The Note: The Dream — Great cause of Kennedy’s life lives on

By RICK KLEIN The work goes on, of course. His cause endures. And as the political world stands still, get ready to dream again. It’s a world that’s not shocked, yet immensely saddened by the loss of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — a towering figure in every way, a source of compassion, and a figure of determination to generations. He embodied a generosity of spirit that indeed will never die. Just as Kennedy represented a figure and a family out of the nation’s past, his aspirations always looked to the future. And so, in the great piece of unfinished business in a legacy of nearly five decades, inspiration is renewed in his passing. Universal health care is President Obama’s great quest this year, but it will be Kennedy’s bill — in spirit, in inspiration, and almost certainly, now, in name. And if it gets done — as Kennedy famously promised a year to the day before his death, in opening the convention where Obama received the Democratic nomination — it will be because of Kennedy’s example, as a legislator, as a dealmaker, and as a friend. President Obama, who spoke with Kennedy’s wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, at about 2:25 am ET Wednesday, a few hours after the senator’s death, said he and Michelle were “heartbroken.” (Look for an on-camera statement later this morning.) “I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I've profited as President from his encouragement and wisdom,” the president said in a statement. “An important chapter in our history has come to an end. 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.” There would be no President Obama without Sen. Kennedy — not just because of the well-timed endorsement that brought a political dynasty behind an upstart’s campaign, but because of the work of decades that made a candidacy like Obama’s possible in the first place. And, even acknowledging the precarious legislative state of play, the cause of health care reform wouldn’t be as close to happening as it is now without Kennedy’s work spanning decades. The Kennedy family statement: “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. . . . He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., puts a prediction inside a tribute: “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration.” New inspiration from a well-known legacy: “The fact that his tangible accomplishments transcended his mythic role in the Kennedy drama attests to the vast extent of his legislative impact. In each of four areas, he dominated legislative politics for more than four decades, spanning ten presidencies, and played a large role in transforming the government’s relationship to the people,” Peter S. Canellos writes in The Boston Globe. “And by the time his life ended yesterday, surrounded by loved ones in a gentle scene that contrasted sharply with the violent deaths of his brothers, Ted Kennedy had built a nuts-and-bolts legacy to stand beside that of his presidential brother as a figure of hope and his senatorial brother as a figure of compassion.” A final lesson that’s never been more relevant: “Generations of aides recall Kennedy telling them the biggest mistake of his career was turning down a deal that President Richard M. Nixon offered for universal health care. It seemed not generous enough at the time. Having missed the opportunity then, Kennedy spent the rest of his career hoping for an elusive second chance,” the AP’s David Espo writes.  “Now, some Democrats wonder privately if the party can learn from that lesson, and take what is achievable rather than risk everything by reaching for what it uncertain.” “Mr. Kennedy died with one of his lifelong goals, universal health care, tantalizingly within reach yet struggling on Capitol Hill. Some advocates have said his absence has hurt the chances for legislation, and hope Mr. Kennedy's passing will give new momentum and emotional force to his favored cause,” Naftali Bendavid writes in The Wall Street Journal.  Heir to Camelot: “The arc between their careers was striking. Obama was born just a year before Kennedy came to the Senate in November 1962, and the younger man’s election as president marked an historic fulfillment of the civil rights debate in which Kennedy took part as a freshman lawmaker,” Politico’s David Rogers writes.  This year, “Republicans complained that without Kennedy, Democrats were less willing to make the concessions needed for true compromise. As Senate action stalled before the August recess — and the national debate swung wildly at the grassroots level — Kennedy’s absence was felt more sharply. This was one of the great ironies of the senator’s career.” “No lawmaker was more closely identified with the issue that President Obama has made his top legislative priority than Kennedy, who began pushing for universal health care in the 1970s,” USA Today’s Kathy Kiely writes. “In losing Kennedy, Obama loses a key Senate dealmaker at a crucial moment in legislative negotiations over the health care bill.”  “He's always seen politics as the way grease is supplied to our system to make it work,” former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant tells ABC’s Huma Khan and Caitlin Taylor.  (ABCNews.com’s full coverage, on the Kennedy legacy, personal history, plus video and slideshows, is here.)  Kennedy’s passing leaves a gaping hole in the party’s liberal wing; if there’s a sour deal to swallow in Congress, Kennedy would have been the one to make it sweeter. “As the standard-bearer for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, the square-jawed ‘Ted’ or ‘Teddy’ Kennedy believed in government's ability to help solve people's problems, and over the decades he learned how to wield power in the Senate to move the government in that direction,” Rich Simon and Claudia Luther write for the Los Angeles Times.  John M. Broder, in The New York Times: “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.”  From Kennedy’s final major public statement — the cover story he wrote for Newsweek last month with Robert Shrum (the author of the “dream shall never die” speech): “Each time I've made a phone call or held a meeting about the health bill — or even when I've had the opportunity to get out for a sail along the Massachusetts coast — I've thought in an even more powerful way than before about what this will mean to others. And I am resolved to see to it this year that we create a system to ensure that someday, when there is a cure for the disease I now have, no American who needs it will be denied it.” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.: “He taught us how to fight, how to laugh, how to treat each other, and how to turn idealism into action, and in these last fourteen months he taught us much more about how to live life, sailing into the wind one last time.” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah: “Today America lost a great elder statesman, a committed public servant, and leader of the Senate. . . . Many have come before, and many will come after, but Ted Kennedy’s name will always be remembered as someone who lived and breathed the United States Senate and the work completed within its chamber.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: “As we mourn his loss, we rededicate ourselves to the causes for which he so dutifully dedicated his life.  Senator Kennedy’s legacy stands with the greatest, the most devoted, the most patriotic men and women to ever serve in these halls.” From the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: “Senator McCain is very saddened to hear the news of the loss of this close and dear friend, Senator Kennedy — the last lion of the Senate.” Former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, via Facebook: “I would like to extend our sympathies to the Kennedy family as we hear word about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. He believed in our country and fought passionately for his convictions.”  Former President Jimmy Carter, to the BBC: “My own hope here is that his deep commitment to comprehensive health plan in our country will be honored by his contemporaries and his peers in the near future.” Torch-carrying: “Sooner or later, every political dynasty faces this question: Who are we now?” The Boston Globe’s Don Aucoin writes. “With the death of its patriarch, that moment has arrived for the Kennedy family. And so a clan that, no less than the Adamses, the Roosevelts, and the Bushes, has been defined by the public offices it held must set a future course without the compass and standard-bearer for its political tradition, Senator Edward M. Kennedy.”  In Massachusetts, look for a renewed push to change the law to allow Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., to name an interim replacement. Regardless, though, a special election is likely shortly after the first of the year. Those named Kennedy — Vicki and Joseph P. Kennedy II — won’t quite get right of first refusal, but the potential for a Kennedy candidacy will freeze out others on the long list of those interested.
The Kicker: “We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.” — Edward M. Kennedy, in December 2008.  “Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us, and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.” — Edward M. Kennedy, eulogizing his brother, Robert, in 1968. 
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