A few years later, the Phillips boy began his first entrepreneurial venture, hiring out to area farmers to dig potatoes for 10 cents a day (after completing his chores at home). At age 14, Phillips persuaded a barber in nearby Creston, Iowa, to take him on as an apprentice. Ten years later, Phillips owned all three barber shops in Creston. One of his barber shops was in the basement of a bank in Creston.
During a stop in St. Louis while en route back to Creston from Chicago in 1903, Phillips encountered C. B. Larabee, an old friend from Iowa. He was serving as a Methodist missionary to the Osage Indians west of Bartlesville in Indian Territory. The area, which is now Osage County, Oklahoma, was rich in oil. What proved to be a decades-long boom was just getting under way. Later that year, after Phillips and Gibson made two trips to Bartlesville, Phillips and his younger brother L.E. Phillips organized the Anchor Oil & Gas Company with Gibson's assistance.
Also in 1905, Frank and L. E. Phillips formed the Lewcinda Oil Company, with brother Waite. Waite, who preferred to work independently, soon left Lewcinda and formed his own bank and oil company, the Independent Oil & Gas Co. in Tulsa. (In 1930 he merged it with Phillips Petroleum. In late 1905, Frank and L.E. formed a bank, Citizens Bank and Trust, in Bartlesville with $50,000 capital. They also acquired a rival bank, the Bartlesville National Bank, and consolidating the two under the latter name. The bank later became the First National Bank of Bartlesville.
Phillips once said to employees, to whom he was known as "Uncle Frank": "Work hard and demonstrate loyalty, and I'm a great guy to work for. Do neither, and there is no one worse." On another occasion, he said, "I am egotistical. I exercise the 'privilege and prestige of the office.' I'm bombastic, hard to get along with, an easy touch, a farm boy at heart, and conveniently hard of hearing. I'm just a sentimental old man. I'm tough. and I know it. I'm the boss, and don't let anybody try to question it."
Frank Phillips led the company as its president until age 65, when in 1939 he named Kenneth S. "Boots" Adams to succeed him. The company had reported record profits of $24.1 million the previous year. As Phillips turned over the presidency to Adams, he became the company's first chairman of the board, a position he held until he retired at the age of 76 in 1949, a year before his death. Jane Phillips, his wife of 50 years, died in 1948.
Phillips was buried beside his wife, Jane (Gibson) Phillips, in the Phillips Family Mausoleum at Woolaroc, Phillips' ranch and country home in Osage County, Oklahoma, southwest of Bartlesville.
Source: Phillips: The First 66 Years, 1983, Phillips Petroleum Company, Pp 1–20, 56, 59-61, 72. (The principal author of this official corporate history, though not credited in the book, is Bill Wertz, who was the speech writer for Wm. C. Douce, then chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Phillips Petroleum Company.)
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Edward M. Kennedy |
|---|---|
| Jr/sr | Senior Senator |
| State | Massachusetts |
| Term start | November 7, 1962 |
| Term end | August 25, 2009|predecessor = Ben Smith |
| Successor | Paul Kirk |
| Order2 | 16th United States Senate Majority Whip |
| Term start2 | January 3, 1969 |
| Term end2 | January 3, 1971 |
| Leader2 | Mike Mansfield |
| Predecessor2 | Russell B. Long |
| Successor2 | Robert Byrd |
| Order3 | Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary |
| Term start3 | January 3, 1979 |
| Term end3 | January 3, 1981 |
| Predecessor3 | James Eastland |
| Successor3 | Strom Thurmond |
| Order4 | Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resource |
| Term start4 | January 3, 1987 |
| Term end4 | January 3, 1995 |
| Predecessor4 | Orrin Hatch |
| Successor4 | Nancy Kassebaum Baker |
| Order5 | Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions |
| Term start5 | January 3 |
| Term end5 | January 20, 2001 |
| Predecessor5 | Jim Jeffords |
| Successor5 | Jim Jeffords |
| Term start6 | June 6, 2001 |
| Term end6 | January 3, 2003 |
| Predecessor6 | Jim Jeffords |
| Successor6 | Judd Gregg |
| Term start7 | January 4, 2007 |
| Term end7 | August 25, 2009 |
| Predecessor7 | Mike Enzi |
| Successor7 | Tom Harkin |
| Birthname | Edward Moore Kennedy |
| Birth date | February 22, 1932 |
| Birth place | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Death date | August 25, 2009 |
| Death place | Hyannis Port, Massachusetts |
| Restingplace | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Joan Bennett Kennedy (1958–1982)Victoria Reggie Kennedy (1992–2009) |
| Children | Kara Kennedy Allen (b. 1960)Edward M. Kennedy, Jr. (b. 1961) Patrick J. Kennedy (b. 1967) |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer |
| Alma mater | Harvard College (AB)University of Virginia School of Law (LLB) |
| Net worth | $43–162 million (USD) |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Website | tedkennedy.org |
| Signature | Ted Kennedy Signature 2.svg |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Serviceyears | 1951–1953 |
| Rank | Private 1st Class |
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (February 22, 1932 August 25, 2009) was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in U.S. history. For many years the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he was the last surviving son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.; the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassination, and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., killed in action in World War II; and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.
