Party expects loyal soldier in health care fight with GOP

Those who knew Kennedy, the legendary Senate leader, and know Kirk, his loyal aide-de-camp, said yesterday that there was little daylight between their political philosophies. That leads Democrats to expect a seamless transition once he is sworn in this afternoon - and to count on Kirk as a loyal soldier in the battle with Republicans in the health care debate.

To underscore the point, President Obama, party leaders, and labor unions, a core Kennedy constituency, enthusiastically welcomed Kirk to his first elective office.

“Paul Kirk is a distinguished leader, whose long collaboration with Senator Kennedy makes him an excellent, interim choice to carry on his work until the voters make their choice in January,’’ Obama said in a statement yesterday issued minutes after Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts formally introduced Kirk as his pick.

Following suit, Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, praised Kirk as a skilled political associate who “embodies the values of Senator Kennedy’’ and “has a longstanding appreciation of the issues that matter to the great people of Massachusetts.’’

Both Reid and Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, a key moderate in the health care fight, owe their political rise in part to Kirk; he was the Democratic national chairman in 1986 when they were first elected and the party regained control of the Senate.

Republicans, however, saw Kirk’s appointment as illegitimate. Bay State voters will elect Kennedy’s successor in January and Kirk will not run.

GOP leaders griped yesterday that Massachusetts Democrats - who denied former governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, the right to pick a replacement if Senator John F. Kerry had won the presidency in 2004 - seated Kirk after a raw power move that violated Obama’s pledge to change “politics as usual’’ in Washington.

Most saw it as a way to make sure that Obama has a dependable vote in the Senate as Democrats try to reach the 60 votes needed to quash a potential Republican filibuster on the sweeping health care bill.

“What the totally Democratic-controlled Massachusetts state government should have done is just be honest about it,’’ Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican, said at a news conference yesterday.

“They should have written a law this way: If there’s a Republican governor, there’s no appointment. And if there’s a Democratic governor, there is an appointment,’’ he said.

Still, there was no direct Republican criticism of Kirk, who spent eight years as Kennedy’s closest aide on Capitol Hill and four years as Democratic National Committee chairman.

Politicians and analysts said his friendly, low-key demeanor belies his reputation as a shrewd political hand who understands how Congress works.

“He’s an incredibly likeable man,’’ said E.J. Dionne Jr., a senior fellow and political analyst at The Brookings Institution. In Congress, he said, Kirk is known as a fiercely loyal Democrat, but “he’s a happy partisan, not a slashing partisan,’’ who earned his political stripes with Kennedy during the 1960s and 1970s - widely considered the golden age of bipartisan cooperation.

Though he won’t have the wide-ranging influence Kennedy did, Dionne said, Kirk can be an effective senator because he simply has just one job: help Reid and the Democrats put a health care bill on Obama’s desk this year.

“If they get a health care bill passed, he’ll be a successful senator,’’ Dionne said. “If he doesn’t, he won’t.’’

Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., who was chairman of the Republican Party at the same time Kirk led the Democratic Party, said he and Kirk “tried to beat each other’s brains out’’ in each election. But after serving together on the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, he added, “we developed just a tremendous mutual respect’’ that evolved into a close friendship.

“Paul is a soft-spoken guy, extremely competent, and smart. He really knows the Hill inside and out,’’ said Fahrenkopf, who is now chief executive officer for the American Gaming Association, a lobbying group.

Marc Landy, a Boston College political science professor, agreed, adding that Kirk’s lower profile probably gave him the edge over Michael S. Dukakis, a former Massachusetts governor, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, and a lightning rod for GOP attacks on liberals. Dukakis had been considered a leading candidate for the interim appointment.

“Dukakis is a really talented, thoughtful politician and intellectual, but he’s not a foot-soldier type,’’ said Landy.

“Paul Kirk’s main responsibility is to be a loyal trouper, a loyal foot soldier to Reid. I imagine he’ll do that.’’