Ted Kennedy

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy represented Massachusetts in the US Senate beginning in 1962, when he was elected to finish the term of his brother and newly elected president, John F. Kennedy. He steadily gained influence and won reelection eight times, remaining a senator until his death in 2009. A staunch Democratic liberal, he fought for social issues such as immigration reform, fair housing, public education, AIDS research, and programs to aid the poor. His greatest area of legislative expertise, however, was health care.

A member of a wealthy and powerful American political dynasty, Kennedy was widely regarded as a viable candidate for the presidency after the assassination of both his brothers John (in 1963) and Robert (US attorney general and presidential candidate, in 1968). His chances were damaged by his behavior in the infamous Chappaquiddick scandal in 1969.

Early Life and Education

Edward Moore Kennedy was born on February 22, 1932, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the youngest of nine children. To accommodate Joseph Kennedy's position as a US diplomat, the family frequently traveled between Boston, New York, Palm Beach, and London, England. Kennedy attended several private schools before enrolling in the exclusive Milton Academy in 1946. During his time there, he earned only average grades and spent several evenings a week being tutored.

Beginning in 1950, Kennedy attended Harvard University, as had most of his family before him. At the end of his first year, he was suspended for hiring another student to take a final examination in his place. He joined the US Army, and his privileged background earned him an assignment to SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe) headquarters in Paris, France, from 1951 to 1953.

After his two-year military obligation had been met, Kennedy was readmitted to Harvard and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1956. In his junior year at Harvard, Kennedy showed promise on the football field, and professional scouts reportedly approached him as a prospect for the Green Bay Packers. Kennedy declined the offer, saying he wanted to play "another contact sport, politics."

The Family Business

After leaving Harvard, Kennedy worked as a reporter for the International News Service in North Africa. In 1958, he attended the International Law School (The Hague) in the Netherlands and earned his law degree from University of Virginia Law School the following year.

While he was still a law student, Kennedy managed a successful Senate reelection campaign in Massachusetts for his brother John F. Kennedy. In 1960, he acted as a regional campaign manager for John's presidential bid. At the end of the successful campaign, Kennedy worked for a year as assistant to the Suffolk County district attorney in Massachusetts.

In November 1958, when Kennedy was still juggling law school and his brother's campaign, he married pianist Virginia Joan Bennett. Together, they had three children, but the couple divorced in 1981. Kennedy married for a second time in 1992, this time to Washington attorney Victoria Reggie, a family friend. The couple had two children together.

Senator Kennedy

In 1962, Kennedy was elected to President John F. Kennedy's former Senate seat, and he was reelected to a full term in 1964. He won despite breaking his back in a near-fatal plane crash that June, leaving him incapacitated throughout the campaign. As a junior senator, he took liberal positions on domestic issues and supported most of President Lyndon B. Johnson's foreign policies after Johnson took office following the assassination of President Kennedy.

In 1965, he won his first major legislative victory, leading the fight for passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which ended the national origins quota system. He began to speak out against the Vietnam War in 1967, focusing on the need to reform the draft system, and the United States' failure to provide relief services for Vietnamese war victims.

Kennedy's life was strongly affected by his brother Robert's assassination in June 1968. After a period of profound mourning, he became more vocal in denouncing the war, and he was considered the leading liberal in the Senate and successor to his family's political legacy.

Scandal

Six months after Kennedy was elected Senate majority whip in January 1969, his career suffered a severe setback. He drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, near Cape Cod, resulting in the drowning death of his administrative aid and campaign advisor, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was a passenger in the car. His failure to report the accident for nearly nine hours was widely questioned and criticized in the press, and public opinion turned against him.

He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and the charges were suspended. Though not criminally responsible for Kopechne's death, suspicion surrounding the exact nature of the accident and Kennedy's reasons for not reporting it had a lasting effect on his chances for the presidency. He removed himself from consideration as a candidate in the 1972 presidential election. The incident and the controversy surrounding it would follow Kennedy throughout his career.

Attempting to revive his floundering career, Kennedy focused his considerable energies on the Senate. He opposed Richard Nixon's antiballistic missile deployment proposal, fought to end the war in Vietnam, and led the effort to reduce the legal voting age to eighteen. He was reelected in 1970 but lost his majority whip position in 1971.

During the 1970s, Kennedy tackled the issues of handgun control and compulsory national health insurance. He favored bussing as a means of racial integration, amnesty for Vietnam draft evaders, and the right of women to receive federal assistance for abortions. Kennedy also authored two books during this period: Decisions for a Decade (1968) and In Critical Condition (1972).

