Senator Kennedy: No Other Like Him [View All]

WP: No Other Like Him
By David S. Broder
Wednesday, May 21, 2008; Page A19

Not since the day almost 45 years ago, when word reached Washington that his brother John had been cut down in Dallas, has there been news about an individual that struck so deep a blow to so many in this capital. The bulletin from Massachusetts General Hospital about Sen. Ted Kennedy was at once a personal tragedy and a political cataclysm. In his 45 years in the Senate, Kennedy has probably touched more people, in more cherished ways, than any other public figure. And his illness threatens to alter, for the worse, the prospects of every other politician -- starting with Barack Obama and John McCain.

Like countless others, I have witnessed over the years the kindnesses Kennedy lavished on colleagues and friends -- and even on casual acquaintances. It was decades ago when another senator told me that, in complete privacy, Kennedy was sitting for hours with Sen. Philip Hart of Michigan, who had an illness that made him irascible and difficult to manage. Somehow, Kennedy calmed him.

When my beloved friend Mary McGrory, the great columnist at the Washington Star and Washington Post, had a stroke that left her almost robbed of speech, Kennedy and his wife continued to visit her, as before, drinking a glass of wine and regaling her with stories. At Christmas season, he brought along a piano-playing friend and sang Irish ballads for her.

Somehow in his more-than-busy life, he always seemed to find time for those personal touches -- and to perform them without seeming to realize how much they meant to the recipients. Their affection and gratitude were all but overwhelming yesterday. But after the first shock at the news began to wear off, the sense kept growing that this was truly a landmark event in the nation's politics and government....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/20/AR2008052001570.html?hpid=opinionsbox1?hpid=opinionsbox1