The Progressive Change Campaign Committee raised $100,000 to support Elizabeth Warren’s bid for congress, to give Republican Senator Scott Brown a run for his money.

PCCC is a liberal grass-roots group who got more that 53,000 people to join its online project to draft Warren, who has not yet made an official announcement that she will run for office.

$75,000 of the raised money will go directly to Warren’s campaign, while the remainder will pay for online ads in Massachusetts.

The Harvard Law professor will decide after Labor Day whether or not she will try to win back the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s seat for Democrats.

Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte beat up on Republican Paul Hodes in a vacant Senate seat given up by retiring New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg.

Ayotte, a young and conservative Republican endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, took it to hodes and rode a national roller coaster of Republican victories.

Hodes had tried to sell himself as a “fiscal conservative” during the race, but he was clearly out-matched.

“New Hampshire has sent a clear message to Washington, and that is: No more business as usual. No more spending money we don’t have on programs that don’t work. And no more backroom deals,” Ayotte said during her victory speech.

With two-thirds of precincts reporting, Ayotte lead 61 percent to 36 with two independent candidates also trailing.

“Kelly has proven that she has the courage and determination to shake up Washington,” said Republican State Committee Chairman John H. Sununu. “In the Senate, Kelly will be part of a new generation of Republican leaders who will fight to return fiscal sanity to our government.”

It my not reflect the national outlook, but it seems like every Democrat on every ballot in Massachusetts won Tuesday night.

Governor Deval Patrick won a second term against Republican Charlie Baker and independent Tim Cahill and Green Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein.

Incumbent Democrats John Oliver, Richard Neal, Jim McGovern, Ed Markey, Niki Tsongas, and Stephen Lynch easily won reelection.

Mike Capuano was unopposed.

Thirty-year veteran Barney Frank held off Sean Bielat.

Incumbent John Tierney defeated the Tea Party-endorsed Republican Bill Hudak.

In the closest race, Norfolk District Attorney Bill Keating defeated former Wareham Police Sergeant Jeff Perry, who never shook off a scandal from the 90s involving an officer under his command molesting a teenage girl. Keating won the seat vacated by the retiring William Delahunt of Quincy.

“Tonight’s clean sweep underscores that despite massive outside spending and prevailing political winds, Massachusetts Democrats win when they take nothing for granted, fight hard, and stand proud of the people and values they represent,” said US Senator John Kerry, who is not up for election for another four years. “Deval Patrick, Tim Murray, Barney Frank, Bill Keating, and many, many others reminded Massachusetts tonight that some things really are worth fighting for, and that’s a big big lesson not just for Democrats but for everyone, everywhere.”

Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jennifer Nassour released the following statement Tuesday evening:

“Tonight the Massachusetts Republican Party made significant gains in the Legislature. Changing the color of Massachusetts to purple won’t happen overnight. The important fact is that entrenched incumbents, who often fly beneath the radar, had to stand up to public scrutiny this election cycle. I’m proud of our GOP candidates who worked hard and focused on important issues like creating jobs, lowering taxes, and reducing government spending.”

In other races, Attorney General Martha Coakley and Secretary of State Bill Galvin, both Democrats, handily won reelection.

In the state treasurer race vacated by Tim Cahill, who ran as an independent for governor, Steve Grossman defeated Karen Polito, who was caught in a late scandal involving Red Sox license plates.

In two other senate races, Democrat Richard Blumenthal defeated former wrestling executive Linda McMahon in Connecticut, and Democrat Christopher Coons defeated Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

But Republicans are projected to take over the House as many other national races are tallied.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd is expected to announce his retirement, the Washington Post reported.

Dodd, a Democrat, has come under fire in recent years, most notably for allegations about two loans he received. Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

He was expected to face stern opposition from Linda McMahon, wife of WWE mogul Vince McMahon, this fall, but it looks like Dodd will not run.

