Poll: Cuomo, Kennedy Deadlocked for N.Y. Senate Seat

December 9, 2008

The jockeying to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate is looking more like a game of checkers compared to the allegedly pay-to-play tactics Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich is accused of using to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s seat.

According to the latest Marist Poll, Caroline Kennedy and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo are tied at 25% among registered New York voters. An equally high number, 26%, are unsure of who the next New York senator should be. Gov. David Paterson will appoint a person to the seat after it’s vacated in January.

Among registered Democrats, Kennedy is the choice of 31% compared with 21% who prefer Cuomo. Among registered Republicans, Cuomo has the edge with 34% compared with 21% for Kennedy. Kennedy is more popular among New York City residents, while Cuomo is more popular in the suburbs. Upstate New York is divided.

Both Democrats enjoy positive perceptions among voters, with 64% rating Cuomo positively and 62% saying the same of Kennedy.

Former President John F. Kennedy’s daughter also has too forceful advocates: her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is lobbying for her to get the job and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who touted Kennedy Monday as “very competent” and as someone who “can do anything.”

Other contenders, such as Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown or Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand, Nydia Velazquez, Carolyn Maloney, and Steve Israel all registered in the single digits with voters.As for Clinton herself, the vast majority, 70%, said she will do either an excellent or good job as secretary of state.

Go to:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/09/poll-cuomo-kennedy-deadlocked-for-ny-senate-seat/

If Not One Kennedy, Perhaps Another, a 3rd Kennedy Says

December 8, 2008

Last week, Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, made waves when she appeared on MSNBC to say she thought her brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, would be an excellent choice to be the next United States senator from New York.

Mr. Kennedy, however, quickly took his name out of consideration. But after news that Gov. David A. Paterson and Caroline Kennedy — Ms. Kennedy’s cousin — had spoken about the Senate job, Ms. Kennedy was back on the airwaves today. Same channel, same (almost) message: My cousin Caroline, she said, would make an excellent next United States senator from New York.

“Absolutely,” Ms. Kennedy said, when asked if she was encouraging her cousin to seek the job. “I think Caroline would be just a wonderful public servant. She’s been doing this for many, many years. She’s a lawyer, she’s worked in New York and Washington, at the bar in both those places. She’s a best-selling author. But most of all, she’s a committed public servant.”

Ms. Kennedy also cited her cousin’s work raising money for the New York City public school system and running the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, named for President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy’s father and a brother of the senator.

(Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, down in Washington for a conference on Monday, was also asked about Caroline Kennedy, according to The Associated Press. The mayor praised Ms. Kennedy’s work for the city and said that she “can do anything.” The mayor added: “Caroline Kennedy is a very experienced woman, she’s worked very hard for the city. I can just tell you she’s made an enormous difference in New York City.”)

Kerry Kennedy also confirmed reports that her uncle, Edward M. Kennedy, had lobbied Mr. Paterson on Caroline Kennedy’s behalf.

“Right, you know, I think that Teddy and Caroline are so incredibly close, and I can’t imagine a better team than the two of them in the Senate from Massachusetts and from New York,” Ms. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy made no mention, however, of another prospective Senate pick: her ex-husband, State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.Shortly before Ms. Kennedy’s appearance, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who is close to Mr. Kennedy, said Caroline Kennedy “would be a great choice” to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is being nominated to be secretary of state.

Ms. Kennedy’s appearance came shortly after a news conference held by Mr. Paterson in Manhattan to discuss failures in New York’s efforts to transport relief supplies to Haiti after a recent hurricane.

Mr. Paterson said he would consider people for the job who had not held elective office, in addition to the large number of New York elected officials who are angling for the job, publicly and privately. (Caroline Kennedy, it should be noted, has never held elected office.)

“Elective office is not the only place that people have distinguished themselves and could serve the public,” the governor said, citing Mr. Bloomberg’s jump from business to politics in 2001, among others.But Mr. Paterson did not say anything about his private discussions with other officials about the appointment.

“First, it’s tell us who the candidates are, tell us what time you’re meeting with them, tell us whether or not you’ve talked to them before,” the governor said. “This is all gossip.”

