Mortality Impedes Hyannis Port
20 August 2009 11:29 am by Taylor Marsh
“I am now writing to you about an issue that concerns me deeply–the continuity of representation of Massachusetts in the United States should a Senate vacancy occur. …” – Senator Edward M. Kennedy, July 2, 2009
The Boston Globe broke the story today.
Kennedy advisers were adamant yesterday that the timing of the letter did not reflect any imminent emergency in the health of the senator, who has been battling brain cancer since May 2008. Rather, it was sent this week after the Globe began making inquiries to key Beacon Hill officials over murmurings that some politicians were pushing for a change in the law.
… .. The family confidant stressed that even with his deteriorating health, Kennedy continues to speak with staff and Senate colleagues. If his vote were needed, there exists every possibility he would fly to Washington again to cast it, Kennedy allies said.
A five-month wait for a special election, should Sen. Kennedy succumb to brain cancer, as Robert Novak did just this week, is too long to wait in the urgent times we face today. That Kennedy is simply asking that the law be changed so that Gov. Patrick be able to appoint an interim senator who would be precluded from running in the special election, seems like a very practical and fair solution.
Understanding the difficulty facing Massachusetts legislators in making this decision, let’s remember that Edward M. Kennedy isn’t just any senator. He is simply, by any fair assessment, the greatest living Senator to the U.S. Senate in United States history, not to mention having served 47 years at his job.
For me, as a lifetime student of J.F.K., including a one-woman show on his life, travails, because it was not a performance of genuflection, and for what John Kennedy stood tall, Senator Edward Kennedy has the distinction of not only out living the Kennedy “curse,” but using his life in service to Americans that didn’t have the means to which the Kennedys were afforded.
The timing of the Globe story, as well as obvious health concerns, drove home realities, especially when Sen. Kennedy did not attend his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s funeral, fueling thinking that he would not be able to return to the Senate even to vote on health care reform, his lifetime and signature issue, to which he has devoted his career.
At this point it’s also important to note that the current crop of Democrats, led by the head Blue Dog of them all, Barack Obama, are so far falling well short of what Edward M. Kennedy envisioned health care reform would look like.
Sen. Kerry commented:
“It is something he talked to me about some time ago,’’ he said in an interview.
Kerry rejected any notion that the letter signaled an immediate end to Kennedy’s nearly half-century in office, insisting that his colleague has been active in shaping the health care legislation in recent weeks.
“I don’t think this signals anything,’’ Kerry said. “He has been fully engaged. . . . If [Senate majority leader] Harry Reid required 60 votes tomorrow, Ted Kennedy would be on a plane and be down in the Senate to vote.’’
With no inside information, which should be obvious because the Kennedys have always been notoriously guarded about anything having to do with their family, especially on matters of health and controversy (as Robert Dallek proved conclusively regarding J.F.K.), one note on Kerry’s statement. No one should believe any Kerry bravura concerning Kennedy means he will ride to the rescue to vote in a cliffhanger health care showdown. The Kennedys are just as likely to provide privacy and secrecy behind the passing of the legendary patriarch’s life, because that is not only their history, but the right of any family.
That said, no one should be surprised if the Lion of the Senate, if Democrats get their act together, would fly in to cast his vote in a dramatic finale befitting his life of service.
Regardless of storyline endings, the Boston Globe’s reporting sets up the closing act, which has been playing out for many more months than Kennedy was originally given hope of living.