State Senator Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) issued a statement tonight supporting President Barack Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

"I support President Obama’s decision to add more troops in Afghanistan. Winning the war on terror and defeating the Taliban is essential in preventing another 9/11-style attack. I am disappointed but not surprised to see how far out of step my Democratic opponents are with a President from their own party on a major issue of national security and foreign policy. Their opposition to President Obama shows just how far out of the mainstream they are and my fear is their opposition will jeopardize the safety of our troops and allow Afghanistan to again become a base to export terror around the region and the world."

Brown is the Republican hopeful for the US Senate seat vacated after the death of Edward Kennedy.

Former Lt. Governor Kerry Healey, who was thought to be considering a Senate run early on, announced she was endorsing fellow Republican Scott Brown.

“Scott Brown knows that you don’t create jobs by making government bigger, letting spending get out of control and increasing taxes,” said Healey, in a statement. “Scott has been a leader in the never-ending battle to restrain state spending, and that is exactly the kind of leadership we need in Washington right now.”

Healey also said that she worked closely with Brown when she was lieutenant governor under Mitt Romney: “The Massachusetts taxpayer has a great friend in Scott Brown and he was a solid ally in our efforts to balance the budget and create new jobs.”

“I am proud to have the support of Kerry Healey, who is a strong fiscal conservative with a record of opposing taxes and higher spending,” said Brown, responding, in a statement.

Brown (Wrentham) is in his third term as a State Senator.

So it’s not exactly who we expected.

Canton selectman Bob Burr, 43, is the first Republican to stand up and say he's running for Senate.

The day after former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey decided not to run for the US Senate seat vacated with death of Ted Kennedy, we thought State Senator Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) might announce his candidacy, but it was an obscure town selectman who became the first Republican to officially announce he is running for Senate.

Bob Burr, a three-term selectman from Canton, a town 20 minutes south of Boston, announced his candidacy Monday.

Burr, 43, gets press coverage for being first. He makes up in balls what he lacks in statewide or national experience.

“This election represents a great opportunity for the people of Massachusetts to shape the future for a stronger America,” Burr said in a statement. “By electing a Republican to the United States Senate, the people of Massachusetts can ensure that there will be debate on the issues affecting healthcare, taxes, and deficit spending. If the Senate were to remain at a 60 member, filibuster proof, Democratic majority, I fear that opportunity will be lost in the coming months. And that loss could put America on a trajectory that is not necessarily in concert with desires of the American people.”

Burr is a 1989 graduate of Boston College with a degree in business.

Curt Schilling, a former Red Sox hurler, and founder of 38 Studios, an MMO-development company, today expressed interest in filling Ted Kennedy’s empty United States Senate seat?

Crazy, right? But yes, the story of a former major-league pitcher turned video game boss, turned possible Senator, is indeed unfolding before our very eyes.

Schilling had this to say regarding his uncertain fate:

“While my family is obviously the priority, and 38 Studios is a priority, I do have some interest in the possibility [of running]. That being said, to get to there from where I am today, many many things would have to align themselves for that to truly happen. I am not going to comment further on the matter since at this point it would be speculation on top of speculation.”

Well, the Terminator is governor of California, so zanier things have happened, but the political sphere is too stressful Curt, stay with video games!!

via GamePolitics

Politics is a messy business. One wrong move is all it takes to end a career: a blunder in a speech, backing an unpopular law, associating with the wrong people. Relatively minor problems can destroy a bright future in minutes. It is a testament to the lasting legacy of recently deceased Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy that he was able to persevere and affect so much change in his unusually long career despite so many setbacks and scandals. He is survived by his wife Victoria, sister Jean Kennedy Smith, the only living child of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, and his three children.

Edward Moore Kennedy was born in St. Margaret’s Hospital in Dorchester on February 22, 1932, preceded by eight brothers and sisters, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, both from well-connected Irish-American families. As a result of several moves, to New York, Florida, and London, Kennedy attended many schools and was a mediocre student at most of them. He spent his high school years at Milton Academy where he maintained average grades and excelled on the football team.

