Ted Kennedy is dead

[Davis 51]

MSNBC is reporting right now that Ted Kennedy is dead. Link when I find one.

[Kodiak]

CNN has it reported as well, though it's just a banner right now and there are no details.

Longtime Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy is dead.

Here's to you, Teddy!

[Alyrium Denryle]

Well... shit.

[Davis 51]

Flipping channels, the only one not saying a damn word is Fox. Their website has a banner though. It seems that NBC was the first to report it.

Here's the only article I can find right now.

(CNN) — Sen. Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of the first family of Democratic politics, died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He was 77.

“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,” a family 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.”

Kennedy, nicknamed “Ted,” was the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy and New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down while seeking the White House in 1968. But his own presidential aspirations were hobbled by the controversy around a 1969 auto accident that left a young woman dead, and a 1980 primary challenge to then-President Jimmy Carter that ended in defeat.

But while the White House eluded his grasp, the longtime Massachusetts senator was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades. Kennedy, who became known as the “lion of the Senate,” played major roles in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, and was an outspoken liberal standard-bearer during a conservative-dominated era from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

“Senator Ted Kennedy’s legacy in the United States Senate is comparable and consistent with the legacy of his entire family for generations,” Kennedy’s biographer, Ted Sorensen, said.

Kennedy suffered a seizure in May 2008 at his home on Cape Cod. Shortly after, doctors diagnosed a brain tumor — a malignant glioma in his left parietal lobe.

Surgeons at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, removed as much of the tumor as possible the following month. Doctors considered the procedure a success, and Kennedy underwent follow-up radiation treatments and chemotherapy.

A few weeks later, he participated in a key vote in the Senate. And he insisted on making a brief but dramatic appearance at the 2008 Democratic convention, a poignant moment that brought the crowd to its feet and tears to many eyes.

“I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States,” Kennedy told fellow Democrats in a strong voice.

Kennedy’s early support for Obama was considered a boon for the candidate, then a first-term senator from Illinois locked in a tough primary battle against former first lady Hillary Clinton. Kennedy predicted Obama’s victory and pledged to be in Washington in January when Obama assumed office — and he was, though he was hospitalized briefly after suffering a seizure during a post-inaugural luncheon.

Kennedy was one of only six senators in U.S. history to serve more than 40 years. He was elected to eight full terms to become the second most-senior senator, after West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd.

He launched his political career in 1962, when he was elected to finish the unexpired Senate term of his brother, who became president in 1960. He won his first full term in 1964.

He seemed to have a bright political future, and many Democratic eyes turned to him after the killings of his brothers. But a July 18, 1969, car wreck on Chappaquiddick Island virtually ended his ambitions.

After a party for women who had worked on his brother Robert’s presidential campaign, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick, off Cape Cod and across a narrow channel from Martha’s Vineyard. While Kennedy managed to escape, his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.

In a coroner’s inquest, he denied having been drunk, and said he made “seven or eight” attempts to save Kopechne before exhaustion forced him to shore. And though he sought help from friends at the party, Kennedy did not report the accident to police until the following morning.

Kennedy eventually pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. In a televised address to residents of his home state, Kennedy called his conduct in the hours following the accident “inexplicable” and called his failure to report the wreck immediately “indefensible.”

Despite the dent in his reputation and career, Kennedy remained in American politics and went on to win seven more terms in the Senate. Kennedy championed social causes and was the author of “In Critical Condition: The Crisis in America’s Health Care.” He served as chairman of the Judiciary and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees and was the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary and Armed Services committees during periods when Republicans controlled the chamber.

Obama named Kennedy as one of 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. A White House statement explained that the 2009 honorees “were chosen for their work as agents of change.”

“Senator Kennedy has dedicated his career to fighting for equal opportunity, fairness and justice for all Americans. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that every American has access to quality and affordable health care, and has succeeded in doing so for countless children, seniors, and Americans with disabilities. He has called health care reform the “cause of his life.”

Born in Boston on February 22, 1932, Edward Moore Kennedy was the last of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, a prominent businessman and Democrat, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Joseph Kennedy served as ambassador to Britain before World War II and pushed his sons to strive for the presidency, a burden “Teddy” bore for much of his life as the only surviving Kennedy son.

His oldest brother, Joe Jr., died in a plane crash during World War II when Kennedy was 12. John was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, and Robert was killed the night of the California primary in 1968.

Ted Kennedy delivered Robert’s eulogy, urging mourners to remember him as “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it; who saw suffering and tried to heal it; who saw war and tried to stop it.”

The family was plagued with other tragedies as well. One sister, Kathleen, was killed in a plane crash in 1948. Another sister, Rosemary, was born mildly retarded, but was institutionalized after a botched lobotomy in 1941. She died in 1986 after more than 50 years in mental hospitals.

Joseph Kennedy was incapacitated by a stroke in 1961 and died in November 1969, leaving the youngest son as head of the family. He was 37.

“I can’t let go,” Kennedy once told an aide. “If I let go, Ethel (Robert’s widow) will let go, and my mother will let go, and all my sisters.”

