Hatch, Dodd: Vicki Kennedy Would Be "Great" Replacement For Husband (VIDEO)

Two of Ted Kennedy's closest friends in the Senate said on Sunday that they thought his widow, Vicki, would make a great temporary replacement for him should the Massachusetts legislature allow for a gubernatorial appointment.

Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said that Vicki "ought to be considered" for her late husband's post.

"She is a very brilliant lawyer," said Hatch. "She's a very solid individual. She certainly made a difference in Ted's life, let me tell you. And I have nothing but respect for her."

Speaking over phone later in the segment, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Kennedy's closest ally in the chamber, also offered his backing for a theoretical Vicki Kennedy appointment.

"We talk frequently. Whatever Vicki wants to do, I'm in her corner," said Dodd. "She knows that. She has expressed to me her own reluctance to do that. But she could change her mind. And if she did I'm for it. I think she'd be great, I think Orrin's right, she brings talent and ability to it... we can certainly use her in the Senate. But leave it up to her. She has a lot on her mind right now. And, frankly, I leave it up to her decision-making process."

Vicki Kennedy, as Dodd noted, has indicated reluctance to take over her husband's spot in the Senate. Moreover, there is no guarantee, at this point, that the opportunity will present itself. The Massachusetts legislature must first change the current law to allow the state's governor to make a temporary replacement until a special election can be held. At this point, CNN's John King said during the segment, it seems "increasingly likely" the legislature will take action.

Here's video of Hatch this morning:

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Comments

[yakaria]

05:59 PM on 09/02/2009

The cold hand of death grabs another Kennedy by the shoulder.

[CherokeeGirl]

08:38 PM on 08/31/2009

why shouldn't she replace him, unless she's just not interested.

Doris Matsui replaced Robert Matsui in the House when he died.

I think she'd be great, it's up to her, though.

[Hannah Garcia]

07:01 PM on 08/31/2009

continuation...

"More and more people are recognizing that political parties are inentionally causing problems so that they can later attempt (and fail) at fixing them. The greater our problems, the more we're supposed to need them around. But, like so much else, that's a lie. The number of Americans calling themselves "independants" has climbed from 11 percent to 25 percent over the past twenty years, a promising sign in the battle against the 2 party system.
If you are still brainwashed by a particular party, it's time for a reassessment. An alternative to the 2 party system already exists, given the 25 percent who call themselves independents. It just needs to be taken advantage of. Times are too perilous to substitute blind allegiance to any political party for independent thinking!"

[Hannah Garcia]

06:56 PM on 08/31/2009

I was reading Glenn Beck's book, Common Sense, and he's actually taken a turn towards being an Independent.
"Political Parties: Dividing the People but Taking Us to the Same Place

It wasn't long ago that I believed our political parties actually stood for something. On second thought, I guess I still believe they stand for something, it just isn't the something that I thought. The only principle that our parties really seem to care about is a principle called "Get elected at all costs." That's it. Do not believe their lies and propaganda that our parties still matter-- they don't. What matters are the values, judgement, and temperament of the candidates-- not their party affiliation. You can find values and principles in indviduals in any party and you most likely can find crominals, sleazebags, and early-stage sociopaths in any party as well."

[ram1952]

02:21 PM on 08/31/2009

I say again, let it be a woman who fills Ted’s seat in Massachusetts. And let it be not Vicki. That should satisfy the nay-sayers among both the Democrats and Republicans. But let it be a WOMAN. Perhaps a Ted staffer. Perhaps a Ted constituent. Perhaps anybody. Anyone who supports health care, working class and underprivileged. But let it be a woman, please. Having had the best and worst times with women, Ted would love it. With his Irish humour (I am crying, hell, again), up over there, he may even be quipping with his brothers and friends that it serves Massachusetts and the Senate just right. No offence to women. They are the only ones that make men human.

[ram1952]

02:02 PM on 08/31/2009

Dear Galapagostortoise,

I am not an American. I am an Indian, and ferociously proud of that, Ma'm. But, I would like to take up this issue with you, ma'm. For me, Ted did not represent just Massachusetts or the U.S. but he represented entire America, in its glory, its beauty, its grandeur (Can you believe it, till last year I hated the U.S. and only began to love it when Ted endorsed Obama?). Not in its Army, Navy, Air Force or its money. But just someone who when asked why he supported the poor, with barely suppressed anger, said" "Have you not read the New Testament"? Anyone who can comfort such a man, calm the storms of his guilt (Chappquiddick), self-doubt (loss to Carter in '80), and give him a direction (health care and the rights of the working class) is someone we should take a close look at. That is all I am saying. I would be very happy if Vicki Kennedy does not give in to pressure and accept the offer to fill her husband's seat. Why should she? She is now a matriarch to a family that can contribute half a dozen highly qualified, intelligent, sensitve women and men to the service of the American nation. The dark forces that shot down Caroline Kennedy's nomination to the NY seat are lurking around, and why should she be grist to their mill?

[GalapagosTortoise]

08:57 PM on 08/31/2009

I like Ted Kennedy's record on many issues and I see his contribution in Congress as unique and immeasurable. I refuse, however, to be emotionally puppeteered by what I see as the media's day after day deluge of funeral photographs and videos. I am offended by it, as a thinking American. Including the suggestion that royalty's wife succeed him to the Senate like a Queen to the throne of a King. In the meantime, Congress is selling the American people out on health care. I think people should get a grip, here, and gain some perspective on what is going on. Including the fact that, in Ted's later days, he was not such a strong advocate on behalf of health care for all Americans. He was increasingly a darling of the right who would keep progressives out of the way, i.e. sitting and shutting up.

Patrick Kennedy is a far stronger voice on intelligent health care reform these days.

