Whether you liked him or not, Ted Kennedy was a beast in American politics.
The only of four brothers to have died from natural causes, here’s what Time Magazine said about him:
[B]y the time of his death in Hyannis Port at the age of 77, he had 46 working years in Congress, time enough to leave his imprint on everything from the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009, a law that expands support for national community-service programs. Over the years, Kennedy was a force behind the Freedom of Information Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. He helped Soviet dissidents and fought apartheid.
Above all, he conducted a four-decade crusade for universal health coverage, a poignant one toward the end as the country watched a struggle with a brain tumor. But along the way, he vastly expanded the network of neighborhood clinics, virtually invented the COBRA system for portable insurance and helped create the laws that provide Medicare prescriptions and family leave.
He was almost as famous for his eulogies as he was for his public service having spoken at the funerals of his brothers John and Robert, his nephew John, Jr. and Jackie Onassis.
Whomever is called upon to eulogize Ted Kennedy will not only be commemorating the loss of a life but the end of an era.
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