By Seth Stern CQ Staff
He was known across the nation as an emphatic and tireless advocate of progressive causes for nearly half a century and even more than that as the patriarch of Americas most storied Democratic political dynasty. At the Capitol however Edward M. Kennedy will be remembered as something quite different perhaps the most effectively pragmatic dealmaker in modern times someone who was as eager as he was skilled at working with almost anyone to get things done.
Although Kennedy was an anchor of his partys liberal base no one was too conservative to be ruled out as a potential legislative partner during the 46 years he spent in the Senate. Not George W. Bush in this decade or Orrin G. Hatch in the 1990s. Not Alan K. Simpson or Dan Quayle in the 1980s. Not even Strom Thurmond in the 1970s or James O. Eastland in the 1960s. This willingness to stride across party lines and then look purposefully past the deepest ideological disagreements in order to get negotiations going is a principal reason why Kennedy kept advancing his priorities no matter which party controlled the Senate or who lived in the White House.
Long before he died Tuesday at age 77 Kennedy had written for himself one of the most impressive legislative resumes in American history. The products of his bipartisan work include many of the landmark social policy changes enshrined in law during the past half-century: expanding access to health care aiding the disabled diversifying the ranks of immigrants and ensuring expanded civil rights for Americans long denied them.
In the end his influence on the way the United States lives its collective life in the 21st century may well exceed the imprint left by his two even more famous older brothers President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. For more than four decades in the Senate Teddy has led the fight on the most important issues of our time: civil rights social justice and economic opportunity" his niece Caroline Kennedy the daughter of John F. Kennedy said in 2008. I know his brothers would be so proud of him."
Sometimes Kennedy wound up getting less or giving away more than his liberal allies would have preferred. Most recently he said he harbored regrets over joining with President George W. Bush to enact the No Child Left Behind overhaul of federal education aid and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. But he understood better than anyone that ideological purity is almost always the principal opponent of legislative accomplishment. Teddy Kennedy understood that nothing in the Senate gets done without bipartisan support" says Ross Baker a political scientist at Rutgers University. He was able to work with the most astonishing collection of political conservatives to really amass one of the most remarkable legislative records of any senator of the 20th century or young 21st century."
Counterbalancing those skills at exploiting bipartisanship though was his legendary talent as a shrewd and savvy Democratic playmaker and his desire to perpetuate his familys place in both American lore and the Democratic power structure. One of his final influential acts was throwing his support to Barack Obama at a crucial point in the 2008 Democratic nominating contest assuring the Kennedy mystique would get at least some of the credit if and when the nation elected its first African-American president.
There was another time when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a new frontier" the senator said in an endorsement speech that sought to portray Obama as an heir of sorts to JFK. My friends I ask you to join in this historic journey to have the courage to choose change. Its time again for a new generation of leadership. "
Kennedy could be a fierce partisan particularly during the 1980s when for six years he found himself in the minority party caucus for the first time. He became the leading Senate crusader against the attempts by President Ronald Reagan and congressional Republicans to roll back social welfare programs and expand defense spending. And Kennedys withering and impassioned speech against Robert H. Bork less than an hour after his nomination to the Supreme Court marked the opening salvo in a war for ideological influence over the federal courts that rages to this day.
His reputation as a liberal firebrand sometimes made it hard for constituents of conservative senators to understand why they worked with Kennedy. In Kansas they used to call him the Wicked Witch of the East" recalls Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker a GOP senator from that state when she partnered with Kennedy to write a 1996 law making it easier for people to take their health insurance with them when changing jobs.
And yet it was his reputation as a principled liberal champion that gave him all the more power as a negotiator: Republicans knew he was as good as his word and that his imprimatur could bring scores of other Democrats. Hes a bigger-than-life leader around this place and I think he has tremendous gravitational pull for his party" Gordon H. Smith a Republican senator from Oregon at the time said in 2007. If you want to get something hes a great train to jump on."
