Today, we lost Senator Edward M. Kennedy, aka Ted Kennedy. He was a giant among men, and he earned the nickname "The Lion of the Senate" after 46 years of service. My first exposure to politics and Democratic politics (capital D) was through my father. He revered the Kennedys and often spoke of the time during college when he shook President Kennedy's hand. To him, the Kennedys represented everything that was great about America- a family of Irish Catholics who worked hard, made the highest sacrifice with their public service and their own blood, and who never ceased to look out for the little guy despite their station in life.
While Teddy was considered to have the dimmest prospects of all the Kennedy boys for success, his contributions to Americans and people the world over may have been the most profound of any of his family. The list of his legislative accomplishments is far too long to review here tonight, but they include: S-Chip, the Voting Rights Act, OSHA, Americans with Disabilities Act, and No Child Left Behind. He was also able to work across the aisle, and I was struck by the tone and words of comfort expressed by Republicans today after news of his passing. Despite that, he was a liberal through and through, and he was one of the few Democrats to vote against authorizing the Iraq War in 2002- how prescient.
He knew how to give a great speech, and he will go down as one of the greatest orators of our time. Who could forget the eulogy after RFK's shooting, the concession speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, and the addresses at the nominating conventions for both John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008? He was America's senator and the face of the liberal wing of the Democratic party. Teddy is, to a great extent, why I am proud to call myself a liberal, and why I always viewed it as a compliment whenever a conservative critic attempted to malign Barack Obama or another candidate by saying his legislative record was to the left of Kennedy.
While his dedication to public service is unmatched in the modern era, he also had his own personal failing including an episode of cheating while at Harvard, a role in the death of a young woman at Chappaquiddick, struggles with his weight and alcohol abuse, and rumors of womanizing. It was those failings that were brought to light in real time, which made Ted Kennedy the most scrutinized Kennedy of his generation. It was also what made him seem the most real of any of that dynasty and what endeared him to many of his constituents and Americans whose lives were affected by similar problems.
The political scientist Norman Ornstein put it best today when he said about Teddy, “He was a quintessential Kennedy, in the sense that he had all the warts as well as all the charisma and a lot of the strengths. If his father, Joe, had surveyed, from an early age up to the time of his death, all of his children, his sons in particular, and asked to rank them on talents, effectiveness, likelihood to have an impact on the world, Ted would have been a very poor fourth. Joe, John, Bobby ... Ted. He was the survivor. He was not a shining star that burned brightly and faded away. He had a long, steady glow. When you survey the impact of the Kennedys on American life and politics and policy, he will end up by far being the most significant.”
You will be missed Teddy...
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