I, too, don't mind the idea that Senate vacancies are sometimes used to appoint people who haven't really spent much time in electoral politics. One flaw in democracy, specifically our particular version of it, is that there's no real reason that the skills required to get elected match up all that well with the skills necessary to become an awesome legislator. So a lot of senators really do suck, and not just because they disagree with my politics, but because they're sub-competent dolts.
But as Sam says at the link, that isn't really an argument for Kennedy as opposed to plenty of other people who might be pretty awesome.
