The tragic life of Ted Kennedy

"All the potential for greatness he possessed he squandered..."

No way. If any legislative career can be called great, his can -- community health centers come to mind as something without which life would be almost untenable in many places -- regardless of what his true ceiling was.

More than that, he showed people, through the Reagan and Clinton and Bush years especially, how to be a full-throated and unashamed progressive ... to defend economic justice and the rightness of the federal government's role in ensuring it, with the manly vigor of an old-time fighting priest.

He saw two of his brothers killed trying to lead this nation out of the dark ages of racial inequality (which conservatives still call our heyday) That gives him some leeway on his weaknesses in my eyes.

Oh...and Sarah Palin...his sister started the special olympics. Why would liberals start something so wonderful if their intention was to kill special needs babies.

In a recent post, Erin stated that, upon hearing of someone's death, she prays for that person's soul. I will do so for Ted Kennedy. As regards his political legacy, addition by subtraction.

“But it's hard to think of him this morning without thinking about what might have been had he been able to bear the burden of history and his slain brothers' legacies. He could have done so much more with what he had been given.”

Huh….this is really overly critical. Being the most influential modern Senator is a pretty big deal. Its more than you, I and almost everyone else will ever accomplish.

"his sister started the special olympics."

TR: She seems to have been a very admirable woman, but I'm not sure how much that sounds about him. It's sad that Jean lost two siblings so close together.

Also, although I liked it on first reading on reflection I agree "squandered his potential" is probably overstating the matter. I'm hesitant to go too into that, but he quite possibly went as far as he was actually capable. That might sound a bit snide too, but it's difficult for me to know the right thing to say seeing how I felt about him in life.

I admire the man who let go of his ambition to be President with real grace, and who embraced a second marriage that, by all reports, was a very loving and healthy one. He was a great Senator, and it is a testament to his greatness that so many people across the aisle loved him.

A friend of mine with great experience in Democratic politics said that Ted Kennedy accomplished far more in his life, in a practical sense, than his late brothers ever did. Would that have been so without his flaws? It is the end of an era, and he will be greatly missed.

The lion sleeps....

"....to speak for those who have no voice; to remember those who are forgotten; to respond to the frustration and fulfill the aspiration of all Americans seeking a better life in a better land....for all those whose cares have been our concern, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."

Edward Moore Kennedy, August 12, 1980

I'll never forget the night Ted Kennedy gave that speech at the Democratic National Convention after failing to win his party's nomination for the presidency. I was staying in a one-room kitchenette in Liverpool, NY, just outside of Syracuse. It was - and remains - the greatest political oration of my lifetime. Watching the event on a small, black and white TV I instinctively knew I was witnessing one of those sublime moments in American history that would be remembered a century into the future.

Teddy Kennedy died late last night at the age of seventy-seven. In a life that is littered with ironies, here's the biggest one of all: His three older brothers - Joe, Jack and Bobby - are eternally frozen in our imagination as the personifications of youth. How poignant that our final image of the baby of that family will be as an old man, frail and mortally ill.

An incredible realization just came to me: Teddy represented the state of Massachusetts for forty-six years, eight months and nineteen days. That is nearly three months longer than all the years his older brother Jack lived on earth. Forgive the cliche that is so overused it has become trite through repetition, but this really is the end of an era.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

And what "faith" was that: Christian? Catholic? Jewish? Muslim? Orthodox?

The truest, purest faith of all.....the belief that there was no problem so insignificant or trivial that that the federal government shouldn't implement an expensive and wasteful program to effect a remedy.

He could have done so much more with what he had been given.

Yes, I've often had the same thought about Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, William Jennings Bryan and Robert LaFollette. Could have done SO much more than just being among the most influential political leaders in American history.

Slackers.

I've been thinking about this since my alarm clock woke me up with the news and as I've read the above comments, I decided to share my thoughts.

One of the things I think is so devastating about American politics today and a good deal of the reason why we're in the hole we're in is this incessant desire/need to vilify the other side, to create the "other" in our opponents. Kennedy (all of them) were deeply flawed men who were drawn to political and public life for complicated reasons, both altruistic and selfish. They are all of us.

One of the things I'm learning in my journey through Orthodoxy is that we all wage wars against our passions. Our own sins are the only ones we should be concerned about. But on the flip side, because we are created in the image of God, even as we struggle, fall and fail, we can still do a tremendous amount of good, right alongside the bad.

Sen. Kennedy's legacy not only includes that poor woman in the river, but making higher education accessible to nearly all, helping people with disabilities have an easier time navigating our city streets and businesses. He was, unquestionably, a tireless advocate for the poor and the have-nots in this culture. On that front, he was certainly closer to the ideal than I myself am.

