Kennedy: Legendary orator, link to history

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - His hair was white, his face was puffy and red, but Sen. Ted Kennedy’s voice still had that stirring resonance that set Democrats’ pulses racing and brought them to their feet.

Kennedy’s speech on behalf of presidential contender Sen. John Kerry that Sunday four years ago at the McKinstry Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa was one the most exciting performances I’ve ever witnessed.

“In the final hours of this caucus, people having listened to the candidates on the issues want to know: what kind of heart is in this man?” he shouted to the crowd.

Kennedy cited Kerry’s tour of duty in Vietnam and told them of “the heroism, and the Americanism, the bravery and the tenacity… of our candidate John Kerry.”

I thought on that day before the Iowa caucuses that if Kennedy could transfer this exhilaration to Kerry, he just might win the Iowa caucuses.

And Kerry did, thanks in part to the Kennedy magic.

A figure out of history
Part of the excitement of being in that auditorium in Waterloo on that winter afternoon came, of course, from seeing a figure straight out of American history.

Politics is part of Kennedy's genetic inheritance.

Kennedy's grandfather John F. Fitzgerald was a colorful Massachusetts congressman and mayor of Boston. His father, financier Joseph Kennedy, helped make Franklin Roosevelt president in 1933. His brothers, President John Kennedy, and 1968 presidential contender Robert Kennedy were both murdered, becoming political martyrs in their own right.

Video Senators: Kennedy 'an American icon' May 20: Democratic senators gather to talk about Ted Kennedy, calling him 'an American icon.' MSNBC

When you see Kennedy walking off the Senate floor after delivering one of his combative speeches, you inevitably think of all that history — and of his long Senate career, his relentless political warfare against Republicans, and his brushes with death and disaster.

He nearly died in 1964 as a passenger in a small plane that crashed on its way to the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention in Springfield, Mass. after he had cast his vote for the 1964 civil rights bill in Washington.

One of the longest-running spectacles on Capitol Hill is Kennedy berating a witness before one of the Senate committees on which he serves.

A righteous fury
Kennedy has the knack of instantly working himself up into a righteous fury, or a good imitation of that.

He sometimes reduces witnesses to incoherence, although I’ve seen two in recent years, Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito in 2006 and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last April kept calm under the Kennedy onslaught.

Elected at age 30 in 1962 to fill the seat once held by his brother John, Ted Kennedy has served longer in the Senate than anyone else apart from Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond.

Kennedy always has several causes going at once: gay rights, immigrant rights, Iraqi refugees, and allowing workers to get union representation simply by signing cards rather than voting in elections.

MORE FROM

Section Front

Obama campaign head gets big book deal Officials turn down Franken request Joe the Plumber to become war correspondent Franken lead at 49 with absentees left to count Minn. Senate winner won't be known in 2008 First Read: 'Twas the seventh week of recount... Franken opens first lead in Minn. Senate race Mom of Palin daughter's boyfriend arrested Minn. court weighs rejected absentee ballots Minnesota panel reviews disputed ballots Section Front   Add headlines to your news reader: