Kennedy successor joins Senate, takes up health reform battle

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Former Democratic Party Chairman Paul Kirk has a few months in his new job to help accomplish what his friend, the late Senator Edward Kennedy, devoted much of his life to: Trying to provide affordable healthcare to all Americans.

Kirk was sworn in on Friday to take the Senate seat held for 47 years by Kennedy, his party’s liberal lion and leading advocate for healthcare reform.

The ascension of Kirk again gives Democrats, provided they stick together, the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to clear Republican procedural roadblocks.

This could be critical in a pending Senate floor fight over efforts to expand healthcare, which Kennedy had called “the cause of my life.”

Kirk was sworn in a day after Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick named him as Kennedy’s temporary successor until voters elect a new senator in January.

http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/09/25/kennedy-successor-joins-senate-takes-up-health-reform-battle/

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1. A trivia item about the Senator, or rather, degrees of separation

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http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/trivia_on_ice_Z5nHhgO2r5dPFyntsGKCaK

Trivia on ice

IN all the coverage of Paul Kirk, the appointed replacement for Ted Kennedy, there's been no mention that his brother-in-law is former Olympic hockey great Bill Cleary. When the US won its first Olympic gold medal in 1960, Cleary and his brother, Rob, were heroes. Bill went on to coach hockey at Harvard and then become head of athletics. Bill, whose wife, Jo, is Kirk's sister, also did the skating for Ryan O'Neal in "Love Story." Rob was a ref in the movie.

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