Kennedy entered the Senate in a November 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by his brother John. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was reelected seven more times before his death. The controversial Chappaquiddick incident on July 18, 1969, resulted in the death of his automobile passenger Mary Jo Kopechne; Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and the incident significantly damaged his chances of ever becoming President of the United States. His one attempt, in the 1980 presidential election, resulted in a Democratic primary campaign loss to incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
Kennedy was known for his charisma and oratorical skills. His 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 rallying cry for modern American liberalism were among his best-known speeches. He became recognized as "The Lion of the Senate" through his long tenure and influence. More than 300 bills that Kennedy and his staff wrote were enacted into law. Unabashedly liberal, Kennedy championed an interventionist government emphasizing economic and social justice, but was also known for working with Republicans to find compromises between senators with disparate views. Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws, including laws addressing immigration, cancer research, health insurance, apartheid, disability discrimination, AIDS care, civil rights, mental health benefits, children's health insurance, education and volunteering. In the 2000s, he led several unsuccessful immigration reform efforts. Over the course of his Senate career and continuing into the Obama administration, Kennedy continued his efforts to enact universal health care, which he called the "cause of my life."
In May 2008, Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor which limited his appearances in the Senate. He died on August 25, 2009, in his Hyannis Port, Massachusetts home. By the time of his death, he had come to be viewed as a major figure and spokesman for American progressivism.
Frequently uprooted as a child as his family moved among Bronxville, New York, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Court of St. James's in London, Kennedy attended ten different schools by the age of eleven. He spent sixth and seventh grades in the Fessenden School, where he was a mediocre student,
Kennedy entered Harvard College, and in his spring semester was assigned to the athlete-oriented Winthrop House, where his brothers had also lived. He played as a large, fearless offensive and defensive end on the freshman football team. Following basic training at Fort Dix, he requested assignment to Fort Holabird for Army Intelligence training, but was dropped after a few weeks without explanation. While stationed in Europe he travelled extensively on weekends and climbed the Matterhorn. he was also chosen for the Hasty Pudding Club and the Pi Eta fraternity. On athletic probation during his sophomore year, Kennedy returned as a second-string two way end for Harvard Crimson football during his junior year and barely missed earning his varsity letter. Nevertheless, he received a recruiting feeler from Green Bay Packers head coach Lisle Blackbourn, asking about his interest in playing professionally. Kennedy demurred, saying he had plans to attend law school and to "go into another contact sport, politics." Kennedy became a starting end on the Harvard Crimson football team in his senior year, working hard to improve his blocking and tackling to complement his 6-foot 2-inch, 200-pound size.
Kennedy enrolled in the University of Virginia School of Law in 1956, While there, his fast automotive habits were curtailed when he was charged with reckless driving and driving without a license. Kennedy graduated from law school in 1959. She was a senior there, had worked as a model and won beauty contests, but was unfamiliar with the world of politics. In 1960, John ran for President of the United States, and Ted managed his campaign in the Western states.