Kennedy himself survived a 1964 plane crash that killed an aide, suffering a broken back in the accident. But he recovered to lead the seemingly ill-starred clan through a series of other tragedies: Robert Kennedy’s son David died of a drug overdose in a Florida hotel in 1984; another of Robert’s sons, Michael, was killed in a skiing accident in Colorado in 1997; and John’s son John Jr., his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette died in a 1999 plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard.

In addition, his son Edward Jr. lost a leg to cancer in the 1970s, and daughter Kara survived a bout with the disease in the early 2000s.

Kennedy was forced to testify about a bar-hopping weekend that led to sexual battery charges against his nephew, William Kennedy Smith. Smith was acquitted in 1991 of charges that he raped a woman he met while at a Florida nightclub with the senator and his son Patrick, now a Rhode Island congressman.

Like brothers John and Robert, Edward Kennedy attended Harvard. He studied in the Netherlands before earning a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School, and worked in the district attorney’s office in Boston before entering politics.

Kennedy is survived by his second wife, Victoria Ann Reggie Kennedy, whom he married in 1992; his first wife, Joan Bennett; and five children — Patrick, Kara and Edward Jr. from his first marriage, and Curran and Caroline Raclin from his second.

Edit: Fox News now reported it, that makes all of the major networks.

[Pelranius]

Well, RIP. He certainly left a storied life.

[Dominus Atheos]

Holy shit! I knew he wasn't in the best health, but I wasn't expecting this.

This may sound callous, but the main things running through my head right now is what this means for healthcare reform and the Democrat majority in the senate. Due to rules put in place during the 2004 election in Massachusetts when it looked like then-governor Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican to replace John Kerry, the governor isn't allowed to appoint any replacement and everyone has to wait 5 months (145 days) for a special election during which the Democrats are down to 59 seats. It's Massachusetts so it will almost certainly be a democrat elected in five months, though.

Also, a lot of the best efforts on health care reform in te senate were being made by Ted Kennedy (the HELP bill), and with him gone it's a real tossup as to what will happen to to it. Without him calling in favors some senators who might have voted for his bill may not, or it's actually possible that some who were on the fence might vote for it in honor of Kennedy's memory.

[Guardsman Bass]

That sucks - personal failings aside, he was a major player in getting health care coverage expanded, with programs like SCHIP. I didn't really realize he was that bad along - I'd heard mention of him asking for a change in the rules of senatorial appointment in Massachusetts so that the governor could immediately appoint a fill-in, but I didn't realize he was literally on death's door when doing so.

[The Romulan Republic]

Holy shit! I knew he wasn't in the best health, but I wasn't expecting this.

This may sound callous, but the main things running through my head right now is what this means for healthcare reform and the Democrat majority in the senate. Due to rules put in place during the 2004 election in Massachusetts when it looked like then-governor Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican to replace John Kerry, the governor isn't allowed to appoint any replacement and everyone has to wait 5 months (145 days) for a special election during which the Democrats are down to 59 seats. It's Massachusetts so it will almost certainly be a democrat elected in five months, though.

Also, a lot of the best efforts on health care reform in te senate were being made by Ted Kennedy (the HELP bill), and with him gone it's a real tossup as to what will happen to to it. Without him calling in favors some senators who might have voted for his bill may not, or it's actually possible that some who were on the fence might vote for it in honor of Kennedy's memory.

While my first thought is sympathy for the man (and his family as well), I feel the same way to a point. It would be tragic if the man's political legacy with regards to health care were to collapse as a result of his death, but more tragic than any personal tragedy would be the potential disaster for the nation.

At the very least, then, the filibuster-proof majority is gone until the new year.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I am going to lay odds right now that some right wing cartoonist will draw a "RIP TED" cartoon involving some sort of smug vindictive act involving the "Chappaquidick" incident.

[Mr Bean]

Not sorry to hear Kennedy go. Not happy to hear him gone either He was not exactly a nice man. Not corrupt but he was not exactly a good person. At best you can say he tried his best.

I do hold it against him he kept power until his death. Kennedy and Byrd both spent the past year being wheeled in for important votes. I understand Byrd, he could be five days dead and still win in WV and might win even if he was not running... but Kennedy should have resigned after election if not before.

Now we go back to 59 democratic senators for up five months thanks to Massachusetts law which requires any empty seat to be filled by special election but provides no method to put someone onto the seat until the election.
As for changing the law...
This was last week he made this appeal, to change the law to give the Governor the power to appoint some until the election, but whoever was appointed could not run in the special election, which is frankly a system I think should be standard nation wise because it makes good sense for Senators and Congressmen.

[Flagg]

My family has some very positive history with the man who helped get my deaf uncle into public school before the Americans with Disabilities act so I have alot of respect for him, his many flaws aside. I'm sad to see him go the way he did, he certainly didn't deserve a painful death.

