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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Obama invokes Ted Kennedy’s bipartisanship

President Barack Obama hugs Victoria Kennedy, widow of late Sen. Ted Kennedy, on Monday. (Associated Press)
Associated Press

BOSTON – President Barack Obama challenged today’s quarrelsome political leaders on Monday to emulate the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in the pursuit of compromise, and said a new institute that bears the longtime Massachusetts senator’s name can be as much an antidote to political cynicism as the man once was.

“What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we were to follow his example a little bit harder?” the president asked a crowd of family, former aides and political dignitaries of both parties under a tent just outside the doors of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.

“To his harshest critics who saw him as nothing more than a partisan lightning rod, that might sound foolish,” the president added. “But there are Republicans here for a reason.”

Among them were former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, who is on the institute’s board of directors, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who said he recalled how much he enjoyed fighting with the Massachusetts colleague in the Senate.

The $79 million institute stands next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Boston’s Columbia Point.

The centerpiece of the new facility is a replica of the Senate floor where Kennedy had a desk for 47 years.

Envisioning children visiting the institute, Obama said the institute can help change the cynicism that permeates politics. “Imagine a gaggle of schoolkids clutching tablets, turning cloakrooms into classrooms. Imagine their moral universe expanding as they hear about the great battles” that have been waged in the Senate.

Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Kennedy, said her late husband hoped the institute would honor the nearly 2,000 who have served there and inspire future senators. She said he wanted visitors to feel the awe of walking into the chamber.