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Revision as of 07:19, 9 March 2006 by Gamaliel (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by 65.136.153.243 (talk) to last version by StuffOfInterest)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)- This article is about the U.S. senator, for information about the ice hockey player see Ted Kennedy (hockey).
| Edward "Ted" Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| File:Ted Kennedy.jpg | |
| Senior Senator, Massachusetts | |
| In office November 1962–Present | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin A. Smith II |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent (2007) |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | american |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Virginia Joan Bennett, divorced (2) Victoria Reggie |
Edward Moore Kennedy (born February 22, 1932) is the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, having served since 1962. The most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he is the brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and former US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (who also died by assassination).
Because of Kennedy's personal prominence and his longtime advocacy of liberal principles, he is often regarded as a "lion" of the Democratic Party. Supporters admire him as a forceful and reliable advocate for liberalism, whose personal and political skills enable him to achieve some gains even in an era of conservative ascendancy; however, some Democrats see him as being too ready to compromise with Republican legislators. His critics on the right charge that he is stuck in a "big-government" ideology from the 1960s and that his consistent opposition to Republican initiatives has caused him to lose credibility. Republicans seeking to rally their supporters often invoke Kennedy as the politician who must be opposed, citing his liberal politics and what many see as failings in his personal conduct.
Family and youth
Kennedy is the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, a prominent Irish-American family. He attended the Fessenden School, and later Milton Academy and entered Harvard College in 1950. He was forced to withdraw for two years from Harvard in May 1951 after he was allegedly caught cheating on his final examination in a Spanish class. Kennedy then entered the U.S. Army for two years and was assigned to the SHAPE headquarters in Paris. He eventually re-entered Harvard, graduating in June 1956. In the 1955 Harvard/Yale football game (won by Yale 21 to 7) Kennedy caught Harvard's only touchdown pass. In 1958, he attended the Hague Academy of International Law. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1959. While he was in law school, he managed his brother John's 1958 Senate re-election campaign.
His home is in Hyannisport, Mass., where he lives with his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy, a Washington lawyer and daughter of a Louisiana judge, and her children, Curran and Caroline. He has three grown children from his first marriage with Virginia Joan Bennett whom he met while delivering a speech at Manhattanville College: Kara (b.1960), Edward Jr. (b.1961), and Patrick (b.1967) and four grandchildren. After his brothers John and Robert were assassinated (in 1963 and 1968, respectively), he took on the role of surrogate father for his brothers' 13 children.
In 1962, Kennedy was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by his oldest brother, John, upon the latter's election as President of the United States. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was reelected in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, and 2000.
As of 2006, Kennedy is the second-longest serving current senator, behind only Robert Byrd. According to NPR, Kennedy plans to run for an eighth full term (and ninth overall term) in 2006. If he wins and serves out his full six-year term, he will have served in the U.S. Senate for fifty years.
In May of 2006, Kennedy plans to release his children's book My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C. In the tone of Barbara Bush's tome Millie's Book, the narrator is Kennedy's Portuguese Water Spaniel, Splash.
Early career
Kennedy is the senior Democratic Party member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He also serves on the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he is the senior Democratic representative on the Seapower Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, a founder of the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C..
Kennedy's career in the Senate has frequently attracted national attention. During his 1962 campaign, he was accused by his opponents of riding on his family's name and fortune, and (having no previous experience in elected office) of not being sufficiently qualified to hold so high an office. Soon after entering office, he went through the trauma of the assassination of his brother John, an event that focused much attention on him.
In 1964, Kennedy was in a plane crash in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides were killed. He was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch E. Bayh II (D-Ind.) and spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
In 1968, his last surviving brother, Robert, was assassinated during his bid to be nominated as Democratic candidate for the presidency. Kennedy delivered a very emotional eulogy at Robert's funeral. After the shock from this event wore off, Kennedy was looked upon as a likely future presidential candidate. For about a year, the Democratic establishment began to focus attention on him as the new "carrier of the torch" for the Kennedys and the party. His eulogy showed one thing: since his father suffered a stroke which left him invalid, he was seen by many as the family patriarch and had given such tributes for the family in times of crisis.
In January 1969, Kennedy defeated Louisiana Senator Russell B. Long to become Senate Majority Whip. He would serve as Whip until January 1971, when he was replaced by Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.
In October 1971, Kennedy called for the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland, and for all political participants there to begin talks on creating a United Ireland. The senator has retained an interest in the Irish political situation since that time.
Chappaquiddick
On July 18, 1969, after a party on Chappaquiddick Island near the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Kennedy, allegedly intoxicated, a claim which he denies, drove away with Mary Jo Kopechne as a passenger in his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88. According to Kennedy, he made a wrong turn onto an unlit road that led to Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge), a wooden bridge that was angled obliquely to the road, and drove over its side, which had no guardrail. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and landed upside down under the water. Kopechne died, but as no autopsy was performed, precise cause of death is unknown. Kennedy claims he tried several times to swim down to reach her, then rested on the bank for several minutes before returning on foot to the Lawrence Cottage, where the party attended by Kopechne and other "boiler room girls" had occurred.
