[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 31 (Saturday, February 17, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2200-S2201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, next week, on February 22, while the Senate 
is on recess, my senior colleague and friend Ted Kennedy will celebrate 
his 75th birthday, all of this in a year in which he has already marked 
an extraordinary milestone--45 years of service to Massachusetts and 
his country in the U.S. Senate.
  Senator Kennedy began his career setting a high standard when it 
comes to birthdays. It was when he reached the minimum constitutional 
age, 30, that he first came to the Senate--1 of just 16 Senators 
elected at such a tender age from a total of over 1,895 Senators in all 
of American history. By his 70th birthday he was one of just 28 
Senators to ever cast over 10,000 votes.
  But what we celebrate along with Ted at 75--Democrats and 
Republicans, all in awe of a lifetime of achievement--is the way in 
which literally every year since he has been marking the passage of 
time by passing landmark legislation.
  The Boston Globe put it best, writing not long ago that ``in actual, 
measurable impact on the lives of tens of millions of working families, 
the elderly, and the needy, Ted belongs in the same sentence with 
Franklin Roosevelt.''
  That sentence is not constructed lightly--it is the measure of a 
public servant who doesn't know the meaning of the words ``you can't 
pass it''--``it can't happen''--``impossible.''
  It is the measure of a Senator who--on every issue of importance: 
health care, war and peace, children, education, civil rights, the 
rights of women--can always be counted on to be in the lead, 
challenging on the issues, and fighting for the principles which guide 
a party and lift up our country.
  From his maiden speech in the Senate demanding an end to the 
filibuster of the original Civil Rights Act, there has not been a 
significant policy accomplishment in Washington over four decades that 
hasn't borne his fingerprints and benefited from his legislative skill 
and leadership. His is the record of progressive politics in our era. 
On all the great fights that call us to stand up and be counted, from 
the minimum wage to Robert Bork and Sam Alito, Ted didn't just hear the 
call to duty he led the charge.
  Run down the list--the rights of the disabled a most personal cause 
for Ted--who for far too long were left in the shadows or left to fend 
for themselves, Ted Kennedy wrote every landmark piece of legislation 
that today prohibits discrimination against those with a disability.
  AIDS--when a whole lot of politicians were afraid to say the word, 
Ted passed a bill providing emergency relief to the thirteen cities 
hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic.
  Guaranteed access to health coverage for 25 million Americans who 
move from one job to another or have preexisting medical conditions 
wouldn't have happened without Ted Kennedy.
  Without Ted Kennedy, there wouldn't have been a bilingual education 
in the United States for the 5 million students who today have a 
brighter future because they are learning English in our schools.
  Without Ted Kennedy, we wouldn't have lowered the voting age to 18 
and ended the hypocrisy that 18-year-olds were old enough to die for 
their country in Vietnam but not old enough to vote for its leadership 
at home.
  Without Ted Kennedy, we wouldn't be the world's leader in cancer 
research and prevention--as personal and meaningful an issue as there 
is in all the world for Ted Kennedy, not just a father, but a loving 
father of two cancer survivors.
  Without Ted Kennedy, we wouldn't have had title XI which opened the 
doors of competition and opportunity to a generation of women athletes 
all across our country.
  Ted is such an extraordinary public servant not only because he knows 
who he is, and sticks to his guns, never bending with the political 
currents, but because he has in his life and in his career proven again 
and again that progress doesn't happen by accident, it doesn't happen 
when you stick to the text of the latest opinion poll or the whispers 
of the morning focus group; it happens when leaders define and fight 
the fights that need fighting--when public servants of conscience and 
conviction refuse to take no for an answer. That is why for Ted 
Kennedy, the ``cause'' has not just ``endured''--but triumphed, again 
and again.
  Agree with him or not, and we all know that Ted has never been afraid 
to be a majority of one, Ted is such an extraordinary leader because he 
has excelled while completing the work in the U.S. Senate that so many 
others were afraid to begin.
  And, in being a standard-bearer for an ideal, an ideology, a view of 
the world, Ted has also become--as Clymer wrote--``not just the leading 
senator of his time, but one of the greats in its history, wise in the 
workings of this singular institution, especially its demand to be more 
than partisan to accomplish much.''
  His partnerships with his fellow Senators are well-known and oft-
recited, testimony to his skill and to his convictions. From Howard 
Baker, Jacob Javits, and Hugh Scott to Arlen Specter, Dan Quayle, Orrin 
Hatch, Alan Simpson, and Nancy Kassebaum and John McCain--Ted has never 
hesitated to cross the aisle to accomplish his goals--to further a 
common agenda--finding always--that ideologies, however incompatible in 
the currency of conventional wisdom--can be put aside for a greater 
good when Senators--however different--work in good faith to make their 
country a better place, to improve the lives of their fellow Americans.
  Ted has always believed you can put aside partisanship--overcome 
division--and that faith in the ability to come together has mattered 
most in some of the most trying and divisive times our Nation has 
endured.
  I don't just say this; I have lived it. Through the eyes of an 
activist, there is often a shocking and gaping gap between those in 
politics who talk the

[[Page S2201]]

talk and those who walk the walk. It has been that way on Iraq; it was 
that way in the days of Vietnam. But I remember to this day that more 
than 35 years ago, after I had committed my life to organizing my 
fellow veterans to end the war, too few of our leaders were willing to 
listen, and even fewer were willing to stand with those Vietnam 
veterans who were standing up against the war. April, 1971--thousands 
upon thousands of veterans gathered on the Mall. The Nixon White House 
spread rumors that the veterans would riot and turn violent. The 
administration even tried to kick us off The Mall. And on that 
difficult night, when we didn't know if we were going to jail or we 
were going to demonstrate as we had come here to do, Ted Kennedy was 
among the brave few Senators who walked down from his office to sit and 
talk and listen to veterans who describe the realities they had found 
in Vietnam and why that war had to end.
  He reached out and demonstrated--in his actions as well as his 
words--that we had a right to tell truths many would have preferred we 
left unspoken, government had a responsibility to listen.
  He is listening still--to the voices his conscience tells him must 
never be ignored.
  He hears of children who go through their early years without health 
care and come to school unable to learn. And he has made their care his 
crusade. And so millions more children see a doctor today because of 
Ted Kennedy--and millions more will before he is done.
  He hears of workers punching a time clock--doing backbreaking work 
over the course of a lifetime. And he has made their economic security 
his agenda. And so millions of workers have seen wages increased over 
partisan objections, seen pensions protected when others said leave it 
to the market, seen Social Security protected while others said 
privatize it, and seen a safe workplace and the right to organize put 
back on the Nation's agenda--and these issues will again and again be 
advanced by Ted Kennedy.
  That is the drive--the passion--the special commitment we celebrate 
today--not a new ideology or a new age vision, but an age old belief 
that Americans have a responsibility to each other--that America is 
still in the process of becoming--and that we are privileged to serve 
here to make that dream real for all Americans.
  Ted Kennedy is the most prolific legislator in American history, but 
he is something more. Robert Kennedy once said the most meaningful word 
in all the English language is ``citizen.'' No one has lived out the 
meaning of that most meaningful word more than his younger brother.
  For that and so much more that makes this 75th birthday special, we 
honor our friend, our colleague, and a great citizen, Ted Kennedy.

                          ____________________