Senators Honor Kennedy as He Reaches His 70th Birthday
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26–Political allies and foes alike showered Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) with accolades on the Senate floor yesterday as the Senate took a breather from such partisan issues as election reform and energy policy to honor Kennedy’s 70th birthday.
Massachusetts’s junior Senator, John Kerry, who organized the tribute, touted Kennedy as the “lion” of the Senate. “Ted is an extraordinary public servant not only because he knows who he is, and sticks to his guns, never bending with the political currents,” Kerry said, “but because he has in his life and in his career proven again and again that progress doesn’t happen by accident, it doesn’t happen when you stick to the text of the latest opinion poll or the whispers of the morning focus group, it happens when leaders define and fight the fights that need fighting – when public servants of conscience and conviction refuse to take no for an answer. That is why for Ted Kennedy, the cause has not just endured – but triumphed, again and again.”
Mr. Kennedy was first elected to the Senate in November 1962, filling the Senate seat once held by his brother, President John F. Kennedy. In 1980, Mr. Kennedy sought the Democratic presidential nomination but lost out to the sitting president, Jimmy Carter.
Orrin G. Hatch, a conservative Republican from Utah, said that he counts Kennedy among his best friends, despite philosophical and political differences. “Believe it or not, one of the reasons I ran for the Senate [in 1976] was to get the modern face of liberalism, Ted Kennedy, out of office,” Hatch said. “As the past 26 years have aptly indicated, I certainly failed. Ted Kennedy stands for everything my party and state rejects so vehemently· . [But] despite our differences, we have come together on common ground.”
Mr. Hatch then read a letter he received years ago from a conservative-minded senior citizen in southern Utah: “When we heard that you might run [for the Senate], we supported you. When we heard you were running, we voted for you. And when we heard you were friends with Ted Kennedy, we prayed for you.” After reading the short note, Mr. Hatch paused and laughed.
Chris Dodd (D-CT), whose father had also represented Connecticut in the Senate, joked, “[Mr. Kennedy] likes to tease me all the time when he comes to Connecticut, and reminds me that he deeply resents the fact that someone can get elected on the basis of their last name.”
Mr. Dodd later added, “There’s a lot of kick left in the senior Senator from Massachusetts.”
Mr. Kennedy, who celebrated his milestone birthday last Friday, was noticeably touched by the tribute of more than an hour. “I’ve been enormously blessed· with a strong commitment to public service, which is strong in my family,” he said. “The greatest public honor of one’s life is to serve in the United States Senate; it is to me.”
Mr. Kennedy later poked fun at Senator Strom Thurmond R-SC), who is approaching his 100th birthday. “I could run four more times and still be younger than Strom Thurmond,” he said.
Written for the New Bedford Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass.
