As you know by now, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy died early this morning.

The remembrances will flow for days.

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But an immediate political question concerns his successor — who and how soon? Of course, the Democrats really didn’t have 60 votes in the Senate to do anything difficult anyway, so the debate about the nearness of that caucus total is mostly academic.

UPDATE: Kennedy’s death might have Arkansas implications. A farm newsletter says current Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin might opt to move over to succeed Kennedy as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. That could open the way for Sen. Blanche Lincoln to become agriculture chairman.

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