Massachusetts Governor Picks Paul Kirk to Fill Kennedy Seat

Former DNC Chairman Paul Kirk will fill Ted Kennedy's vacant U.S. Senate seat until a special election is held in January, the Boston Globe reports:

"Governor Deval Patrick has selected Paul G. Kirk Jr. to serve as interim US senator, a choice that comes with the strong backing of the immediate family of the late Edward M. Kennedy, according to a person with knowledge of the selection process. Patrick has remained mum about his selection, but is scheduled to announce the appointment at a press conference this morning today at the State House. Kirk, 71, is a longtime Kennedy friend and former staff member, a man so close to the family he was chosen as master of ceremonies at Kennedy’s memorial service the night before the funeral last month. An attorney who now lives on Cape Cod, Kirk worked as a special assistant to Senator Kennedy from 1969 to 1977, and is currently the chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He is familiar with many on Kennedy’s former staff and could help smooth the transition. Kirk was registered as a lobbyist a decade ago. He was paid $35,000 to represent the pharmaceutical company Hoechst Marion Roussel on legislation before the US Senate in 1999, according to federal disclosure records. He is currently on the board of directors of the Hartford Insurance Group."

The special election is set for January 19.

"The interim senator could be sworn in within days after the secretary of the US Senate receives a certification of appointment from the governor, according to Beth Provenzano, a spokeswoman for the secretary’s office. The new senator could begin assembling a staff almost immediately, she said."

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #535

ISAAC MIZRAHI: On reinventing oneself during a recession.

TED KENNEDY: The late Senator discusses his childhood in interview for his new memoir, True Compass.

CATHOLIC CHURCH: Maine Catholics raise money to fight marriage equality.

MARK WILLIAMS: Teabagger calls Obama "an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief." Good God.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

Ted Kennedy on Clinton, Byrd, Sex Slaves, and Gays in the Military

There's a passage in Ted Kennedy's new memoir True Compass in which he talks about attending a meeting in the White House regarding gays in the military. Here it is:

“I’ll never forget one of my first meetings with Clinton in the White House. He had walked into a firestorm over the question of whether gays should be allowed to serve in the military. He’d invited all the Democratic members of the Armed Services Committee to this gathering. He went around the room, asking everyone’s opinion about gays in the military. Some senators gave long answers. Some were terse. Some were flowery and revealing, and others held their cards close to their vest. It added up to a very lengthy meeting. I remember it well partly because Vicki and I had tickets to the ballet that night. Baryshnikov was dancing at the Warner Theatre. I’d told Vicki to go ahead and that I’d meet her there when I could. But the meeting went on and on, for more than two hours – extraordinary by White House standards. Finally, my turn to speak came. I made a brief comment in support of allowing gays in the military, in which I mentioned that all the arguments against such a policy had already been made…

...Well, I was wrong about that. Almost all the arguments had been used before. The last senator to speak was Robert Byrd, and he came up with a new one on all of us…..He informed us, with many ornate flourishes, that there had been a terrible problem in ancient Rome with young military boys turned into sex slaves. I don’t remember the exact details, but I think the story involved Tiberius Julius Caesar being captured and abused and used as a sex slave. He escaped and then years later he sought vengeance and killed his captors. Anyway, it was something like that. The room fell silent. The senator continued. Then President Clinton stood up. His response was short and sweet. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Moses went up to the mountain, and he came back with the tablets and there were ten commandments on those tablets. I’ve read those commandments. I know what they say, just like I know you do. And nowhere in those ten commandments will you find anything about homosexuality. Thank y’all for coming.’ He ended the meeting and walked out of the room.”

(via politico, which has many more excerpts)

Read: Ted Kennedy's Letter to the President on Health Care

Here's the text of the letter from Ted Kennedy that Obama mentioned in his speech last night was received following Kennedy's death.

May 12, 2009
Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

Continued, AFTER THE JUMP...

Durbin: Senate Too Busy for 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', and Kennedy's Dead

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said the Senate's too busy right now to bother with gays in the military, according to Politico:

“We have a very heavy, busy agenda and a few months left to do it. So it may not be now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be soon.”

And Ted Kennedy's gone:

"As he was battling brain cancer, Kennedy was absent from the Senate for nearly the entire year until his death. 'Sen. Kennedy is the lead sponsor of the bill; obviously with his illness, those issues , any number of issues that he was the leader of are complicated by his absence,' David Scott, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for gay rights. Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, whose main goal is to end the policy, said that Kennedy’s illnesses 'accounted for some of the delay in the introduction' of the bill, but said they were continuing to talk with other Democratic senators and hoped to have a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate in the fall. About 18 months ago, Kennedy told Sarvis’ group and gay-rights activists that he wanted to be the lead sponsor of a bill to repeal the current law — but first he wanted to get some Republican support. 'He felt very strongly about it being bipartisan,' Sarvis said. Kennedy never ended up introducing a bill this Congress, and now it’ll be up to another Senate Democrat to step up to push the controversial issue."

Patrick: Special Election to Fill Kennedy Seat on January 19

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced January 19 as the date of a special election to fill the late Senator Edward Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate. Patrick said he would continue to push for special legislation that would allow him to appoint an interim successor. A hearing is to be held next week on that issue.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...