Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (born February 22, 1932, died August 26, 2009) was the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. In office since November 1962, Kennedy was in his eighth full (and ninth overall) term in the Senate. He is the second most senior member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and the third-longest-serving senator of all time. The most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he is the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassinations, and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.
Kennedy was born in Boston and raised in Massachusetts, New York, Florida, and England. He was educated at Harvard College, where he was expelled for cheating on an exam but later readmitted, and the University of Virginia School of Law. His 1958 marriage to Virginia Joan Bennett would later end in divorce. He was a manager in his brother John's successful 1960 campaign for president, then worked as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Kennedy entered the Senate in a 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by John. He was seriously injured in an airplane crash in 1964 and still suffers from back pain as a result. Kennedy was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was reelected in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006.
In the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, the car Kennedy was driving ran off a bridge and plunged into water, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence; however, doubts about his account of the accident significantly damaged his chances of ever becoming President of the United States. Kennedy's one run for the office, in the 1980 presidential election, ended in a primary campaign loss to incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy is known for his oratorical power, with his 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 Democratic National Convention rallying cry for American liberalism being his best-known moments. Kennedy's heated rhetoric helped lead to the defeat of the 1987 Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination and usher in an era of intense political battles over federal judicial nominations. Kennedy's personal behavior became the subject of public ridicule in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but his 1992 marriage to Victoria Anne Reggie stabilized his life.
In this Tuesday, April 21, 2009, file photo, President Barack Obama embraces Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., before Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act at the SEED School in Washington. Despite the age difference between the 77-year-old senator and 48-year-old president, the two have forged a close personal bond.
In this Jan. 28, 2008 file photo, then-Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., smiles with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., during a rally at American University in Washington where Kennedy endorsed Obama. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, has died after battling a brain tumor. He was 77. Kennedy's family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009.
Youth is the quality that we normally associate with the Kennedys, yet it was Ted Kennedy's longevity that made him such an irrepressible force on Capitol Hill.
The Massachusetts senator died late Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod, Mass., after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.
Near universal is the view that he was Washington's most influential lawmaker of the past 50 years, which is all the more remarkable given that he was such a polarising politician.
Civil rights. Disability rights. The minimum wage. Immigration. Education. Campaign finance reform. And his signature issue, healthcare. Most, if not all, of the landmark progressive legislative of the past five decades has his imprint all over it.
While it was his passion for social justice that won him the epithet "Lion of the Senate", it was his detailed grasp of that institution's obscure rules and procedures which helped explain his prolificThe president cited Kennedy's counsel during Obama's short time serving as a senator from Illinois.
But probably Kennedy's greatest gift to Obama came during last year's presidential race. Kennedy, and his niece Caroline, shook up the Democratic establishment in January 2008 when they endorsed Obama over Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton at a critical point in the campaign. Kennedy lit up the Democratic base with his comparisons between young contender Obama and former President John F. Kennedy.
Then, risking his own health, Sen. Kennedy traveled to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Obama accepted the presidential nomination, to give a rousing speech on Obama's behalf. It was almost exactly one year before Kennedy's death. The senator also returned to the Capitol in January to see Obama sworn in as the nation's first black president, suffering a seizure at a celebratory luncheon afterward.
"I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the presidency," Obama had said earlier in a written statement.
Ted's religion can be summarized in this speech."I am an American and a Catholic," he said. "I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it?"
Yet his supporters would argue that he lived out his faith by championing causes long embraced by Catholicism--compassion for the poor and vulnerable, support for arms control, suspicion of war, the right to health care, the rights of workers.
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