone to the seat.

Ironically, Kennedy was one of the loudest voices to change the law in 2004 to prevent the governor from appointing someone to a vacated senate seat when a Republican governor might have a chance to replace Senator Kerry, should he have won the presidency.

Who gets that seat - and how he or she or perhaps they get it - became the week's unanswerable riddle. If you're a Massachusetts Democrat, it's pretty tough to vote against Ted Kennedy's deathbed wish, even when it's asking you to rewrite state law to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an interim senator for five months, even when you voted five years ago to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney from appointing an interim for the same period.

Well, here is a compromise position to consider, have a special election to decide which Kennedy should get the Kennedy seat in congress.

The ballot could look like this:

• There is Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the second wife of the late Ted, whose primary qualification appears to be the ability to say I do.
  
• There is Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, some nature of relation, who proved to stupid and ill-informed to get Hillary's seat in New York (she would be prefect for MA, if that is the case)
• Don't forget ol' Joe Kennedy, one time U.S. Rep, without whom we are all suffering.
• And, the genius of Patrick "Patches" Kennedy, whose addictions and rehab visits make a perfect replacement for ol' Ted.
• Or, Judy Flanagan Kennedy, a city councilor in Lynn, MA who is not related to Ted in any way, but is running under the slogan JFK for mayor.
  

This simple solution would solve the problem of changing the law to benefit one family by both allowing the special election and by ensuring some nature of Kennedy keeps the family seat. It is a lose-lose solution for the state of Kennedy-chusetts.