Sen. Kennedy: The lion who roared

Photo: Sen. Ted Kennedy speaks at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. (Photo from http://kennedy.senate.gov)











The lion who roared: Remembering Sen. Ted Kennedy and moving forward
Meg Lanker
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 5:35 PM MDT
To truly measure a legislator’s worth, one must not look at the amount of legislation simply passed, but at the quality of the legislation, the effort, and the compromise necessary to get that legislation passed. By this standard, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. was a priceless civil servant in the U.S. Senate.

Kennedy diligently advocated for bipartisan compromise on divisive issues: health care, education reform, immigration, welfare, et cetera. In 1983, Kennedy outlined his hopes for America and said, “I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.”

Twenty-six years later, as this lion of the senate is silenced, it is devastatingly obvious these standards of civility hoped for by Kennedy have fallen away – if they even existed at all. With the passing of Kennedy, the book is closed on one of the last, great statesmen left in this country. According to the Los Angeles Times, Cal Thomas, a conservative columnist who forged a friendship with Kennedy in the 1980s, said, “I was opposed to his politics, but I came to love him as a person.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is often considered one of the most conservative members in the Senate, yet still counted Kennedy as a friend. According to The Salt Lake City Tribune, Hatch came to the Senate 32 years ago with one goal in mind: "To fight Ted Kennedy."

Hatch and Kennedy wound up working together on numerous pieces of legislation ensuring children of low-income parents could see a doctor, and most recently, legislation boosting the funding to the AmeriCorps volunteer program and the stipend its volunteers receive.

On Wednesday, Hatch said Kennedy was "an iconic, larger than life United States senator whose influence cannot be overstated," and a treasured friend.

Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. issued a statement Wednesday, and called Kennedy a “true, thoughtful, and caring friend” and gave his condolences to Kennedy’s family.

“The history books will show that Ted was a dedicated public servant who worked tirelessly for the people of Massachusetts and the nation,” said Enzi. “He leaves behind a long list of bipartisan legislative accomplishments, the impact of which will continue to be felt for generations to come.”

Wyoming’s former U.S. Senator Al Simpson served on the judiciary committee with Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. Previously, Kennedy had also served in the senate with Simpson’s father Milward.

In a statement to The Underground Wednesday, Simpson said, “My wife Ann and I are truly heartbroken. He was a dear friend. The two of us would put politics aside in order to make things work.” He called Kennedy a “master legislator” and cited their accomplishments together as an example of Kennedy’s bipartisanship.

“He will be deeply missed. A giant tree falls from the skyline. A great loss to the world,” Simpson said. “Our love, thoughts and prayers go out to Vicki and all of their dear ones.”

Seth Stern, writer for CQpolitics.com, shared an anecdote Wednesday regarding Al Simpson’s arrival to the U.S. Senate 30 years ago. Stern said when Al Simpson first arrived in the Senate in 1979, his father, who served with Kennedy in the 1960s, told his son to get to know Kennedy.

“Although they didn’t 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 Parkinson’s disease,” said Stern. “Kennedy kneeled on the ground for half an hour to talk to his former Senate colleague, who could not get out of his wheelchair.”

The Wyoming Democratic Party also issued a statement Wednesday and said it joined the nation in mourning the passing of Kennedy. State party vice chairman Mike Bell pointed out that Kennedy campaigned in the West for JFK and stood with the Wyoming delegation when the state put Jack Kennedy over the top for the Democratic presidential nomination at the 1960 convention.

Bell said, “Ted Kennedy was such a force in American life for nearly fifty years that it will take a while to get used to the fact that he is gone.” The outpouring of remembrance from liberals and conservatives alike reminds us that political views are, or should be, separate from the person.

Kennedy was a vehement defender of working-class and poor Americans and yet was able to give and take during negotiations on legislation without compromising his values or his friendships.

The idea that one can be opposed to an individual’s politics but not to the person seems alien to my generation. Those of us in our mid-twenties have foggy memories of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. My generation grew up in the Clinton era – I still remember my father changing the channel when news anchors began discussing Ken Starr’s vicariously prurient interest in former President Bill Clinton’s sex life.

For my generation, politics have always been personal. In the past fifteen years, we’ve endured debates about stains on blue dresses over dinner as the level of political discourse in America sunk to the point of commentators pouring “gasoline” (read: water) on others to demonstrate what President Barack Obama is doing to the American people while insisting the “-ism” of the day was on the march.

Where was Kennedy in all this chaos?

Through all the name-calling and mudslinging, he continued to urge Democrats and Republicans to work together in order to bring about necessary reforms successfully. Kennedy advocated for single-payer health care beginning in the 1970s. Calling healthcare reform “the cause of my life,” he pressed for bipartisanship, writing in Newsweek July 27, “Our response to these challenges will define our character as a country.” Kennedy’s absence from the healthcare debate in recent months left a gaping hole in the Senate and indicated how precarious his health had become.

In March, Rush Limbaugh criticized the healthcare reform efforts put forth by the Democrats in Congress saying, “Before it's all over, it will be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill.” As of Wednesday, he had not backed off his comments.

Limbaugh cited Kennedy’s death from brain cancer and the extensive treatment he received to prolong his life as reason to oppose the healthcare overhaul he espoused since the 1970s. "Why support the rationing of healthcare when Ted Kennedy, the lion of the Senate, did not?" said Limbaugh.

The debate over health care has now reached a nasty, shrill crescendo – led by pundits like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck – and will hopefully, respectfully be turned down. False accusations over government sponsored euthanasia and horrific waiting periods will not do anyone favors.

One of Kennedy’s Massachusetts colleagues, U.S. House Rep. Barney Frank expressed his frustration recently with the devolving healthcare debate. After a woman compared the proposed policies on healthcare reform to the policies of Adolph Hitler, Frank sighed and said, “When you ask me that question, I’m going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?” As the crowd began to boo, he continued: “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table – I have no interest in doing it.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy would have argued with that dining room table, and I have no doubt in my mind about him he reaching a compromise with it. Kennedy represents an era hopefully not past, when citizens respected the office – if not the congressman – and congressman treated each other with dignity.

I implore the Democratic Party to remember Kennedy as a diligent civil servant and to pass the kind of reform he wanted – coverage for all Americans, which he saw as a right and not a privilege. I also beg his colleagues, if they so desire to name a healthcare bill after him, that the bill be the type of reform he would support, and not a watered-down tweak of our current system.

I encourage all Americans to remember the words his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, used on the campaign trail in 1968, quoting playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”

Eulogizing his brother Robert in June 1968, Kennedy said, “My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

Kennedy concluded his eulogy with what is now my wish for him: “Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.”

Meg Lanker is the editor of The Underground and can be contacted at meglanker@gmail.com