Tragedy marked his life early on, and by age 16 he had suffered the deaths of three of his siblings: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in World War II, Rosemary Kennedy to a failed lobotomy, and Kathleen Agnes Kennedy in a plane crash.

After completing high school, Kennedy enrolled in Harvard University, where his grades once again took a back seat to his football career. He had a friend take his Spanish exam in hopes of maintaining high enough grades to continue his sports career. When caught, both were expelled, leading to a stint in the United States Army for Kennedy in 1951.

Thanks to his father’s political connections, he was never assigned to combat in the ongoing Korean War and instead served as an honor guard in Paris after completing basic training and Military Police school.

Shortly after he was discharged as a private first class in March 1953, Kennedy returned to Harvard to finish his studies and, after his sophomore year academic probation ended, his football career as a second string end, working his way up to starting end by senior year. Despite not receiving a varsity letter he was contacted by a Green Bay Packers recruiter with an offer to play professionally, which he turned down to go to law school and “go into another contact sport: politics.”

While attending the University of Virginia School of Law between 1956 and 1959, Kennedy studied abroad at the Hague Academy of International Law and managed his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 1958 Senate re-election campaign, helping to achieve a record-setting landslide victory. He also received charges of reckless driving and operating without a license, the first of his vehicle-related incidents.

He graduated from law school and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1959, after marrying Virginia Joan Bennett on November 29, 1958, at St. Joseph’s Church in Bronxville, New York. They had three children together: Kara Anne, Edward Jr., and Patrick. Due to his womanizing and her growing alcoholism, the marriage was soon troubled.

In 1960, Ted’s brother John ran for president, and Ted managed his campaign in the Western States, helping John win the first battleground state of Wisconsin in the Democratic primary. After the general election, Ted wanted to remain out West and not run for office immediately, and he was not eligible for John’s vacated Massachusetts Senate seat until his 30th birthday on February 22. Instead, John asked Governor Foster Furcolo to name Benjamin A. Smith II to the seat, which would hold it so Ted could later run in a special election.

Rehashing his brother’s campaign slogan from 10 years prior, Ted Kennedy went against Massachusetts Attorney General Edward J. McCormack Jr., who said that Ted would be “one Kennedy too many.” He faced his first public scandal when McCormack revealed his Harvard expulsion publically, but Kennedy rose above this, aided by McCormack’s overbearing nature in a debate, in which he said “the office of United States Senator should be merited, not inherited,” and called Kennedy’s campaign a joke. Kennedy went on to crush McCormack in the primary by a two-to-one margin and Republican candidate George Cabot Lodge II in the November special election.

Ted Kennedy spent his early Senate career avoiding the spotlight and trying to avoid making enemies of the older, more established Senators, and instead focused on his committee work. Not long after his career started, while presiding over the Senate, he was informed of his brother John’s assassination on November 22, 1963. Seven months later, Ted suffered severe injuries in a plane crash in Southampton, Mass., including a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding, and a back injury that persisted throughout the remainder of his life. The pilot and one of his aides died in the crash.

For a review of some of Ted Kennedy’s major political accomplishments, read Dan Kennedy’s piece for Blast on the Lion’s legacy.

In 1968, after securing the California primary against President Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, the family member Ted was closest with, was assassinated, devastating the young Senator. He delivered a eulogy at his speech, which included one of his most famous quotes:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: ‘Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.’

Seen by many as the natural successor to his brother, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and others encouraged Kennedy to make himself available for a draft to take the nomination, though he declined as he felt unprepared and did not want to be seen as a filler now that his brothers were gone.

With his brothers dead, Ted took on the role of paternal figure to their 13 children, and rumors persist that he coordinated the marriage of Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

Despite the trauma and hardships he had recently suffered, Kennedy threw himself into his work and became the youngest ever Senate Majority Whip in 1969, a move that seemed to further position him for the presidency, which he still felt conflicted about.

A few months later, Kennedy was involved in what is now known as the “Chappaquiddick incident.” After leaving a party for the Boiler Room Girls, a group of women who had helped in Robert’s presidential campaign, Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off the Dike Bridge and into the Poucha Pond inlet. He quickly swam to safety, but his passenger, Boiler Room Girl Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy did not report the incident to police until her body was found the next day.

