Paul G. Kirk Gets Nod to Fill Kennedy’s Senate Seat, an appointment not without some curious entanglements.

The Kennedy clan, in particular, Victoria Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, wants Paul G. Kirk, at one time a Kennedy aide, to fill the empty seat. Governor Deval Patrick agrees. But as soon as Kirk’s name appeared on the short list, not surprisingly, critics pounced.

According to the Boston Herald, Kirk has strong ties to health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. He sits on the board of Hartford Financial Services, the parent company of The Hartford, which sells health insurance to the elderly. He earned a not insubstantial $250,942 in salary and stock options. In addition, he was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.  Given Kennedy’s passion for health care reform, it does seem an odd pick, nonetheless he hasn’t had a chance to say exactly how he feels about the reform measures now circling ominously under the dome of the Capitol.

According to the Herald, Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a non-partisan group that plays a watchdog role, sniffed, “Obviously, this is a conflict of interest and raises serious concerns. It is distressing. There were many qualified people.”

The Republicans jumped into the fray, as well. Massachusetts’s law provides that if a U.S. senator is no longer able to serve, a new election must be held to elect a replacement. That is scheduled to take place in January. But the state legislature in a rush to get another Democrat into the Senate Chamber voted to fill the seat in 90 days, unless there’s an emergency.

The emergency du jour is that precious “yea” vote on health care reform, so Patrick is filing an emergency declaration with the Secretary of State.

Republicans are quick to point out that there is no emergency and that Kirk should wait the 90 days as mandated by law.

It’s unclear whether or not the secretary can accept or reject the emergency declaration. If he does and rules that no emergency exists, it may force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hand in going with the reconciliation option for passage. Also called the “nuclear option,” it requires only 51 votes for passage as opposed to 61 votes on such measures. But reconciliation is to be used ONLY IF the issue at hand is a budget measure. The Baucus bill, which the committee voted not to publish on the Internet (why?), isn’t a budget measure.

If Kirk gets to Washington in time, it may not be necessary.

Stay tuned, but by all means demand that the bill, another one thousand pages long, be published on the Web. You have a right to know what’s in it, and if they voted to keep it out of circulation, they’ve got something in that bill they don’t want you to know about.

Related posts:

1. The Faithful Just “Overcame,” and They’ll Do It Again Every Time