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Thursday, November 20, 2008

NYC’s Triborough Bridge renamed for Robert F. Kennedy

Several generations of Robert F. Kennedy’s family gathered today for a ceremony renaming one of the city’s major bridges in honor of the slain senator and U.S. attorney general.
Kennedy’s wife, Ethel, sons Joseph and Robert Jr., and daughter Kerry were joined today by dignitaries including former President Bill Clinton in a park at the foot of the Triborough Bridge. They were joined by his niece, Caroline Kennedy.
"I love that the city he knew and cared about returned his devotion," Ethel Kennedy said in prepared remarks.
Kennedy, who would have turned 83 on Thursday, was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The senator "was about wanting to make life better for others," said Gov. David Paterson, who handed Ethel Kennedy a framed copy of the bill he signed renaming the bridge.
Kennedy "operated on a grand scale," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "He united us as New Yorkers and as Americans. America would not be the country it is without Robert F. Kennedy and all the Kennedys."
The bridge, which opened in 1936, is the first major public work dedicated to Kennedy in the state he represented from 1965 to 1968. It is a complex of three spans that connect Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Kennedy back at work in Senate

Sen. Edward Kennedy, who is fighting a malignant brain tumor, returned to work in the Senate today for the first time since July.
Kennedy, D-Mass., was greeted by a rousing cheer from his staff on Capitol Hill as the Senate returned for a brief session to deal with the economic crisis.
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Aides strung a large blue-and-white banner reading "Welcome Back Senator" across the room, which is usually used for hearings.
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The senator noted he and his wife were grateful for the many prayers and good wishes he had received.
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Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he had spoken to Kennedy.
"I know Teddy’s excited," Kerry said. "I’ve talked to him about it. He’s pumped and ready to go. It’s really a tribute to his determination and his courage and the fight he has displayed throughout this process."
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Kennedy returns to Senate

A beaming Senator Edward M. Kennedy returned to work in Washington yesterday, exactly six months after confronting a grave threat to his health, and declared himself ready to help lead an aggressive push for healthcare reform.
"I feel fine," the Massachusetts Democrat said, flanked by his wife, Vicki, and his two Portuguese water dogs, Splash and Sunny, as he entered a staff meeting to a roar of applause in the ornate Russell Caucus Room on Capitol Hill. "I'm looking forward to the session . . . I'm looking forward, particularly, to working with Barack Obama on healthcare," the 76-year-old veteran lawmaker told reporters.
Kennedy steadied his walk with his father's cane - the same cane the senator used after surviving a 1964 plane crash, and which he has lent to two of his colleagues, Senators Chris Dodd of Connecticut and John Warner of Virginia - and his voice trembled slightly when he spoke. But overall, Kennedy looked remarkably spry for a man battling a malignant glioma, a fast-growing brain tumor that was diagnosed after Kennedy had a seizure in May.
His color was strong, and he sported a full head of his characteristic white hair. He appeared to have lost a substantial amount of weight and displayed none of the puffiness he showed during his last ap pearance on Capitol Hill on July 9, when he made an emotion- laden visit to cast a critical vote on a Medicare funding bill.
While the senator is still receiving treatment, he didn't look tired as he prepared to get to work on issues facing the incoming Congress, with healthcare as his stated top priority.
"We're hopeful this will be a prime item on the agenda," Kennedy said. Asked whether he expected President-elect Obama to sign a healthcare bill early in his term, Kennedy responded, "Yes."
In the Russell Caucus Room Kennedy was greeted by a large banner that said "Welcome Back Senator!" and a round of applause heard well beyond the closed doors of the room. The 100 or so personal Senate office aides and committee staffers lunched on food from Legal Sea Foods - a favorite of the Massachusetts delegation - as they discussed the upcoming agenda.
Kennedy plans to work several hours a day from his Washington home and expects to be in the Senate this week for the special session, an aide said.
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Kennedy did not meet with his Senate colleagues yesterday, but was greeted by a delighted Boston-born Capitol police officer as he entered the building. He chatted briefly with Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat interested in taking over Obama's Senate seat, when Jackson and Kennedy ran into each other in the hallway.
"He's pumped and ready," Senator John F. Kerry said of his Massachusetts colleague's return. "This is so super-exciting. I just feel emotional about it."
(...) While some of Kennedy's colleagues have worried he would not return to the Senate, Kennedy has been adamant about playing a role in moving quickly on the universal healthcare he has spent several decades trying to achieve. Not only is he aware of the potential limits of his own health, but he also wants to exploit the opportunities offered by Democratic control of the White House and Congress in January.
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Friday, November 14, 2008

