The Liberal Lion roars no more.
With Massachusetts Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy’s death Tuesday at age 77 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, so ended the career of perhaps the greatest statesman of the past half-century. Kennedy, the last surviving brother in a political dynasty beset by tragedy for the male line, will long be remembered as the standard bearer for peace and social welfare causes.
Kennedy, who was unsuccessful in his 1980 bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, served alongside 10 presidents. Among these was his older brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.
Edward and John were joined in the family political arena by brother Robert Francis
Kennedy, a U.S. attorney general and senator who was gunned down June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president.
Edward Kennedy, a fiery liberal, was respected by both Democrats and Republicans. He was known to frequently cross the aisle to help pass contentious legislation, including the No Child Left Behind Act advocated by President George W. Bush.
Foreign leaders, citing his role in the 1998 negotiations that set the path for peace in Northern Ireland, praised Kennedy, a descendent from an Irish-American family, as a global leader whose loss would be felt not just in America.
He also was a lifelong champion of health care overhaul, the top domestic policy of President Barack Obama. Kennedy was mostly absent from this summer’s heated debates while battling his illness. His loss leaves a fractured Democratic Party without a leader who could have swung the debate heavily in its favor had he been healthy.
Kennedy was not without his flaws in his personal life, but most probably will remember him as one who rose from beneath the shadow of his two older brothers to forge a public service career that easily ranks among the best ever seen by this generation.
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