Ted Kennedy is mourned on both sides of the aisle

WASHINGTON — Friends and colleagues of the late Edward Kennedy on Wednesday mourned the loss of the Senate's "patriarch," whose legislative and political skills continued to affect official Washington until his dying days.

The Massachusetts Democrat died late Tuesday night at 77. A black shroud and vase of white roses sat Wednesday on his Senate desk, which John F. Kennedy had used before him.

Fellow Democrats and rival Republicans, steeled for his death since his brain-tumor diagnosis a year ago, joined in mourning.

"For his family, he was a guardian," President Barack Obama said Wednesday. "For America, he was a defender of a dream." Obama said of Kennedy that "for five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts." The president, vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, was awakened after 2 a.m. and told of Kennedy's death. He spoke soon after with the senator's widow, Victoria, and ordered flags flown at half-staff on all federal buildings.

Vice President Joe Biden fought tears as he spoke about his friend and colleague of many decades in the Senate.

"I truly, truly am distressed by his passing," Biden said. "Teddy spent a lifetime working for a fair and more just America. For 36 years, I had the privilege of going to work every day and sitting next to him and being witness to history. ... He restored my sense of idealism."

Kennedy will be buried Saturday at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral Mass in Boston. Obama is to speak at the service in Boston.

Kennedy will lie in repose at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston before that.

Also buried at Arlington, the military cemetery overlooking the capital city, are John and Robert Kennedy; John Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline; their baby son, Patrick, who died after two days; and their stillborn child.

Since suffering a seizure in May 2008 that led to the cancer diagnosis, Edward Kennedy remained chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee despite an absence that left him on Capitol Hill only a handful of times. His panel crafted one version of the health-care legislation that has turned into the political fulcrum of this summer, with Kennedy talking frequently by phone from his home on Cape Cod to his aides and his close friend, Sen. Chris Dodd, DConn., who has run the committee in Kennedy's absence.

Dodd said he would "miss him every day I serve and every day I live."

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Kennedy's Republican partner on efforts on children's health insurance, volunteerism, student aid and more, said the Senate probably would have had a healthcare deal by now if Kennedy had been healthy enough to work with him.

"Iconic, larger than life," Hatch said of his friend. "We were like fighting brothers."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement, "The Kennedy family and the Senate family have together lost our patriarch."

But Rush Limbaugh countered Reid, who called Kennedy a "lion of the Senate," by saying, "We were his prey."

Democratic members of Arkansas' congressional delegation joined in the praise.

"As the standard-bearer for a family with a historic legacy of public service, Senator Kennedy always believed that our best days are ahead of us and that individuals can make a difference," Sen. Blanche Lincoln wrote. " ... When I would become discouraged by the Senate process, he would assure me that our persistence would pay off because we were right and because Arkansas families were counting on me. He was always the one to encourage his allies in their most critical moment."

Wrote Sen. Mark Pryor: "I will miss Ted Kennedy's compassion, courage, and friendship. His 47 years spent fighting to lift families out of poverty is reflected as much in the south as in his home state."

He was the last of the Kennedy brothers: John the assassinated president, Robert the assassinated senator and presidential candidate, Joseph the aviator killed in action in World War II when Ted was 12.

Of nine children born to Joseph and Rose Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith is the only one alive. Edward Kennedy lost his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, less than two weeks ago.

Older Americans rememberhis eulogy of Robert Kennedy, when he asked history not to idealize his brother but to remember him "simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."

Remembered, too, is his speech conceding the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination to the incumbent Jimmy Carter. "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die," he said.

By then, his hopes of reaching the White House had been damaged by his behavior a decade earlier in the scandal known as Chappaquiddick.

On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, on Martha's Vineyard, and swam to safety while companion Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in the car. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident; a judge said his actions probably contributed to the young woman's death. He received a suspended sentence and probation.

Kennedy's legislative legacy includes health insurance for children of the working poor, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, family leave and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He was also key to passage of the No Child Left Behind Education law and a Medicare drug benefit for the elderly, both championed by Republican President George W. Bush.

He was a major fundraiser for his party, and for the Republicansas well, who spent a generation branding their opponents as "Ted Kennedy liberals."

