Extra Civil Service Job For The Pres.
"Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Dread of night..."
VATICAN CITY, ROME - U.S. President Obama "moonlights" as a Mail Man?
United States President Baraka Obama took on an extra civil service job while visiting Pope Benedict XVI on his recent world wide tour.
When Senator Ted Kennedy, sent letters to many politicans concerning a possible replacement due to cancer, it was the postal workers and carriers who delievered the mail.
But it was the very President of the United States himself, who hand deliverd another letter from Senator Kennedy, directly to Pope Benedict XVI, himself.
Why? Well, it turns out ...
... Senator Kennedy is as concerned about the health care policies as the President is.
And in a recent note to Gov. Deval Patrick and other state leaders, Kennedy had asked lawmakers allow the governor to appoint an interim replacement pending election of a successor, to ensure there would not be a period with a vacancy. Currently, the law requires a special election to be held within five months.
Kennedy's letter acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election be held 145 to 160 days after the vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats — with a wide majority in both chambers — were concerned because then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney had the power to directly fill any vacancy created as Democratic Sen. John Kerry ran for president.
The letter was sent Tuesday, but Kennedy aides insist there is no material change in his condition since he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008. Kennedy was initially treated with surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
"For almost 47 years, I have had the privilege of representing the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate," Kennedy wrote in his letter. He added that serving in the Senate "has been — and still is — the greatest honor of my public life."
"It is vital for this commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election," he wrote.
Health care has been Kennedy's signature issue. Although Democrats hold a potentially filibuster-proof margin in the Senate, the fate of a sweeping health care bill could hinge on a single vote and some moderate Democrats have been wavering. Another Democrat, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, has been seriously ill and often absent.
The 77-year-old has been convalescing at his homes in Washington and in Hyannis Port, as well as a rental property in Florida, but his absence from last week's funeral on Cape Cod for his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, prompted a flurry of questions about his own health.
An aide said the letter was one of several written by Kennedy in early July. Another was to Pope Benedict XVI and was hand-delivered by President Barack Obama during a visit to the Vatican.
In his succession letter, Kennedy suggests the governor ensure the fairness of any appointment to replace him by seeking an "explicit personal commitment" his appointee will not seek the position on a permanent basis.
Despite speculation that Kennedy's wife, Vicki, is interested in the seat, family aides have said she is not interested in replacing her husband either temporarily or permanently. One of Kennedy's nephews, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, has also been described as interested, along with a number of the state's remaining congressional members and local lawmakers.
Amid similar speculation about a Senate vacancy last fall, when Kerry was under consideration for secretary of state, Senate President Therese Murray was adamant that the law not be changed. After recent inquiries from The Associated Press, aides to both Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo said they are unlikely to back any change.