A Man of the Senate
During his first quarter-century in the Senate Kennedys developing skills as a legislator were largely obscured by his presidential ambitions and those of his brothers. John effectively bequeathed his Massachusetts seat to his kid brother when he moved to the White House in 1961 and then was assassinated two years later; Robert who joined brother Teddy in Congress as a senator from New York in 1965 was assassinated while running for president three years later.
The youngest brother spent just two years in the Senate leadership before being ousted as majority whip by West Virginias Robert C. Byrd in 1971. Although he was the liberals new rising young star after RFKs death Kennedy proved too impatient to do the odd jobs on the Senate floor and too disinterested in corralling the votes of his colleagues. On top of that he had become fundamentally distracted after a driving accident in Chappaquiddick Mass. in the summer of 1969 in which his young female passenger drowned effectively ending his own hopes for the presidency. But forced to make the most of his career as a legislator Kennedy excelled. Far more than either of his brothers he found himself suited to the slow collegial rhythm of crafting successful legislation in the Senate.
When he arrived after winning a 1962 special election he was only nine months past the constitutionally required minimum age of 30. At his death he was the third-longest-serving senator in history behind only Byrd and Thurmond. Such longevity instilled in Kennedy a willingness to take a long view and settle for less than his ultimate goal on any given bill. He was willing to accept half a loaf says Kenneth Feinberg who worked for Kennedy in the 1970s because he was confident that well eventually get the whole loaf by working incrementally."
Patience and persistence became his hallmarks. He helped push through the first overhaul of the nations immigration laws in 1965 a second one in 1986 and kept trying unsuccessfully on a third as late as 2008. He first introduced legislation to establish universal health care in 1969 and was still working toward that goal in his final months.
Over time Kennedy had become an institution in the Senate unto himself although not one who ever took himself too seriously. He dressed up in elaborate topical and occasionally risque costumes while hosting his legendary Christmas parties. During the Iran- contra affair he appeared as Fawn Hall the secretary who helped her boss Oliver North shred sensitive documents complete with a blond wig and documents stuffed down his pantyhose The Washington Post reported. His three Portuguese water dogs Splash Sunny and Cappy became regulars in the halls of the Senate and even gave him something of a second career as a childrens book author.
No one could turn heads quite like Kennedy when he arrived in the Senate chamber and those who appeared star-struck were not only the tourists watching from the gallery. Im a huge fan of yours!" Kirsten Gillibrand gushed the first time she met him on the Senate floor in March 2009 soon after moving over from the House as an appointed senator from New York. Another Democrat Bob Casey of Pennsylvania recalls how he and the other freshman senators gawked at all the family political memorabilia when Kennedy invited the newcomers for a visit in his private hideaway office in the Capitol in 2007.
Kennedy had always made such efforts to connect with his colleagues and their aides long before he wanted to work with them on a bill. He carefully courted them with gifts and gestures large and small much like an Irish ward boss back in Boston would curry favors with voters. Kennedy made sure for example that his secretary called him out of a meeting the minute Senate Republicans elected a new majority leader in 1996; he wanted to be the first Democrat to congratulate the winner who turned out to be Mississippis Trent Lott.
Political calculation alone doesnt explain why in 1972 he was one of the first people from Washington to reach out to Joseph R. Biden Jr. then a 30-year-old senator-elect from Delaware after his wife and a baby daughter were killed in a car accident. Sixteen years later Kennedy rushed up to Wilmington after learning Biden had suffered a brain aneurysm and spent hours with Bidens family while his colleague lay unconscious.
Whenever any of us encountered great difficulties he was always the first to call" Hatch noted in a tribute from the Senate floor in 2008.
Kennedy sent gifts including a pair of training pants that said Irish Mist" for each grandchild of Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming the top Republican on the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee the panel where Kennedy was either chairman or ranking Democrat since 2001. When Enzis scheduler got married Kennedy made her a copy of the painting hed made for his own second wife Vicki on their wedding day. And his colleagues say he was equally generous in sharing one of the most politically precious but elusive commodities in Congress credit for important ideas or compromises in the pursuit of legislation.
