Thread: Just Announced: Sen. Ted Kennedy Dead

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Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy dead at 77 after a battle with brain cancer. We'll have a look back on Kennedy's career shortly.

BreakingNewsURGENT -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008. He was 77 years old.

bbcvideo Richard Lister looks back at the life and political legacy of US Senator Edward Kennedy who has died, aged 77. http://tinyurl.com/nlb5xf

Sen. Edward Kennedy 1932-2009

M.L.

Hyannisport (AP/WBZ Newsroom) -- Sen. Edward Kennedy has died after a long battle with a brain tumor. He was 77.
Kennedy was the second most senior member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and the third-longest-serving senator of all time. The most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he was the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy was first elected in 1962 to finish the term of his brother, John, he was re-elected by the people of Massachusetts eight times.

On May 17, 2008, Kennedy suffered a seizure, and then another one as he was rushed from the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port to Cape Cod Hospital and then by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital. On May 20, doctors announced that Kennedy had a malignant glioma, a type of cancerous brain tumor.

Doctors initially told Kennedy the tumor was inoperable, but he looked around for other opinions and decided on the most aggressive and exhausting course of treatment possible. 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 in order to minimize any permanent neurological effects, was deemed successful in its goals. Kennedy left the hospital a week later to begin a course of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Opinions varied regarding Kennedy's prognosis: the surgery typically only extended survival time by a matter of months, but sometimes people lived for years.

Now, Senator Kennedy is gone, and longtime CBS Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer says Washington will never be the same. "Kennedy has been here so long and has been such a presence; it's hard to imagine the Senate or this city without him."

Ted Kennedy's eulogy for brother Bobby in 1968 could have been his own..."...who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it, who saw war and tried to stop it." After he buried his brothers, it was Ted who stepped forward to shoulder the Kennedy political legacy. From his earliest days in the Senate, Ted Kennedy took the familiar populist approach of his brothers, "as your democratic senator in Washington, I will vigorously support Medicare." He then became a champion for social programs, “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." The famed "dream shall never die" speech came as Kennedy fell short in his challenge for the presidency in 1980. WBZ Senior Correspondent John Henning says it was a turning point, "He could have walked away after losing to Jimmy Carter and said I'm getting out public life, they don't want me, but he just pulled up his britches, went back down to Washington and really started rockin and rolling and I think that's where he made his reputation, from that point on." Kennedy became what Henning calls a 'super senator...' an "impact player" for Massachusetts and a consensus builder in the Senate.


Kennedy was born in Boston on February 22, 1932. He graduated from Milton Academy in 1950 and graduated Harvard in 1956 followed by the International Law School, The Hague, Holland in 1958. A year later he graduated the University of Virginia Law School 1959. He served in the Army from 1951 to 1953. In 1959 Kennedy was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and in 1961 was appointed assistant district attorney in Suffolk County. Kennedy entered politics was he was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 6, 1962, to fill the vacancy caused by the 1960 resignation of his brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, for the term ending January 3, 1965. Kennedy has held that seat ever since, winning elections in 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1980.

His 1958 marriage to Joan Bennett Kennedy would later end in divorce...Joan separated in 1977, but his 1992 marriage to Victoria Reggie Kennedy stabilized his life.


He was seriously injured in an airplane crash in 1964 and suffered from back pain as a result.

In the 1969 a car Kennedy was driving ran off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and plunged into the water, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence.

Boston Globe DC bureau Chief Peter Canellos is the editor of the book "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy." Among other things, the book examines Kennedy's failed presidential run in 1980. Canellos tells WBZ's Dan Rea the senator's lukewarm feelings about the presidency were reflected in this halting response to a 'softball' question from CBS news correspondent Roger Mudd...

Boston Globe DC bureau chief Peter Canellos. Of course, Kennedy's failed 1980 presidential campaign was punctuated by a speech many consider Kennedy's best. The scene was the Democratic National Convention in New York:

The senator spent the final year of his life using his famed political skills to push forward a longtime career goal: health care for all. Even with his health failing, Senator Kennedy remained a powerful political force. An example of that came last year at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Against doctors' orders, he made a powerful speech in support of then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

The senator’s death, vacating the seat he held for almost a half-century, will lead to a scramble to succeed him. State residents-- and their representatives in Washington-- are now challenged to quickly fill the void.

Senator Ted Kennedy is survived his wife Vicki, and his children Kara Anne; Edward, Junior and Congressman Patrick Kennedy. He was the youngest of Joe and Rose Kennedy’s nine children—and the only of their four sons to die of natural causes.