Upon his victory in the general election, John vacated his seat as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Ted would not be eligible to fill the vacancy until February 22, 1962, when he would turn thirty. Ted initially wanted to stay out West and do something other than run for office right away; he said, "The disadvantage of my position is being constantly compared with two brothers of such superior ability." This kept the seat open for Ted. Meanwhile, Ted began work in February 1961 as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, Massachusetts (for which he took a nominal $1 salary), where he first developed a hard-nosed attitude towards crime. He also took many overseas tours
In the 1962 U.S. Senate special election in Massachusetts, Kennedy first faced a Democratic Party primary challenge from Edward J. McCormack, Jr., the state Attorney General. Kennedy's slogan was "He can do more for Massachusetts", the same one John had used in his first campaign for the seat ten years earlier. McCormack had the support of many liberals and intellectuals, who thought Kennedy inexperienced and knew of his suspension from Harvard, a fact which later became public during the race.
Ted initially advised his brother Robert against challenging the incumbent President Johnson for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 presidential election. Ted was in San Francisco as his brother Robert won the crucial California primary on June 4, 1968; and then after midnight, Robert was shot in Los Angeles and died a day later. Kennedy aide Frank Mankiewicz said of seeing Ted at the hospital where Robert lay mortally wounded: "I have never, ever, nor do I expect ever, to see a face more in grief." at Robert's funeral, which included the oft-quoted:
At the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in August, Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley and some other party factions feared that Hubert Humphrey could not unite the party, and so encouraged Ted Kennedy to make himself available for a draft. The 36-year-old Kennedy was seen as the natural heir to his brothers, Thinking that he was only being seen as a stand-in for his brother and that he was not ready for the job himself, and getting an uncertain reaction from McCarthy and a negative one from Southern delegates, Kennedy rejected any move to place his name before the convention as a candidate for the nomination.
Following Republican Richard Nixon's victory in November, Kennedy was widely assumed to be the front-runner for the 1972 Democratic nomination. In January 1969, Kennedy defeated Louisiana Senator Russell B. Long by a 31–26 margin to become Senate Majority Whip, the youngest person to attain that position. While this further boosted his presidential image, he also appeared conflicted by the inevitability of having to run for the position. The presiding judge, James A. Boyle, concluded that some aspects of Kennedy's story of that night were not true, and that negligent driving "appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne". Kennedy would later tell Byrd that the defeat was a blessing, as it allowed him to focus more on issues and committee work, where his best strengths lay Kennedy became chair of the Senate subcommittee on health care and played a leading role with Jacob Javits in the creation and passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971.
In October 1971, Kennedy made his first speech about The Troubles in Northern Ireland: he said that "Ulster is becoming Britain's Vietnam", demanded that British troops leave the northern counties, called for a united Ireland, and declared that Protestants who could not accept this "should be given a decent opportunity to go back to Britain" (a position he backed away from within a couple of years). Kennedy was harshly criticized by the British, and formed a long political relationship with Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party founder John Hume. He traveled to India and wrote a report on the plight of the 10 million Bengali refugees. In February 1972, Kennedy flew to Bangladesh and delivered a speech at Dhaka University, where a killing rampage had begun a year earlier. Once George McGovern was near clinching the Democratic nomination in June 1972, various anti-McGovern forces tried to get Kennedy to enter the contest at the last minute, but he declined. At the 1972 Democratic National Convention McGovern repeatedly tried to recruit Kennedy as his vice presidential running mate, but was turned down. The case brought international attention both among doctors and in the general media, Son Patrick was suffering from severe asthma attacks.