In his own office Kennedy attracted and effectively deployed an unusually talented staff. That alumni network which includes Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown Clinton White House health czar Harold Ickes former Sen. John Culver of Iowa and a collection of Obama administration officials including White House counsel Gregory B. Craig and domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes might prove to be one of Kennedys most lasting legacies in Washington. Attracted by the fabled name and the senators reputation for entrusting aides with great responsibility his staff helped him stay engaged on an extraordinarily broad array of issues. If there was ever a renaissance senator its Ted Kennedy" says Ralph Neas who worked with Kennedy as head of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and People for the American Way.
The Youngest Kennedy
Washington certainly didnt think much of Edward Moore Kennedy when he arrived in November 1962. (The youngest of nine children he was named after an aide to his father Joseph P. Kennedy an ambassador to Britain before World War II and the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.) Kennedy had turned 30 only that February and had little to show for it. Hed been kicked out of Harvard College for cheating. And although he ultimately graduated after a stint in the Army and went on to the University of Virginias law school hed held only one full-time job as an assistant district attorney in Boston. His academic career is mediocre. His professional career is non-existent" Harvard law professor Mark De Wolfe Howe sniffed during the special election campaign. His candidacy is both preposterous and insulting."
The president had arranged for family friend Benjamin A. Smith to be appointed until his youngest brother was old enough to serve. But with one Kennedy in the White House and another running the Justice Department the syndicated columnist Inez Robb summed up the opinion of many in the nations capital by asking Dont you think that Teddy is one Kennedy too many?"
Kennedy won with 55 percent of the vote thanks largely to his familys political network. His challenger in the primary Edward J. McCormack Jr. a nephew of Speaker of the House John W. McCormack had alienated voters when he asked during a debate whether Kennedy would be standing there if his last name had been Moore. Kennedys Republican opponent George C. Lodge whose father and great-grandfather had held the Senate seat fared no better.
For the first of many times the Kennedy name had helped him but once inside the Senate he resolved to keep a low profile. He proved a model freshman striking the right balance of deference and charm needed to win over Southerners in positions of power with whom he usually disagreed substantively.
One Kennedy biographer Adam Clymer recounts how Eastland the Mississippi Democrat and arch segregationist who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee granted his requests for seats on the immigration and Constitution subcommittees over a glass of Chivas Regal. Eastland explained that it wouldnt be a problem if he sat on a panel that considered civil rights legislation since we dont kill the bills in subcommittee we kill them in full committee."
Campaigning for his first full term in 1964 Kennedy was traveling to his state party convention aboard a private plane when it crashed near Springfield Mass. breaking his back. Although confined to bed for the rest of the campaign news footage showed him lying on his stomach on a cot waving to cameras he won with 74 percent. But back problems would plague him for the rest of his life.
Civil rights an issue that would become as closely associated with Kennedy as any other was the subject of his first major speech in the Senate in 1965. He urged adoption of an amendment to a major civil rights bill barring poll taxes a tool used by Southern states to prevent poor African-Americans from voting. The effort failed but he managed to impress observers and avoid alienating Eastland who let him shepherd a major immigration bill on the Senate floor later that year.
The bill eliminated the national origins system that favored immigrants from northern Europe. As Vincent Bzdek recounts in his biography of Kennedy outraged Southern senators such as Spessard L. Holland of Florida condemned the legislation for treating Africans the same as Europeans. Kennedy sought the high ground focusing on how the bill affirmed American notions of equal opportunity while his brother the New York senator exploded in anger at Holland. Ted had preserved his relationship with Holland for another day" Bzdek writes. Bobby had made an enemy for life."
Jack was clearly bored with the Senate and Bobby was impatient" says Garrison Nelson a political science professor at the University of Vermont. Ted really caught on. He truly is the Senate man that neither of his brothers were."
Aiming for Leadership
It was only seven months after the second brother was assassinated that Kennedy became at age 36 the youngest senator to ever hold the position of majority whip He got the job the No. 2 post in the Senate hierarchy by defeating Russell B. Long of Louisiana who had held the position for four years and also chaired the Finance Committee.