Joseph Gargan (Kennedy's cousin) and party co-host Paul Markham then returned to the pond with Kennedy to try to rescue Kopechne. Though there was a telephone at the Lawrence Cottage, nobody called for help. When their efforts to rescue Kopechne failed, Kennedy decided to return to his hotel on the mainland. As the ferry had shut down for the night, Kennedy swam the short distance back to Edgartown.
Kennedy discussed the accident with several people, including his lawyer, before he contacted the police.
The next morning (July 19, 1969) the police recovered Kennedy's car. Kopechne's body was discovered by diver John Farrar, who observed that a large amount of air was released from the car when it was righted in the water, and that the trunk, when opened, was remarkably dry. These observations and others have led some to believe that Kopechne had not drowned, but suffocated in an air pocket within the car.
The incident quickly blossomed into a scandal. Kennedy was criticized for allegedly driving drunk, for failing to save Kopechne, for failing to summon help immediately, and for contacting not the police but rather his lawyer first.
Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended. An Edgartown grand jury later reopened the investigation but did not return an indictment.
Many question whether justice was served in this case. The case resulted in much satire directed against Kennedy, including a National Lampoon page showing a floating Volkswagen Beetle with the remark that Kennedy would have been elected President had he been driving a Beetle that night; this satire allegedly resulted in legal action by Volkswagen complaining of unauthorized use of their trademark.
Presidential bid
A decade after the Chappaquiddick incident, Kennedy decided to throw his hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination in the 1980 presidential election. He launched an unusual, insurgent campaign against a sitting president, Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Kennedy was unafraid of criticizing the president, who was mired in the Iran hostage crisis. He did, however, vow to support Carter if he were re-nominated. Despite much early support, his bid was ultimately unsuccessful, largely due to controversy surrounding the incident at Chappaquiddick. He lost substantial credibility in November 1979 during the week his campaign was officially launched, when he was widely ridiculed in the press following an interview with Roger Mudd on CBS News Special Reports. When Kennedy was asked by Mudd: "Why do you want to be President?", he was unable to provide a straightforward answer. Kennedy won 10 presidential primaries against Carter who won 24. Eventually he bowed out of the race, but delivered a rousing speech before the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City that many consider to be one of his finest moments.
Democratic Party icon
Since his presidential bid, Kennedy has become the de facto head of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He is one of the most recognizable and influential members of the party. In 2004, Kennedy supported the failed presidential bid of his fellow Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, speaking for Kerry multiple times and lending his chief of staff, Mary Beth Cahill, to the Kerry campaign.
Political views
No Child Left Behind
Kennedy was a major player in the bipartisan team that wrote the controversial No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which according to both Kennedy and President Bush, was a compromise. He then worked to get it passed in a Republican-controlled Congress, despite the opposition of members from both parties.
Kennedy has since argued that the No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate because the President and Congress have mandated obligations upon the states without providing equivalent funds, forcing the states to spend money to comply with the federal law. Libertarians and Conservatives have had mixed reactions to the bill, on the one hand disliking the expansion of the federal government, but on the other hand favoring the school choice provisions that it sets forth.
Right to abortion
Although he has been a staunch advocate of abortion rights for the past 30 years, Kennedy only adopted this position after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. Prior to that, he held a pro-life position. A letter to a constituent, dated August 3, 1971 opposes "the legalization of abortion on demand" saying that it "is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life." Kennedy's reversal on this issue after Roe v. Wade became a source of continuing dispute between him and the Roman Catholic Church to which he belongs. In 1987, Kennedy delivered an impassioned speech condemning Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork as a right-wing extremist and warning that "Robert Bork's America" would be one marked by back alley abortions and other backward practices. Kennedy's strong opposition to Bork's nomination is commonly seen as a prominent factor in the Senate's rejection of Bork's candidacy. Similar concerns have been raised in more recent Supreme Court nominations, as well; it is possible that Kennedy's opposition to Bork set a precedent. In recent years, he has argued that much of the debate over abortion is a false dichotomy. Speaking at the National Press Club in 2005, he remarked, "Surely, we can all agree that abortion should be rare, and that we should do all we can to help women avoid the need to face that decision."
Immigration policy
Ted Kennedy was a strong supporter of the 1965 Hart-Celler Act which dramatically changed US immigration policy. "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." (U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 1965. pp. 1-3.). Kennedy is now the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Immigration, and remains a strong advocate for immigrants.
