Some very real questions remain about what will happen to the health care debate now that one of its chief champions has passed away. The family is beginning to make funeral arrangements, deciding to bury him in Arlington Cemetery alongside his brothers. Obama has agreed to deliver a eulogy at the funeral. Last night, mourners gathered in candlelight vigils around the country.

Democrats, who recently reached a filibuster-proof majority after Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was finally certified and Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties earlier this year, are now left with 59 senators, many of them moderate on health care reform. Many states simply allow the governor to appoint an interim senator between elections—it's a law that Massachusetts itself once had. But the state legislature, fearing a Republican replacement in 2004 when John Kerry ran for president and former Gov. Mitt Romney would make the appointment, changed the law. Now an open Senate seat can only be filled by special election 145 to 160 days after the seat had been vacated. Last week, Kennedy sent a letter to the state legislature urging them to reverse the law and allow current Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick to appoint a replacement.

Appearing on the Good Morning America show today, Patrick expressed "a lot of interest" in running for Kennedy's seat. Some family members, including former Rep. Joseph Kennedy, have been rumored as potential successors. Other Democrats in Massachusetts are rumored to be interested in the seat.

But Kennedy's death raises other questions about committee leadership in the Senate. Kennedy chaired the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The next Democrat in line is Sen. Chris Dodd, who underwent surgery recently) and who is currently chairing the Senate Banking Committee. Dodd's currently facing a tough reelection battle in part due to his performance on that committee. Dodd has already been serving as chair of HELP in Kennedy's absence. If Dodd leaves Banking for HELP, that opens the Banking chairmanship to moderate South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson. If Dodd doesn't take the HELP chairmanship, the next most senior Democrat on the HELP committee is Iowa's Sen. Tom Harkin. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have some difficult decisions to make about committee chairmanships.

The broader question becomes, however, about what will happen to health care reform more generally. West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd yesterday proposed renaming the legislation after Kennedy in honor of his life, and death. But others fear that renaming the legislation after Kennedy in the wake of his death will create a "Wellstone spectacle." (After the sudden death of former Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone less than two weeks before Election Day, friends attempted to rally mourners at his funeral for the election and ultimately lost the seat to Sen. Norm Coleman.)

Much of the speculation about what will happen to Kennedy's seat, chairmanship, and health care reform more generally is early. Many supporters and family members are still mourning. Democratic leadership has a lot of questions to answer, though, and many grassroots organizers fear that the longer health reform is delayed, the less likely it is to come about. Already, Kennedy's leadership on the issue of health care is sorely missed.

TED KENNEDY: Historic Speech @ Denver Convention [YouTube]
A Kennedy vigil: 'I'm here because I'm grieving' [Boston Globe]
Obama to deliver a eulogy for Kennedy [UPI]
Push Grows for Fast Choice on Successor to Kennedy [NYT]
Patrick mum on people interested in Kennedy seat [AP]
Dodd's Surgery Called Success [Hartford Courant]
Connecticut's Chris Dodd Faces a Backyard Rebellion [Time]
Byrd proposes renaming health care bill after Ted Kennedy [Think Progress]
Will Kennedy's Death Bring About a Wellstone Spectacle for Health Care? [Wizbang]

• Barack Obama will officially resign his Senate seat on Sunday, one day before Congress reconvenes for its lame duck session. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has 60 days to appoint a successor to serve until a special election in 2010, but hasn't signaled who he's leaning towards. [Washington Post]
• In the meantime, Obama might go to Georgia to stump for Jim Martin in his run-off race to bump Saxby Chambliss from Max Cleland's old Senate seat. [Huffington Post]
• He's also not sure he likes any of the dudes he hasn't admitted he's considering to be Secretary of State so he's considering... Hillary Clinton. This might or might not be more serious consideration than he gave to the idea of her being his VP. [NY Times]