I am not parking my brain at the door simply because Ted Kennedy died, when 75 Americans die every day because Congress, for the most part, including Ted Kennedy, didn't have the cajones to pass the National Health Insurance Act.

[GalapagosTortoise]

09:06 PM on 08/31/2009

I had mixed feelings about the discussion concerning Caroline Kennedy and Hillary's Senate seat. I thought, however, she was an excellent choice as an ambassador to the Vatican. And, I think, when the Vatican so ungraciously refused her because she was pro-choice, we should have given them a card with her number and told Mr. High Poopy to phone if they needed anything.

[peaches49]

01:30 PM on 08/31/2009

I think it's a great idea.

[ram1952]

01:29 PM on 08/31/2009

Was busy working. Please allow me back into the discussion. When I wrote about Vicki Kennedy’s creds for the Senate seat that is vacated by Ted’s journey into the unknown, I did not mean she should fill it. I only wanted to question those who question her qualifications. She is not a trophy wife. This is a woman who is an accomplished person in her own right. Why is that a woman is married to a famous man supposed to be an bimbo and a political gold digger? I developed respect for Mrs. Kennedy when I read that she was NOT INTERESTED in the seat.

Why is this they have to prove their creds every time, when legatee village idiots (let us not name names) can become President by stealing elections. A fool who thought Taliban was “some kind of rock band” ruled the U.S. of A. for eight years and drove it to rack and ruin and the rest of the world too. And a woman who practiced law, a woman, a third generation Lebanese who is self-made, who is not a shill for big money. She could have become a (a)trophy wife. She did not. That Ted’s step children and his extended family respects her is a tribute to her as a woman, a surrogate mother and a companion to the most beloved Kennedy in the family.

[ram1952]

01:28 PM on 08/31/2009

I don’t know why women have to be treated this way, regardless to what political persuasion they profess. I feel as deeply for Cindy McCain, who probably is more of a reliable person than her husband, who after giving her millions and her body to that lout got called c**t by her own husband.

Let us stop disrespecting women. They have suffered enough through millennium, being sex toys and unpaid domestic slaves. Whenever a woman gets an opportunity to rule us, I say as a man, give it to her. She will do a fantastic job of it than we men have done it throughout the centuries. My middle class parents in India had six children. My father, a strong, silent, honest, hard working man with unshakeable secular beliefs, earned a modest salary. My mother managed the domestic finances, never made us feel we were poor or inferior, gave all of us education, married us off, was a loving wife to my father, and after his passing is the beloved matriarch of our family and her extended family. An incredibly democratic, progressive woman, who at the age of 85 keeps track of what is happening in India and the rest of the world, likes Fidel Castro and believes that democracy, equity and justice alone can save this world.

[ram1952]

01:27 PM on 08/31/2009

The words of this deeply religious Hindu woman are treated as law by her children, her grand children and her relatives. Grown men and women, her nephews and nieces, and grand nephews and grand nieces closely related and not so closely related hang on to her every word of wisdom and treat it as commandment. On the day Ted died, there were tears in the eyes of my mother, a woman who did not cry when her husband died, because she needed to be strong for all of us.

Thirty-one years ago, I married out of caste (unthinkable in India those days) and she stood by me and my wife. Three decades later, my wife adores her as much as she does her own long-departed mother.

Why am I saying relating my own story? Because on Saturday, I realized Vicki Kennedy is going to be to the Kennedys, their friends and the vast multitudes of Kennedy supporters what my mother is to us all. I do not want her to contest political office. I think warming a seat in Senator even becoming being elected to it is beneath her.

But I will duel with anyone who contests her right to do so. I am against royalty and legacy. But a legacy of idealism, ideology and service I will accept gladly, and me a life long male rebel who only bows to women.

[spinns17]

01:11 PM on 08/31/2009

how about this guy .ever see him at work.this man is a lion for sure.
http://www.house.gov/capuano/

[spinns17]

01:25 PM on 08/31/2009

http://www.ociotube.com/video/youtube/2wTE4e4sSXU/capuano-to-ceos-no-one-trusts-you-anymore

[Furrypeanut]

01:07 PM on 08/31/2009

Having the wife fill in - feels so very "1940".

[Chris]

12:44 PM on 08/31/2009

This is rdiculous. The powers that be in commonwealth decided in 2004 that a special election should be held and not a governor appointee. I am sure it is just a coincidence this occurred when they thought Kerry would win POTUS and that Romney would get to make the appointment.

Now when Senator Kennedy's health was failing they decide that a temporary governor appointee should be named before a special election. Funny these same people did not want this when the idea was floated out in 2004.

I wish the press would ask governor Patrick or the Sentate and house leaders in the commonwealth how they would vote if Romeny or another Republican was governor and not Mr. Patrick?

[TheBlackCat]

01:01 PM on 08/31/2009

in answer to your inquiry regarding law vs theory:

Both a scientific theory and a scientific law are accepted to be true to the same degree.

here is the difference: a law is what describes a set of actions. a theory is the explanation for how those actions occur. So gravity is a law, but how gravity OPERATES is a theory. Therefore gravity is both a law AND a theory depending on how it is used contextually. Saying an apple falls from a tree because of gravity is applying gravity as a LAW. But if you were then to descibe the mechanics of that law, you would be describing the THEORY of gravity.

[TheBlackCat]

01:02 PM on 08/31/2009

oops sorry chris I was in your profile and responded to you in the wrong thread! Sorry about that!

[ruddie]

12:41 PM on 08/31/2009

How about if we can get rid of both Hatch and Dodd first..
If they promise to quit and get thier noses out of the public trough....
Then I'll promise to endorse Vickie...

[Nitalia]

12:07 PM on 08/31/2009

Let's go Vicki! You can do it! We need another lion in the senate because we sure as hell don't have one!