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| FILE - In this Oct. 27, 1994 file photo, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., left, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney argue while answering a question concerning welfare during a televised debate Oct. 27, 1994, at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Mass. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, has died after battling a brain tumor. He was 77. Kennedy's family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009. |
BOSTON (AP) -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was a Democrat's Democrat, so much so that he became a rallying point for those in his party and an object of derision for Republican opponents.
Yet his affability and capability to span the partisan divide on an array of legislative matters prompted an outpouring of condolences from those in the GOP as well as the Democratic Party following his death Tuesday at age 77 from brain cancer.
President Barack Obama led the Democrats, saying in a statement: "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."
Former President George H.W. Bush spoke for his son, former President George W. Bush, in expressing sympathies from members of the Republican Party.
"While we didn't see eye to eye on many political issues through the years, I always respected his steadfast public service," said a statement issued by the elder Bush, who noted that his library gave the senator a public service award in 2003.
"Ted Kennedy was a seminal figure in the U.S. Senate - a leader who answered the call to duty for some 47 years, and whose death closes a remarkable chapter in that body's history," he said.
The widow of another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, echoed those sentiments.
"Given our political differences, people are sometimes surprised by how close Ronnie and I have been to the Kennedy family," Nancy Reagan said in a statement from Los Angeles.
"But 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, and I considered him an ally and a dear friend. I will miss him."
Her husband died in June 2004 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
For the governor of her home state, the loss was personal.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose wife, Maria Shriver, was Kennedy's niece, came to politics after careers as a bodybuilder and actor and credited Kennedy with helping him in his current role.
"I have personally benefited and grown from his experience and advice, and I know countless others have as well," the governor said in a statement. "Teddy taught us all that public service isn't a hobby or even an occupation, but a way of life and his legacy will live on."
Kennedy's death came just two weeks after that of Shriver's mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, one of the senator's siblings.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 GOP presidential contender, recalled losing to Kennedy in a Senate race. Nonetheless, the two joined forces in 2006 to help pass a universal health insurance law in Massachusetts.
"In 1994, I joined the long list of those who ran against Ted and came up short. But he was the kind of man you could like even if he was your adversary," Romney said.
The Senate's top Democrat, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., labeled Kennedy the "patriarch" of the party.
The Senate majority leader promised that Congress, while mourning Kennedy's loss, would renew the push for the cause of Kennedy's life - health care reform.
"Ted Kennedy's dream was the one for which the founding fathers fought and for which his brothers sought to realize," Reid said in a statement. "The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die."
Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who visited Kennedy on Cape Cod this summer to discuss strategy on the health care overhaul, said he would miss his friend for the rest of his time in Congress.
"I'm not sure America has ever had a greater senator, but I know for certain that no one has had a greater friend than I and so many others did in Ted Kennedy," Dodd said.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who beat out Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, called him "an unwavering advocate for the millions of less fortunate in our country."
"The courage and dignity he exhibited in his fight with cancer was surpassed only by his lifelong commitment and service to his country," Carter said in a statement.
Kennedy's junior colleague, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lauded him for his cancer fight.
"He taught us how to fight, how to laugh, how to treat each other, and how to turn idealism into action, and in these last fourteen months, he taught us much more about how to live life, sailing into the wind one last time," Kerry said.
"No words can ever do justice to this irrepressible, larger than life presence who was simply the best - the best senator, the best advocate you could ever hope for, the best colleague and the best person to stand by your side in the toughest of times."