Meanwhile, Kennedy renewed his efforts for national health insurance. While proposing a single-payer solution favored by organized labor, he also negotiated with the Nixon administration on their preferred employer-based, HMO-oriented solution. The two sides could not come to agreement, and Kennedy would later regret not seizing upon the Nixon plan. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Kennedy pushed campaign finance reform; he was a leading force behind passage of the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, which set contribution limits and established public financing for presidential elections. In April 1974, Kennedy travelled to the Soviet Union, where he met with leader Leonid Brezhnev and advocated a full nuclear test ban as well as relaxed emigration, gave a speech at Moscow State University, met with Soviet dissidents, and secured an exit visa for famed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Kennedy's Subcommittee on Refugees and Escapees continued to focus on Vietnam, especially after the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
Kennedy was again much talked about as a contender in the 1976 U.S. presidential election, with no strong front-runners among the other possible Democratic candidates. But Kennedy's concerns about his family were strong, and Chappaquiddick was still in the news, with The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, and Time magazine all reassessing the incident and raising doubts about Kennedy's version of events. In September 1974, Kennedy announced that for family reasons he would not run in the 1976 election, declaring that his decision was "firm, final, and unconditional." Kennedy himself was up for Senate re-election in 1976; he defeated a primary challenger angry at his support for school busing in Boston, then won the general election with 69 percent of the vote. Carter in turn sometimes resented Kennedy's status as a political celebrity. Despite generally similar ideologies, their priorities were different. Frustrated by Carter's budgetary concerns and political caution, Kennedy spoke at the Democratic mid-term convention in 1978 and said, "Sometimes a party must sail against the wind."
Kennedy and his wife Joan separated in 1977, although they still staged joint appearances at some public events. Kennedy visited China on a goodwill mission in late December 1977, meeting with leader Deng Xiaoping and eventually gaining permission for a number of Mainland Chinese nationals to leave the country; in 1978, he also visited the Soviet Union and Brezhnev and dissidents there again. Kennedy did become chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1978, by which time he had amassed a wide-ranging Senate staff of a hundred.
Carter and Kennedy could not agree on a health care reform plan for the country. Kennedy wanted an ambitious, mixed private-government plan with comprehensive coverage, while Carter thought such a plan far too expensive given the troubled economic times, and instead proposed an incremental plan to be phased in over five to ten years. Neither plan gained any traction in Congress, In turn, Kennedy wrote in 2009 that his relationship with Carter was "unhealthy" and that "Clearly President Carter was a difficult man to convince – of anything.")
Kennedy's campaign staff was disorganized and Kennedy was initially an ineffective campaigner. The Chappaquiddick incident became a more significant factor than the staff expected, with several newspaper columnists and editorials criticizing Kennedy's answers on the matter. Nevertheless, Kennedy lost three New England contests. Continued concern about Chappaquiddick and Kennedy’s personal character was preventing him from gaining support of many people who were disillusioned with Carter. In a key March 18 primary in Illinois, Chappaquiddick hurt Kennedy badly among Catholic voters; during a St. Patrick's Day Parade the day before, Kennedy had to wear a bullet-proof vest due to assassination threats as hecklers yelled "Where's Mary Jo?" at him. Carter crushed Kennedy on polling day, winning 155 of 169 delegates. Overall, Kennedy had won 10 presidential primaries against Carter, who won 24.
Although Carter now had enough delegates to clinch the nomination, Drawing on allusions to and quotes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Alfred Lord Tennyson to say that American liberalism was not passé, he concluded with the words: The Madison Square Garden audience reacted with wild applause and demonstrations for half an hour. He chose to become the ranking member of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee rather than of the Judiciary Committee, which he would later say was one of the most important decisions of his career.
In January 1981, Ted and Joan Kennedy announced they were getting a divorce. The proceedings were generally amicable,
Kennedy easily defeated Republican businessman Ray Shamie to win re-election in 1982. Senate leaders granted him a seat on the Armed Services Committee, while allowing him to keep his other major seats despite the traditional limit of two such seats. Kennedy became very visible in opposing aspects of the foreign policy of the Reagan administration, including U.S. intervention in the Salvadoran Civil War and U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua, and in opposing Reagan-supported weapons systems, including the B-1 bomber, the MX missile, and the Strategic Defense Initiative. A 1983 memorandum from KGB Chairman Viktor Chebrikov to General Secretary Yuri Andropov noted this stance and asserted that Kennedy, through former Senator John Tunney's discussions with Soviet contacts, had suggested that U.S.-Soviet relations might be improved if Kennedy and Andropov could meet in person to discuss arms control issues and if top Soviet officials, via Kennedy's help, were able to address the American public through the U.S. news media.
