Democratic Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy clearly would be happy if Paul G. Kirk -- a longtime Democratic Party insider and Kennedy family associate -- were named to succeed his father, the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

But Kennedy, who represents a Rhode Island district in Congress, declined to comment on reports that he and his brother, investment banker Ted Kennedy Jr., had recommended that Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick appoint Kirk to the seat on an interim basis until a special election is held Jan. 19.

"Paul was my dad's most loyal guy," Kennedy said in a brief interview outside the House chamber on Wednesday afternoon. "My dad thought the world of Paul. I think the world of Paul."

Kirk is a former aide to Sen. Kennedy and a former Democratic National Committee chairman. He acted as the senator's attorney and is chairman of the board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library.

Everyone in Washington loves to wave around a Congressional Budget Office estimate as unimpeachable proof of an argument.

That's been as much the case with the health care bills moving through the Congress as any legislation in recent memory, with CBO releases on the House's HR 3200 and the Finance Committee's new draft legislation serving as gospel for Republicans, Democrats, conservative and liberal pundits, and journalists -- even this blogger -- alike.

But the secret of the scores is this: So far, they're not based on CBO's own independent analysis.

"The estimated impact of the provisions related to health insurance coverage is based on specifications provided by the committee staff, rather than on a detailed analysis of the legislative language," CBO wrote in its "preliminary analysis" of HR 3200 on July 17.

"There are several reasons why the preliminary analysis that is provided in this letter and its attachments does not constitute a comprehensive cost estimate for the proposal," the agency wrote on Wednesday in its analysis of the Senate Finance Committee's draft.

Just in time for the Jewish New Year this weekend, the Republican National Committee is dabbling in a little chutzpah.

The RNC sent out a link Tuesday to a video clip of then-President George W. Bush endorsing then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004.

Not so long ago -- say, nine months give or take -- the RNC was Bush's political operation and Republicans would have been ecstatic to see Specter, a notorious party-bucker, stand with the GOP president on anything.

But today, Specter, who has since switched to the Democratic Party, is getting campaign help from President Obama in Philadelphia. So now, his onetime ties to Bush are an issue for the RNC.

Democrat Blanche L. Lincoln's elevation to chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee makes her the first woman -- and the first Arkansan -- to head the committee with jurisdiction over farm policy.

Tiny but very rural Vermont has been home to five Agriculture Committee chairmen, the largest number for any state since the panel's inception in 1825. The last Vermonter to hold the position, from 1987 to 1995, was Patrick J. Leahy, the Democrat who currently heads the Judiciary Committee.

Lincoln is taking the Ag Committee gavel from Democrat Tom Harkin, who was only the second senator from the farm state of Iowa to ever head the panel. Harkin shifted over to take the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee vacated by the Aug. 25 death of Massachusetts Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a potentially critical moderate Democratic vote for health care legislation, is predicting that the Senate will pass health care legislation this year, but without a public option.

"The public option is only one of hundreds of issues concerned with health care reform," he told the Lakeland Ledger. "Public option means different things to different people. Some people think of it as socialized medicine, but that type is not and has not ever been considered."

Nonetheless, the former Florida insurance commissioner argued that a government option is not in the cards. "Still any public option will not pass," he said.

But he told a class at Summerlin Academy, a publicly funded institution run like a military school, that some manner of health care overhaul would become law.

Liberal interest groups and Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday that Sen. Ted Kennedy's death should be a catalyst for action on the issues that he cared about.

"Senator Kennedy's Death is a Call to Action on Immigration Reform" blared the headline of a Wednesday afternoon release from the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America.

John Podesta -- the former Clinton White House chief of staff and Obama transition head who now leads the Center for American Progress -- said during a conference call that Kennedy's death should give a kick-start to health care overhaul efforts, according to CQ's Avery Palmer.

"Members in the Senate will, I think, take his passing as a moment to rally and push forward and push through health reform," Podesta said.

And Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the only current senator whose length of service surpasses Kennedy's, said that any health care legislation that becomes law should bear the name of his friend.

Byrd's suggestion -- naming the short title of one of the bills after Kennedy -- seems most likely.

Not long after Jimmy Carter's inauguration in 1977, Ted Kennedy began to make clear that he would challenge the incumbent president of his own party, just as his brother Robert had done in 1968.

Kennedy unofficially launched his campaign for the presidency at a mid-term Democratic convention in 1978 when he delivered a speech on national health care that implicitly faulted Carter for failing to move far enough -- and fast enough -- on the issue.

"There are some who say we cannot afford national health insurance," he chided.

Of course, this is a partial list, but here are some of the laws and issues Kennedy led on during his career. He won on some and lost on others. A full timeline of his career is available on his Senate Website.

• Voting Rights Act and extensions
• Ban on poll taxes
• The Teacher Corps (now defunct, but partially replaced by Teach for America)
• Liberalizing laws for non-European immigrants
• Fair Housing Act
• Title IX
• The Equal Rights Amendment
• Lowering of Voting Age from 21 to 18
• The Americans with Disabilities Act
• Health care portability (Kennedy-Kassebaum law)
• Medicare Part D (prescription drug benefits)
• No Child Left Behind Act
• Minimum wage increases

Democratic lawmakers and their aides are frustrated with the Democratic National Committee and its Organizing for America arm because a campaign to deluge state and district offices with health care overhaul supporters has left many constituents mistakenly thinking they had appointments with their representatives.

Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent first reported earlier Wednesday that California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's staff had flagged the issue for White House aides.

But it turns out she's just the tip of the iceberg. Democratic sources say lawmakers in both chambers and across the party's ideological spectrum are frustrated because constituents -- who in some cases drive long distances under the impression that they have a scheduled meeting -- think their elected officials are dodging them.

It can make lawmakers and staff who were unaware of the organized visits look bad. The level of frustration at the DNC folks -- from mild annoyance to anger -- varies by congressional office.

VoteVets.org has endorsed Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired admiral, in his Pennsylvania Senate primary challenge to Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter, a Korean War-era Air Force veteran and former chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee who is seeking a sixth term.

Expect Specter to get hit for voting to authorize the use of military force in Iraq and for not attending Veterans Affairs Committee meetings when he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which dealt with three Supreme Court nominations.

"Arlen Specter is George Bush and Dick Cheney on foreign policy," VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz says by way of explaining the endorsement.

But don't expect Specter to cede any ground on allegiance to the nation's veterans. His campaign Web site lists a litany of his efforts on behalf of men and women who have served in uniform.

One of his legislative wins, the "Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004" increased compensation for disabled veterans and the families of dead service members, as well as boosting benefits under the GI bill and providing for housing assistance.