Senator Barney Frank? Nope!

With John Kerry leaving the Senate to become Secretary of State, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick has named William "Mo" Cowan as interim Senator, to temporarily replace Kerry until a special election is held.  Cowan has indicated that he has no plans to run in that or any other election.  He has previously served as Patrick's chief legal counsel and chief of staff.  Cowan becomes the first black Senator from Massachusetts since Republican Edward Brooke, who served from 1966 to 1978.

Massachusetts faced a similar situation after the death of longtime Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, whose seat was won by Republican Scott Brown, who later lost to Elizabeth Warren in 2012.  Brown has not said anything yet about running in the upcoming special election.

Governor Patrick's choice of William Cowan ends the speculation among some of us on the right that retired congressman Barney Frank would be Senator Kerry's replacement.  Instead, we're left to wonder if there's anyone in the Senate named "Curly" or "Larry" to go with "Mo".  Trouble is, the number of stooges on Capitol Hill is bound to be far greater than three.

(Other than Brown and Brooke, everyone named in this post is a Democrat.  We're talking about Massachusetts, after all.)

Read the story at the Boston Herald, Boston(dot)com, the New York Daily News and the Woburn Patch.  The BH link comes via Bluegrass Pundit.