• The GOP, too, is unsure of things, like whether to kick convicted, corrupt Senator Ted Stevens out of the Republican conference and/or the Senate. All hail the idiocracy! [The Hill]
• Al Gore is sure of one thing: he isn't going to the White House in an Obama Administration. [CNN]
• And it seems increasingly sure that Connecticut Senator Joe "Turncoat" Lieberman will keep his committee chairmanship because no one wants to be mean to Cotton-Eye Joe. [Huffington Post]
• The Bush Administration is pretty sure that it's going to veto the Democrats' auto-industry bailout bill, but Senator Chris Dodd is pretty sure it won't pass anyway. [Washington Post, NY Times]
• Rahm Emanuel definitely knows he's sorry for his dad's remarks about Arabs. [Politico]
• Sarah Palin gave a press conference today and managed to take 4 whole big-girl questions and not actually say a word. So I'm pretty sure nothing's really changed. [Daily Beast]

• Though Barack obama told Americans nothing about forthcoming nominations, that doesn't mean there's nothing to speculate about! John Kerry, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson are lead speculative Secretary of State candidates, Robert Gates might stay at the Defense Department, Janet Napolitano could be headed to Justice and former eBay executive Steve Westly, the Governator or Kathleen Sebelius could end up at DOE. Discuss at your leisure — Obama certainly is. [CNN, Politico]
• The President-Elect has included sexual orientation and gender identity in his non-discrimination pledge on hiring, which is awesome. [ACLU]
• Harry Reid is a little pissed about Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's Obama-bashing during his balls-out support of John McCain this election season — to say nothing of his current flirtation with Mitch McConnell and the GOP caucus. He is thinking of allowing the Democratic caucus to strip Lieberman of his committee chair, which Lieberman calls "unacceptable" and everyone else calls "no less than he deserves." [CNN, Huffington Post]
• Unlike the obstreperous Lieberman, Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd is stepping aside as chairman because he's confident of the new Democratic majority and, likely, because of his continuing ill health. Sadly, this means no more "barbaric" speeches. [The Hill, YouTube]

• In what may be the most disturbing charitable donation of all time, some of the clothing items the Palins need to return to the RNC include Todd's silk boxers. And you thought her plane left skid marks when it left Phoenix! [Washington Post]
• To counter that image, Sarah Palin's going to do an interview with Greta Van Susteren. Nope, don't think that image is getting out of my head regardless, sorry. [LA Times]
• Right-wing South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is pissed that McConnell isn't going to expel Senate Ted "McBribe-y" Stevens from the Senate during the lame duck session. Yes, Virginia, some Republicans do have principles. [Politico]
• The best quote that ever has been said or ever will be said about Rahm Emanuel: "Emanuel, on the other hand, is a drama queen; seething, foaming Mamet production; a big mouth; and a calculating mensch who loves nothing more than to stoke the feed bag for press-corps noshers." Oh, this is going to be an epic White House. [Politico]
• Obama's aunt — who the right-wingers discovered far too late has overstayed her deportation order — has decided to fight in court for the right to remain in the U.S. She's not in great health, reportedly, which would seem like humanitarian grounds to let her stay but our immigration system isn't exactly known for being humanitarian in nature. [MSNBC]
• Neither are Americans, two of whom in New Jersey set a cross ablaze on the lawn of an Obama supporter. Racism: officially no longer confined to The South. Please make a note of it. [Editor & Publisher]
• In slightly better news, there is talk about automatically registering every eligible citizen to vote and expanding early voting so that this ACORN-caging-voter challenges nonsense can finally just end. God, how awesome would that be? [NY Times]

• The Grandmaster Flash memoir is out, and I know a big plot point is how he beat cocaine, but fuck if the guy doesn't sound as endearingly hyperactive as he did rapping about stagflation three decades ago or whatever. Apparently he's a hero in Burma? [Newsweek]
• All this time I've been calling Barack Obama a Muslim and it turns out he's actually a Hindu who worships some golden monkey god? [Times of India]
• Senator Chris Dodd moved his entire family to Iowa all to win one percent of the vote and I am not happy to report his powerful speech in opposition to retroactively granting big telecom firms the right to spy on people will no doubt prove equally in vain. [Wash Post]
• The Supreme Court decided to let Exxon off the hook on some of these pumped up oil spill fines. I mean, we can't very well expect those guys to scrounge up the money to find new sources of oil if we force them to pay putative damages for every little thing they do wrong, can we? You decide. [NYT]