Kennedy received a suspended sentence after a guilty plea to leaving the scene of an accident a week later, and gave a nationally-broadcasted speech in which he avoided admitting guilt to driving under the influence of alcohol or improper relations with the 28-year old Kopechne, but expressed his decision to leave the scene as “indefensible.” Despite the scandal, Kennedy received a positive response to stay in office from the Massachusetts electorate.

Doubts have clouded the reports of the events of that night, and to this day many question Kennedy’s story, which a secret inquest by Judge James A. Boyle found to be inconsistent. A grand jury on Martha’s Vineyard also conducted an inquest which was inconclusive. Kennedy condemned Boyle’s inquest, which was made public after the local inquest’s report, as “not justified.”

Kennedy overcame the allegations and easily won re-election the year following the incident, 1970, but lost his position as Majority Whip to Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which he confided to Byrd was a blessing as it allowed him to focus on his committee work.

Kennedy spent much of the 1970s focused on real political work, pushing through legislation such as the National Cancer Act of 1971 and working tirelessly on issues such as the conflict in Northern Ireland, health insurance reform and campaign finance reform. He repeatedly entertained thoughts of running for president, but family problems and the ongoing coverage of the Chappaquiddick incident kept him from committing, despite polling suggesting he could easily win the primary and the lack of other viable Democratic candidates.

In 1973, Kennedy’s son Edward Jr. was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, resulting in a leg amputation. His other son, Patrick, was suffering from severe asthma attacks, and Ted’s wife Joan sunk deeper into her alcoholism, resulting in several stints in instutitions and an accident due to drunk driving leading to her arrest.

In the late mid to late 70s, Kennedy was at his lowest point politically, as he found himself without a chairmanship and Carter taking the reins as the ranking Democrat. Carter’s differing priorities put a strain on Kennedy’s efforts to improve health care, and he instead focused on international good will, visiting China and the Soviet Union in 1977 and 1978. He rose to take the mantle of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, but suffered another blow when Carter refused to back the $60 billion price tag of his proposed national health care plan.

In an unusual bid to unseat Carter, a member of his own party, Kennedy eventually ran for president in the 1980 election, and was the favored candidate due to Carter’s unpopularity and weak stances on many issues, but he ultimately lost, in part due to negative press regarding his answer to the Chappaquiddick incident question and the electorate’s sudden support of the president during the Iranian hostage situation and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When Carter badly bruised Kennedy in the Iowa caucuses, many of Kennedy’s key fundraisers bailed, and it was a downward slope from there. Kennedy, however, clung to his fearless nature, no doubt earned on the grid iron in high school and at Harvard, and pushed his campaign all the way to the Democratic National Convention despite almost impossible odds, but conceded the nomination when his measure to free delegates from their voting commitments was defeated on the first night of the convention. Ultimately, Carter’s inability to win over Kennedy supporters aided in his defeat to Ronald Reagan in the general election.

In 1981, Kennedy faced unique challenges, including being a minority member of the Senate for the first time, and announcing his divorce from Joan Kennedy, settling for $4 million in 1982 after a relatively benign proceeding. Kennedy, meanwhile, tirelessly fought against policies of the Reagan administration, once again turned down calls for a 1984 presidential run, and embarked on a landmark trip to South Africa, staying at the home of Bishop Desmond Tutu, which could easily have cost him his life in the tumultuous apartheid atmosphere of the time. He later went on to be a key member of arms control talks with Mikhail Gorbachev under the Reagan administration; despite political differences, he and the president respected each other and maintained amicable relations.

After his divorce, drinking and womanizing became more of a public burden for Kennedy, and he was involved in drunken incidents with fellow Senator Chris Dodd in Washington, including allegedly unwanted physical contact with a waitress in a D.C. restaurant. These factors played a big role in his cutting short any plans of running in the 1988 presidential election.

