GOP challenge to Kirk rejected

Senate appointee Paul Kirk, D-Mass., with Sen. John Kerry (left) (Photo by Michael Carl)

A Boston judge today refused the Massachusetts Republican Party's request for an injunction that would delay the installation of longtime Kennedy family friend Paul Kirk as a temporary replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Kirk took the oath of office from Vice President Joseph Biden this afternoon.

But even as he makes his way into the Senate gallery to become the 60th Democrat vote in residence there, questions are being raised.

WND reported earlier Massachusetts Gov. Patrick appointed Kirk using an emergency procedure to make the appointment because "the issues before the people of Massachusetts have never been more vital."

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"The issues before Massachusetts and the nation are too important for Massachusetts to be one voice short," Patrick said.

"The process was serious and in depth. We had a finalist list that had six highly talented people on it. We did it quickly but not presumptuously," Patrick said.

Kirk also said he would resign his seat on the board of The Hartford and other corporations.

However, Craig Holman of the citizen's advocacy group Public Citizen said Kirk's recent duties for The Hartford are a concern.

"What is of concern is Kirk's current duties as director on the board of Hartford Financial services," he said. "That is a clear and present conflict of interest. He was pulling in a salary of a quarter of a million dollars a year."

Holman added that Hartford spends over $1 million a day to influence Congress on health care policy.

Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei explained Kirk's health care industry links probably are why he was chosen.

"I think it's entirely because of the health care debate. The White House has been making calls to the statehouse to pressure the legislature to make the change," he said. "They want those 60 votes to guarantee the president's health care package will pass."

The statehouse change to which he referred was a modification in the state law that allowed the governor to make the appointment. When the governor's office was held by a Republican in 2004, and there was the possibility the Sen. John Kerry might succeed to the White House, lawmakers withdrew that authority from the governor and demanded an election be held to pick a replacement.

The Democratic majority in the statehouse at that time wanted to prevent a GOP governor from appointing a GOP senator. But when Kennedy died, they made the change back, to give a now-Democrat governor permission to appoint a Senate replacement.

Kirk also was a lobbyist for two pharmaceutical companies seven years ago, and there are questions surrounding whether he will be able to put those interests aside if the Senate takes up health care reform during his brief tour in the Congress' upper chamber.

Kirk denies his tenure as a lobbyist will be a problem.

"I represented a couple of pharmaceutical firms in the early part of this century, back in 2002 or so. I left Washington, D.C., because I didn't want to spend my professional career as a lobbyist."

Kirk is the chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, served on the late Edward Kennedy's staff from 1969 to 1977 and was Democratic National Committee Chair from 1985 to 1989.

Kennedy died Aug. 25 at age 77 after battling brain cancer.