Go to:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/if-not-one-kennedy-perhaps-another-a-3rd-kennedy-says/

Not the best choice for senator

A PUSH is on to make Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the former president, Hillary Clinton's replacement in the US Senate.
New York Governor David Paterson, who will appoint Clinton's successor, has said that Caroline called him recently to talk about the Senate seat, while cousins Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kerry Kennedy are publicly promoting her for the job.
Those who know Kennedy say she is pleasant and unpretentious. Certainly she has displayed none of the off-putting behavior that has characterized some other members of the so-called third generation of Kennedys. A lawyer and author, she has done some valuable fund-raising work for the New York City schools.
But that hardly means she deserves to be eased into a US Senate seat.
Indeed, a consideration of some of the very characteristics that have made Ted Kennedy such a force in the Senate suggests his niece would be far less likely to succeed there.
Senator Kennedy is a big, magnetic personality, gregarious and funny, so solicitous of other senators that he's been known to show up at small birthday parties for GOP colleagues - and laugh good-naturedly about how they use him as a bugbear to raise money from conservatives. No surprise, then, that even some Republicans who disagree with him on most everything nevertheless value him as a friend.
Hillary Clinton displayed some of those same traits during her time in the Senate, using her interpersonal skills to impress colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
Caroline Kennedy, however, is not a people person. She's intensely protective of her privacy, so much so that, according to a Washington Post report, friends are reluctant even to be mentioned in articles about her for fear of being frozen out. To those who don't know her, she comes off as distant and reserved.
"She's very quiet and shy," says one family friend. "I think she is a good person and a smart person, but I just don't know if she would make a good senator."
While Ted Kennedy took naturally to political life, Caroline Kennedy hadn't, at least until her appearances for Barack Obama this year. An indifferent speaker, she has never been much involved in the public fray.
"Yes, she would bring important media attention to any issue she chose, but she is simply not someone who has ever played a significant role in any of the big policy debates," notes a second Kennedy acquaintance.
Meanwhile, we've already seen that political talent isn't necessarily a trait that has taken deep root among the third generation. Temperamental and rambunctious, Joe Kennedy II proved a poor fit for public life, essentially fouling out of the 1998 race for governor. Likable but lightly informed Max Kennedy stumbled before he was even off the starting block for a planned 2001 congressional run. And in Maryland, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend lost her 2002 gubernatorial bid.
Further, the idea that Kennedy is a logical choice because women want a high-profile champion is a curious one. Despite her fund-raising work, Caroline is someone famous not because of what she's done but because of who she is. If she's appointed to the Senate, her selection wouldn't be based on the merits but on her name.
New York's congressional delegation has a number of politically experienced women who have won House seats on their own. Picking one of them would send a message of an appointment based on accomplishments.
Another possibility is New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. (The fact that he and Kerry Kennedy underwent an acrimonious divorce in 2003 renders it all the more interesting that she is one of the Kennedys publicly promoting Caroline for senator.) Yes, Cuomo is the son of a famous father, but he's also an experienced political figure who has taken his lumps and losses in public life.
By all accounts, Caroline Kennedy is a fine person, revered within her tight circle of friends and family.
But a US Senate seat is one of the most important posts in the federal government. It is not a barony to be awarded as a political perk to the lightly experienced scion of a famous family.

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/12/10/not_the_best_choice_for_senator/