Following the 1986 Congressional elections, the Democratic Party regained control of the Senate. As a result of his good working relationship with many prominent Republicans, Kennedy was once again one of the most powerful men in Washington, and used his position to effectively defeat Reagan’s nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, which he saw as a threat to the civil rights he had fought so hard for. Kennedy used caustic tactics, including a speech which painted a picture of Bork’s America as a land of back alley abortions and segregation, which many saw as slanderous, but which was ultimately effective.

The 1990s saw Kennedy’s flaws magnified, through rape charges against his nephew following a night of drinking with the elder Kennedy, which Kennedy suppressed with a negative press campaign, as well as many articles and jokes about his conduct with women and his persistent drunken antics. This image put him in a position of ineffectiveness against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, which he opposed due to Thomas’ refusal to comment on Roe v. Wade. His silence on the issue hurt Democrats chances of blocking the nomination, but to speak out would have been regarded as highly hypocritical.

The acquittal of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, and his serious relationship with Victoria Anne Reggie, which led to their marriage in 1992, improved his image, and Victoria is credited with stabilizing his personal life, which let him focus on the larger challenges ahead, including his fight against Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America legislation which earned his title of Lion of the Senate, alater challenge from Republican Mitt Romney for his Senate seat, and his defense of President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. More recently, Kennedy served as a voice against the Iraq War from the start, though he supported the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

By far his most passionate endeavour was the reform of health care in America, “the cause of his life,” he said, but which he died unable to attain. After a seizure in May of 2008, doctors announced Kennedy suffered from a malignant glioma, a brain tumor. After a risky operation to remove the tumor, which was considered a success, Kennedy underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. His condition declined quickly over the next year, and he died at his home in Hyannis Port, MA on August 25, 2009.

Frederick Rincon contributed research for this story.

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia is calling for his colleagues in the Senate to honor his “best friend in the Senate” by naming the seemingly-impending health care reform legislation after the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who died after a year-long battle with brain cancer yesterday.

Health care reform was one of Kennedy’s flagship issues and a cornerstone of his policy throughout his decades in the Senate. By naming the bill after him, many hope that he will accomplish in death what he was not able to in life, another in a long line of personal and publicized tragedies in his expansive career.

Byrd’s full statement:

I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come. My heart and soul weeps at the lost of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy.

Senator Kennedy and I both witnessed too many wars in our lives, and believed too strongly in the Constitution of the United States to allow us to go blindly into war. That is why we stood side by side in the Senate against the war in Iraq.

Neither years of age nor years of political combat, nor his illness, diminished the idealism and energy of this talented, imaginative, and intelligent man. And that is the kind of Senator Ted Kennedy was. Throughout his career, Senator Kennedy believed in a simple premise: that our society’s greatness lies in its ability and willingness to provide for its less fortunate members. Whether striving to increase the minimum wage, ensuring that all children have medical insurance, or securing better access to higher education, Senator Kennedy always showed that he cares deeply for those whose needs exceed their political clout. Unbowed by personal setbacks or by the terrible sorrows that have fallen upon his family, his spirit continued to soar, and he continued to work as hard as ever to make his dreams a reality.

In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American.

God bless his wife Vicki, his family, and the institution that he served so ably, which will never be the same without his voice of eloquence and reason. And God bless you Ted. I love you and will miss you terribly.

In my autobiography I wrote that during a visit to West Virginia in 1968 to help dedicate the “Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center” in Morgantown, “Senator Kennedy’s voice quivered with emotion as he talked of his late brothers and their love for West Virginia. ‘These hills, these people, and this state have had a very special meaning for my family. Our lives have been tightly intertwined with yours.’

I am sure the people of the great state of West Virginia join me in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the Kennedy family at this moment of deep sorrow.

To anyone under the age of 30, the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who died Tuesday night, must have seemed like an eccentric uncle from a bygone era. Portly and florid-faced, with a bellowing voice, Kennedy in his old age bore a resemblance not to his glamorous brothers but, rather, to his grandfather John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, who served as mayor of Boston at the turn of the last century.

