DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Sen. Ted Kennedy dies of Brain Cancer

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TedKennedy/story?id=6692022

Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at Age 77
'Liberal Lion' of the Senate Led Storied Political Family After Deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy

Aug. 26, 2009—

Sen. Ted Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77.

The man known as the "liberal lion of the Senate" had fought a more than year-long battle with brain cancer, and according to his son had lived longer with the disease than his doctors expected him to.

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever," the Kennedy family said in a statement. "He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it."

Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest Kennedy brother who was left to head the family's political dynasty after his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

Kennedy championed health care reform, working wages and equal rights in his storied career. In August, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the nation's highest civilian honor -- by President Obama. His daughter, Kara Kennedy, accepted the award on his behalf.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, known as Ted or Teddy, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent a successful brain surgery soon after that. But his health continued to deteriorate, and Kennedy suffered a seizure while attending the luncheon following President Barack Obama's inauguration.

For Kennedy, the ascension of Obama was an important step toward realizing his goal of health care reform.

At the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, the Massachusetts Democrat promised, "I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test."

Sen. Kennedy made good on that pledge, but ultimately lost his battle with cancer.

Kennedy was first elected to the Senate in 1962, at the age of 30, and his tenure there would span four decades.

A hardworking, well-liked politician who became the standard-bearer of his brothers' liberal causes, his career was clouded by allegations of personal immorality and accusations that his family's clout helped him avoid the consequences of an accident that left a young woman dead.

But for the younger members of the Kennedy clan, from his own three children to those of his brothers JFK and RFK, Ted Kennedy -- once seen as the youngest and least talented in a family of glamorous overachievers -- was both a surrogate father and the center of the family.

And certainly it was Ted Kennedy who bore many of the tragedies of the family -- the violent deaths of four of his siblings, his son's battle with cancer, and the death of his nephew John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash.

Kennedy, Youngest Kennedy Brother, Led Political Dynasty in Wake of Tragedy

Edward Moore Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass., on Feb. 22, 1932, the ninth and youngest child of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.

His father, a third-generation Irish-American who became a multimillionaire businessman and served for a time as a U.S. ambassador to Britain, had risen high and was determined that his sons would rise higher still.

Overshadowed by his elder siblings, Teddy, as he was known to family and friends, grew up mostly in the New York City suburb of Bronxville, N.Y., and attended private boarding schools. He was expelled from Harvard during his freshman year after he asked a friend to take an exam for him.

After a two-year stint in the Army, Kennedy returned to earn degrees at Harvard and then the University of Virginia law school. He married Virginia Joan Bennett, known by her middle name, in 1958. The couple would have three children, Kara, Teddy Jr. and Patrick.

By the time he reached adulthood, tragedy had already claimed some of his siblings: eldest brother Joe Jr. was killed in World War II, sister Kathleen died in a plane crash, and another sister, Rosemary, who was mildly retarded, had to be institutionalized following a botched lobotomy.

But then the family hit its pinnacle in 1960, when John F. Kennedy became president.

His brother's ascension created a political opportunity, and Joe Kennedy decided he should take over JFK's Senate seat. Ted Kennedy was only 28 at the time -- two years short of the required age -- so a family friend was found to hold the temporary appointment.

In 1962, Ted Kennedy -- backed by his family money and the enthusiasm his name generated among Massachusetts' Catholics, was elected to the Senate.

The Only One Left

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His brother Robert became the focus of the family's -- and much of the country's -- dreams.

Following the tragedy in Dallas, Robert and Ted Kennedy became closer than they had ever been as children.

"When I was working for Robert Kennedy, there was hardly a day in which the two of them didn't physically get together, I would say at least three or four times," said Frank Mankiewicz, who served as an aide to Robert Kennedy. "I mean, if, if Sen. Robert Kennedy wasn't in his office, and nobody knew where he was, chances are he was seeing Ted about something."

Five years later, while pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 against Lyndon Johnson, Sen. Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed. That left Ted as the only surviving Kennedy son.

"He seriously contemplated getting out of politics after Robert's death," said Kennedy biographer Adam Clymer. "He thought, you know, it might just be too much. He might be too obviously the next target and all of that. But he decided to stick it out and as he said on more than one occasion, pick up a fallen standard."

Kennedy was seen by many as his brothers' heir, and perhaps he could have won the White House had he stepped into the presidential race then. But he didn't. And the very next year there occurred a tragedy that would forever block Ted Kennedy's presidential ambitions.

In July 1969, following a party on Martha's Vineyard, Kennedy drove off a bridge on the tiny Massachusetts island of Chappaquiddick. The car plunged into the water. Kennedy escaped, but his passenger did not.

Kennedy later said he dived into the water repeatedly in a vain attempt to save Mary Jo Kopechne, one of the "boiler room girls" who had worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign. But Kopechne, 28, drowned, still trapped in the car.

Questions arose about how Kennedy had known Kopechne -- he denied any "private relationship," and Kopechne's parents also insisted there was no relationship -- and why he failed to report the accident for about nine hours.

