Ted Kennedy
Edward ("Ted") Moore Kennedy, (born February 22, 1932, Brookline, Massachusetts) is a Democratic United States Senator from Massachusetts). He is known as one of America's leading liberal politicians.
Family and youth
Kennedy is the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He attended Milton Academy and entered Harvard College in 1950. He was suspended from Harvard in May 1951 after he arranged for another student to take a final examination in a Spanish class in his place. He then entered the United States Army for two years; he was assigned to the SHAPE headquarters in Paris. Kennedy eventually re-entered Harvard, graduating in June 1956. He got his law degree from the University of Virginia and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1959. While he was in law school, he managed his brother John's 1958 Senate re-election campaign.
His home is in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and her children, Curran and Caroline. He has three grown children from his former marriage with Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick, and four grandchildren. After his brothers John and Robert were murdered (in 1963 and 1968, respectively), he took on the role of surrogate father for 13 more children.
Ted Kennedy was elected to the Senate from the state of Massachusetts in 1962 to fill the vacant seat left by his oldest brother, John F. Kennedy, upon the latter's becoming President of the United States, and has been re-elected to the seat ever since.
In the current Senate (as of 2004), Kennedy is second only to Robert Byrd (D-WV) as its longest-serving member. According to The Almanac of American Politics, he has served longer than all but four other Senators in U.S. history.
Early Career
Kennedy is the senior Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He also serves on the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Seapower Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, a founder of the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
Kennedy's career in the Senate attracted national attention at its inception, as it has several times since. During his 1962 campaign, he was accused by his opponents of riding on his family's name and fortune, and (having no previous experience in elected office) of not being sufficiently qualified to hold so high an office. Soon after entering office, he witnessed the assassination of his brother John, an event that placed much attention on him.
In 1964, Kennedy was in a plane crash in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides were killed. He was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch Bayh and spent weeks in the hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
In 1968, his last surviving brother, Robert, was assassinated as well during his bid to be nominated as Democratic candidate for the presidency. He delivered a very emotional eulogy at Robert's funeral. After the shock from this event wore off, Ted was looked upon as a likely future presidential candidate. For about a year, the Democratic establishment began to focus attention on him as the carrier of the torch for the Kennedys and the party.
Chappaquiddick
After a party on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, Senator Edward Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger and aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy did not report the incident for 10 hours. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended sentence. This incident has haunted his reputation for the 35 years since it transpired. Senator Kennedy's driver's license had expired on February 22, 1969 and had not been renewed. Although driving with an expired license was only a misdemeanor, it did provide the evidence of negligence needed to prove a manslaughter charge in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy had a history of convictions and fines for reckless driving, dating back to when he had been fined $15 for speeding in March 1957. While attending the University of Virginia, he became notorious for running red lights. The license problem was cleared up by officials at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, under the direction of Registrar Richard McLaughlin, before the legal proceedings began.
Presidential Bid
A decade later, Kennedy nevertheless attempted to secure the Democratic nomination for the 1980 Presidential election, launching an insurgent campaign against Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Despite much early support, his bid was ultimately unsuccessful, largely due to controversy surrounding the incident at Chappaquiddick. He also reportedly lost substantial support when he was unable to give a direct answer as to why he wanted to be President in a 60 Minutes interview. Eventually, Kennedy bowed out of the race, delivering a rousing speech before the Democratic National Convention that many consider to be his finest moment.
Democratic Leader
Since his presidential bid, Ted Kennedy has become the dean of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Despite divided public opinion on his politics and his person, he is one of the most recognizable and influential members of the party. Recently, he has supported Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election (including the primary season) and spoken on his behalf at many occasions.