Kennedy's staff drew up detailed plans for a candidacy in the 1984 presidential election that he considered, but with his family opposed and his realization that the Senate was a fully satisfying career, in late 1982 he decided not to run. Kennedy campaigned hard for Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale and defended vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro from criticism over being a pro-choice Catholic, but Reagan was re-elected in a landslide.
Kennedy staged a tiring, dangerous, and high-profile trip to South Africa in January 1985. He defied both the apartheid government's wishes and militant anti-white AZAPO demonstrators by spending a night in the Soweto home of Bishop Desmond Tutu and also visited Winnie Mandela, wife of imprisoned black leader Nelson Mandela. and with the administration's approval Kennedy traveled to the Soviet Union in 1986 to act as a go-between in arms control negotiations with reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Although Kennedy was an accomplished legislator, his personal life was troubled during this time. His weight fluctuated wildly, he drank heavily at times – although not when it would interfere with his Senate duties – and his cheeks became blotchy. Kennedy later acknowledged, "I went through a lot of difficult times over a period in my life where [drinking] may have been somewhat of a factor or force." He often caroused with fellow Senator Chris Dodd; In 1987 Kennedy and a young female lobbyist were surprised in the back room of a restaurant in a state of partial undress. Following the 1986 congressional elections, the Democrats regained control of the Senate and Kennedy became chair of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee. By now Kennedy had become what colleague Joe Biden termed "the best strategist in the Senate," who always knew when best to move legislation.
One of Kennedy's biggest battles in the Senate came with Reagan's July 1987 nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. The overdrawn, incendiary rhetoric of what became known as the "Robert Bork's America" speech enraged Bork supporters, who considered it slanderous, and worried some Democrats as well. But the Reagan administration was unprepared for the assault, and the speech froze some Democrats from supporting the nomination and gave Kennedy and other Bork opponents time to prepare the case against him. When the September 1987 Judiciary Committee hearings began, Kennedy challenged Bork forcefully on civil rights, privacy, women's rights, and other issues.
In the 1988 presidential election, Kennedy supported the eventual Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, from the start of the campaign. In the fall, Dukakis fell to George H. W. Bush, but Kennedy won re-election to the Senate over Republican Joseph D. Malone in the easiest race of his career. Kennedy remained a powerful force in the Senate; after prolonged negotiations during 1989 with Bush chief of staff John H. Sununu and Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to secure Bush's approval, he directed passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Kennedy had personal interest in the bill due to his sister Rosemary's condition and his son's lost leg, and he considered its enactment one of the most important successes of his career. In late November 1989, Kennedy traveled to see first-hand the newly fallen Berlin Wall; he spoke at John-F.-Kennedy-Platz, site of the famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in 1963, and said "Emotionally, I just wish my brother could have seen it."
Along with Bork, the other most contentious Supreme Court nomination in U.S. history has been the one for Clarence Thomas. When the Thomas hearings began in September 1991, Kennedy pressed Thomas on his unwillingness to express an opinion about Roe v. Wade, but the nomination appeared headed for success. But when the sexual harassment charges by Anita Hill broke the following month, and the nomination battle dominated public discourse, Kennedy was hamstrung by his past reputation and the ongoing developments in the William Kennedy Smith case. Writer Anna Quindlen said "[Kennedy] let us down because he had to; he was muzzled by the facts of his life." He then voted against the nomination. Meanwhile, at a June 17, 1991 dinner party, Kennedy saw Victoria Anne Reggie, a Washington lawyer at Keck, Mahin & Cate, a divorced mother of two, and the daughter of an old Kennedy family ally, Louisiana judge Edmund Reggie. They began dating and by September were in a serious relationship. Smith was acquitted.