Kennedy pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident. He received a two-month suspended sentence and lost his driver's license for a year, but the political price was higher.

Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate in 1970, but the accident at Chappaquiddick effectively squashed his presidential hopes.

He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1979 against incumbent President Jimmy Carter.

Once when his daughter Kara, then 19, was passing out campaign leaflets, a man took one and said to her, "You know your father killed a young woman about your age, don't you?"

Kennedy Curse: Political Power, Personal Tragedy

Sen. Ted Kennedy was not done confronting personal tragedy.

In 1973, 12-year-old Teddy Jr. was diagnosed with bone cancer, and he had to have a leg amputated. Kennedy's marriage to Joan deteriorated. Some blamed her drinking, others cited his alleged womanizing. The couple divorced in 1981.

In contrast, Kennedy's career in the Senate continued to flourish.

He supported teachers' unions, women's and abortion rights, and health care reform. He sponsored the Family and Medical Leave Act. And he was seen as a stalwart of the Democratic Party, delivering several rousing speeches at conventions.

Former Boston Glober reporter Tom Oliphant, who covered Kennedy's career in Washington, observed, "It's not all back slapping and, and personal relationships. I think one of the things that sets Kennedy's politics apart is his, what I call his dirty little secret. He works like a dog."

Political analyst Mark Shields said Kennedy's "concerns were national concerns, but his forum for achieving his ends and changing policy, became the Senate. And he mastered it like nobody else I've ever seen."

But another family incident exposed Kennedy's vulnerabilities and held him up to public censure.

A nephew, William Kennedy Smith, was accused of raping a woman at the family's estate in Palm Beach, Fla. The case generated lurid headlines around the world. Kennedy was at the estate at the time of the alleged attack and had been at the bar where Smith met his accuser.

Eyebrows were raised even further when a young woman who had been with Kennedy's son Patrick that night revealed that she had seen the senator roaming around the house at night, wearing an oxford shirt but no trousers.

Smith was acquitted following a highly sensational trial, but the incident definitely left a dent in Kennedy's armor. His alleged heavy drinking and womanizing were widely lampooned, and in October 1991 he thought it prudent to be low-key in his opposition to Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who had been accused of sexually harassing a former subordinate.

Kennedy's life, both professional and personal, took a turn for the better in 1992.

He married Victoria Reggie, a divorced attorney with two children from a previous marriage, Curran and Caroline. That year Kennedy also supported Bill Clinton, an open admirer of the Kennedy clan.

"Well, sometime during our courtship, I realized that I didn't want to live the rest of my life without Vicky," Kennedy said about his wife of nearly 30 years. "And since we have been together, it's made my life a lot more fulfilling. I think more serene, kind of emotional stability."

Elected in 1992, President Bill Clinton appointed Kennedy's sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, ambassador to Ireland. And in 1994, Kennedy had the satisfaction of seeing his son Patrick elected to the House of Representatives from Rhode Island.

But tragedy returned that year.

In May 1994, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died of cancer. Kennedy had remained close to his sister-in-law, who once quit her job at a publisher's after it came out with an unflattering biography of Ted.

Kennedy's Battle With Cancer Lost

Kennedy had served as a surrogate father for many of his nephews and nieces, but he may have been closest to Jackie's children, Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr.

He was horrified when in July 1999, five years after Jackie's death, John Jr. and his bride of two years, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, along with her sister Lauren Bessette, were killed when the small plane John was piloting crashed off the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard.

Sen. Kennedy led the family during the harrowing wait for information as Coast Guard crews searched for the missing plane.

When the bodies were retrieved from the ocean, Kennedy and his two sons went to identify the remains. The senator's eulogy for his nephew who "had every gift but length of years" and "the wife who became his perfect soul mate" touched grief-stricken Americans.

It was an all-too-familiar sight for those who remember Ted Kennedy mourning the deaths of his brothers John and Robert, and helping the family bear up after the deaths of Robert's sons David and Michael.

For decades, it was Ted Kennedy who carried the burden and led the way as the patriarch of a family seen as America's answer to royalty.

RIP Mr. Kennedy.

Godspeed.

Ted Kennedy the person... I feel for him, his friends and family.
Ted Kennedy the politician.... Good riddance.

You know, in my mind I put the over/under on a comment like this at 10 posts. I mentally took the under. Thanks for confirming my faith in most of my fellow board members........

RIP Ted......


As a polatition Ted wasnt clean, Ted wasnt always honest, Ted didnt always do the right thing, Ted used his status to get things & do things, but Ted did try and dedicated his life to this counrty and for that I wish him peace.

Not whining. Just making an observation.

Perhaps you never heard the phrase, "If you can't say something good, don't say anything at all" ?

Classy as always, Dawg.

Sometimes, and maybe this is one of them, it's best to just let things go unsaid...

RIP Teddy...

Tragic that of the four Joe & Rose Kennedy sons, only Ted lived long enough to die of a natural cause. He's now found the peace that escaped him in this world.

