Sen. Ted Kennedy, wintering in an undisclosed location in Florida, may never return to the Senate, friends say, as his battle with brain cancer enters its final rounds.
“He’s someplace sunny, near the water, where he can rest and sail,” said a pal of the senior senator. “Time is of the essence. It’s very sad.”
Kennedy was rushed to the hospital after he collapsed during a luncheon that followed President Obama’s inauguration, and returned to vote on the stimulus bill. Although family members have said publicly that the senator is doing “good,” privately those close to Kennedy say he may only have a few months to live.
“He’s very sick,” said another Kennedy associate. “He’s actually done well to get to this point.”
Kennedy was diagnosed last May with a malignant brain tumor and his prognosis was poor. According to pals, the senator spent every day that he could last summer on the waters off Hyannisport sailing his beloved yacht, Mya .
He has returned to Washington only sporadically since being diagnosed - most dramatically a month after his first seizure to cast the deciding vote on an important Medicare bill.
Because of Kennedy’s condition, off-the-record speculation about the future of his Senate seat has been rampant this week - especially in light of a seven-part Boring Broadsheet opus that is being widely viewed as a premature obituary. And yesterday’s installment was interpreted by some close to the matter as the first step in a torch-passing to Kennedy’s wife, Vicki.
“It appeared to be setting up Vicki’s senate campaign,” said one insider.
The story described the former Victoria Reggie as “a great lawyer” with “tremendous political skills” and “great sense of humor.”
It portrayed her family as Kennedy doppelgangers and Vicki’s father, Edmund Reggie, as one of Ted’s closest companions.
“The Reggies and their six children had more than a little Kennedy in them,” the BB wrote. “Edmund was an unabashed liberal from the heart of Dixie . . . ‘Last one in the pool is a Republican!’ the judge was known to bellow at his kids.”
Although Edmund Reggie is quoted often - including in an anecdote that started the series off earlier this week - no member of Ted’s family has said anything to the Globe on the record so far.
Word on the Hill is that some Kennedy staffers are quite unhappy with the series, finding it far too critical of Ted. Not so when it comes to Vicki, who the BB portrayed as a politically savvy, stabilizing influence on Ted. She is credited with helping him to secure re-election in a hard-fought battle with Mitt Romney after the near-career-destroying Palm Beach rape scandal.
“You wonder how much control she had over who they spoke to,” said a Kennedy source.
Interestingly, the Globe never mentions any of the Reggie family’s legal woes in the opus. Edmund Reggie was convicted in 1992 of misapplication of funds from a savings and loan he founded in 1959 that failed in 1987. He pleaded no contest to a similar charge in 1993 and served 120 days of home detention and paid a $30,000 fine. Vicki’s brother Raymond Reggie was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of bank fraud in 2005.
Should Kennedy be unable to finish out his senate term, which ends in 2012, a special election must be held within 145 to 160 days of the seat becoming vacant. The big question is: Will Kennedy make it known that he wants his wife to succeed him - a move that would almost assuredly guarantee Vicki the seat?
File Under: Family Business.
“He’s someplace sunny, near the water, where he can rest and sail,” said a pal of the senior senator. “Time is of the essence. It’s very sad.”
Kennedy was rushed to the hospital after he collapsed during a luncheon that followed President Obama’s inauguration, and returned to vote on the stimulus bill. Although family members have said publicly that the senator is doing “good,” privately those close to Kennedy say he may only have a few months to live.
“He’s very sick,” said another Kennedy associate. “He’s actually done well to get to this point.”
Kennedy was diagnosed last May with a malignant brain tumor and his prognosis was poor. According to pals, the senator spent every day that he could last summer on the waters off Hyannisport sailing his beloved yacht, Mya .
He has returned to Washington only sporadically since being diagnosed - most dramatically a month after his first seizure to cast the deciding vote on an important Medicare bill.
Because of Kennedy’s condition, off-the-record speculation about the future of his Senate seat has been rampant this week - especially in light of a seven-part Boring Broadsheet opus that is being widely viewed as a premature obituary. And yesterday’s installment was interpreted by some close to the matter as the first step in a torch-passing to Kennedy’s wife, Vicki.
“It appeared to be setting up Vicki’s senate campaign,” said one insider.
The story described the former Victoria Reggie as “a great lawyer” with “tremendous political skills” and “great sense of humor.”
It portrayed her family as Kennedy doppelgangers and Vicki’s father, Edmund Reggie, as one of Ted’s closest companions.
“The Reggies and their six children had more than a little Kennedy in them,” the BB wrote. “Edmund was an unabashed liberal from the heart of Dixie . . . ‘Last one in the pool is a Republican!’ the judge was known to bellow at his kids.”
Although Edmund Reggie is quoted often - including in an anecdote that started the series off earlier this week - no member of Ted’s family has said anything to the Globe on the record so far.
Word on the Hill is that some Kennedy staffers are quite unhappy with the series, finding it far too critical of Ted. Not so when it comes to Vicki, who the BB portrayed as a politically savvy, stabilizing influence on Ted. She is credited with helping him to secure re-election in a hard-fought battle with Mitt Romney after the near-career-destroying Palm Beach rape scandal.
“You wonder how much control she had over who they spoke to,” said a Kennedy source.
Interestingly, the Globe never mentions any of the Reggie family’s legal woes in the opus. Edmund Reggie was convicted in 1992 of misapplication of funds from a savings and loan he founded in 1959 that failed in 1987. He pleaded no contest to a similar charge in 1993 and served 120 days of home detention and paid a $30,000 fine. Vicki’s brother Raymond Reggie was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of bank fraud in 2005.
Should Kennedy be unable to finish out his senate term, which ends in 2012, a special election must be held within 145 to 160 days of the seat becoming vacant. The big question is: Will Kennedy make it known that he wants his wife to succeed him - a move that would almost assuredly guarantee Vicki the seat?
File Under: Family Business.
Go to:
No comments:
Post a Comment