The leadership job was widely seen as heralding Kennedys arrival as leader of the partys liberal wing and as his partys presumed presidential standard bearer of the 1970s. (He had brushed back a brief but fervent Draft Ted" effort in 1968.) But his soaring national standing soon suffered a fundamental demotion because of a tragedy entirely of his own making: On the night of July 18 1969 Kennedy attended a party on Marthas Vineyards Chappaquiddick Island for alumni of the RFK campaign and departed with 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne who had been one of his brothers Senate secretaries. As they headed toward a nearby beach Kennedy drove off a narrow wooden bridge and into a pond where the 1967 Oldsmobile sedan overturned and sank to the bottom. The senator swam to safety but did not contact the authorities for about eight hours by which time Kopechnes drowned body had been discovered. A week later he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence. He went on television and announced he was considering resigning from the Senate but he was persuaded by a wave of support from his constituents to stay on.
Still a pair of inquiries that lasted into the next year and a wave of national attention left Kennedy largely distracted from his leadership job. In his absence Byrd took on many of the whips responsibilities including marshaling votes for legislation on the floor. Although Kennedy won another term in 1970 (albeit with 514000 fewer votes than the election before) he was ousted from the whips job by his fellow Democratic senators as soon as he returned to Washington.
His loss to Byrd was the first political defeat of his career. But it ultimately benefited Kennedy who was ill-suited to the procedural grind on the Senate floor by forcing him to make his own way at the Capitol without the help of his familys fairy-tale aura. That might have stripped the legacy of Camelot away from Teddy" Thomas M. Susman the top lobbyist for the American Bar Association and a member of Kennedys staff from 1969 to 1980 says of Chappaquiddick and his subsequent demotion from the leadership. He had to pull himself up using his own strength at that point."
Kennedy quickly capitalized on the new perch he was given in 1971 chairman of the health panel on what was then known as the Labor and Public Welfare Committee pressing for a vast expansion in spending on medical research and advocating for universal health care. He also branched out into new issues on the Judiciary Committee as the 1970s progressed. Chairing the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure he launched investigations on everything from freedom of information to American Indian rights and airline deregulation. If anything he might choose someday to focus on fewer issues more intensively at a slower pace" The New Yorker wrote in a 1975 profile. But his pace is dictated now by the number of things he feels must be done as well as by concerns of his late brothers issues that must be carried on."
He took up the cause of refugees and partnered with Sen. John L. McClellan a conservative Arkansas Democrat to overhaul the nations criminal code. They were an unlikely pair. McClellan had long condemned Supreme Court decisions that he said coddled criminals. Kennedy was more concerned about inequitable sentences that disproportionately affected African-Americans. But the pair found common ground on the idea of bringing consistency to criminal sentences. Although the measure ultimately stalled in the House Feinberg says Kennedys successful effort to get the Senate to pass it in early 1978 over liberal objections showed him at his bipartisan best.
He did it by being flexible on the substance. He always felt the perfect was the enemy of the good" Feinberg recalled. That combination of negotiating flexibility non-ideology . . . time commitment determination and doggedness made all the difference."
At the relatively young age of 46 Kennedy had amassed enough seniority by 1979 to succeeded Eastland as chairman of the Judiciary Committee a post his predecessor had held for 22 years. But his early months in that job proved rocky. He alienated fellow Democrats by proposing to cut the roster of subcommittees from 10 to six thus depriving freshmen of the gavels Eastland had afforded them. Democrats groused that he seemed more interested in overtures to Republicans including offering them a proportionate share of the committees budget. And Kennedy again took up the cause of criminal code reform this time tapping a Republican South Carolinas Thurmond as his partner.
But almost from the start of that year Kennedy was once again distracted from his senatorial work by his national prominence. Urged on not only by the partys liberal base which had grown disenchanted with Jimmy Carter but also by some party elders who viewed Kennedy as a stronger candidate than the incumbent president Kennedy launched his one and only bid for the presidency. When he formally announced that November polls showed him leading Carter 2-to-1 among Democratic voters. But that lead eroded steadily in part because Kennedy was unable to articulate a clear rationale for his own candidacy or to overcome questions about Chappaquiddick.