"Nothing will bring a Republican audience to its feet faster than a speech against high taxes, against federal control and against Ted Kennedy," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said on the Senate floor during a 2007 tribute marking Kennedy's 15,000th vote.

Bush noted that he and Kennedy worked together on immigration, mental-illness and publiceducation issues.

"In a life filled with trials," Bush said, "Ted Kennedy never gave in to self-pity or despair."

The widow of another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, called Kennedy "an ally and a dear friend."

Nancy Reagan said: "Ronnie and Ted could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another. In recent years, Ted and I found our common ground in stem-cell research."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Kennedy "a legislator without peer" who "inspired generation after generation of young Americans to enter public service, to stand up for justice and to fight for progress." Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, praised Kennedy's "big heart, sharp mind and boundless energy," which he called "gifts he gave to make our democracy a more perfect union."

During a visit Wednesday to the West Bank town of Ramallah, Carter spoke of the man he beat for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980, the year Carter lost the White House to Reagan. Carter said Kennedy's life was devoted to improving "the status of life of those who are poor and deprived and persecuted and ignored and in need."

Kennedy was first elected to the Senate in 1962, taking the seatthat his brother John had occupied before winning the White House, and he served longer than all but two senators in history: Robert Byrd of West Virginia and the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.

He was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent surgery and a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

He made a surprise return to the Capitol last summer to cast a decisive vote for the Democrats on Medicare. He made sure he was there again in January to see his former Senate colleague sworn in as president but suffered a seizure at a celebratory luncheon afterward.

Recently, Obama awarded Kennedy the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

His survivors include a daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen; two sons, Edward Jr. and Patrick, a congressman from Rhode Island; and two stepchildren, Caroline and Curran Raclin.

Kennedy had told friends recently that he was looking forward to a "reunion" with his seven departed siblings, particularly his brothers.

"When he gets there, he can say, 'I did it, I carried the torch,'" said Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat and Kennedy friend whose district includes Cape Cod. "'I carried it all the way.'"Information for this article was contributed by Calvin Woodward, Glen Johnson, Laurie Kellman and Bob Salsberg of The Associated Press, by Paul Kane, Michael D. Shear, Debbi Wilgoren and Michael Ruane of The Washington Post, by Jonathan D. Salant, Julianna Goldman and John Brinsley of Bloomberg News, by John M. Broder, James Barron, Ethan Bronner, Ariana Green, Brian Stelter, Jeff Zeleny and Mark Leibovich of The New York Times and by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff.

A chronology: Sen. Edward Kennedy FEB. 22, 1932 Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy is born in Boston, the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy.

MAY 1951 Caught cheating on an exam and leaves Harvard College.

Serves in the Army and later re-enrolls at Harvard.

JUNE 1954 Graduates from Harvard. 1959 Graduates from University of Virginia Law School.

NOV. 8, 1960 Kennedy's brother, John F. Kennedy, elected president.

NOV. 6, 1962 Elected U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

NOV. 22, 1963 President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.

JUNE 19, 1964 Back is broken in a plane crash that kills aide Edward Moss and the pilot, Edwin Zimny.

JUNE 5, 1968 After winning the California primary, brother Robert F.

Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles anddies the next day.

JULY 18, 1969 Ted Kennedy drives his car off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, Mass. His passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowns. Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor, and receives a two-month suspended sentence and a year's probation.

NOV. 3, 1970 Re-elected to Senate but loses majority whip position.

NOVEMBER 1979 Challenges President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic nomination.

AUG. 12, 1980 Withdraws his bid for the presidency.

DECEMBER 1982 Divorces wife Joan. OCT. 13, 1994 Senate Ethics Committee dismisses allegations of sexual harassment and drug use.

JAN. 28, 2008 Endorses Sen. Barack Obama for president.

MAY 20, 2008 Doctors diagnose a cancerous brain tumor.

AUG. 25, 2008 Kennedy addresses Democratic National Convention.

AUG. 25, 2009 Kennedy dies at age 77 after fighting brain cancer.

SOURCE: AP Arkansas Democrat-Gazette