2009 CBS Radio, All Rights Reserved.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-ead)

Lot of sad bartenders, and liquor store owners in DC and Mass. Washington will miss him.

death - the only way we can get rid of these politicians, he was totally incapable to serve and never let go of the senate seat, selfish fcuker

addios

He could have been President if he had learnt to drive.

I am waiting for calls from the left to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.

R.I.P

Originally Posted by malice

R.I.P Mary Jo Kopechne

Great post!! I agree 100%.

He continued the family tradition of dying with something lodged in your brain.

Originally Posted by chitown

I am waiting for calls from the left to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.

Originally Posted by chitown

Originally Posted by malice

R.I.P Mary Jo Kopechne

Great post!! I agree 100%.

Schadenfreude's not a good look for you, Chi.

Glad to hear this,, should have happened at birth or at least 60 years ago for the betterment of humanity.

R.I.P.
He was not the brightest or the best that the Kennedy family ever produced but he proved to be the most influential. His record of sponsoring legislation in the senate will long outlive him. He was a champion of the working class, a friend to the environment and a sage voice on foreign policy. Wisely, he knew his limitations and did not risk a run for the presidency.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Schadenfreude's not a good look for you, Chi.

I agree . . . disappointing, mate

Originally Posted by blackgang

Glad to hear this,, should have happened at birth or at least 60 years ago for the betterment of humanity.

Thankfully the only bearing you have on humanity is the number of page-clicks you manage on the Boy Scouts website.

I have a personal story about Ed K. He might have been a waste of space and a murderer but on the one occasion I had anything to do with him he was excellent.

R.I.P.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

In the 1969 a car Kennedy was driving ran off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and plunged into the water, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence.

Great to have that kind of power and friends eh??? You try that and they'd fry your ass!

Originally Posted by kingwilly

The senator’s death, vacating the seat he held for almost a half-century, will lead to a scramble to succeed him. State residents-- and their representatives in Washington-- are now challenged to quickly fill the void.

Apart from the obvious drunken killing of the above woman. fighting for free healthcare for all in the States is a noble cause..and to be quite honest should've been free for years in the 'Land of the free'

Originally Posted by kingwilly

He was the youngest of Joe and Rose Kennedy’s nine children—and the only of their four sons to die of natural causes.

That's a sad fact....

Now the governement at the time of his brother's MURDER, JFK. Lindon Johnson (nothing to do with me honest Johnson)..being sworn in over the body of JFK on the plane. While Jackie stands next to him sobbing for her husband..ah the compassion...Yeah but the governments gotta carry on, won't wash with me on that one sorry.


(56 witnesses testified, claiming that they saw and heard gun shots from the grassy knoll area.)

Then lost his brain, so that the national archives and future doctors couldn't determine that the guy was blown away from different angles..and not from one 'Magic bullet'

So the same thing has happened to Teddy!!!
Except this time it was an 'organic' cancer that has removed his brain. Not a totalitarian governemt hell bent on invading a country some 12,000 miles away and bombing it's people back to the stoneage!!! To save the world from....the evils of communists...not that they have taken over the world anyhoooooooo...



Anyone done any shooting?? Well try shooting a bullet into any object let alone as many as this one was 'supposed' to have gone through..See what you get..shoot one through a piece of meat a leg of lamb...looks alot more damaged than this little baby!!!

Oh look Kennedy's leaning to his left..as if a bullet came from his right???!!!
Even the police motorbike rider is looking towards the fence!!! and Kennedy.
The txt states that no shooter is seen..I don't think that the shooter would want to stand here for all unsundry to witness and would fade away as quickly as he had come?

Off OP but relevant to a certain degree..

conspiracy theory?

Originally Posted by aging one

Lot of sad bartenders, and liquor store owners in DC and Mass. Washington will miss him.

Not to mention the whores!

Hell will soon be out of booze.

Now we wait for Robert Byrd to kick the bucket. I would not piss up that guy’s ass if his guts were on fire. Fuck them both.

^ Agreed

despite the personal foibles and tragedies, kennedy was quite possibly the most effective legislator the US senate has ever seen.

Originally Posted by raycarey

despite the personal foibles and tragedies, kennedy was quite possibly the most effective legislator the US senate has ever seen.

And respected on both sides of the aisle despite what some right wing douche bags would say. I love to see so many dirt poor idiots that are brainwashed by right wing crap slam this guy when he had their backs all along.