THE ROAD TO HACKDOM - AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  The Obama White House, which refused to intervene in the cesspool of Illinois politics to prevent the appointment of a hack, Roland Burris, to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat, seems to have no hesitation about meddling in Massachusetts politics.  From Fox:

The Obama White House has left the sidelines and jumped in with both feet as Massachusetts lawmakers debate whether to change current law and appoint an interim U.S. Senator to replace the deceased Edward M. Kennedy.

FOX News has learned Senior White House adviser David Axelrod called the president of the Massachusetts Senate on Monday to lobby for the law change to fill Kennedy's Senate seat until the Jan. 19 special election is held.

Axelrod called Therese Murray to discuss the matter, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton confirmed to FOX late Tuesday.

Burton said Axelrod was "checking in" with Murray, but Democratic sources say the call was designed to underscore White House interest in seeing Massachusetts law changed and an interim Senator appointed as crunch-time approaches in the health care debate.

And...

Two names continue to surface as Kennedy's replacement: former Kennedy aide and former DNC Chairman Paul Kirk, and former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

COMMENT:  Can you just hear the excited murmur among Democrats:  "Dukakis is back!"  Then everyone sleeps.

Whoever is appointed, if the law is changed, will apparently have to pledge not to run when the formal election is held.

We wish the White House had been as zealous in preventing the Illinois embarrassment, but even a president might feel intimidated about taking on Illinois pols.  Wouldn't want to be tainted.  (You can laugh now.)

September 16, 2009