Kennedy and Reggie continued their relationship and he was devoted to her two children, Curran and Caroline. They became engaged in March 1992, and were married by Judge A. David Mazzone on July 3, 1992, in a civil ceremony at Kennedy's home in McLean, Virginia. She would gain credit with stabilizing his personal life and helping him resume a productive career in the Senate. despite his having initially backed former fellow Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic presidential primaries. Kennedy floor managed successful passage of Clinton's National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 that created the AmeriCorps program, and despite reservations supported the president on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On the issue Kennedy cared most about, national health insurance, he supported but was not much involved in formation of the Clinton health care plan, which was run by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and others.
In the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, Kennedy faced his first serious challenger, the young, telegenic, and very well-funded Mitt Romney. Kennedy's campaign ran short on money, and belying his image as endlessly wealthy, he was forced to take out a second mortgage on his Virginia home. Kennedy responded with a series of attack ads, which focused both on Romney's shifting political views and on the treatment of workers at a paper products plant owned by Romney's Bain Capital. Kennedy's new wife Vicki proved to be a strong asset in campaigning. In the November election, despite a very bad outcome for the Democratic Party nationally, Kennedy won re-election by a 58 percent to 41 percent margin, the closest re-election race of his career.
Kennedy's mother Rose died in January 1995. Kennedy intensified practice of his Catholism from then on, often attending Mass several times a week. Many Democrats in the Senate and the country overall were depressed, but Kennedy rallied forces to combat the Republicans.
In 1996, Kennedy secured an increase in the minimum wage law, a favorite issue of his; there would not be another increase for ten years. Following the failure of the Clinton health care plan, Kennedy went against his past strategy and sought incremental measures instead. Kennedy worked with Republican Senator Nancy Kassebaum to create and pass the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996, which set new marks for portability of insurance and confidentiality of records. which used increased tobacco taxes to fund the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded health insurance coverage for children in the U.S. since Medicaid began in the 1960s. Senator Hatch and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton also played major roles in SCHIP passing.
Kennedy was a stalwart backer of President Clinton during the 1998 Lewinsky scandal, often trying to cheer up the president when he was gloomiest and getting him to add past Kennedy staffer Greg Craig to his defense team, which helped improve the president's fortunes. In the trial after the 1999 Impeachment of Bill Clinton, Kennedy voted to acquit Clinton on both charges, saying "Republicans in the House of Representatives, in their partisan vendetta against the President, have wielded the impeachment power in precisely the way the framers rejected, recklessly and without regard for the Constitution or the will of the American people."
On July 16, 1999, tragedy struck the Kennedy family again when a Piper Saratoga light aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The accident killed its pilot John F. Kennedy, Jr., and also his wife and sister-in-law. As patriarch, Ted consoled his extended family along with President Clinton at the public memorial service. The Boston Globe wrote of the changed role: "It underscored the evolution that surprised so many people who knew the Kennedys: Teddy, the baby of the family, who had grown into a man who could sometimes be dissolute and reckless, had become the steady, indispensable patriarch, the one the family turned to in good times and bad." Kennedy got 73 percent of the general election vote, with Robinson splitting the rest with Libertarian Carla Howell. During the long, disputed post-presidential election battle in Florida in 2000, Kennedy supported Vice President Al Gore's legal actions. After the bitter contest was over, many Democrats in Congress did not want to work with incoming President George W. Bush. and accused Bush of not living up to his personal word on the matter.
In reaction to the attacks, Kennedy was a supporter of the American-led 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. However, Kennedy strongly opposed the Iraq War from the start, and was one of 23 senators voting against the Iraq War Resolution in October 2002. and having strong support from the Bush administration. and despite Kennedy's last-minute attempts to salvage it, failed a cloture vote in the Senate. Kennedy was philosophical about the defeat, saying that often took several attempts across multiple Congresses for this type of legislation to build enough momentum for passage. Also in 2006, Kennedy released a political history entitled America Back on Track.
Kennedy again easily won re-election to the Senate in 2006, winning 69 percent of the vote against Republican language school owner Kenneth Chase, who suffered from very poor name recognition.