I can throw no stones, but I will offer a prayer for his soul.

May He Rest in God's Peace.

What do you think the likelihood is that Cardinal Sean O'Malley will celebrate his funeral Mass?

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a leading Shiite figure in Iraq's convoluted politics is also dead. The Shiites who actually serve in Iraq's parliament have made some kind of an alliance over and against the current Prime Minister, Nouri Al Maliki. Should be an interesting few weeks there. But when isn't it?

Ted Kennedy and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. What a day already...

Massachusetts politics is all about this type: the life-long party hack.

This remark could not be more absurd. If the phrase "party hack" applies to Ted Kennedy, then it has no meaning whatsoever.

Prayers for his soul.

I somehow can't imagine your hero would be so ungracious.

I can!

Not in public of course but I imagine there are, in private, more than a few champagne corks flying as we speak. I also imagine that those corks are being popped quietly on both sides of the political spectrum.

I never agree with Reaganite but "Party Hack" and party hack writ large it is.

Verily my heart of flint is thinking of the Kennedy's ill-fated attempt to run for President in 1980. The then mayor of Chicago, Jane Byrne endorsed him and he was invited to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade alongside here, which almost ended more than his campaign.

Jane Byrne was so unpopular with her sewer workers that they were greeted by a raging mob of drunken semi-literates along the parade route and Kennedy's secret service guards formed a ring around him and moved him away from the mayor, as everyone watching on television was hoping to see a lynching, as none of us had ever seen one.

It was probably the only entertaining thing Kennedy ever did in his entire career, with the possible exception of offering to take President Carter for a ride in the family limo...

Regardless of whether "party hack" is ungracious, it's just preposterous. You can't call someone a party "hack" who helped make the party what it is the first place. Hacks also don't play major roles in crafting legislation or putting together coalitions to get it passed. They sit around and vote the way they're told to. Again, there are plenty of things to criticize Kennedy for if you're so inclined, but if the term "hack" applies to him then it applies to anyone, and therefore can't help us distinguish one kind of legislator from another.

Fish (quoting Alicia) I somehow can't imagine your hero would be so ungracious.

IFish said: I can!

I say -- I think by "your hero," Alicia meant Ronald Reagan. I do not think that Ronald Reagan would be popping champagne corks over the death of a political opponent, were he here to do so.

The hatefulness and shallowness of such a sentiment are disgraceful. Death and suffering are the "great equalizers," and those who effect to trivialize and disdain the ocassion of them are in for a great shock when they have to confront them in their loved ones or on their own. Even a "political hack" is a human being with an immortal soul, one of those Christ suffered and died for.

From an almost Literature major: One could as well call the saga of Ted Kennedy a Christian comedy. The story of a person of low estate brought to glory. He certainly was not born to low estate but his heroic sized flaws were overcome in a life of service to and for the poor, disadvantaged, and abused. Only the churlish and those who would refuse to recognize the good he has done in his long life.

We don't need to speculate: Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy had dinner together, along with their wives, many times.

Hi, Reaganite. I don't deny that Ted Kennedy got away a crime - what I believe was negligent homicide or manslaughter, and that was certainly the result of his family's influence, and was a miscarriage of justice. I also think he made some amends (though by no means complete amends) for his sins through his dedication to public service. It seems to me that you are calling him a hack because you disagree with his politics, and that doesn't seem quite fair to me.

Hey Reaganite--do you know anything about Kennedy? I'm not going to debate HOW his family came into their money, but he didn't need to "live off the public dime." He probably didn't even need to work. In his early years he worked as a prosecutor in Boston...was paid $1.

Alicia: "It seems to me that you are calling him a hack because you disagree with his politics ..."

I call him a hack because like so many in "public life" he just wouldn't let go. He was just an extreme example of the type. His brother Jack was the junior Senator from Massachusetts and, of course, Teddy had to take over the seat at the ripe, old age of 30 (although the family arranged for a family friend and one of Jack's Harvard roommates to keep the seat warm for two years till Teddy turned legal age). These Kennedy's have used every means -- fair or foul, legal or illegimate -- to manipulate Massachusetts politics (and occasionally the law) to keep their family members in power. It is nothing short of obscene.

Ted Kennedy may be the "stuff of legends" for some, but in New England he and his family are an insufferable annoyance to millions of voters (albeit and regrettably a minority of voters).