But what did Kennedy actually do? The answer: More than I can possibly detail here. He was the author of more than 2,500 bills and the driving force behind many of the most important liberal initiatives of the past 50 years. His biographer Adam Clymer wrote in 1999 that Kennedy “deserves recognition not just as the leading senator of his time, but as one of the greats in its history.”

If you’re a student dependent on federal loans to attend college, Ted Kennedy was there for you.

If you use a wheelchair and are worried that an employer might discriminate against you, the Americans with Disabilities Act “" another Kennedy legacy “" will protect you.

If you’re barely scraping by at a minimum-wage job, your wages would be even lower were it not for Kennedy’s tireless efforts on behalf of the working poor.

And though Kennedy never succeeded in his decades-long quest for universal health care, he managed “" by working with Republican senators such as his unlikely friend Orrin Hatch of Utah “" to extend coverage to poor children who had previously fallen through the cracks.

As Boston Globe reporter Susan Milligan writes, Kennedy’s name also appears on hundreds of bills that don’t necessarily fit with his liberal image, but that helped shape American society in profound ways “" from deregulation of the airline industry to helping the second President Bush pass his No Child Left Behind legislation “" an action Kennedy came to regret after Bush refused to fund it fully.

And when Bush broke the law by ordering secret, warrantless wiretaps as part of his anti-terrorism efforts, it was a law “" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “" that Kennedy had helped write some three decades earlier.

Ted Kennedy was a deeply flawed human being whose many years of boozing and womanizing had, by the early ’90s, made him a symbol of excess. A night of drinking in Palm Beach, Fla., leading to rape charges against his nephew William Kennedy Smith (who was acquitted), nearly ended his career “" a career that may well have culminated in the presidency were it not for an earlier scandal over his role in the death of a young campaign aide named Mary Jo Kopechne.

By 1994, Kennedy was on the ropes and vulnerable to a challenge. The Republican candidate that year was Mitt Romney, a telegenic Republican businessman whose crisp soundbites, wholesome lifestyle, and vague if generally liberal agenda seemed more than a match for the aging incumbent.

Yet Kennedy, newly remarried and with his self-acknowledged alcohol problem apparently under control, rose to the occasion, besting Romney in a nationally televised debate at Faneuil Hall in which he brilliantly (if unfairly) invoked the memory of his dead brothers in response to one of Romney’s attacks. (Romney later served as governor of Massachusetts, and ran for president in 2008.)

Kennedy was not above petty politics. I recall following him around Burlington one day in the late 1980s, when I was a reporter for the Daily Times Chronicle of Woburn. Kennedy had just sneaked an amendment into a bill to deny Rupert Murdoch the regulatory waiver he was seeking that would allow him to own both the Boston Herald and WFXT-TV (Channel 25), which Murdoch had just purchased. At every stop, Herald reporter Wayne Woodlief would ask him, “Senator, why are you trying to kill the Herald?”

If Kennedy’s ploy had been aimed at shutting down the Herald, as many suspected, it didn’t work: Murdoch kept the paper and sold the TV station. (Several years later, he sold the Herald to his longtime protƒ©gƒ© Pat Purcell and repurchased Channel 25.) The episode led Kennedy’s most caustic critic at the Herald, columnist Howie Carr, to write a particularly memorable lede: “Was it something I said, Fat Boy?”

In a few days, the focus will turn to the question of who will be Kennedy’s successor in the U.S. Senate. The special election that will be held five months from now is likely to be the most wide-open we have seen in Massachusetts since 1984, when Sen. Paul Tsongas retired and was succeeded by John Kerry.

But the next senator from Massachusetts will not match Ted Kennedy’s influence or power. What’s especially sad about his death is that, at his vigorous best, he could have made the difference in President Obama’s push for universal health care, a push that, at the moment, seems to be going nowhere.

Perhaps Democrats and Republicans alike will honor Kennedy’s legacy by coming to an agreement on a bill that will bear his name.

