Ted Kennedy Celebrates 77th Birthday
EmailABC News’ Jonathan Karl reports:
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who turns 77 today, is scheduled to spend his birthday "celebrating with a bunch of family and close friends" in Florida, according to his spokesman, Anthony Coley.
The Lion of the Senate plans to return to Washington in two weeks for a March 8 "musical tribute" in his honor at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
The senator returned to Washington last week to cast his vote in the Senate’s first version of the economic stimulus bill. However, Kennedy missed the final passage vote on the compromise bill.
Coley said Kennedy, longtime chair of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is determined to see legislation for health care reform. "He sounds as strong as I have heard him sound," said Coley.
Kennedy has been working on a health care reform bill and reportedly lobbying the White House as it considers a new nominee for the role of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Still recuperating from a diagnosis of brain cancer in May last year, Kennedy told the New York Times that now is not the time to be preparing his eulogies. "Obviously I’ve been touched and grateful," Kennedy told the paper. "Beyond that, I don’t really plan to go away soon."
A recent health scare for the senator occurred during President Obama’s inauguration Jan. 20 when Kennedy collapsed in the U.S. Capitol during the Congressional luncheon. Doctors concluded the incident was due to fatigue.
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unlike MaryJo Kopecnick who was murdered by Chappaquiddick Teddy… the official murderer of the demo_C_R__P party and senate… OJ got away with it using his own money and fame earned with his own talent while Chappaquiddick Teddy ran home to mommy and spread daddy’s money buying off justice…
Posted by: henry | February 22, 2009, 10:03 am 10:03 am
And his legacy will be?
Posted by: LongT | February 22, 2009, 10:19 am 10:19 am
Nice, Henry, makes you sound like such a good man.
Posted by: disgusted | February 22, 2009, 10:22 am 10:22 am
Happy Birthday to one of the most smartest, decent man I’ve followed in my 57 years. You’re one of few. Again, may God bless you and your family. Happy Birthday, again and again. Thank you for your decency.
Posted by: sngeorgia | February 22, 2009, 10:27 am 10:27 am
Well, to start with, Ted Kennedy has never been a decent man. You just can’t walk away from a bridge one night that your date has died and not even report it until the next day…unless you’re too drunk to remember. In addition, what’s all the BS talk of his wife taking his place…what is this, a family owned senate seat??
Posted by: Roger King | February 22, 2009, 11:00 am 11:00 am
Here’s a quarter and you keep the change!
Posted by: No Compromise | February 22, 2009, 11:05 am 11:05 am
I have never had any respect for this man since he left the young women in the river to die. Probably could not have done anything about it, but a real man would have tried.
swine.
Posted by: John | February 22, 2009, 11:56 am 11:56 am
His legacy will be Chappaquiddick.
Posted by: Paul | February 22, 2009, 11:58 am 11:58 am
The remainder of his office will be dedicated to health care reform (or what ever you care to call it). It’s his last chance at securing some sort of a legacy. I won’t say he’s the best argument for term limits, but he comes close. Jesse Helms and Robert Byrd are probably better examples.
Posted by: LongT | February 22, 2009, 12:10 pm 12:10 pm
Roger, He’s a “Kennedy”. It’s all about family.
Posted by: LongT | February 22, 2009, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Didn’t Chappaquiddick happen close to forty years ago? The man is dying of brain cancer and trying to help all of us through badly needed health care reform, but most of the posters here insist on maligning him for a long ago event. If one of these days, you find yourself or a loved one seriously ill and your means otherwise limited for medical care, you’ll have Kennedy to thank.
Posted by: kat the real one | February 22, 2009, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
Glad to see Teddy stepping down. He never deserved to be an elected official after what he did in the river that day. It is hard to believe that Mass kept electing this guy, but then I realize we are so morally bankrupt when it comes to the value of each life.
Posted by: Huh | February 22, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
What about Robert Shapiro? We’re talking about the guy who helped get OJ off a murder charge? He’s now making millions from the website he created at legalzoom.com. Where is the outrage there?
