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How to Replace Ted Kennedy With an Elected Senator
By John Nichols
There is a lot of movement to rework the laws of the state of Massachusetts so that Governor Deval Patrick can appoint a successor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy.
The state's current rules for filling Senate vacancies -- enacted five years ago to prevent then-Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, from appointing a conservative Republican replacement to Democratic Senator (and 2004 party presidential nominee) John Kerry -- require Patrick to call a special election that would be held in January or February of 2010.
Kennedy's last formal request to Massachusetts officials was that they alter the law so that Patrick could make a temporary appointment to fill the seat during the five to six months (the state statute says 145 to 160 days) that would pass between the time of his death and the time of that special election.
(49) CommentsAugust 27, 2009
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Obama Can Honor Kennedy Best By Making Eulogy a Call to Action
By John Nichols
Saturday has the potential to be a transformational moment for Barack Obama's presidency.
Called to deliver the eulogy for his friend and mentor, Edward Kennedy, Obama can -- and should -- use this moment to reconnect with the values and the ideals that propelled him to the White House.
It will come as a surprise to no one that the president has been asked to deliver this eulogy, as it was Kennedy who inspired, encouraged and ultimately endorsed Obama's audacious quest for the nation's highest office.
(94) CommentsAugust 26, 2009
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"The Senator Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Act of 2009"
By John Nichols
Ted Kennedy led an epic life that defined American politics and policy-making across much of the latter half of the 20th century. Indeed, Kennedy was so much a part of our public life that his death, shortly before midnight Tuesday, made one last and remarkable historic connection -- a connection that reminds us of the importance of extending his legacy into the 21st century.
Kennedy's passing came on the one year anniversary of his surprise speech to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where the liberal icon of the Democratic Party completed his mission of securing the presidential nomination for a young man named Barack Obama.
Fearful of the centrism of the Clintons, Kennedy had resisted the rush to embrace the front-runner candidacy of New York Senator Hillary Clinton and instead backed the insurgent candidacy of the freshman senator from Illinois.
(133) CommentsAugust 26, 2009
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Holder -- and Obama -- Must Focus on Torture Accountability
By John Nichols
Attorney General Eric Holder chose not to take the counsel of the Republican partisans who have been campaigning in recent weeks to avert an accountability moment with regard to the Bush-Cheney administration's torture regime.
But that does not necessarily mean that an accountability moment will come.
For that to happen, Holder -- and, by extension, President Obama -- must stop being so cautious about laying the groundwork for the prosecution of wrongdoings.
(199) CommentsAugust 24, 2009
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Congress Must Investigate Ridge Allegations
By John Nichols
While it may be true that no one in their right mind doubted that the Bush-Cheney administration was manipulating all those color-coded terror alerts for political purposes, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's confirmation of the suspicion is significant for political and legal reasons.
Ridge's upcoming book, The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege... And How We Can Be Safe Again, accuses the Bush-Cheney White House of pushing the homeland security chief to "raise the national security alert just before the 2004 election."
According to the former Pennsylvania governor's publisher, the book will reveal that Ridge was, for political reasons, "pressured to connect homeland security to the international ‘war on terror.'"
(136) CommentsAugust 21, 2009
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American Majority Agrees: Afghan War's Not Worth Fighting
By John Nichols
With record numbers of US troops being killed in Afghanistan, with Pentagon expenditures for the war skyrocketing and with little or no evidence that the US occupation is making the country more stable, safe, free or humane, a majority of Americans now say the war is not worth fighting.
Fifty-one percent of those surveyed for a a new Washington Post-ABC News poll now say the human and economic cost of the war is too great.
Forty-four percent say it is worth its costs.
(157) CommentsAugust 19, 2009
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Don't Let the White House Spin the Public Option Debate
By John Nichols
President Obama referred to the creation of a public program to compete with for-profit health insurers as a mere "sliver" of his reform agenda and then told a Colorado town hall meeting that: "The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of healthcare reform."
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said the public option is "not essential" to addressing what ails a broken healthcare system.
Those statements, obvious signals of a slackening in commitment to take on the insurance companies, caused an outcry.
(206) CommentsAugust 18, 2009
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If Obama Discards Public Option, What's Left of Reform?
By John Nichols
When Barack Obama assumed the presidency, there was talk that former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean might be his Secretary of Health and Human Services.
That would have made Dean the administration's point person in the fight for healthcare reform.
It also would have increased the likelihood that reform would be real.
(220) CommentsAugust 16, 2009
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Harry Reid Versus Democracy
By John Nichols
No member of Congress should serve without having been elected by the people of the district or state they represent.
Unfortunately, four appointed senators are currently serving. And since Florida Sen. Mel Martinez has just resigned and Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is talking about doing so, more appointed senators will soon join the ranks.
What all this means is that more laws will be proposed, more filibusters will be broken, more critical votes will be tipped in one direction or another by "senators" who never earned a single vote.
(51) CommentsAugust 14, 2009
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The Guns of August and Afghanistan
By John Nichols
Yes, yes, of course, everyone is talking about healthcare and the "mobs" of foes and supporters of reform confronting members of Congress during this month's House and Senate recess.
I'm with the small "d" democrats on this one: bring on the mobs.
The more citizens the merrier. The more raucous debate the better.
(121) CommentsAugust 12, 2009
John Nichols
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