Barack Obama, listen to Dr. Ted

Now’s the time for President-elect Obama and Congress to seize the moment and enact health care for all Americans. ASAP.
Sen. is pressing a new strategy - shaped in bipartisan meetings - for one consensus bill that can be moved swiftly through the Senate and the House, perhaps even in Obama’s first 100 days.
Kennedy has courted and listened to allies on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking Republican on the Health Care Committee that Kennedy chairs, is working with Teddy. And Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) weighed in this week with his own ideas on health care; ideas that look a lot like Kennedy’s and like the Massachusetts universal coverage law that Teddy touts as a national model.
Kennedy said Baucus’ White Paper “brings us closer to our goal.” Especially since the finance committee has to find a way to pay for a law that would cost billions, yet help tens of millions of struggling citizens, many without jobs now, pay their health care bills.
That is different from the early 1990s when then-Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s opposition doomed health-care reform championed by Kennedy and the Clintons.
And Obama - though treading carefully - said recently that health reform is “priority number three,” right after the economy and energy independence, adding, “I think the time is right to do it.”
Amen. Passage of universal health care would be the capstone on Kennedy’s legacy. And Obama owes him. The passing of the Kennedy torch to Obama by Teddy and niece Caroline just before Super Tuesday was a turning point in Obama’s path to the presidency. He also owes it even more to all those people to whom he promised relief.
In last Sunday’s Washington Post, Kennedy wrote, “it is no longer just patients demanding change. Businesses, doctors and even many insurance companies are demanding it . . . The cost will be substantial, but the need for reform is too great to be deflected or delayed.”
For those who would say, “That’s just a liberal talking,” hear this:
David Blumenthal, director of the Institute for Health Policy for the Partners Health Care System and an Obama adviser, said, “Some of the largest corporations in America are struggling to compete in the world marketplace because of high health care costs.”
Rick Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said the economic turmoil, coupled with health care’s high costs, “will likely mean the loss of jobs and employer-related health coverage . . . and possibly even diminishing access to health care services.”
Nancy Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said, “The cost of doing nothing is much higher than the alternative” - the scuffling to pay for good care, including preventive care, and dooming millions to “live sick and die younger.”
These aren’t socialists. These are people who work with health care daily and know the crisis it is in.
Kennedy has worked behind the scenes to craft health reform since Memorial Day, by phone, by e-mail and even by face-to-face meetings despite his illness. He’s back in Washington, and he’s not slowing down.
As soon as Obama takes that oath that Kennedy’s slain brother took 48 years ago, he should start preaching and working for health care for all. And Congress, which Kennedy has served for so long, should do it for Teddy - and for the American people. It’s time to strike while those stars are aligned.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Harvard to present Kennedy with honorary degree in Dec.

Harvard University will bestow an honorary degree on Senator Edward M. Kennedy Dec. 1 at a special convocation ceremony, his office said yesterday.
Kennedy had been scheduled to receive the degree at Harvard's commencement last spring but could not attend because he was recuperating from brain surgery. Kennedy, who graduated from Harvard in 1956, was "enormously grateful" for the honor.
At the graduation ceremony, Harvard's president, Drew Faust, described Kennedy as an "extraordinary person" who is "admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle as one of the nation's most able, energetic, and influential lawmakers."
"He has without doubt been one of our most tireless advocates for education - and higher education in particular - passionately committed to opportunity for all, and to the excellence of America's universities," Faust said.
The senator has maintained close ties to his alma mater, helping to create Harvard's Institute of Politics - which honors his brother, President John F. Kennedy - and serving on its board for decades.
The senator, who has been battling a severe form of brain cancer from his home on Cape Cod, returned to his residence in Washington late last month, a sign that his treatments have been progressing well.
The Massachusetts Democrat, diagnosed about six months ago, had been convalescing here since the tumor was discovered and will continue treatments in the nation's capital.
Kennedy joins an elite group who've received honorary degrees at special Harvard convocations, including George Washington, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela.
The ceremony, at Sanders Theatre, will feature Faust and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as speakers, and musical performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Harvard students.
Tickets will be distributed through a lottery that runs Thursday through Nov. 20. Those interested in attending the convocation can visit www.iop.harvard.edu to apply.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Triborough Bridge to be named for Robert Kennedy

