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WASHINGTON - Paul Kirk said a poignant goodbye yesterday to the Senate, invoking the memory of the man he briefly replaced, Edward M. Kennedy, as he implored his colleagues to adopt Kennedy’s bipartisan spirit and get to work on fixing the nation’s problems. But the Senate Kirk holds dearly in his memories no longer exists, the Massachusetts Democrat lamented as he completed his last day in office. And the audience for his farewell Senate address provided a brutal punctuation for his remarks: not a single Republican, senator nor staff worker, showed up.

In a previous post on Big Government, I questioned why Senator Paul Kirk has not stepped down as the Senator from Massachusetts, as he should have on January 19th. Today, the attorney for Senator-elect Scott Brown stated in a letter Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick that Brown wanted the results of the January 19 election certified by 11 a.m. Thursday, so they could be forwarded to U.S. Senate officials for immediate action. Governor Patrick’s office also issued this statement via email today: As the Lieutenant Governor stated earlier today, the Governor will convene the Governor’s Council at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning...

Hey Sen. Paul Kirk - screw! You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here, here being the U.S. Senate. It’s been 15 days now since a Republican won the special election in Massachusetts, and Kirk is still squatting in Ted Kennedy’s office. Hey Paul Kirk - how can we miss you if you won’t go away?

The Senate has voted on three pieces of legislation today that required 60 votes–to raise the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion, to reduce the deficit by establishing five-year discretionary spending caps, and Ben Bernanke’s confirmation–all of which interim Senator Paul Kirk (D-MA) has voted on. In addition, there have been other Senate votes since Scott Brown was elected as Massachusetts senator that Kirk cast a vote.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00001

Boston Globe writer Lisa Wangsness can't be blamed too much for assuming that appointed senator Paul Kirk's term ends when the winner of tomorrow's election in Massachusetts, Scott Brown (photo) or Martha Coakley, is seated. Wrong. Mass. law is very specific on that term limit as Fred Barnes has noted in the Weekly Standard. The reason why Wangsness can be forgiven for her error is that it is the same assumption made by most of the rest of the mainstream media. Here is the relevant section of her article about the effect of tomorrow's election on the health care bill:...

Scott Brown on the hustings: Will Ted Kennedy's government health care dream die at the hands of his successor? APPolitics: Democrats seated two senators under shady conditions and rewrote a state election law to keep their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Now they plan to deny Scott Brown entry if he wins Ted Kennedy's seat. The fate of health care reform may very well hinge on the Jan. 19 special election in Massachusetts to fill the seat of Kennedy, for whom passage has been touted as a sort of final tribute to this champion of the nanny state. As Democratic...

It looks like the fix is in on national health-care reform - and it all may unfold on Beacon Hill. At a business forum in Boston Friday, interim Sen. Paul Kirk predicted that Congress would pass a health-care reform bill this month. “We want to get this resolved before President Obama’s State of the Union address in early to mid-February,” Kirk told reporters...

Red Mass Group is reporting that according to the State House News Service, Senator Paul Kirk (D, MA) would continue to serve in the United States Senate in order to insure that he was present to cast the 60th vote for cloture for the Health Care Reform bill in spite of a possible election victory by Republican Scott Brown.

"State Republicans blasted interim U.S. Sen. Paul Kirk yesterday after he broke a legislative promise to stay out of the U.S. Senate election and endorsed Attorney General Martha Coakley over GOP candidate Sen. Scott Brown." [skip paragraph] "Kirk said he didn’t think twice before endorsing Coakley, even though the Legislature reversed Bay State laws and allowed Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint him based on the promise he would stay neutral." [pragraphs excerpted] MA lawmakers included "a resolution to the controversial bill blocking the appointee from 'endorsing any candidate in the special election.' The language is nonbinding because legislators can’t legally...

Tuesday, Dec 8, is the primary election for the US Senate seat, formerly held by Ted Kennedy. There are contested elections for both the Democrat and Republican candidates. The general election will be on January 19. The seat is currently held by Kennedy's former aide, Paul Kirk, who was appointed by the governor after well-publicized (and pretty sleazy) vote by the Legislature to have an interim appointee because of their fear that a vote on the Obama health care package might come up before a special election could be held. We were going to wait until the general election in...

Former DNC Chairman Appointed To Replace Liberal Lion A relic of the U.S. Senate for 47 years, former U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s greatest impact on U.S. policy may have come from beyond the grave. Recent approval by Massachusetts lawmakers have changed the Bay State’s election law as to permit Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim lawmaker until the state’s Jan. 19 special election. The change in the law, which was motivated by partisan interests, repealed a law once supported by Mr. Kennedy that called for the seat to remain vacant until a special election was held. The result? Mr....

The Massachusetts Republican Party has filed an injunction in a Boston court seeking to block former Democratic Party chairman Paul Kirk from becoming the interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Lawmakers this week passed legislation giving Gov. Deval Patrick the power to appoint an interim replacement, but laws approved in Massachusetts usually take 90 days to go into effect. Patrick signed an emergency letter that he says allows the law to become effective immediately. Republicans allege in their court filing that Patrick did not have the constitutional authority to do that. But State Secretary William Galvin said today...

Former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. has taken over for the late Edward Kennedy in the Senate. Vice President Joe Biden swore in Kirk on Friday hours after a Massachusetts judge rejected a Republican request to delay it. The GOP had argued that Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick exceeded his constitutional authority by appointing Kirk before a traditional 90-day legislative waiting period had expired. State lawmakers passed a bill this week giving Patrick the power to choose an interim senator. Kirk gives Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority with the health care fight at a critical point.

According to this post at USA Today’s Faith & Reason blog, that could be the depressing reality following the interim appointment of Paul Kirk to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, until a special election is held next January. Kirk was appointed yesterday by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and was sworn into the Senate today by Vice President Joe Biden.  But as USA Today notes, while Kirk is Catholic (in fact, he’s the grandnephew of Cardinal William O’Connell, who served as Archbishop of Boston from 1907-1944), Kirk also has a...

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied a motion by state Republicans to delay Gov. Deval Patrick’s appointment of an interim senator by 90 days. Judge Thomas Connolly this afternoon cleared the way for Paul G. Kirk Jr. to be sworn in as an interim U.S. senator today at 3:15 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Developing ...

A Suffolk Superior Court judge will decide by noon on a Republican Party appeal for an emergency injunction to block the appointment of Kennedy family confidant Paul G. Kirk Jr. as interim U.S. senator. The state GOP contends Gov. Deval Patrick overstepped his authority by attaching an emergency preamble to the Senate vacancy law signed yesterday so the legislation would be enacted immediately. The usual waiting period for enactment is 90 days.

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied a motion by state Republicans to delay Gov. Deval Patrick’s appointment of an interim senator by 90 days. Judge Thomas Connolly this afternoon cleared the way for Paul G. Kirk Jr. to be sworn in as an interim U.S. senator today at 3:15 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Developing ...

Paul Kirk will be named to fill the vacant Massachusetts Senate seat. Announcement likely tomorrow.