[MKSheppard]

Due to rules put in place during the 2004 election in Massachusetts when it looked like then-governor Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican to replace John Kerry,

What's funny is that Kennady was one of the major backers of that bill; and then changed his mind when:

A.) He was in bad health

and (this is the most important one)

B.) A safe, trusted Democrat was now governor.

[irishmick79]

I seem to recall Kennedy wasn't expected to make it to the November elections last year. It was a pretty big deal that he was able to attend the Democratic convention at all, nevermind speak at it.

[Bilbo]

Now we go back to 59 democratic senators for up five months thanks to Massachusetts law which requires any empty seat to be filled by special election but provides no method to put someone onto the seat until the election.

Cry me a river. The process in Massachusetts WAS that the Governor would appoint a sucessor. When Kerry was running for Prez there was a Republican Governor in power. Ted Kennedy himself pushed for the change in law out of fear that the GOP governor would appoint a GOP Senator.

Sorry, you cannot have your cake and eat it to. The law you are complaining about is Kennedy's own fault.

[Knife]

Say what you want about him, he helped pass some very needed legislation: National Cancer Act of 1971, COBRA act of 1985, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Ryan Whites AIDS Care Act of 1990, HIPPA in 1996, and SCHIPS in 1997.

Clearly he tried his best to ensure the health of the population of the United States. While he may not have been the nicest of men, and some of his escapades are loathsome, he did serve his country in the Senate and put forth some needed laws.

[ray245]

Wonder if the death of Ted kennedy would get the UHC bill passed in the US.

[erik_t]

I respected his efforts at public life, though I didn't always agree with his positions. Old cancerous people die, though. I can't claim to be surprised or particularly broken up about it.

[Broomstick]

Wonder if the death of Ted kennedy would get the UHC bill passed in the US.

More likely to have the opposite effect, as Kennedy was a master at pulling together opposing sides and had stacks of favors to call in when necessary. His death also drops the number of Democrats in the Senate to 59, leaving them open to Republican filibuster.

[ray245]

Wonder if the death of Ted kennedy would get the UHC bill passed in the US.

More likely to have the opposite effect, as Kennedy was a master at pulling together opposing sides and had stacks of favors to call in when necessary. His death also drops the number of Democrats in the Senate to 59, leaving them open to Republican filibuster.

Surely there will be people who wish to honour his memory by voting in favour of the bill?

[Davis 51]

Wonder if the death of Ted kennedy would get the UHC bill passed in the US.

More likely to have the opposite effect, as Kennedy was a master at pulling together opposing sides and had stacks of favors to call in when necessary. His death also drops the number of Democrats in the Senate to 59, leaving them open to Republican filibuster.

Surely there will be people who wish to honour his memory by voting in favour of the bill?

If you think any of them are Republicans you are sorely mistaken.

[Simon_Jester]

What about the blue dogs?

[erik_t]

Wonder if the death of Ted kennedy would get the UHC bill passed in the US.

More likely to have the opposite effect, as Kennedy was a master at pulling together opposing sides and had stacks of favors to call in when necessary. His death also drops the number of Democrats in the Senate to 59, leaving them open to Republican filibuster.

The Senate was already down to 59. Kennedy was not in any position to enter the Senate chambers and has not been for some time. Nor was he in any position to twist arms. This is no statement about his character or tenacity, but he has been literally ineffectual for a number of months. His death can really only have a positive impact on the likelihood of health care, if it has any effect at all.

[ray245]

Wonder if the death of Ted kennedy would get the UHC bill passed in the US.

More likely to have the opposite effect, as Kennedy was a master at pulling together opposing sides and had stacks of favors to call in when necessary. His death also drops the number of Democrats in the Senate to 59, leaving them open to Republican filibuster.

The Senate was already down to 59. Kennedy was not in any position to enter the Senate chambers and has not been for some time. Nor was he in any position to twist arms. This is no statement about his character or tenacity, but he has been literally ineffectual for a number of months. His death can really only have a positive impact on the likelihood of health care, if it has any effect at all.

I have to wonder if the democrats would use Kennedy's last unfulfilled wish as a rallying cry to push the bill through the senate.

[Mr Bean]

ABM derailment split to here
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 2&t=136584

[SirNitram]

His long-time collegue and friend Senator Byrd, speaks on the ideal legacy:

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the only senator to have served longer than the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), mourned his friend Wednesday, saying his "heart and soul weeps."

Byrd said he hoped healthcare reform legislation in the Senate would be renamed in memoriam of Kennedy.

"I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come," Byrd said in a statement. "My heart and soul weeps at the lost of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy."

Byrd's wistful statement focused on the work accomplished with Kennedy during decades together in the Senate, and called on the healthcare bill before Congress to be renamed in honor of Kennedy.

"In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," Byrd said.

Byrd, who has himself suffered infirmities keeping him from active participation in the Senate in recent months, famously wept when his younger colleague Kennedy fell ill with brain cancer last year.

Those emotions were again on display in Byrd's statement this morning.

"God bless his wife Vicki, his family, and the institution that he served so ably, which will never be the same without his voice of eloquence and reason," Byrd said. "And God bless you Ted. I love you and will miss you terribly."