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August 26th, 2009
06:00 AM ET
What's on Tap – Wednesday August 26, 2009
Breaking news this morning:
Sen. Ted Kennedy has died at the age of 77.
Stay tuned to a special edition of American Morning for full coverage of this developing story. We are speaking to special guests all morning about Kennedy's life and career. We're utilizing the worldwide resources of CNN to bring you the latest information.
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A bell tolled atop Boston's Faneuil Hall on Thursday as the body of Sen. Edward Kennedy passed through the streets, while mourners lined up outside his late brother's presidential library for a chance to say goodbye. A flag was dropped over his casket. Were he arrived in Former President Kennedy's library in Cape Cod .Massachusetts . An estimated 1,600 people had lined up to view the casket as of 5 p.m. Kennedy died Tuesday night in Hyannis Port after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. He was 77, and had represented Massachusetts in the Senate since 1962.Faneuil Hall was where Kennedy launched his ill-fated 1980 presidential campaign, and it was one of several stops the procession made along the way. Kennedy's body will lie in repose through Friday at the library, with a memorial service to be held there Friday evening. Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Arizona Sen. John McCain will be among the speakers at the memorial. View reaction of the public. .At least 40 of Kennedy's fellow senators and former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are expected to attend Saturday's funeral at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston's Mission Hill section, a short distance from the library. Kennedy was buried on Saturday evening at Arlington cemetery. We shall always remember Edward M Kennedy or as they called hem Ted. His legacy will always live on in each of us.
I was deeply saddened to hear about Senator Kennedy’s passing. America lost a great man; heaven gained a great angel.
The Liberal Lion is deeply missed, not only by his family, but by his fellow Democrats as well. He was truly one of a kind; his legacy will be remembered forever. He's in God's hands with his brothers now.
My prayers and sincere condolences go out to the Kennedy family during this terrible time.
Rest in peace, Mister Kennedy. You’ll never be forgotten.
For Jim Vicalvi:
While I obviously have not read whatever you sent to CNN, please note that my comment on Teddy the man was confined to one obique reference to his "odious personal shortcomings" which sounds similar to what you may have written. I did this deliberately because I am tired of reading the kind of puerile personal attacks that have become the staple of political bloggers, especially those on the Left wing of American discourse. For example, see the blog immediately above yours from someone named only Steve.
On reflection, I realized I had said nothing about another toxic legacy of Kennedy (and one of his proteges, now the incumbent Vice President, Joe Biden) which was the politicization of the nominating process to the Supreme Court. Teddy made the verb "bork" part of our political vocabulary for savaging Robert Bork and depriving him of a seat on the SCOTUS. While I personally found Bork a bit too academic for my tastes, he would at least have refrained from judicial activism, I think.
Worse yet were the Clarence Thomas hearings, chaired by Biden, which dragged on until Thomos had the temerity to publicly denounce them for what they obviously were, a media driven attempt at the political lynching of a black man who had the unmitigated gaul to be a conservative and take the original intent of our Constitution seriously! Seriously, folks, do we want judges like that on a court that has given itself the sole authority to have the final say so on what our Constitution means (see Marbury VS Madison, 1803)? You betcha! Now more than ever!
As you may have quessed, I have a strong admiration for Clarence Thomas; it comes from judging him on the content of his character, his independence of thought and his patriotism.
To Steve Fox- I am surprised that they, meaning CNN, even printed your comment. I wrote one also talking about Kennedy's many failings, mainly Chappaquiddick, and they didn't print it. Companies like this like to defend their own free speech rights but don't worry about trampling on other people's rights
Senator Kennedy was a giant of American politics and will be missed! His tireless work for the dis-enfranchised in this nation puts him at the top of the list of true American heroes. People like Steve Fox(how appropriate, " Fox" indeed) with facist , me only, racist beliefs will forever be sidelined as political dinosaurs, wallowing in fear and self pity that they just can't bring back the '50's, 1850's that is, slavery, male property owners only voting, etc.etc.
Teddy, I hope you have joined your brothers in that special place in Heaven reserved for those that gave the most of their lives to their fellow Man!
Wolfgang, please! Have you no Sympathy For The Devil?
