Royal Succession to Teddy Kennedy

It is a custom of monarchs to name their own successors, and most of they time they get away with doing so.

So it almost is in Massachusetts where the final act of hypocrisy in one of American history's most hypocritical political lives is underway.

You can read the AP link, but you probably already know the salient facts. Five years ago Sen. Edward M. Kennedy told the folks back home to repeal the law permitting the governor to name a replacement for a senator who dies. And of course, the people obeyed, Teddy being, after all, a Kennedy.

This summer, a dying Senator Kennedy had an epiphany and told the folks back home that his state deserved two voices in the Senate, therefore the governor must be permitted to name the successor to a senator who dies.

And so this morning the folks back home, speaking through a legislature dominated by the Joe Kennedy/Tip O'Neill Democratic machine, plan to "debate" the Kennedy deathbed edict.

Some lonesome and honest soul in that lawmaking body will certainly be rude enough to wonder aloud if the late senator's call from the grave might have the teeniest motivation of a Republican governor in 2004 and a pliant machine Democrat in 2009.

That Bay State Diogenes will then be attacked as a right-wing toady to Rush Limbaugh. He will be pilloried for sullying the Kennedy legacy which, as everyone knows, exemplifies the American virtues of selflessness, decorum, and modesty in all facets of their lives, public and private.

And if that isn't the truth I'll kiss your arse on the quarterdeck of the U.S.S. Constitution and foot the bill for a video uplink to the teevee satellite of your choice.