Edward Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)
Senator Edward Kennedy lost his battle with brain cancer on Tuesday, August 25. He died at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts only two weeks after his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver passed. Kennedy was 77-years-old.
Kennedy, the younger brother of JFK and Robert Kennedy, will be buried near his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery.
He was “not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy,” President Obama said, speaking to reporters during his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
“His extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. The extraordinary good that he did lives on. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was the defender of a dream.”
Ted Kennedy’s Legacy
The Kennedy family has been considered American royalty since before eve JFK took the oath of presidency many years ago. While Ted Kenney has had his share of missteps, he has been a diligent soldier of democracy and civil rights.
Of the many bills that Kennedy helped to write and pass, his most famous are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ted Kennedy’s tireless work on these bills will go down in the history books.
Kennedy was known for his bipartisanship and remarkable ways of getting things done in a town where it seems nothing can get accomplished these days. Since his doctors diagnosed him with cancer back in 2008, Kennedy remained out of the spotlight, but continued to work hard for the Democratic Party. His focus in the past year has truly been health care reform.
Health Care Reform Without Ted Kennedy
“It was the cause of his life and he fought it all the way to the end of his life,” said Kennedy’s friend and former press secretary Bob Shrum on ABC’s “Good Morning America” today. “Maybe his absence now will cast a long shadow and actually make it happen.”
Kennedy was a strong supporter and fighter for universal health care, believing that each American should be required to have some form of health care. He was quoted as saying that “as long as I can vote, as long as I have a voice in the United States Senate, it’s going to be for that Democratic Party platform plank, that provides decent quality health care, North and South, East and West, for all Americans, as a matter of right and not of privilege.”
While Kennedy wanted to plan passed through on that Democratic platform, he was well known for making compromises and getting the job done through thick and thin. His health care bill in Massachusetts was redesigned many times, and Kennedy compromised on many aspects of that monumental bill.
So, how does this affect the health care reform discussion? Probably not much. Senators and committee members have already said that they will keep Ted Kennedy’s “Liberal Lion” arguments in the back of their minds. They’ve even started discussing naming part of the plan after him.
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