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U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy dies

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U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy dies
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 | 7:22 AM ET
CBC News


w-kennedy-bros-cp-7215940.jpg

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, centre, poses with his brothers U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, left, and President John F. Kennedy at the White House in Washington in 1962. (Associated Press)

The last brother of the Kennedy political dynasty, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, died late Tuesday night after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

Kennedy, known as Ted to his family and friends, died at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., his family announced in a statement early Wednesday. He was 77.

"We've lost the irreplaceable centre 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," the statement said.

"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."

Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in May 2008. He underwent surgery and a gruelling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

kennedy-aug-cp-7216044.jpg

In his last known public appearance, Senator Edward Kennedy arrives at the home of his dead sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, in early August. (Steven Senne/Associated Press)

Kennedy's son, Rhode Island Democratic congressman Patrick Kennedy, told The Associated Press recently that his father had defied doctors' predictions that he would not survive more than a year after his diagnosis.

His death comes just weeks after that of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, on Aug. 11.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is married to Kennedy's niece Maria Shriver, issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying that Kennedy was "the rock of our family."

"Teddy taught us all that public service isn't a hobby or even an occupation, but a way of life and his legacy will live on," Schwarzenegger said.

Family statement:

Edward M. Kennedy — the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply — died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost the irreplaceable centre 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. 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.
Kennedy was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, when his brother, John F. Kennedy, was president.

Liberal lion
Known as the liberal lion of the U.S. Senate, Kennedy was the third longest serving senator in American history, serving almost 47 years. He was a steadfast champion of the working class and the poor and known as a powerful voice on health care, civil rights, war and peace.

President Barack Obama issued a statement early Wednesday saying the U.S. has lost "the greatest United States senator of our time."

"For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts," Obama said in a statement from the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard where he is on vacation.

Obama, who received Kennedy's endorsement in the 2008 Democratic primary, said he was "heartbroken" by the news of the death and also thanked Kennedy for "his wise counsel in the Senate" and his support in the presidential race.

Known as a consummate congressional dealmaker and one of the most effective senators, Kennedy authored more than 2,500 bills during his time in office. His legislative achievements included bills to provide health insurance for children of the working poor, the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, abortion clinic access, family leave and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

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U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, shown in April 2009, died on Tuesday night after a battle with brain cancer. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

He was also a key negotiator on legislation creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens and was a driving force for peace in Ireland and a persistent critic of the war in Iraq.

Kennedy always maintained that there was more work to be done to improve life for American citizens.

"There's a lot to do," Kennedy said in a 2006 interview. "I think most of all it's the injustice that I continue to see and the opportunity to have some impact on it."

Kennedy fought his way back to Capitol Hill during the summer of 2008 to cast a pivotal vote for the Democrats on Medicare. He made sure he was there again last January to see Obama sworn in as the nation's first black president, only to collapse in fatigue at a celebratory luncheon afterward.

Although Kennedy had been sidelined since his cancer diagnosis, and often looked tired and drained when he appeared at work with his cane, staff and colleagues maintained that he was to determined to fulfil what he called his "cause" of seeing health insurance provided to all Americans.

"I've benefited from the best of medicine, but I've also witnessed the frustration and outrage of patients and doctors alike as they face the challenges of a system that shortchanges millions of Americans," he wrote in a May 28, 2009, issue of the Boston Globe.

Youngest child
Kennedy, born in 1932 and the youngest of nine children, was also known to the American public as the last surviving son of the glamorous political family. He was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to die of natural causes.

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Senator Edward Kennedy speaks to the Democratic convention on Aug. 13, 1980, in New York's Madison Square Garden. (Associated Press)

Kennedy's eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a plane crash in the Second World War. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in Los Angeles as he campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.

"I think about my brothers every day," Kennedy said. "They set high standards. Sometimes you measure up, sometimes you don't."

Kennedy's hopes of reaching the White House in 1980 — when he sought the party's nomination against sitting president Jimmy Carter — were damaged by the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident where he drove a car off a bridge on Martha's Vineyard and left the other passenger, a 28-year-old woman, dead in the submerged vehicle. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and received a suspended sentence.

