Thaindian News

By Samrat Banerjee

Aug 26 (IBNS) Rightly regarded as the Lion of the Senate, a champion of social justice, and a political icon, Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy (77), has freed himself from all frets and fevers of life after fighting a lost battle with brain cancer.

Such tragic termination took place late Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

“Ted” Kennedy, born February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009, was the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party.

In office since November 1962, Kennedy was in his eighth full (and ninth overall) term in the Senate. At the time of his death, he was the second most senior member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and the third-longest-serving senator of all time.

He was best known as one of the most outspoken and effective Senate proponents of liberal causes and bills. For many years the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he was the youngest brother of President John F Kennedy and Senator Robert F Kennedy, both victims of assassinations, and the father of Congressman Patrick J Kennedy.

Kennedy was born in Boston and raised in Massachusetts, New York, Florida, and England. He was educated at Harvard College, where he was expelled for cheating on an exam but later readmitted, and the University of Virginia School of Law. His 1958 marriage to Virginia Joan Bennett would later end in divorce.

He was a manager in his brother John’s successful 1960 campaign for president, then worked as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Kennedy entered the Senate in a 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by John. He was seriously injured in an airplane crash in 1964 and suffered from lifelong back pain as a result. Kennedy was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was reelected in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006.

In the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, the car Kennedy was driving ran off a bridge and plunged into water, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence; however, doubts about his account of the accident significantly damaged his chances of ever becoming President of the United States. Kennedy’s one run for the office, in the 1980 presidential election, ended in a primary campaign loss to incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

Kennedy was known for his oratorical power, with his 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 Democratic National Convention rallying cry for American liberalism being his best-known moments. Kennedy’s heated rhetoric helped lead to the defeat of the 1987 Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination and usher in an era of intense political battles over federal judicial nominations.

Kennedy’s personal behavior became the subject of public ridicule in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but his 1992 marriage to Victoria Anne Reggie stabilized his life.