Ted Kennedy Wants His Replacement Chosen Quickly

Sen. Ted Kennedy is worried that he will die or be too ill to vote on health care fall this fall and has asked the Massachusetts legislature to speed up the process for replacing him.

Kennedy’s request comes in the midst of the heated national debate over health care, which has been the senior senator’s focus in Congress for decades. He does not address his battle with brain cancer in a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick and state leaders, but Kennedy does signal his struggle could be nearing an end. “I am now writing to you about an issue that concerns me deeply - the continuity of representation for Massachusetts should a Senate vacancy occur,” Kennedy wrote in July 2 letter to Patrick, state Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo. In the letter, Kennedy asks that legislation be passed to change a law adopted in 2004 to provide for a special election to choose a new U.S. Senator in the event of a vacancy.

The law Kennedy wants changed was instituted in 2004 to prevent then Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney from replacing Sen. John Kerry, who was then the Democratic presidential nominee.

This is another example, tragic as it is, of why I consider Ted Kennedy to be the greatest Senator of my lifetime.

RELATED: President Obama may visit Kennedy at his family compound in Hyannisport this week if the Senator's health allows it.