Edward Kennedy: Lion of the Senate

SEN. Edward M. Kennedy burnished a famous family's legacy of public service and great expectations with a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate. His life in politics did not lead to the White House, as once assumed, but to a place in history as a respected, effective legislator.

Kennedy's death at age 77 from an aggressive form of brain cancer is an abrupt end of service to Massachusetts that began in 1962.

The Kennedy family record is one of extraordinary achievement, public tragedies and a burden of expectations that fell to survivors in successive generations.

The late senator had two martyred brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, murdered as he campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. His oldest brother was killed in World War II. The youngest son of Rose and Joseph Kennedy became the head of a clan that suffered untimely deaths from illness and accidents. Personal scandals kept the family in the headlines.

Kennedy's story was much more than a tale of personal wealth and opportunity. A lot of people have both and do not accomplish nearly as much. He was a champion of the poor and middle class, through legislation that spanned civil rights to student loans, special education, health care and the minimum wage.

For decades he was a favorite target of right-wing flamethrowers. Their loathing for "Teddy" was fired by an abiding belief his family name spared him accountability for a fatal automobile accident in 1969 at Chappaquiddick. His liberal politics drew more heat as Congress and the White House turned Republican.

Kennedy's liberalism never diminished, but over time his legislative skills were recognized and valued by both parties. He was partisan to be sure, but always more practical than doctrinaire. Even as Massachusetts voters began to elect Republican governors in 1990, they returned him to office. He quietly thrived as the White House and eventually both houses of Congress came under GOP control.

Kennedy's public and private lives provided dozens of excuses to withdraw, retreat or quit, yet he persevered. He provided a sheltering harbor for his extended family through life's storms and tragedies.

Students of U.S. government will know his name for decades. Democracy is never on automatic pilot. Kennedy understood the Senate and was quietly at the helm.