During the next couple of days (hopefully not more than that) we will be treated to replays of his concession speech from the 1980 DNC where he speaks of the "dream that never dies." But what exactly what this dream? It was nothing more than a narcisstic desire to put another Kennedy in the White House -- not a real dream with resonance in our hearts but a pedestrian political ambition devoid of substance or of value and meaning to the nation.

fish - you don't have to feel disgraced to be disgraced. That's part of the point of what "disgraceful" signifies. It is the lack of grace (in a colloquial sense of the term, meaning - you are not being graceful in your conduct). If you felt such a lack, you likely would not be truly disgraced. It kind of proves the point that you don't feel it to be so.

Ted Kennedy was a man was a man who, despite terrible flaws and errors, grew a large heart and into integrity. Into service and a real love of his fellow Americans.

The same is difficult to say of his opponents, rivals, and critics.

1) But he was of a type common in Massachusetts politics: the party hack who attempts to live off the taxpayers all their working lives.

Really? Have you seen his house? Kennedy did not need his salary; in fact, I understand that he spent from his own pocket to hire additional staff for his Senate office.

Again, he is eminently criticizable, but not for that reason.

2) The dispute about Chappaquiddick in the 1970s was between the majority, who thought that it was "just" an alcohol-fueled accident and therefore sad but unimportant, and nutters who thought that Kennedy had covered up an intentional murder. Kennedy got off too easily among the former group -- drunk driving was not considered a very serious transgression; note that MADD was not founded until 1980 -- and took unwarranted abuse from the latter group.

UPDATE: And what he did to Judge Bork is one of his most noxious legacies.

Yet Bob Bork turned out to be the prevaricating radical activist and loveless occultist he was charged with being. If you're consistent in this, Rod, you would only have outcome-based objections to putting Catherine MacKinnon on the Supreme Court as well.

Jillian,

You are so eager to excuse the failings of Ted Kennedy and extend graciousness to him. How can you not see your own hypocrisy in your criticisms of conservatives for their human failings in the comments here?

These are just the oddest comments I've seen on this blog in some time. And that's saying something.

Really? Lessee, I think I still have the link to the Miley Cyrus poledancing thread around here somewhere...

Alicia: "However, I think Ted Kennedy graciously gave up his dream of the Presidency ..."

Actually, he didn't "graciously give up" his dream. He wanted it, and fought for it, but the Democratic primary voters looked elsewhere.

I know I've been a bit hard on old Teddy. However, in fairness, one wonders whether being President was really HIS dream ... or, rather, the expectations of others brought to bear on what was basically an ordinary and somewhat over-indulged youngest sibling of a large and ambitious family. I mention again Garry Wills' 1982 book, "The Kennedy Imprisonment" for the best treatment of the hell that being Ted Kennedy must have been at times.

Yes, yes, by all means pray for his soul and for his loved ones. But let's not re-do Mount Rushmore or set aside D.C. real estate for a monument. Or, foolishly pass the kind of so-called health care bill that he would have favored.

In 1987, I helped clear out the residence of a dead Irish-catholic lady, herself in her eighties. On a small table in her living room were pictures of all three dead Kennedy brothers with used candles in front of each one.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Hector He committed "involuntary" manslaughter?

Waiting HOURS (until the next morning) to report that, oh, by the way, there's a woman trapped in his car that's underwater is NOT involuntary when he's voluntarily, and quite ably on his own, gotten his butt-saving self out alive.

Oh, please.

Yet Bob Bork turned out to be the prevaricating radical activist and loveless occultist he was charged with being.

Wow, even in death, Ted Kennedy through his minions lashes out at a thoroughly decent man who was dishonorably treated by the deceased.

To anyone who knows anything other than what People for the American Way has spoon-fed you, Robert Bork was a brilliant and thoroughly mainstream legal mind. A former assistant solicitor general once noted to me that, in his long experience, Bork gave the only oral argument in a Supreme Court case that ever changed the Court's mind (the case was an antitrust case, an area in which Bork is an acknowledged expert).

To the extent your comments are worth dignifying with an answer, Bork resigned from the federal bench after his failed nomination to the SCOTUS, so there is absolutely no basis whatsoever to subsequently call him a "radical activist."

He is also a faithful Catholic convert, so your charge of "loveless occultist" is a libel--to the extent it has any meaning whatsoever.

A judge who feels that way about any portion of the Bull (Bill?) of Rights has no business coming anywhere near the Supreme Court.

Lets see how our wise Latina deals with 2nd amendment issue and get back to me!

thomas tucker: is that the obituary equivalent of the back-handed compliment? I think it would have been better if you truly had not said anything.

I indeed said nothing.

Except: requiescat in pace. You might have said as much.

But noblesse oblige, and I therefore accept your ignoble rebuke.