The following summer with Carter decidedly ahead in delegates awarded through the primaries and caucuses Kennedy mounted a last-ditch effort to try to wrest the nomination from Carter at the convention. Although that maneuver did not work its main effect was to deepen the partys polarization that year his speech acknowledging defeat remains perhaps the most memorable of his career. And its concluding lines are certain to be cited by many in the coming weeks as his most appropriate epitaph: For me a few hours ago this campaign came to an end" he said. For all those whose cares have been our concern: The work goes on. The cause endures. The hope still lives. And the dream shall never die."
Making the Most of the Minority
Still the Democrats sorry state that year was cemented for the cameras two nights later when Kennedy publicly refused to clasp hands with Carter and form the traditional party unity tableau as the convention ended in New Yorks Madison Square Garden. With the Republican Party united behind him Ronald Reagan trounced Carter in the Electoral College while the GOP picked up 33 seats in the House and a dozen in the Senate. And so 1981 began as a grim year for Kennedy who not only saw his presidential aspirations buried but also found himself in the Senates minority caucus for the first time. (He also announced at that time that he and his first wife Joan were divorcing.)
Deprived of a chairmans gavel Kennedys choice was to become ranking Democrat on either the Judiciary or Labor and Human Resources committee. He chose the latter he said so that he could help hold the line against a dismantling of the social safety net constructed in the New Deal.
Kennedy knew he would enjoy a potential tactical advantage there: Assuming the other six Democrats stood with him he could prevail in the committee so long as he could win over its two liberal Republicans Lowell P. Weicker Jr. of Connecticut and Robert T. Stafford of Vermont. Kennedy courted them both and they proved pivotal in helping Kennedy limit the cuts Reagan wanted to make in health education and social services programs.
He also teamed up with Indianas Quayle then a conservative freshman Republican on the panel to reshape job training programs. I knew our alliance would make news" the former vice president wrote in his memoir Standing Firm." It also made some people in the Reagan administration uncomfortable."
These cross-party alliances proved maddening to Hatch the panels chairman at the time who had arrived in the Senate in the middle of the 1970s with the express goal of fighting Kennedy. Each of us is the embodiment of almost every political viewpoint the other has spent his career fighting" Hatch wrote in his memoir Square Peg."
But Hatch came to realize he would need to work with the Democrat sitting next to him on the dais even if he could get annoyed at the way Kennedy blew his cigar smoke toward him at particularly contentious committee meetings. In the years to come they would work together on a series of bills including two measures designed to help people with AIDS. They certainly didnt agree about everything particularly when it came to organized labor. There were times they had to go at each other hammer and tongs" recalled Tom Rollins who served as Kennedys staff director on the Labor committee.
Yet Rollins was struck by how even after fighting fiercely over a bill to require businesses to provide advance notice of mass firings Kennedy and Hatch could immediately turn around and work together on another measure limiting lie detectors in the workplace.
To their mutual surprise the professional relationship of this political odd couple slowly evolved into a close friendship as well. When Kennedys mother died Hatch appeared without advance notice at her funeral and Kennedy gave him a prominent seat with the family. Kennedy in turn attended the funeral for Hatchs mother in Utah.
Beyond the Labor panel Kennedy also managed to wrangle a seat on the Armed Services Committee where he fought against the Reagan defense buildup. He joined Republican Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon in advocating for a freeze in the production of nuclear weapons and together they wrote a book entitled Freeze: How You Can Help Prevent Nuclear War." Kennedy also helped lead the fight that successfully overrode a Reagan veto and imposed sanctions against South Africas apartheid government in 1986. After being freed from prison South Africas first black president Nelson Mandela visited Kennedys office to thank him.
Kennedy did not entirely remove himself from the business of the Judiciary Committee working with Simpson on an immigration law overhaul. When the Wyoming Republican first arrived in 1979 his father Milward who had been a senator in the 1960s suggested he get to know Kennedy. Although they didnt agree on much politically Kennedy made a favorable impression when he was the first to arrive at a reception that year for the elder Simpson who by then was suffering from Parkinsons disease. Kennedy kneeled on the ground for half an hour to talk to his former Senate colleague who could not get out of his wheelchair.
