Free Republic

Reps. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced the Do No Harm Act Wednesday, which would amend the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to specify that religious exceptions should not apply to “protections against discrimination or the promotion of equal opportunity” and “access to, information about, referrals for, provision of, or coverage for, any health care item or service.” The legislation is intended to “clarify that no one can seek religious exemption from laws guaranteeing fundamental civil and legal rights.”

If your name were Joseph Patrick, your candidacy would be a joke. That is of course a paraphrase of what Eddie McCormack said to Ted Kennedy back in their 1962 Senate debate. But it’s just as true now of Teddy’s great-nephew JoJoJo Kennedy. So what if he doesn’t have any qualifications. He’ll drive off that bridge when he comes to it. Actually, he does have a record, and that’s the fact that his name is Kennedy and he doesn’t have a record, a police record that is. For a Kennedy, that’s quite a record to run on. Somebody said yesterday...

Joe Kennedy III to announce candidacy tomorrow

He’s still living with his mother in Cambridge, but 31-year-old Joseph P. Kennedy III said he’ll move soon into the 4th Congressional District and begin charting a possible run for Barney Frank’s open seat. (snip) Kennedy appeared with Gov. Deval Patrick’s former spokesman Kyle Sullivan and was far more professional than his first encounter with the Herald two weeks ago, when he called the reporter “dude” then said he was at work and couldn’t answer any questions.

Scott Brown got into the U.S. Senate two years ago declaring, “This is not the Kennedys’ seat,” but 2012 could be the Year of the Kennedys’ Revenge. Joseph P. Kennedy III’s likely congressional run in the redrawn 4th District, which includes Brown’s Wrentham hometown, has Democrats buzzing about a new generation of Kennedys helping Elizabeth Warren take back the late family patriarch’s Senate seat. With Warren already running even with the Republican incumbent in the polls, even a small wave of Kennedy nostalgia, especially on Brown’s strongest turf, could sweep the Democratic challenger to victory in November. The prospect also...

It's been a busy month for Joseph Kennedy III. The son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy is engaged to be married to Lauren Anne Birchfield, a fellow Harvard Law School graduate. The announcement comes a little more than a week after the 31-year-old Kennedy formed an exploratory committee as a first step toward a run for the U.S. House seat held by retiring Rep. Barney Frank.

Howie thread for the week starting off with his Sunday Boston Herald column, "C’mon Sean, stop JoJoJo’s ‘coronation’" Can Sean Bielat (R) stop Joe Kennedy III from getting Barney Frank's seat? Read on!

Joseph P. Kennedy III, the son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy, is launching an exploratory committee in preparation for a likely run for the seat recently vacated by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, sources confirmed this morning. Kennedy, a 30-year-old prosecutor who is the grandson of late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is slated to step down from his post in the Middlesex District Attorney’s office and will open up an exploratory committee, which will allow him to begin raising money to run for the seat. His last day as a prosecutor will be Jan. 20, said a spokesperson for...