Massachusetts Senator Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy has lost his battle against brain cancer at his Hyannis Port home at the age of 77, his family announced this morning, just two weeks after the death of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Known as the Lion of the Senate, he will be remembered as one of the most effective legislators in United States history, due in large part to his uncanny ability to work with members from both sides of the aisle to push through important legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Edward M. Kennedy “" the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply “" died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port” said the Kennedy family in a statement. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever.”

Governor Deval Patrick released a statement shortly after the news broke.

“One of the Commonwealth’s brightest lights went out last night,” Patrick said. “Ted Kennedy was a compassionate, effective, visionary statesman, family man and friend. Diane and I were blessed by his company, support and many kindnesses, and miss him profoundly. We pray for comfort for his beloved wife and partner Vicki and his entire family.”

President Barack Obama, on vacation with his family on Martha’s Vineyard, released a statement early today. Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama during the primary season was considered key in his eventual victory.

“An important chapter in our history has come to an end,” Obama said.

• State secrets under Bush will stay that way. (Greenwald’s take)

SAN FRANCISCO “" In a closely watched case involving rendition and torture, a lawyer for the Obama administration seemed to surprise a panel of federal appeals judges on Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration.

In the case, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees filed suit against a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights for the Bush administration’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries, where they say they were tortured. The Bush administration argued that the case should be dismissed because even discussing it in court could threaten national security and relations with other nations.

• The Senate passed the stimulus bill 61-37 this afternoon. Now it’s on to conference where the two chambers can iron out their differences before voting again next week.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan has passed the Senate and is on its way to difficult House-Senate negotiations.Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote and they’re already signaling they’ll play hardball to preserve more than $108 billion in spending cuts made last week in Senate dealmaking. Obama wants to restore cuts in funds for school construction jobs and help for cash-starved states.

Those cuts are among the major differences between the $819 billion House version of Obama’s plan and a Senate bill costing $838 billion. Obama has warned of a deepening economic crisis if Congress fails to act. He wants a bill completed by the weekend.

• National Security Council Overhaul.

The NSC will take on all national security matters that are strategic in nature and “of such importance that the president of the United States would care” about them, he said. Action groups from various departments and agencies will be formed around specific issues for as long as it takes to resolve them. “Some of these things will be very short-term. When the problem goes away, the group goes away.” Others will be ongoing. “An Afghan strategic review, that’s going to take a while,” Jones said. “The policy that is generated from that review, and the implementation, is going to take a while.”

• Iran is ready to talk.

Many Iranians are tired of isolation but some say Iran needs a hard-liner to win U.S. concessions not a moderate like Khatami, whose reforming efforts were mostly blocked by conservatives.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in Madrid on Sunday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said: “They (Iranians) think the American attitude is positive, and they are just waiting for that attitude to manifest itself in some gesture.”

Some principals will be regulars at the NSC “just by force of issues,” he said, and “you can’t just designate the whole government as being there.” But everyone should be kept aware of “what’s going on” and given an opportunity to say, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve got something to say here.’ “

• As Middle East envoy George Mitchell leaves to try to broker peace between Israel and Hamas, Obama does his first post-inauguration TV interview with‚  the Arab station Al-Arabiya and extends the hand of friendship. The whole video is worth a watch.

• Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) will introduce a constitutional amendment requiring a special election for open Senate seats instead of governor appointments.

Said Feingold: “The controversies surrounding some of the‚ recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats‚ make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end.‚  In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution gave the citizens of this country the power to finally elect their senators.‚  They should have the same power in the case of unexpected mid term vacancies, so that the Senate is as responsive as possible‚ to the will of the people.‚  I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to require special elections when a Senate seat is vacant, as the Constitution mandates for the House, and as my own state of Wisconsin already requires by statute.”

• The first bill Obama signs will be the “Lily Ledbetter Act.”

The bill is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said a person must file a claim of discrimination within 180 days of a company’s initial decision to pay a worker less than it pays another worker doing the same job. Under the bill, every new discriminatory paycheck would extend the statute of limitations for another 180 days.