New Yorkers soon will be able to take the RFK on their way to LGA and JFK.
On Nov. 19, the Triborough Bridge will formally be renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in honor of the late New York senator, who was assassinated 40 years ago while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"I really can't imagine a more appropriate way to honor his memory in his state, because he did reach out to so many people and did literally bridge so many divides," Kennedy's daughter, Kerry Kennedy, said at a news conference Thursday at the MTA's Manhattan offices, during which details of the name change were released.
The renaming of the bridge in honor of Kennedy was the brainchild of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. His successor, Gov. David A. Paterson, pushed for the State Legislature to adopt the plan, which it did in August.
Paterson said Thursday he was "honored" to sign the measure into law and fully expects that "the RFK name will quickly catch on with New Yorkers."
The bridge will be the first major public works project named after Kennedy, who grew up in the Bronx and Westchester County, and represented New York in the U.S. Senate from 1965 until he was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan in June 1968, just after Kennedy won the California Democratic primary.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief Elliot Sander said yesterday that the renaming was "the real deal" and required eliminating references to the Triborough Bridge on nine large road signs and 40 smaller toll plaza signs, and replacing them with the bridge's new name. The new signs will start going up on Nov. 14.
"This is a fitting honor for a distinguished and truly great American and New Yorker," Sander said.
To help spread the word about the name change, advertisements are being placed on the backs of 6 million MetroCards, and 1,400 advertisements have started to go up in subway cars, along with 3,800 advertisements in buses. The ads, as well as a large banner on the bridge, will feature famous quotes from the Democratic senator.
The project is a partnership with the Robert F. Kennedy Center For Justice & Human Rights, which brought in CBS to underwrite the cost of the ads.
A formal renaming ceremony will be held in Astoria Park in Queens, at the foot of the bridge, on the morning of Nov. 19 - the day before Robert F. Kennedy would have celebrated his 83rd birthday.
Kerry Kennedy said she expects several members of her family to attend. While suggesting that her uncle, ailing Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, would not be able to attend, she said he is "thrilled" that the bridge is being renamed after his older brother.
Built in 1936, the Triborough Bridge was one of the first major projects spearheaded by New York planner Robert Moses. The bridge, which connects Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, carried some 62.5 million vehicles last year and currently is undergoing a $1-billion rehabilitation.
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Caroline Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., younger Kennedy generation, eyed for key positions

While Camelot could be returning to the White House, not everyone is enamored of the possibility that two members of the fabled Kennedy clan might score prized posts in Barack Obama’s cabinet.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and activist, is reportedly being considered for the position of administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency while cousin Caroline Kennedy is a possibility for ambassador to the United Nations.
Marc Landy, a Boston College political science professor who wrote a book on the EPA, said Robert Kennedy would be an “innappropriate” pick for the EPA post, which he described as “one of the hardest” public management jobs in government.
“It’s not a good place to make a kind of symbolic appointment,” Landy said yesterday. “You need a pro.”
The professor said Kennedy was an “estimable environmentalist” and consciousness raiser about the issue but he’s not a public manager. “It’s innappropriate. It’s wrong,” Landy said. “Government is not all about symbol and impulse, it’s an awful lot of grinding, managerial work.”
Kennedy told the Huffington Post that he would serve in the Obama administration if they asked. “You know what, I would be of service in any way that the administration asked me to be,” Kennedy said. Kennedy’s assistant did not return a call to the Herald.
As for Caroline Kennedy, Landy said the United Nations ambassador is a symbolic figure who does a lot of speechifying and attends many receptions.
“One could imagine Caroline Kennedy, given the resonance of her name, her poise and her fine public presence, being really quite an estimable U.N. ambassador because of the nature of the post,” Landy said.
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Ted Kennedy about Obama´s Victory

Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, fighting a brain tumor but determined to return to the Senate in January, said in a statement last night that he was eager to work with Obama next year. "Barack Obama is my friend and tonight, I'm very proud to call him my president," Kennedy said.

Ted Kennedy spends election night at D.C. home

Bay State Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, whose support of Barack Obama gave the Illinois senator a huge boost during the heated Democratic primary, voted by absentee ballot for his friend and spent the night at home in Washington, D.C.
Kennedy, who has undergone surgery and chemotherapy for a deadly brain tumor, was surrounded by friends and family at his Washington home to watch the results of the presidential race pour in last night, an aide said.
Kennedy’s cancer diagnosis rocked the national political scene, but the Massachusetts Democrat still hit the campaign trail for Obama. And in what may prove a defining moment of the campaign, Kennedy shook off his cancer treatments and made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
“Ted Kennedy’s endorsement turned the tide and was a pivotal moment in Barack Obama’s campaign,” said former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman and longtime Kennedy friend Phil Johnston. “It galvanized the activists within the party across the country and gave great credibility to the Obama campaign.”
The ailing senator returned to Washington last week to work on health-care legislation.
Obama and Kennedy have worked closely on a number of initiatives, including a landmark health-care package. In another surprise move, Kennedy traveled to Washington to cast the deciding vote on the measure.
Said Johnston: “His strength of character was revealed.”
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