On May 17, 2008, Kennedy suffered a seizure, and then another one as he was rushed from the Kennedy Compound to Cape Cod Hospital and then by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Within days, doctors announced that Kennedy had a malignant glioma, a type of cancerous brain tumor. The grim diagnosis brought reactions of shock and prayer from many senators of both parties and from President Bush. On June 2, 2008, Kennedy underwent brain surgery at Duke University Medical Center in an attempt to remove as much of the tumor as possible. The 3½-hour operation, conducted by Dr. Allan Friedman while Kennedy was conscious to minimize any permanent neurological effects, was deemed successful in its goals. Opinions varied regarding Kennedy's prognosis: the surgery typically only extended survival time by a matter of months, but sometimes people lived for years.
in Denver, Colorado, while delegates hold signs reading "KENNEDY"]] The operation and follow-up treatments left Kennedy thinner, prone to seizures, weak and short on energy, and hurt his balance. Though additionally ill from an attack of kidney stones and against the advice of some associates, The dramatic appearance and speech electrified the convention audience,
On September 26, 2008, Kennedy suffered a mild seizure while at his home in Hyannis Port, for which he was examined and released from hospital on the same day. Doctors believed that a change in his medication triggered the seizure. Kennedy relocated to Florida for the winter, continuing his treatments, sailing a lot, and staying in touch with legislative matters via telephone. The following morning, he was released from the hospital to his home in Washington, as doctors attributed the episode to "simple fatigue".
was signed, April 21, 2009]] As the 111th Congress began, Kennedy dropped his spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee to focus all his attentions on health care issues, which he regarded as "the cause of my life". He saw the characteristics of the Obama administration and the Democratic majorities in Congress as representing the third and best great chance for universal health care, following the lost 1971 Nixon and 1993 Clinton opportunities, and as his last big legislative battle. although the move caused some controversy in the UK due to his connections with Gerry Adams of the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin. Later in March, a bill reauthorizing and expanding the AmeriCorps program was renamed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act by Senator Hatch in Kennedy's honor. Kennedy threw the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park before the Boston Red Sox season opener in April, echoing what his grandfather "Honey Fitz" had done to open the park in 1912. Even when his illness prevented him from being a major factor in health plan deliberations, his symbolic presence still made him one of the key senators involved.
However, by spring 2009, Kennedy's tumor had spread and treatments clearly were not going to cure it, although this was not disclosed publicly. By June 2009 Kennedy had not cast a Senate vote in three months, and his health had forced him to retreat to Massachusetts where he was undergoing another round of chemotherapy. In his absence, premature release of his health committee's expansive plan resulted in a poor public reception. Kennedy's friend Chris Dodd had taken over his role on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Democrats also missed Kennedy's ability to smooth divisions on the health proposals. Kennedy did cut a television commercial for Dodd, who was struggling early on in his 2010 re-election bid. In July, HBO began showing a documentary tribute to Kennedy's life, Teddy: In His Own Words. A health care reform bill was voted out of the committee with content Kennedy favored, but still faced a long, difficult process before having a chance at becoming law. At the end of July 2009, Kennedy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He could not attend the ceremony to receive this medal, and attended a private service but not the public funeral when his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died in mid-August. two weeks after the death of his sister Eunice. He was survived by his wife Victoria, his sister Jean Kennedy Smith, and his three children and two stepchildren. In a statement, Kennedy's family thanked "everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice".
There were also tributes from outside politics as well. An example of this was a moment of peace in the fierce rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox as both teams observed a moment of silence. The Red Sox ordered flags at Fenway Park flown at half-staff and "Taps" was performed as players stood along the baselines before a game. Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner said of Kennedy: "Ted Kennedy and I were friendly for many years,...He was a die-hard Red Sox fan. That never stood in the way of our friendship. It was a good-natured rivalry...relationship was probably stronger because we were on opposing sides in sports, but still respected and admired each other...Ted Kennedy...was focused on using his position to help those who needed it the most, even against great odds. He was a warrior in that. And you had to admire the courage and strength he displayed throughout his life right up until the end."
