среда, 19 сентября 2012 г.

He was the ultimate legislator, the peerless Lion of the U.S. Senate.(News) - Daily Mail (London)

Byline: by Marion McKeone

YOU'D hear him in the splendid halls of Capitol Hill long before you'd see him. The booming voice and the belly laugh would herald the arrival of the Lion of the Senate.

And then he would round a corner, the political powerhouse with the shock of white hair, the wide florid face atop the bulky shoulders and the short stocky frame that no suit quite seemed to contain. He would power past with that awkward but unstoppable gait, in a whirlwind of backslapping and handshaking, surrounded by a swarm of aides and advisers, frantically trying to digest his rattling off of facts, figures, strategies and tactics.

His coveted Senate quarters could be mistaken for a Boston pub with the reception room's generous drinks cabinet, sepia photographs and less than tasteful soft furnishings. There are the authentic Irish signposts that may or may not have been filched during the raucous holidays he took here with fellow senator and bon vivant Chris Dodd during what he refers to as his 'bachelor years'.

Amid the kitsch and memorabilia accumulated during a career spanning almost five decades, his office served as more than Kennedy's refuge from a chaotic, sometimes shambolic personal life; it was the hub of liberal Senate activity.

The office served as a Petri dish for some of the most progressive legislation that has transformed the lives of countless millions of Americans in the fields of civil rights, labour law, education, health, women's rights and laws protecting the rights of just about any minority group you'd care to mention, from Native Americans to gays.

The youngest Kennedy took his place in the U.S. Senate shortly after his 30th birthday and would be re-elected by a large margin in every election over the next 47 years. Through ten presidencies, fourwars, enormous social upheaval and political unrest, his own failed bid to become president and through personal turmoil, scandal and disgrace, Kennedy's role as a senator would be his one constant.

He was a formidable force but much of his power came not from his position as part of America's most storied political dynasty; it came from his prodigious capacity for hard work and a willingness to deal with whomever would help him achieve his objectives, regardless of their political stripe. For many, he was an exasperating paradox; the feckless political scion with a playboy lifestyle who proved so committed and so constant to liberal causes. 'If only we could lock him in the Senate at night,' one adviser said of Kennedy after the 1991 scandal that culminated with his nephew William Kennedy Smith being charged with rape.

During his first term in the Senate he fought for the passing of Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Act of 1964 which would end segregation in America. It was, at the time, a hugely controversial and politically risky cause and many more followed. But it was not until the mid-Eighties, when he finally abandoned his quest to become president, that he achieved his greatest successes as a legislator.

WHILE many have regarded Ted Kennedy as an unworthy successor to his brothers' political mantle, as a legislator Kennedy has always been a force to be reckoned with; a peerless strategist, the ultimate pragmatist. He was, according to lifelong friends of the Kennedy family, easily the most natural politician of the three. His willingness to work with arch enemies, and an indifference to who got the credit so long as the job got done, helped secure his legacy as the greatest senator of his era.

George Bush Sr often cites as his single greatest achievement the signing into law of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which required employers and public facilities to make 'reasonable accommodation' for the disabled. But it was Ted Kennedy who plucked it from an improbable liberal wish list and made it a reality through a mixture of persuasion, compromise and ruthless political arm-twisting. More than any other cause, bringing decent quality healthcare to tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford it was a career-long crusade for Kennedy. Although relations were always strained between him and Bill Clinton, he threw his weight behind Clinton's failed healthcare plan in 1994.

In 1997 he joined forces with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, an austere Mormon from Utah, to enact a landmark healthcare programme for children from low-income families. In 1982, he led a successful battle to defeat the Reagan administration's effort to emasculate the Voting Rights Act.

He was a champion of increasing financial aid for higher education and better public schools for American children.

He was instrumental in obtaining increases in the federal minimum wage and in securing the enactment of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, one of the costliest expansions of government health aid in U.S. history. Throughout his years in the Senate, his friends included almost as many Republican senators as Democrats. He was scornful of the sort of partisan politics that has ruled Washington for the past dozen years, viewing tactics such as filibustering and voting on strictly partisan lines as myopic and counterproductive.

Even though he was ailing, he remained head of the Senate committee that drafted healthcare legislation for President Obama, presaging another epic congressional battle.

It is a fitting swansong to an unsurpassed legislative career.