His presidential ambitions thwarted, Kennedy devoted himself to his senate career.

Kennedy married Virginia Joan Bennett, known as Joan, in 1958. They divorced in 1982. In 1992, he married Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie. His survivors include a daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen; two sons, Edward Jr. and Patrick; and two stepchildren, Caroline and Curran Raclin.

Tragedies dogged Kennedy throughout his life, including a 1964 plane crash that damaged his spine and left him with lifelong pain, his son's battle with bone cancer and his first wife's alcoholism and drug problems.

Jean Kennedy Smith is now the sole surviving child of Joseph Kennedy, a millionaire businessman and former U.S. ambassador to Britain, and his wife, Rose.

Under state law, Kennedy's successor will be chosen by special election within 160 days. In his last known public act, the senator urged state officials to give Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick the power to name an interim replacement.

With files from The Associated Press
 
The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.
 
Jingo said:
The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.

RIP Senator Ted Kennedy. 
 
Our British friends on arrse have no love for Senator Kennedy as was an IRA supporter. I dont like to speak ill of the newly dead so all I will say is, Rest in Peace.
 
BBC: "Ted Kennedy to receive knighthood":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7922703.stm

Senator Kennedy will be interred with his brothers John and Robert.
Joseph Kennedy Jr. has no known grave:
http://www.abmc.gov/search/detailwwnew.php

 
mariomike said:
Joseph Kennedy Jr. has no know grave:
http://www.abmc.gov/search/detailwwnew.php

American Battle Monuments Commission?  ???

His name is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridgeshire, England.

Kennedy's plane, packed with over ten and a half tons of Torpex, blew up shortly after takeoff from the RAF base at Fersfield, Norfolk.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9665752
 
PMedMoe said:
American Battle Monuments Commission?  ???
His name is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridgeshire, England.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9665752

The ABMC is responsible for the CAMBRIDGE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL:
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ca.php
Along with Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., is recorded bandleader Glenn Miller, who also went missing in 1944.
The video shows both of their names on "The Walls of the Missing".

P.S. I wasn't shouting. I did a copy/paste and it happened to be in caps.  :)

The original link brings up a blank page. Apparently, you have to type the name into the database each time:
http://www.abmc.gov/search/wwii.php
 
mariomike said:
The ABMC is responsible for the CAMBRIDGE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL:
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ca.php

P.S. I wasn't shouting. I did a copy/paste and it happened to be in caps.

Seen.  Just wondered as your first ABMC link is pretty much a blank page.
 
Good riddance to the IRA snogging dirt bag.

My most enduring memory of him will be a scene I watched on TV in the UK in the mid-80s. He was hoping to get some more votes in Boston by harassing British troops in Belfast, so accosted a soldier on patrol in full glare of the willing cameras. As I recall, the exchange went something like this:

TK (outraged): "Why don't you go back to your own country?"

Soldier (pissed off): "I AM in my own country, why don't you effing go back to yours?"

We cheered the TV. Through the grapevine we heard that the soldier was charged, of course.

So sad that they've decided to award him an honorary Knighthood. I'd have rather nominated that soldier. 

RIH Teddy
 
Touched a nerve?
Politics mate, it's a dirty business, and a lot of theater.
Japanese Kabuki is what I've heard it called from time to time.

Whatever your views however, I do believe this is not the place to speak Ill of the dead.
 
Jammer said:
Touched a nerve?
Politics mate, it's a dirty business, and a lot of theater.
Japanese Kabuki is what I've heard it called from time to time.

Whatever your views however, I do believe this is not the place to speak Ill of the dead.

We don't need to censor people for their opinion, as long as it's reasonable and tasteful. I too dislike the whole Kennedy\ Camelot bullshit mystique, and hope it's over for good. I never liked any of them. Do I wish ill of him? Of course not, but I'm not ready to give him any sort of friendly send off either.

If we're going to censor people for having a dislike for him, perhaps we could rename the thread:

U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy Dies and Now We can Keep Kissing his Ass with Friendly Platitudes
 
Jammer said:
Touched a nerve?
Politics mate, it's a dirty business, and a lot of theater.
Japanese Kabuki is what I've heard it called from time to time.