Posted by: Brian Weir | February 22, 2009, 4:04 pm 4:04 pm
Chappaquiddick will forever be part of his legacy.
BUT
The next time someone who rips him will have made as much of a difference helping others as he has will be the first.
Posted by: Gary | February 22, 2009, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
And his legacy will be?
Big money, drunkenness, Chappaquiddick, socialism and socialistic health care, amnesty for illegal aliens,… Let’s put Caroline “Ya Know” in his vacant seat.
Posted by: Mihann | February 22, 2009, 5:47 pm 5:47 pm
Al Capone funded soup kitchens for the hungry before accepting a new position in Alcatraz… Like OJ, justice wasn’t served so the books are still open on Chappaquiddick Teddy and OJ….and I a very good man…..
Posted by: henry | February 22, 2009, 6:43 pm 6:43 pm
Fat, drunk, stupid and throws money around like beer. His legacy is Mary Jo. Why anyone would vote for a killer is beyond me. If OJ had run for office, people would have voted for him also. Two of a kind.
Let us hope he is around a lot longer. We need to have an idol of what a rich killer from Mass really is.
Posted by: platteman | February 22, 2009, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm
He is rich and old enough to retire; and clinging to the office with a health problem that interrupt legislature and others is just showing that Ted Kennedy is selfish and has greed, not as a public servant.
Posted by: nocatnowaco | February 23, 2009, 2:41 am 2:41 am
If his commitment is really to the public, he should ressign.
Posted by: merchantilist | February 23, 2009, 3:58 am 3:58 am
I am with you all who remember Mary Jo. He never took responsibility for that tragic event. Maybe his health would be better had he taken responsibility and acted like a man.
Posted by: Jan | February 23, 2009, 11:27 am 11:27 am
Ted Kennedy has been a a good senator for Massachusetts and that’s why we keep him around.
Posted by: citizen | February 23, 2009, 11:40 am 11:40 am
No one has done more than Ted Kennedy to help those who need help the most. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy for your lifetime of service to the American public. There will never be another like you! God bless you!
Posted by: angel46 | February 23, 2009, 11:56 am 11:56 am
Didn’t Chappaquiddick happen close to forty years ago?
————————————–
Kat,
YES, and Mary Jo is just as DEAD today as she was 40 yrs ago!!!
Look at the “mistakes” people make nowadays that cost them everything in this totally BS PC world!
Imus says something completely stupid…LOSES HIS JOB!
Newt Gingrich has ethics issues, LOSES HIS JOB!
hell, even look at the mess Obama’s nominees were in. Most LOST thier chances to serve!
Ted Kennedy was totally responsible for the death of woman & gets to STAY in the Senate…for 40 MORE YEARS!
Forgive me if I don’t shed a tear for the WIZARD OR UHHs !
Posted by: Mike_C | February 23, 2009, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
Newt Gingrich resigned because he was cheating on his second wife — who has MS — and knew it was all going to come out. He also could have run for president this time but decided he could not give up the big $$$$ he is making and decided not to help his country.
Posted by: ohio folk | February 23, 2009, 1:54 pm 1:54 pm
Please do not die yet teddy. You have a lot more suffering to do before you burn in hell.
Posted by: mary jo | February 23, 2009, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Since Ted Kennedy left Mary Jo Kopechne to suphocate at the bottom of Poucha Pond in HIS car, I have felt nothing but disgust and hatred toward this man. He was partying with a bunch of young girls (the Boiler Room Girls) while his wife was in the hospital having their last child. All he had to do was make ONE phone call immediately after poor Mary Jo went into that pond and she would probably be alive today. I was in my late 20′s when this happened. It absolutely infuriates me that he was actually allowed to continue on as Senator and today’s news headlines declaring him a HERO, the LION of the Democrat Party? Puhlease! He’s no hero. He was a drunken coward who put his politacal reputation ahead of a girl’s life. No, he’s no hero, and he’s no MAN either.
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