I am saddened by TK death. He is now with the Angels and in God's hands. All of the Brothers are together again watching.
Whatever TK did, he did for the People. No one is perfect except God. On a scale of 1-10, (10 being the highest, I would rate TK a 9.999). You, (steve fox) on the other hand will not even rate a 0., because you have no respect for the living or the dead. But, I digress, the forefathers gave you freedom of speech, but they forgot to let you know, that they did not give you the power to be UGLY with it. How can you speak ill of the dead? The Devil is truly walking with you, hand in hand.
I wish to extend my regrets to the Kennedys'. May God Bless and Keep you in his Arms.
What is the legacy of this man? He embodied the modern, media driven tendency to elevate the manipulation of popular perceptions over problem-solving, substantive politics. Indeed, he lived a lifetime off the political capital generated by his more talented and honorable older brothers, aided by his family fortune and an ever adoring media.
Leaving aside his odious personal shortcomings, his legislative legacy is a series of healthcare entitlements that leaves future generations saddled with unfunded Medicare liabilites of over 30 Itrillion dollars. No subversive Moscow mole could have devised a more effective or subtle way to bankrupt the richest nation in history than did Teddy in pretending to stand up for the little people on health care.
It is amazing to me how many ordinary Americans have yet to figure out that Teddy viewed them as a means to achieve his own ego-driven ends. When asked by a reporter why he wanted to be President, he could not even reply to the question. It was all just an ego trip to him, even his populism. Just days before his death, he showed his contempt for the people who elected him by trying to get the very law he had helped create repealed, in order to deprive the voters of Massachusets the chance to vote on his successor in a special election.
For all his good looks, charm and pedigree, Teddy was a phony and most Americans knew it. His great rhetoric in conceding that he had failed to wrest the Democrat nomination from an ineffective incumbent President could not compensate for the obvious. When put to the test, his pretender's mantle of Camelot was not enough to persuade the American electorate that he would have made a better President than even Jimmy Carter! As inept as Carter was, American voters knew that Teddy would have been even worse.
His final legacy was to help promote the most ill prepared rookie in American politics to the White House. Obama is certainly an ironic standard bearer for the Kennedy legacy, but the same political dynamics created them both. Nonetheless, Obama may prove to be the very man who pushes he politics of idolotry beyond its breaking point, even as the mainstream media continues to adore his every move and whitewash his every shortcoming, just as they did his sponsor, Teddy, till the very end.
If politics is the organization of idolotry, Teddy was the best organized political fraud of his generation. Now it is up to future generations to try to clean up his mess and figure out how we can pay for it all.
I am truly saddened by Senator Kennedy's passing. In spite of all the trials and tragedies of his life, he was able do so much for Americans. He could have spend his life sailing up and down the east coast if he wanted, yet he dedicated his life to public service went he really didn't have to. I may not agree with his views/politics but I do agree that what he did during the course of his life is unmatched compared to most. Even though there are other Kennedy's to carry on the family torch, this is truly the end of an era.
He will be missed, his fight for health care reform will continue, and will be won.
He was/is one- of- a- kind among a great one- of- a- kind American family...They are as close as America came to royalty, according to many admirers. He will be sorely missed by many Irish-American Catholic families, both by birth and by adoption within the big-heartedness they offered to all their friends & the greater American public! Maybe it's time for the American people to once again embrace them proudly as their own...!
The Great legacy of Sen. Kennedy will be remembered forever.He has passed ,RIP.But the torch has been passed to another man who We believe will will follow thru and restore America to prosperity!Bush created the Mess.Obama WILL fix it For the better.
Like it or not we must come together,help one another for the good of ALL man kind.
John – why is it that you never preface remarks about conservative pols with the old disclaimer, "while you might not agree with his politics...?" Why is this phrase only used with progressive political figures?
Everyone knows the good that Ted Kennedy has done for this country, to preface remarks about his death with this kind of comment is an insult to him and to progressives. Please stop it.
Ted is a man who’s family influence didn’t keep him from remembering those of us who didn’t have. He truly cared about those who worked hard and had fallen on bad times for reasons beyond their control. He will be truly missed walking around Capital Hill.