Kennedy's Lasting Legacy

Some events leave you speechless. So many people are writing eloquent and moving tributes to Teddy Kennedy. I don’t yet have the words to meet the moment. It’s a testimony to Kennedy’s incredible influence that you can’t quite sum up what he accomplished and what his life’s work and example meant to this country. For me, there are two types of senators worth emulating. One is best exemplified by Paul Wellstone, an unapologetic fighter who never backs down. The other is Teddy Kennedy, who got more accomplished than any senator in history by knowing when to cut a deal. For me, this is Kennedy’s most important legacy. He will be studied by every future senator. And I hope those senators learn something from the exercise.

We’ve just lost the best and most effective senator to ever serve in the institution. As a man, he had large flaws. As a politician, he had no peer.

8 Comments

justadood on August 26, 2009 at 3:03 pm

http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/jd/

BooMan on August 26, 2009 at 3:12 pm

John McCain:

My friend, Ted Kennedy, was famous before he was accomplished. But by the end of his life he had become irreplaceable in the institution he loved and in the affections of its members. He grew up in the long shadow of his brothers, but found a way to be useful to his country in ways that will outlast their accomplishments.

Many of his fellow senators, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, will note today that Ted was sincerely intent on finding enough common ground among us to make progress on the issues of our day, and toward that end he would work as hard and as modestly as any staffer. Many will recall his convivial nature, his humor, his thoughtfulness. We will praise as his greatest strength the integrity of his word. When he made a promise to you, he kept it, no matter what.

What is harder for us to express is the emptiness we will feel in the Senate in his absence. Even when we are all crowded in the chamber for a vote, engaged in dozens of separate conversations, it will seem a quiet and less interesting place, in the knowledge that his booming voice, fueled by his passion for his convictions, will never encourage or assail or impress us again.

I will miss him very much.

ILuvChez17 on August 26, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Not only was it a terrible personal tragedy, it came at immense cost to the party and the country.

His mea culpa was a lifetime of liberal policy pursuits and his efforts in 1980 and 2008.

Still, the nation would have been better served by President Edward Kennedy.

YMMV

Davis X Machina on August 26, 2009 at 3:23 pm

All true, but if he came on the scene de novo, the liberal blogosphere would primary him. You’ll see praise for his product, but none for his process.

Brendan Skwire on August 26, 2009 at 4:35 pm

I go on an awful lot about how much i hate politicians, and how disgusted i am with the Democratic Party.

To my mom’s chagrin (she’s a solid dem, but has never forgiven Ted for Chappaquiddick), Ted Kennedy has been my hero for years.

I’m having a shittier than average week.

mainsailset on August 26, 2009 at 6:49 pm

Just impossible to find words for this kind of loss. Watching him use that great big booming voice, filled with passion and occasional whimsey, was always a riveting event. Much like watching one of our big tugboats leverage a yacht that was grounded in the mud slowly pull her loose from the grip of the mud & rocks.
I always rooted for Ted and the tugboats.