Colleagues, friends mourn ‘Patriarch’ of the Senate

WASHINGTON — Friends and colleagues of the late Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., on Wednesday mourned the loss of the Senate’s “patriarch,” whose outsized personality and legislative and political skills continued to impact official Washington until his dying days. President Obama was awoken by a top aide about 2 a.m. Wednesday and notified of Kennedy’s death, a spokesman said. Obama spoke by telephone to the senator’s widow, Victoria, and issued a statement that said he and first lady Michelle Obama were “heartbroken” at the loss of a political mentor and cherished friend. “An important chapter in our history has come to an end,” said Obama, who is vacationing with his family at a rented compound in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., a short ferry ride from the Kennedy compound where the ailing senator died late Tuesday night. “Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time.” Aides said the president was expected to speak to reporters about Kennedy at 8:30 a.m. Kennedy, the Senate’s third-longest serving member, was a liberal guidepost in the chamber, spending almost 47 years advocating for national health care and civil rights in particular. But his friendships crossed the aisle, and his absence during the last 15 months while battling brain cancer had cast a pall on the chamber. Many lawmakers have wondered this summer how the ongoing negotiations over health-care reform would have been different if the man known as the lion of the Senate had been able to participate. “The Kennedy family and the Senate family have together lost our patriarch. My thoughts, and those of the entire United States Senate, are with Vicki, Senator Kennedy’s children, his many nieces and nephews, and his entire family,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. “It was the thrill of my lifetime to work with Ted Kennedy. He was a friend, the model of public service and an American icon. As we mourn his loss, we rededicate ourselves to the causes for which he so dutifully dedicated his life.” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called Kennedy a “great elder statesman” and a “treasured friend” whose influence could not be overstated. Kennedy will always be remembered as someone “who lived and breathed the United States Senate and the work completed within its chamber,” Hatch said. Arrangements for Kennedy’s funeral service were not yet known, according to senior Senate aides. American flags flew at half-staff Wednesday morning outside the U.S. Capitol. By Massachusetts law, Kennedy will be replaced in a special election later this year, although the 77-year-old’s final public statement was a letter to state leaders asking that they adopt a law that would allow Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an interim senator so that the state could have two senators during the interval before the special election. State leaders have given no indication whether such a change would be made. Several members of the state’s House delegation, including Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., as well as Kennedy’s nephew, former representative Joseph Kennedy, D-Mass., have been mentioned as potential candidates for the seat. But Kennedy’s colleagues fixed their reaction on his legacy, not his successor. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., noted that Kennedy’s death came exactly one year to the day when the senator gave his last major speech, in Denver on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. “No one has done more than Senator Kennedy to educate our children, care for our seniors and ensure equality for all Americans,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration.” Fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, D, called Kennedy “the best senator, the best advocate you could hope for.” Kerry, who visited Kennedy in the weeks before his death, said his colleague was an “irrepressible, larger than life presence who was simply the best.” Kennedy fought the disease with “grace, courage, and determination,” Kerry said. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who married Kennedy’s niece, Maria Shriver, hailed the personal inspiration he derived from the leading man of America’s liberal dynasty. “He was the rock of our family: a loving husband, father, brother and uncle. He was a man of great faith and character,” the governor said in a statement. “Teddy inspired our country through his dedication to health care reform, his commitment to social justice, and his devotion to a life of public service.” Former first lady Nancy Reagan said people were sometimes surprised at how close the Reagans were to the Kennedy family. They had found common ground in stem cell research, she said, “and I considered him an ally and a dear friend. I will miss him.” Former president Jimmy Carter, who Kennedy challenged unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980, called him “staunch and honest and open and very able to express his views to the American people.” “ … My own hope is that his deep commitment to a comprehensive health plan in our country will be honored now by his contemporaries, by his peers, in the near future,” Carter said in a statement. Obama said of Kennedy that “for five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.” “I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. … And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve profited as president from his encouragement and wisdom.” In Britain and Ireland, Kennedy is being remembered particularly for his involvement in the long process that led to Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday peace accord. Lord Owen, who served as British foreign secretary in the 1970s, said Kennedy risked alienating powerful Irish-American allies, whose sympathies lay with the province’s Catholic Irish nationalists rather than the British Protestant majority. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Kennedy “a true public servant committed to the values of fairness, justice and opportunity.” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that “even facing illness and death he never stopped fighting for the causes which were his life’s work. ”He led the world in championing children’s education and health care, and believed that every single child should have the chance to realize their potential to the full,“ Brown said. Britain gave Kennedy an honorary knighthood earlier this year. Irish President Mary McAleese said Kennedy would be remembered ”as a hugely important friend to this country during the very difficult times. “His outstanding and remarkable personal contribution was made, despite the sacrifice and sorrow that was part of the overall contribution of the entire Kennedy family,” she said. In Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says Kennedy “made an extraordinary contribution to American politics, an extraordinary contribution to America’s role in the world.” Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said in a statement that Kennedy “has left a deep mark and deserves the homage of all the free world.”