• Also in the Supreme Court child rapists won a victory of sorts, and Barack Obama apparently does not approve. [Wash Post]
• Countrywide Financial was sort of the poster bank for the whole "Rent to own, No credit no problem" mortgage concept that is now costing taxpayers $300 billion or so, so it makes total sense that billionaire CEO Angelo Mozilo's tears would garner a standing ovation at the latest shareholders meeting. Wait no, actually it doesn't. [LA Times]
• I gotta say, I totally agree with this so far and it's kind of a disappointment. [Wash Post]
• Scoff all you want about how a grown man should be capable of distinguishing between a teacher dressed up like a Ninja for a costume party and the genuine Ninja article, but in this post-Virginia Tech era can schools ever really be too cautious? [Phillyburbs]

The Hillartini, you see, is actually just a Cosmo. Says Lotus Lounge, "The drink is pink and feminine, yet strong and bold." Says us: Wha? There are many things that Hillary is. She is surprisingly funny and even a little goofy, on occasion. She has an of old-fashionedness to her. (We heard her say "golly" once. Seriously.) She is wicked smart. But "pink and feminine"? Is it pink just because she's a girl? We think Hillary's more like the kind of girls we are: More like a vodka tonic drinker. Or maybe just some Jack, straight up. But sugary, pink stuff that tastes like the bubblegum scraped off the bottom of a movie theatre chair? No fucking way.

(We do appreciate, however, that they saddled Giuliani with an apple martini. Because that's a total girl drink. And Rudy's a drag queen, after all.)

Hey, is it happy hour yet???

Pick the President at Lotus [NBC]

John Edwards: Classic high-low, the former North Carolina senator accessorizes the $400 haircut with a $10 Livestrong bracelet. Perhaps a subtle nod to "Two Americas"? The red tie indicates: "I am a political candidate."

Joe Biden: Gets the whole "black suit" thing right, but the New England homespun-tie thing (are those little whales?) makes him look like a carpetbagger in N.H. since he's from, ahem, Delaware.

Apparently Bills who become president — you know, like Taft! — are men of appetites, and we bet that if we look a little closer New Mexico governor Bill Richardson's tie might have some stains on it. We hear he likes ladies, and we sense he also likes chalupas, and with the black suit sealing the deal we'd vote for him on the basis of sloppy Clinton nostalgia. Or wait a minute, on the basis of sound immigration policies?

Mike Gravel: Did someone forget to tell former Alaskan senator Gravel that a grumpy face doesn't go with a bright red tie? But still, nice suit! So Alaska elected a Democrat once?

Chris Dodd: Setting himself apart from his fellow candidates, Dodd forgoes the classic politician blue-and-red color scheme for a black suit, white shirt, and black tie. How Lagerfeld! But wait, if we don't know who Chris Dodd is, should he really be spending his money on clothing?

Dennis Kucinich does not have a chance, but he does have a really hot underage wife, who clearly accessorized him for this debate. Still, something about that suit screams "You could vote for me."

Obama goes with the shiny, wide-ish baby blue tie that was a fave of Clinton before being co-opted by Bush II, which is sort of like if Sienna Miller started wearing Burberry plaid again a la circa-1997 Kate Moss. Message: Here is a candidate so "clean" and "bright" he can restore dignity not only to the Democratic Party but to the shiny blue tie! Also: The black suit says "Oval Office Material." Hillary's black suit, incidentally, also says "Oval Office Material" — even if her spruced-up makeup and highlights aren't quite enough to say "getting some in the Oval Office material."

[Images via AP]