Political Agenda

Kennedy won reelection to the Senate in 1976 and became chair of the powerful Judiciary Committee three years later. Although he had declined previous invitations to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, he announced in 1979 that he would challenge President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination in the 1980 election. His hopes for the nomination were dashed after his lackluster performance in a television interview, which returned the Chappaquiddick incident to the headlines. Also, the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan worked in Carter's favor, earning him victories in several key early primaries and pushing Kennedy out of the running.

Kennedy lost his position as chair of the Judiciary Committee when Republicans gained control of the Senate in 1981. He won his fourth reelection to the Senate the following year and assumed the role of senior Democratic senator. He became chair of the Labor Committee in 1986 and developed a reputation as one of President Ronald Reagan's principal opponents in the Senate, differing sharply on labor and other social issues.

Disillusioned by his earlier defeat, Kennedy declined to enter the presidential primaries in both 1984 and 1988, and he remained in the Senate. He won reelection in 1988 and again in 1994, but he lost his committee chairmanship when Republicans once again took control of the Senate in the landslide 1994 elections.

Elder Statesman

Some of the greatest achievements of Kennedy's career came during a period of Republican control in the Senate, proving that he was capable of political cooperation and bipartisanship. He pushed to enact a minimum wage increase and compromised with Republicans to achieve the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which made it easier for those who change or lose jobs to keep their health insurance. Another significant health care victory was the Children's Health Act of 1997, which made health insurance more widely available to children through age eighteen in all fifty states. Kennedy also worked to enact the Patients' Bill of Rights, which provided greater protection for patients and physicians in dealing with insurance companies. In 2002, Kennedy was cited as one of the most influential people involved in health care legislation and reform.

In 1999, Kennedy received the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedoms Award for his lifelong contribution to social justice and the fulfillment of the ideals set forth by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite the stigma of scandal that continued to surround him, Kennedy managed to maintain a solid base of public support and respect.

As President George W. Bush undertook what he termed as the “War on Terrorism” in 2001, Kennedy became a strong voice against the US invasion of Iraq. He maintained, along with many other politicians from both parties, that the president had not made a convincing case that war was a necessary or even legal alternative for dealing with Iraq's violation of United Nations resolutions regarding disarmament. Kennedy also criticized Bush for his failure to obtain international support for the invasion.

Kennedy continued to voice his disagreement with Bush's policy in Iraq in 2007. He was the first legislator in Congress to propose legislation that opposed Bush's plan to initiate an increase in US troop levels. Though troop levels in Iraq were increased by the Bush administration, Kennedy remained an opponent of the war.

In the Senate, Kennedy served as chair of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, and he served on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee. He was primarily concerned with the issues of civil rights, education reform, fair wages, workers' rights, environmental protection, and maintaining Social Security and Medicare for senior citizens. He was a supporter of same-sex marriage, increased gun control initiatives, and abortion rights.

Kennedy suffered a seizure on May 17, 2008, while at home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. It was announced on May 20, 2008, that he had been diagnosed as having a malignant brain tumor. Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress made emotional statements in support of Kennedy. After the diagnosis, a Kennedy spokesperson stated that the senator was not considering retirement.

On June 2, 2008, Kennedy underwent brain surgery in North Carolina. Doctors removed as much of Kennedy's brain tumor as possible. Following the operation, Kennedy returned to Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, making a statement that he was feeling well. Kennedy began a regime of targeted radiation and chemotherapy upon his return to Massachusetts.

In January 2009, Kennedy attended the inauguration ceremony of US President Barack Obama. However, following the inauguration, Kennedy suffered another stroke. Nonetheless, Kennedy continued to champion the health care reform initiatives proposed by President Obama early in his administration.

Kennedy died on August 25, 2009, at the age of seventy-seven. At the time of his death, he was the third longest-serving senator in US history, having served in the Senate for forty-six years. His legislative achievements and political legacy were celebrated nationwide. President Obama offered a public statement, calling Kennedy the most effective legislator in modern history.

Bibliography

Broder, John M. "Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Is Dead at 77." The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/us/politics/27kennedy.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2017.

Canellos, Peter S., editor. Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. Simon & Schuster, 2009.

Kennedy, Edward M. True Compass: A Memoir. Hachette Book Group, 2009.

Klein, Edward. Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died. Crown Archetype, 2009.

Nolan, Martin F. "Kennedy Dead at 77." The Boston Globe, 26 Aug. 2009, archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/26/kennedy‗dead‗at‗77. Accessed 17 Mar. 2017.