RIP Senator Kennedy.

Love him or hate him, the guy was a public figure from a public family, and that can't be easy.

RIP

RIP Teddy.

R.I.P. Ted

R.I.P. Senator.

R.I.P. Teddy...

nordawg

R.I.P.

I am glad the journey is over. The last year had to be hard on him and his family.

RIP Senator Kennedy. He makes the extremely short list of most influential Senators in American history.

My condolences to his family.

Godspeed Senator. RIP

R.I.P Ted Kennedy!

Ted Kennedy was the personification of many things I find reprehensible about politics.

And as one parting shot read below: From the WSJ

Last week it emerged that Ted Kennedy had undertaken a bit of end-of-life planning. As The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial, Massachusetts' terminally ill senior senator had written to state lawmakers in Boston urging them to change state law so that upon Kennedy's death Gov. Deval Patrick, a fellow Democrat, would be able to appoint a successor immediately. Kennedy died last night of cancer, and unless the Massachusetts Legislature changes the law, his seat will remain vacant until a special election 145 to 160 days hence.

Kennedy's efforts to ensure a quick succession are emblematic of why liberals loved him and conservatives found him maddening. As the Journal editorial pointed out, the special-election law is only five years old and was "orchestrated" by none other than Ted Kennedy:

John Kerry, the other Senator from the state, was running for President in 2004, and Mr. Kennedy wanted the law changed so the Republican Governor at the time, Mitt Romney, could not name Mr. Kerry's replacement. "Prodded by a personal appeal from Senator Edward M. Kennedy," reported the Boston Globe in 2004, "Democratic legislative leaders have agreed to take up a stalled bill creating a special election process to replace U.S. Senator John F. Kerry if he wins the presidency." Now that the state has a Democratic Governor, Mr. Kennedy wants to revert to gubernatorial appointments.

Kennedy's shamelessness in urging repeal of a law he himself pushed for was either appalling or admirable, depending on your point of view. To conservatives, it was a pure partisan power play: Kennedy favored whatever gave Democrats a tactical advantage, procedural fairness be damned. To liberals, however, it was an act of idealism: Kennedy had spent a career trying to advance "universal health care"--which to him and them is a matter of basic justice--and the Bay State vacancy could make the difference between ObamaCare's passing or failing. To our mind, the conservatives have the better of the argument, though we must concede that Kennedy's motives likely did have an ideological component as well as a partisan one.

It's also true, as Michael Barone has observed, that "all procedural arguments are insincere, including this one." One could argue that Kennedy's brazenly instrumentalist appeal to Beacon Hill has the virtue of honesty. But democracy depends on procedural fairness and the appearance of procedural fairness, even if all political players have ulterior motives whenever they promote such fairness. By this standard, Kennedy's effort to change the Massachusetts law without even a pretense of concern for fairness was objectionable, and that is true even if we are objecting insincerely.

Of all Kennedy's official acts, perhaps the one that most rankles conservatives and cheers liberals was his successful effort to prevent the confirmation of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987. Kennedy took to the Senate floor and declared:

Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit in segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of million of citizens.

This was a slanderous attack on a good man. But it was effective, both tactically and strategically. The Senate voted down Bork's nomination, and the justice confirmed in his stead, Anthony Kennedy (no relation), has tipped the balance in more than a few cases toward the side Sen. Kennedy favored.

By his own lights, Ted Kennedy was right to oppose Bork's confirmation. Whatever the legal merits, there is little doubt that Bork's jurisprudential approach would have yielded fewer decisions consistent with Kennedy's idea of justice. But even those who accept that concept of justice ought to regret Kennedy's demagoguery. Common decency ought to count for something too.

Good point(s),....believe me, if they had told me I was the OIC of the detail to bury Nixon, I would have had to decline,....it's not a 'party' thing.

R.I.P. Senator Kennedy.

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Well, let's do a hi-jack here and ask, who is on THAT short list,....don't be surprised if the responses come in skewed -- left or right,... --

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All he said was "influential".. he did not say whether the influence was positive or negative... and I'll give him that Ted was influential.. it's hard not to be when you're a Senator for 40 years.

I just get/got tried of hearing teachers and their union complain about it only being "Bush's" N-C-L-B.

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All he said was "influential".. he did not say whether the influence was positive or negative... and I'll give him that Ted was influential.. it's hard not to be when you're a Senator for 40 years.

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Good or bad it doesn't matter ..... it's all water under the bridge now.

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The fact that someone could hold one public office for 40 years is just sickening and wreaks of favors, lobbying, and corruption.

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Or it could mean that his constituents loved him...

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Or it could mean that he was a Kennedy in Massachusetts and ran relatively unopposed for decades because nobody else had a snowballs chance in you-know-what of beating him.

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Or it could mean that the folks of his area thought he did a good job. have you watched any of the funeral today.. people lined the streets of Boston to bid thier farewells.. That sounds a lot like he was beloved..

I wonder if Mary Jo Kopechne's family sent flowers ......