• Obama tries to woo Republicans, as the stimulus bill hits the House floor tomorrow for a vote.

SYDNEY, Australia — Lesbian relationships in Australia received welcome recognition this November after two bills enforcing equality were passed through the Senate.‚ The amendments expanded the terms “de facto relationship”, “parent”, “step-parent” and “relative” to include same-sex couples giving them equal rights on a number of issues.

Australian Social Security entitlements, Medicare health care, tax, and employment benefits were some of the areas where gay and lesbian couples would receive equal rights.

Openly gay Labor Senator Penny Wong said her government had followed through on last year’s election promises to remove discrimination from Australian Commonwealth laws.

“They deliver, on an important day for us, on a very important election commitment”, she said.‚ ”More importantly, they will deliver the sort of equality before the law that same-sex couples have never previously experienced.”

Liberal opposition Senator George Brandis acknowledged the significance of the bills saying they would complete law reform in the area of same-sex relationships which began 40 years ago when homosexual relationships were decriminalized.‚ Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens party and also openly gay, was not so commending.‚ While he commended the ‚ recognition of rights, he was scathing for the ‚ lack of leadership to include equality in same-sex marriage.

“Both the older parties have a task to undertake: to communicate better with the Australian community and to understand that the pressure coming from sectional groups, minority groups, to sanction marriage for all couples regardless has great public support”,‚ Brown‚ said.

A poll taken by Australasia’s largest online lesbian dating and community site Pink Sofa supported Senator Brown’s sentiments with 88 per cent of the more than 4000 respondents wanting same sex marriages legalized. Website‚ member Jenny Ball was thrilled with the outcome but also wanted more.

“This really is a milestone for the Australian Gay and Lesbian Community and is something that has been long-awaited and now brings us in line with a number of other forward-thinking countries,”‚ Ball‚ said. ‚ ”The next key step is for the government to ratify the laws that currently prevent same-sex marriage, thereby removing the final piece of discrimination and marginalization against the community”.

Marriage for same-sex couples remains on the horizon however with the Labour Government as well as the opposition parties refusing to be swayed by public opinion.

President-elect Barack Obama will resign his U.S. Senate seat on Sunday to focus on his transition to the White House.

“It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate,” Obama said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

Obama’s seat will remain empty until Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appoints a successor to fill out the remaining two years of the term. An appointment is expected by the end of the year.

Barack Obama’s blowout victory over John McCain may come as a disappointment for Republicans, but it certainly comes as no surprise.

Joe Trippi, who managed Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004 and John Edwards in 2008, made an astute observation on C-SPAN the other day when he suggested that GOP operatives knew damn well that John McCain would lose the general election, and crafted a strategy to cope with this inevitability.

The theory, Trippi explained, is that Republicans went on the attack “" calling Obama a socialist, a terrorist sympathizer, an enemy of Israel and a baby killer “" not to appease independents in swing states, but rather, to energize the right-wing conservative base in the hopes that they would vote GOP down the ticket, and prevent possible Democratic takeovers in hotly-contested Senate races. The race was over and they were trying to cut legislative losses, so to speak.

“They were not using swing-state language” Trippi said.

And, it appears the strategy may have paid off. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens is up in Alaska , despite his fraud convictions last week; Sen. Norm Coleman is beating Democrat Al Franken in Minnesota (in a race that may be decided in a recount); Gordon Smith may hold on to Oregon and Saxby Chambliss may hold Georgia.

These were closes races, but a week ago Coleman, Smith and Stevens were all behind in the polls.

Make no mistake, this elections stands as a clear and unambiguous rejection of the GOP. But the sinister attacks that came from a desperate campaign, may have kept the Democrats from expanding the senate even further.

The most intrugiuing early results may well be in the Kentucky Senate Race, where Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, may lose a stunner to Bruce Lunsford.

McConnell has a “narrow advantage” in the race, but if he manages to lose, it will be a huge blow to Republicans and perhaps an ominous sign of the long night ahead.