Kennedy also proved instrumental in enacting an extension of the Voting Rights Act and several other civil rights bills in the 1980s. His success in advancing a series of measures that strengthened civil rights laws during the dozen consecutive years of Republican control of the White House surprised even his closest interest-group allies. He has this almost preternatural sense of when to make the timely move when to work with the key Republican or Republicans that will make something in danger of not passing become a law" said Neas. He understands more than anyone Ive ever met the rhythms of the legislative process when to act and when not to act."
Success and Scandal
In 1986 after Democrats won back control of the Senate Kennedy toyed briefly with retaking the gavel on Judiciary but decided instead to claim the chairmanship of Labor where he oversaw an extraordinarily productive legislative period. The panel had a hand in writing 54 laws enacted in the second two years of his chairmanship in 1989 and 1990 according to Bzdeks biography the largest output from that committee since President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed his Great Society agenda in the 1960s.
One of the most prominent laws of that period was the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 which extended broad civil rights protections to people with mental and physical disabilities. Although President George Bush fought Kennedy on other civil rights bills of that time he was fully on board for the ADA and so Kennedy had some leeway to chose as his partner a fellow Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa whose brother Frank was deaf.
Kennedy had his own personal interest in the rights of the disabled. One sister Rosemary was born mildly developmentally disabled and spent most of her life institutionalized after being lobotomized at their fathers direction. Another sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver was one of the creators of the Special Olympics.
He didnt have to do that. Heck I was a freshman senator" Harkin said. But he knew of my interest in that and how passionate I was about it and he let me take charge of it. And Ill be forever grateful to him for that."
While Kennedy reached new heights of productivity in the Senate his personal life increasingly became the subject of tabloid fodder and critical attention in the mainstream press. A devastating 1990 article in GQ magazine detailed the senators late-night partying and chasing of younger women. For the most part Kennedy managed to keep his private peccadilloes separate from his prodigious Senate work. That is until 1991 when a nephew William Kennedy Smith was charged with rape after a night of drinking with the senator. (He was acquitted.) Later that year despite his long record of promoting womens equality Kennedy kept mum during the debate over Clarence Thomas nomination to the Supreme Court concluding he was in no position politically to take the lead against a nominee accused of sexual harassment.
Kennedy acknowledged the faults in the conduct of my private life" in a speech at Harvard and appeared to settle down the next year after his second marriage to family friend Victoria Reggie.
Bill Clintons election meant Kennedy had a potential Democratic ally in the White House for the first time in decades and the first high-profile legislation Clinton signed into law was Kennedys bill to require larger employers to provide their workers unpaid family and medical leave. Kennedy also did his best to support Clintons push for national health care which fell totally flat by the middle of 1994. But later that year Democrats were swept out of power in both houses of Congress and Kennedy himself was held below three-fifths of the vote for the first and only time in his eight Senate re-election races by Republican Mitt Romney.
Still Kennedy returned for another remarkably productive period while cast out in the minority. He successfully pushed for an increase in the minimum wage partnered with Kassebaum Baker on the law to ease the portability of health benefits and worked with Hatch to use tobacco tax revenue as a way to expand childrens medical insurance coverage. But he found it difficult negotiating with leaders of the Republican revolution" on the House side who viewed Kennedy as the embodiment of the social liberalism they so disdained. He had to negotiate in a very hostile environment" recalls Len Nichols who as an economist at the Urban Institute advised Kennedy in that period. He figures out what the other sides motivation is and what they care about."
The Bush Years
Of all Kennedys bipartisan partnerships perhaps the most surprising was the one he forged with another son of an American political dynasty: George W. Bush . Having campaigned in 2000 on pledges of bipartisan cooperation and then having won the presidency only after an intensely partisan court dispute Bush quickly identified Kennedy as a potential partner and sought to cement their relationship by inviting Kennedy to watch a movie at the White House and renaming the Justice Departments Washington headquarters for his brother Robert.
