[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 15, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9366-S9367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REMEMBERING SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues today to express 
my profound and heartfelt sadness on the passing of Senator Edward M. 
Kennedy, a universally acknowledged ``lion of this institution''--an 
unsurpassed colleague, a legislator's legislator, and political icon of 
incalculable, landmark significance to the U.S. Senate and the Nation 
and a good friend to me and to so many others in this body through the 
years.
  Like all of my colleagues here today, I want to first and foremost 
offer my most sincere condolences to Ted's extraordinary wife Vicki, 
who has been such a tower of strength, courage, and faith; as well as 
to Ted's three children Kara, Ted, Jr., and Patrick Kennedy and two 
stepchildren Curran and Caroline Raclin; Ted's sister, Jean Kennedy 
Smith, and to his entire family who have done so much to shape the 
course of our Nation. My heart goes out to Senator Kennedy's numerous 
grandchildren, nieces, and nephews whose participation in his funeral 
mass could not have been more moving. I also extend my deepest 
sympathies to the people of Massachusetts, who have lost a legendary 
champion and fierce advocate for nearly half a century.
  And how powerful and poignant was the remarkable outpouring of 
respect and affection for Senator Kennedy by the American people--from 
the streets of Boston, outside the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library 
and Museum, and near the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to 
congressional staff assembled on the Senate steps and mourners and 
well-wishers on the Capitol grounds or along the route to his final 
resting place at Arlington National Cemetery.
  On an occasion of such a large and historic loss, summoning the 
appropriate words to capture the immense depth and breadth of this 
moment as well as the magnitude of its meaning represents the most 
daunting of challenges. Like every Senator fortunate enough to serve in 
this esteemed chamber during the span of the last 46 years, I have 
never known a Senate without Ted Kennedy, and it is difficult to 
comprehend that this hallowed Chamber will never again resound with 
Senator Kennedy's booming voice that would literally shake these walls.
  As I look around this Chamber, I know I am far from alone in saying I 
will miss Ted's oratorical command of rhetoric and argumentation as 
well as his passion-filled gestures that punctuated his statements, and 
of course I will never forget those occasions when Ted would really get 
wound up as only Ted could, and his glasses would come off, and he 
would swing them around and around, faster and faster as his polemic 
reached a crescendo. And so, there is a highly personal and inescapable 
void among all of us that is at once acutely palpable, indescribable, 
and unforgettable.
  I can still remember entering the Senate in 1995 having served in the 
U.S. House of Representatives and looking to my fellow New Englander, 
Senator Kennedy, as a model legislator, the best of his generation even 
then, for what can be achieved in the Senate with passion and devotion 
and an almost peerless ability to simply ``get things done.''
  I always profoundly admired Ted for his commitment to this country 
and the steadfast, immutable determination he exhibited each and every 
day as he sought to better our Nation to the benefit not just of his 
constituents in Massachusetts but to all Americans. And he did so with 
uncommon civility and candor, facility and efficacy, partisanship and 
bipartisanship, as well as the most seriousness of purpose and 
irrepressible good humor. In short, Ted Kennedy combined legislative 
craftsmanship and legendary statesmanship that were the marvel of his 
time and that represented a pinnacle of leadership.
  And part and parcel of his historic and overarching legacy is not 
just the results produced by his hard-fought labors, which have reached 
every corner of our country, but how he legislated and conducted the 
demanding task of advancing the public policy process. Where there was 
a divide, he saw an opportunity to repair the breach. Where there were 
opposing forces, he resolved to find a point of alliance.
  As my colleagues here can attest, Senator Kennedy was ever-cognizant 
that your adversary today could, and frankly often would be, your ally 
tomorrow--the staunch opponent you encounter on one occasion may well 
support you on another down the road. Because for Ted, common ground 
was not simply a plot of earth he tilled, cultivated, or nourished, it 
was soil he intuitively knew was meant to be shared and that would be 
improved through collaboration. And he understood keenly that the most 
powerful light was not the spotlight, but reflected light that shone 
first on someone else.
  And if Ted Kennedy put into practice the idea that politics in the 
often-cited words of German Chancellor Bismarck was indeed ``the art of 
the possible,'' he was also equally adept at implementing the notion 
that leadership was the catalyst for accomplishing the impossible. Not, 
however, by going it alone but rather by enlisting the active support 
of others.
  The fact is, like so many of my colleagues in this Chamber, I was 
privileged to work with Senator Kennedy on several memorable measures, 
and one recent endeavor in particular exemplifies his collaborative 
spirit--the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. That experience 
for me represented a microcosm of Ted's unrivaled political and public 
policy acumen.
  To begin with, Senator Kennedy, as chairman of the Senate Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions or HELP, ordinarily would 
have been the lead sponsor on legislation being reported out of his 
committee. But, as all of us in this Chamber know, there was nothing 
``ordinary'' about Ted Kennedy, and he graciously deferred the lead 
sponsorship to me and instead joined as lead Democratic sponsor of our 
measure, a gesture of incredible generosity and good will that I will 
never forget. And so, after already twice garnering Senate passage, we 
began a third attempt to achieve Senate enactment of vital reforms to 
protect Americans from both health insurance and workplace 
discrimination based on their genetic makeup. Beginning in November of 
2006, we embarked on what was to be a second 18-month-long effort to 
systematically address every issue which opponents raised. Senator 
Kennedy's remarkable capacity to build consensus with both his 
colleagues and stakeholders, spoke to his consummate skills as a 
legislator and negotiator.
  And Ted never tired in this undertaking, and his knowledge and skills 
and those of his superb and dedicated staff helped ensure our success 
when, on May 21 of last year, we at last witnessed the enactment into 
law of this landmark civil rights protection. Our victory was tempered, 
however, by the fact that due to his illness, even then, Ted could not 
join us at the White House that day for the signing. And yet it speaks 
enormous volumes that Senator Kennedy chose to devote his remaining 
energies in the past 15 months prior to his passing to ensuring that 
health reform advance ever forward.
  As anyone who has come into contact with Ted Kennedy can tell you, he 
possessed and exuded a contagious joy and exuberance that permeated all 
he did. I well recall a few years ago being in

