Ted

In 1962, when Ted Kennedy first ran for the Senate, my family opposed him. Who did he think he was, this 30 year-old with no experience and no claim to the office apart from the fact that his big brother Jack was the President (and a former holder of the office he now sought)? The nerve of him! We supported Eddie McCormack, nephew of John McCormack, not yet Speaker of the House, and the state's attorney-general. We sure knew how to pick 'em.

The Senate pretty much came to a stop yesterday, when word spread that Ted had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. I understand that Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) broke down, and John Warner (R.VA), a friend for four decades, was visibly shaken.

The press has commented about Ted's many friendships across the aisle; his relationship with Orrin Hatch (R-UT)--a political odd couple if there ever was one--is well-known This morning on NPR I heard Lindsay Graham say that working with Ted reminded him about the way he learned the Senate was supposed to be in 9th grade. He was right--Ted Kennedy's relationship with other senators of both parties is the way things used to work in the world's greatest deliberative body.

Ted Kennedy is really a throwback to the senators who were truly national figures in the 19th Century. He has not been the most powerful person in the Senate, but he has been its most influential member. He can stand alongside Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun in the chamber's Pantheon.

The tumor that was diagnosed over the weekend will almost certainly end Ted Kennedy's Senate career, even if he survives it. When he leaves the Senate floor for the last time, there will be a lot of space in the chamber, for a giant will have departed.