Many people feel that this legislation dramatically changed the face of America society by making it a multicultural nation. Prior to the Hart-Celler Act, immigration policy was very selective and geared towards European countries. Proponents of the bill argued that immigration laws and quotas were discriminatory, and that American immigration policy should accept people not on the basis of their nationality. This also abolished the Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882.
Alternative energy
Ted Kennedy has maintained a record in favor of alternative energy sources as seen in his voting record as a senator. Some people see Kennedy's opposition to a proposed wind farm, Cape Wind, within sight of his home as hypocritical or as an example of a NIMBY philosophy. Senator Kennedy did not support the interests of the American Coalition for Ethanol fuel in 2002.
War On Terrorism
Though a supporter of the American-led 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Senator Kennedy is a vocal critic of the American-led 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. He has also been a harsh critic of the way the war was planned and conducted by the Bush Administration.
Of particular concern to Sen. Kennedy is the United States' treatment of the prisoners taken in the War on Terrorism. Applying standards of human rights that are available to all Americans, he believes there should be no difference between the treatment of accused terrorists and the treatment of accused criminals in the USA, such as the right to a speedy trial (or the suspect should be released), and the right to legal representation.
On September 27, 2004, Sen. Kennedy made a speech on the Senate floor regarding the war in Iraq, just prior to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election.
Grounded by terror watch list
During a congressional hearing on homeland security in August 2004, Kennedy revealed that he had been stopped from boarding airlines on multiple occasions because his name or a similar name had appeared on a terror watch list. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security later apologized and corrected the mistake.
Political resurrection
The accident at Chappaquiddick, along with continuing allegations of alcohol abuse and womanizing have haunted Kennedy's reputation and hampered his political career through the decades since it transpired. He withdrew in 1974 from the presidential race, and failed in a 1980 primary challenge to Jimmy Carter. Critics have specifically pointed to a night of barhopping on Good Friday in 1991 with his nephew William Kennedy Smith which culminated in Smith's trial and acquittal for rape.
According to a 2002 article in The Nation by Jack Newfield, that year also appears to represent a turning point. His good friend, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch confronted him about his drinking and then he "met Vicki Reggie and ended his partying."
After his marriage in 1992, he faced a tough challenger, Mitt Romney, for re-election to the Senate in 1994. Some of Romney’s supporters criticized Kennedy for statements he had made about the exclusionary policies of the LDS church, in which Romney held a leadership role. Kennedy defeated Romney with 58 percent of the vote. According to Newfield, Kennedy's family and friends believe that campaign "allowed him to reconnect with his reasons for believing in public service."
Newfield states that "In making the physical and emotional sacrifices necessary to win an exhausting campaign, Kennedy recovered his dedication to remain in the Senate, and he focused all his energies on the job"; he goes on to call him "the best and most effective senator of the past hundred years." "Because of his tragic experience", says Newfield, he is often found serving as "America's national grief counselor." Despite his liberal views, "The key to Kennedy's effectiveness has been his remarkable capacity to form warm, genuine friendships—more than mere working alliances—with GOP senators."
Further reading
- Burke, Richard E. (1993). The Senator: My Ten Years With Ted Kennedy. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312951337.
- Clymer, Adam (1999). Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography. Wm. Morrow & Company. ISBN 0688142850.
- Damore, Leo. (1983). Senatorial Privilege, The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up.
External links
- United States Congress. "Ted Kennedy (id: K000105)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Senate homepage
- Campaign homepage
- Robert Kennedy's eulogy read by Ted Kennedy
- Webcast of Kennedy at a Jan. 21, 2003 National Press Club event, via NPR Provides corroboration for 2006 re-election run.
- Ted Kennedy's 1980 Democratic National Convention Address
- Committee for a Democratic Majority
- Terror List Snag Nearly Grounded Ted Kennedy (USA Today article)
- Both sides fault lack of funding for No Child Left Behind
- Biography, via George Bush Foundation
| Preceded byJames O. Eastland | Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman 1978 - 1987 |
Succeeded byStrom Thurmond |
| Preceded byOrrin Hatch | Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee Chairman 1987-1995 |
Succeeded byNancy Landon Kassebaum |
| Preceded byJim Jeffords | Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman January 3, 2001 - January 20, 2001 |
Succeeded byJim Jeffords |
| Preceded byJim Jeffords | Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003 |
Succeeded byJudd Gregg |
| Massachusetts's current delegation to the United States Congress | |
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| Senators |
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| Representatives (ordered by district) |
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| Current United States senators | ||
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| President: ▌ Kamala Harris (D) ‧ President pro tempore: ▌ Patty Murray (D) | ||
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- 1932 births
- American lawyers
- Hague Academy of International Law people
- Harvard alumni
- Irish-American politicians
- Kennedy family
- Living people
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- Pro-choice politicians
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- United States presidential candidates
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