[[Page S9367]]

Boston for a Base Closure and Realignment--BRAC--Commission hearing, 
and we were waiting for an elevator. As many in this Chamber will 
recall, this was a very anxious and uncertain period for a number of 
us. But I will always remember seeing the elevator doors open and who 
should appear but Ted Kennedy, alongside a large group of his 
constituents, fighting the closure of a facility in Massachusetts. And 
without missing a beat, he roared with his sonorous voice: ``You go 
fight them Olympia with everything you've got!'' The whole crowd with 
him cheered.
  That moment reflected so much of what Ted exemplified, encompassed, 
and meant to so many, and he approached his causes with a ferocity of 
spirit and feeling that was unmatched. It is true, as all of us in this 
institution know all too well, if Ted Kennedy were opposite you in a 
debate, and sometimes I was, it could be rough going and you had better 
be prepared! But if he were with you, let's just say your chances for 
victory increased exponentially!
  And Ted never lost that gusto--not in legislating and not in life. 
Who could forget witnessing Ted throwing out the first pitch for New 
England's beloved Boston Red Sox at this year's home opener at Fenway 
Park? Or his zeal for his beloved Massachusetts or, for that matter, 
the Maine coast which he loved so much where he sailed every summer. 
Indeed, one year he and Vicki visited an inn near our family place at 
Hancock Point. And I will always remember the excitement and 
anticipation he exhibited as he showed me his map of the journey he and 
Vicki were preparing to undertake, sailing along the beautiful Maine 
coastline.
  As my colleagues know above all, this greatest of deliberative bodies 
has lost a giant and a legislative standard-bearer who was tirelessly 
devoted to its history, its stewardship, and its purpose, and his ardor 
and love for this most august institution and the Nation it serves will 
never be extinguished. Senator Kennedy now ranks among a rarefied, 
pantheon of legendary Senators such as Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. 
He was, to evoke the title of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book by his 
brother, John, truly a ``profile in courage.''
  The great American poet, Carl Sandburg, once wrote: ``I see America 
not in the setting sun of night . . . I see America in the crimson 
light of a rising sun. I see great days ahead, great days possible to 
men and women of will and vision.'' Those days are indeed possible for 
this Senate, this Congress, and our country precisely because of the 
indefatigable will and limitless vision of public servants such as 
Senator Ted Kennedy. We honor his memory and his legacy best by 
striving every day to make this process work for the U.S. Senate and 
for the American people.
  And what Maine's own Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned about another 
Senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner, we say today about Senator 
Kennedy:

     So when a great man dies,
     For years beyond our ken,
     The light he leaves behind him lies
     Upon the paths of men.

  So it will forever be with Senator Edward M. Kennedy. We will not see 
his like again. He will be sorely missed.

                          ____________________