Kennedy had done enough wooing of his own to know when he was being courted. But he also saw the benefits of working with Bush on an issue of mutual interest: education. They became partners on legislation that became known as No Child Left Behind. Kennedys support proved pivotal particularly in helping quell the concerns of fellow Democrats and the teachers unions.
The other Democrats looked and thought if Sen. Kennedy is working on this then therefore it was OK to be seen as working with President Bush in his maiden year in office" says Mary Kusler a lobbyist who worked on the bill for the American Association of School Administrators.
What struck Bush education adviser Sandy Kress most was the contrast between how Kennedy operated in public and in private. On the Senate floor or at news conferences Kennedy was able to unleash at will the sort of red-faced furies of indignation at conservative proposals that gave much of the meaning to his nickname Lion of the Senate." But when the cameras were out of sight the dealmaker took over. It was a beautiful negotiation" Kress said in 2001 in describing how the education overhaul came together. It was such a high-wire act that if you went just a little farther the Republicans would have fallen off. And the Democrats had gone as far as they could too."
It wasnt long after that laws enactment that Kennedy concluded hed been burned by the Bush administration which he complained had gone back on its commitments for funding the law. And yet Kennedy again partnered with Bush in 2003 on the law creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit. There too he brought along a skeptical Democratic Caucus. And there too he felt burned when Republicans included language in the final version allowing private health maintenance organizations to compete with Medicare as providers. He unsuccessfully filibustered the bill and ultimately voted against it.
But Kennedy would work with Bush during his second term on efforts to overhaul immigration policy. For Lindsey Graham in his first term in the Senate it was his first chance to work closely with Kennedy. It was sort of like what you thought government would be like in civics class in the ninth grade" the South Carolina Republican recalls. We met every day with a group of senators and staff. We made phone calls every night. One day hed be the good guy and the next day Id be the bad guy. But he always kept his word and was really good at trying to find compromise and middle ground."
The effort in which Kennedys main GOP partner was John McCain of Arizona ultimately ran aground but Graham says he learned an important lesson about Ted Kennedy: Hes willing to take on his own constituencies if he believes it will serve a higher purpose."
Sealing the Legacy
Kennedy signaled he was thinking about his own mortality in late 2007 when he signed a multimillion-dollar deal for his memoirs. A few months later he essentially designated his political heir passing over another Senate colleague Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and declaring that it was Obama who could best carry the aspirations espoused by the Kennedy family for half a century. Every time Ive been asked over the past year who I would support in the Democratic primary my answer has always been the same: Ill support the candidate who inspires me who inspires all of us who can lift our vision and summon our hopes and renew our belief that our countrys best days are still to come" Kennedy declared. Ive found that candidate."
Kennedy went out on the stump for Obama several times but the primaries were not over when Kennedy suffered a seizure in May 2008 and was diagnosed with brain cancer. He remained largely absent from the Senate and shied away from most public appearances after undergoing an aggressive and risky surgery early the next month to remove much of the tumor.
But Kennedy defied expectations and left his sickbed to make a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Denver that August. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks victory and defeat. But we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world" he said. And I pledge to you I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate" when Obama takes office.
And he was sporting a porkpie hat on the inaugural platform. But at the lunch afterward in Statuary Hall he suffered a seizure and was carried out on a stretcher. He largely stayed away from the Capitol after that although his colleagues and aides issued statements and news releases as if hed never left. His final high-profile appearance on the Senate floor was in March when he ambled onto the floor with the aid of a cane to vote on an expansion of national service programs that was named in his honor. But he was unable to return to Washington after Memorial Day as hed initially hoped to work toward one of the goals hes pursued throughout his public life: universal access to medical care.
That inconclusive end though could hardly obscure his profound legislative legacy. In the year I was born President Kennedy let out word that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans" Obama had said on the day he received Kennedys endorsement. He was right; it had. It was passed to his youngest brother. From the battles of the 1960s to the battles of today he has carried that torch lighting the way for all who share his American ideals."
Jonathan Allen David Baumann Kathleen Hunter and Emma Dumain contributed to this story.