Whatever your views however, I do believe this is not the place to speak Ill of the dead.

Wonder how many British soldiers were killed with weapons that the Kennedy's paid for?  Or how many civilians were killed with Kennedy provided Semtex in the Christmas letter bomb campaign?  Screw him and anyone associated with him.
 
RIP Mary Jo.  He finally got his.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jo_Kopechne
 
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of all this. However follow the link, especially the KGB one, for a different perspective.

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/012081.html
 
Its quite sad for me to see Kennedy laid to rest amongst men and women that deserve to be there.
 
More on his "legacy" from Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/ted-kennedy-soviet-union-ronald-reagan-opinions-columnists-peter-robinson_print.html

Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit
Peter Robinson, 08.28.09, 12:01 AM ET

Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.

"On 9-10 May of this year," the May 14 memorandum explained, "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow." (Tunney was Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) "The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov."

Kennedy's message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. "The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations," the memorandum stated. "These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign."

Kennedy made Andropov a couple of specific offers.

First he offered to visit Moscow. "The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA." Kennedy would help the Soviets deal with Reagan by telling them how to brush up their propaganda.

Then he offered to make it possible for Andropov to sit down for a few interviews on American television. "A direct appeal ... to the American people will, without a doubt, attract a great deal of attention and interest in the country. ... If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interviews. ... The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side."

Kennedy would make certain the networks gave Andropov air time--and that they rigged the arrangement to look like honest journalism.

Kennedy's motives? "Like other rational people," the memorandum explained, "[Kennedy] is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations." But that high-minded concern represented only one of Kennedy's motives.

"Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988," the memorandum continued. "Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president."

Kennedy proved eager to deal with Andropov--the leader of the Soviet Union, a former director of the KGB and a principal mover in both the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring--at least in part to advance his own political prospects.

In 1992, Tim Sebastian published a story about the memorandum in the London Times. Here in the U.S., Sebastian's story received no attention. In his 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, historian Paul Kengor reprinted the memorandum in full. "The media," Kengor says, "ignored the revelation."

"The document," Kengor continues, "has stood the test of time. I scrutinized it more carefully than anything I've ever dealt with as a scholar. I showed the document to numerous authorities who deal with Soviet archival material. No one has debunked the memorandum or shown it to be a forgery. Kennedy's office did not deny it."

Why bring all this up now? No evidence exists that Andropov ever acted on the memorandum--within eight months, the Soviet leader would be dead--and now that Kennedy himself has died even many of the former senator's opponents find themselves grieving. Yet precisely because Kennedy represented such a commanding figure--perhaps the most compelling liberal of our day--we need to consider his record in full.

Doing so, it turns out, requires pondering a document in the archives of the politburo.

When President Reagan chose to confront the Soviet Union, calling it the evil empire that it was, Sen. Edward Kennedy chose to offer aid and comfort to General Secretary Andropov. On the Cold War, the greatest issue of his lifetime, Kennedy got it wrong.

Peter Robinson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a former White House speechwriter, writes a weekly column for Forbes.

 
There is a memorial, touching on Senate reform, in today's Ottawa Citizen, at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/never+Canadian+Kennedy/1949143/story.html , where the author bemoans that we'll never see a Canadian equivalent of Ted Kennedy.

My reply, submitted to the Citizen, is copied below.


Blair Williams' ode to the late Senator Kennedy bemoans that Canada will never see his equal.  I must respectfully disagree - Canada has already seen politicians embodying most of Kennedy's traits.

For starters, Sir John A MacDonald could probably have matched Ted drink for drink.  Rene Levesque killed a man when driving home one night and never went to jail, just as the death of Mary Jo Kopechne never resulted in Kennedy being incarcerated.  Pierre Trudeau was every bit the ladies man that Ted was.  And, finally, there are many members of Mr Williams' Liberal party who openly supported the terrorists of the LTTE, just as Ted provided moral support to the murderous terrorists of the IRA.

Or are we to ignore Kennedy's less than savoury past?  De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

EDIT to fix link - the message board added the "," at the end to the URL.
 
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