I literally grew up during his years in public life. I think one can say the final chapter of so-called "Camelot" is olosed.
Only his sister Jean is left of the nine children of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.
“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,’’ his family said in a statement. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness, and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.’’
Overcoming a history of family tragedy, including the assassinations of a brother who was president and another who sought the presidency, Senator Kennedy seized the role of being a “Senate man.’’ He became a Democratic titan of Washington who fought for the less fortunate, who crafted unlikely deals with conservative Republicans, and who ceaselessly sought support for universal health coverage.
Given the fact he had brain cancer, it was remarkable he lived as long as he did.
After his two brothers were murdered, it was thought by many it would be inevitable Ted Kennedy to be president himself, but the infamous Chappaquiddick incident of 1969 put an effective end to it becoming reality. Kennedy tried to run for president in 1980 in the primaries against then-president Jimmy Carter, but all he accomplished was dividing the Democrats and helping them to defeat in the hands of Ronald Reagan and his Friedmanite supporters and pissing off Carter. Carter and Kennedy never got along.
But there was the Senate, and Kennedy enjoyed a long and distinguished career there. One could argue he accomplished more politically than either of his brothers ever did.
Rest in peace, Ted.
From the New York Times obituary of Kennedy:
Senator Kennedy was at or near the center of much of American history in the latter part of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st. For much of his adult life, he veered from victory to catastrophe, winning every Senate election he entered but failing in his only try for the presidency; living through the sudden deaths of his brothers and three of his nephews; being responsible for the drowning death on Chappaquiddick Island of a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, a former aide to his brother Robert. One of the nephews, John F. Kennedy Jr., who the family hoped would one day seek political office and keep the Kennedy tradition alive, died in a plane crash in 1999 at age 38.
Mr. Kennedy himself was almost killed in 1964, in a plane crash that left him with permanent back and neck problems.
He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy.
He was the third longest-serving senator in U.S. history. Only Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond served longer.
Despite Kennedy's many flaws which were the staple of the tabloids for many years, the real reason the right hated him and his family was because they actually gave a shit about the less fortunate. They believed in and actually acted on the ideas they espoused. They didn't look down on other people just because others didn't have as much money; in short, like the Roosevelts the Kennedys were traitors to their class.
And that is a deadly sin in the eyes of the Friedmanite rightists.
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