A special election was scheduled for January 19, 2010, for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts left vacant by Kennedy's passing. Shortly before his death, Kennedy had written to Democratic Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts legislature to change state law to allow an appointee to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy, for a term expiring upon the special election. (Kennedy had been instrumental in the prior 2004 alteration of this law to prevent Governor Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican senator should John Kerry's presidential campaign succeed.) The law was amended, and on September 24, 2009, Paul G. Kirk, former Democratic National Committee chairman, and former aide to Kennedy, was appointed to occupy the Senate seat until the completion of the special election. Kirk announced that he would not be a candidate in the special election. ending Democratic control of it going back to 1953.
The defeat cost Democrats their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and appeared to spell the end for health care reform legislation. Kennedy's widow, Victoria Kennedy, attended the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, at which both she and President Obama wore blue "Tedstrong" bracelets. Congressman Patrick Kennedy – whose decision a month earlier not to seek re-election meant that in January 2011, a 64-year streak of a Kennedy holding elective office in Washington would come to an end – brought a copy of a national health insurance bill his father had introduced in 1970 as a gift for the president.
Various interest groups gave Kennedy scores or grades as to how well his votes aligned with the positions of each group. The American Civil Liberties Union gave him an 84 percent lifetime score as of 2009. During the 1990s and 2000s, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood typically gave Kennedy ratings of 100 percent, while the National Right to Life Committee typically gave him a rating of less than 10 percent.
Following his presidential bid, Kennedy became one of the most recognizable and influential members of the party, and was sometimes called a "Democratic icon" as well as "The Lion of the Senate". During the 2000s, almost every bipartisan bill signed during the George W. Bush administration had significant involvement from Kennedy. Kennedy strongly believed in the principle "never let the perfect be the enemy of the good," and would agree to pass legislation he viewed as incomplete or imperfect with the goal of improving it down the road. In May 2008, soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee John McCain said, "[Kennedy] is a legendary lawmaker and I have the highest respect for him. When we have worked together, he has been a skillful, fair and generous partner."
Despite his bipartisan legislative practices, for many years Kennedy was a polarizing symbol of American liberalism. Republican and conservative groups long often viewed Kennedy as a reliable "bogeyman" to mention in fundraising letters, on a par with Hillary Rodham Clinton and similar to Democratic and liberal appeals mentioning Newt Gingrich. The famous racially motivated "Hands" negative ad used in North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms's 1990 re-election campaign against Harvey Gantt accused Gantt of supporting "Ted Kennedy's racial quota law". University of California, San Diego political science professor Gary Jacobson's 2006 study of partisan polarization found that in a state-by-state survey of job approval ratings of the state's senators, Kennedy had the largest partisan difference of any senator, with a 57 percentage point difference in approval between Massachusetts's Democrats and Republicans. The Associated Press wrote that, "Perhaps because it was impossible, Kennedy never tried to shake his image as a liberal titan to admirers and a left-wing caricature to detractors." The Associated Press wrote that, "Unlike his brothers, Edward M. Kennedy has grown old in public, his victories, defeats and human contradictions played out across the decades in the public glare." Kennedy's New York Times obituary described him via a character sketch: "He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy."
;Kennedy in his own words
;Nonpartisan information
;Media related
Category:1932 births Category:2009 deaths Category:American autobiographers Category:American military personnel of Irish descent Category:American political writers Category:American politicians convicted of crimes Category:American politicians of Irish descent Category:American Roman Catholic politicians Category:American Roman Catholic writers Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Boston, Massachusetts politicians Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in Massachusetts Category:Deaths from brain cancer Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Gun control advocates Category:Hague Academy of International Law people Category:Harvard Crimson football players Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Irish American history Category:Kennedy family Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Massachusetts lawyers Category:Milton Academy alumni Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Siblings of Presidents of the United States Category:Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents Category:United States Army soldiers Category:United States presidential candidates, 1980 Category:United States Senators from Massachusetts Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni Category:Writers from Boston, Massachusetts
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