Caroline Kennedy's new political turn

WASHINGTON - For much of her adult life, Caroline Kennedy fulfilled only the most modest obligation of her political birthright, sitting on the board of the John F. Kennedy Library and presenting its Profile in Courage Award. And even that annual ritual must have reaffirmed her wariness of power: Most of the winners were politicians forced from public life for their noble but unpopular deeds.
Now, after years of stepping aside as a fleet of mostly male relatives rushed past in search of influence and glory, Caroline is beginning to exhibit her own Kennedyesque sense of ambition. She spent the last year playing a crucial role in Barack Obama's election campaign, as a prominent surrogate and top adviser, and has entered into provisional negotiations about filling the New York Senate seat soon to be vacated by Hillary Clinton, and once occupied by her uncle Robert.
"She enjoyed a private life with her children and husband, and she zealously guarded her privacy until this year," said Ted Sorensen, a Kennedy White House adviser and family confidant who lobbied Caroline to endorse Obama last winter. "She's discovered, so to speak, a new world, and she enjoyed the experience."
Her tentative approach of a high-profile legislative perch comes at a crossroads for the Kennedy dynasty: Her uncle Ted, the family's standard-bearer for four decades, is ailing, and the other Kennedys of her generation have proved unwilling or unable to carry the family's flag.
An aide to Senator Kennedy yesterday denied news reports that he had promoted Caroline to colleagues as a replacement for Clinton. One relative, however, openly championed her cause: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and activist who withdrew last week from contention, suggested Caroline Kennedy as an ideal substitute. Over the weekend, she reportedly contacted Governor David Paterson, who is responsible for filling the vacancy, to discuss the job without specifically declaring her interest in it. (Attempts to reach Caroline Kennedy for this report were unsuccessful.)
Until recently, even such an expression of curiosity in elective office would have been unimaginable for the 51-year-old, who long demonstrated more of her mother Jacqueline's elusiveness than her father's instinct toward politics. A trained attorney who does not practice law, Caroline Kennedy dabbled in legal scholarship and New York civic life while raising three children with her husband, Edwin Schlossberg.
Kennedy did not speak at a Democratic convention, whose dais has often served as a de-facto family reunion, until 2000, when she was ushered off stage to the theme from "Camelot." A year earlier, the death of her brother, John - who had a similarly uneasy relationship with public life until he launched and edited a political magazine - left Caroline Kennedy the lone survivor of the foursome that once inhabited the White House.
Since then, she has slowly drifted toward politics. In 2002, Kennedy took a $1-per-year job within the New York City Department of Education, raising money for a private charity that supported public schools. City officials were relying not only on her philanthropic and society ties - she is honorary chairwoman of American Ballet Theatre - but also her stature to rally support for an institution that often had trouble establishing credibility with wealthy donors.
"We discussed this when she took the role," said Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor who hired Kennedy. "She knew she was going to be the public face of the public-private partnership."
Although she has been credited with helping to raise tens of millions of dollars for city schools - she quit her part-time job with the district after two years but remains co-chairwoman of the private charity - Kennedy surprised some in New York with her low profile, rarely giving interviews and appearing only fleetingly at public events.
In January, days before the critical Super Tuesday primaries, Kennedy for the first time endorsed a nonrelative for president, announcing her support for Obama in a New York Times op-ed that compared Obama to her father, who was assassinated in 1963. In it, Kennedy sought to affirm Obama's place in her family tradition even as a coterie of cousins made their own case for Clinton, his opponent.
(...)
"Caroline Kennedy has become one of my dearest friends, and is just a wonderful American, a wonderful person," Obama said Sunday on "Meet the Press," before declining to weigh in on her senatorial prospects for fear of getting "involved in New York politics."
Indeed, there are few places where a first-time candidate would find a rougher entry. Clinton's successor would have to defend the seat in two consecutive races - in a 2010 special election for the balance of Clinton's six-year term and then again to win a full term two years later - that could cost as much as $100 million. Already one popular Republican with a strong fund-raising record - moderate Long Island congressman Peter King - has declared his interest in challenging Paterson's appointee.
Sorensen, who ran for the same seat in 1970 after Robert Kennedy's assassination, said he has discussed with Caroline Kennedy the possibility of being in the Senate, although he would not divulge details of their conversation.
"My advice would be: 'Don't do what I did,' " said Sorensen, who entered the 1970 race as a national political celebrity with no experience as a candidate and lost in the Democratic primary. "I turned out to be a very poor fund-raiser, and you can't run in New York without any money."
One family loyalist who did successfully accede to the Senate suggested there was little Caroline Kennedy needed to learn about what a political career would entail.
"It's not new being a senator in that family," said Harris Wofford, who worked as an aide in the Kennedy White House before being appointed to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate a generation later. "It's a great tradition. She certainly knows what she would be getting into."

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/12/10/caroline_kennedys_new_political_turn/?page=full

Kennedy: A 'season of hope'

Senator Edward M. Kennedy received an honorary degree from Harvard this afternoon, joining a select few so recognized outside of the university's commencement.

Past honorees include George Washington, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill.

Kennedy embraced his reputation as a liberal and spoke of the hope sparked by Barack Obama's election as president.

Here are his prepared remarks:

"Now I have something in common with George Washington –other than being born on February 22. It is not, as I had once hoped, being President. It is instead this rare privilege of receiving an honorary degree from Harvard at a special convocation. I am moved and deeply grateful to my university.

"It was exactly one hundred years ago this September that my father entered Harvard College as a freshman—to be followed in the next generation by Joe, Jack, Bobby and then by me. At home and here at Harvard, which became a second home, I learned to prize history, to play football, and to believe in public service.

"It was long ago, but I see it now as fresh as youth and yesterday. And I hope that in all the time since then I have lived up to the chance that Harvard gave me.

"And along the way, I have also learned lessons in the school of life, that we should take issues seriously, but never take ourselves too seriously, that political differences may make us opponents, but should never make us enemies, that battles rage and then quiet.

"Above all, I have seen throughout my life how we as a people can rise to a challenge, embrace change and renew our destiny.

"So there is no other time when I would rather receive this honor than this year— at this turning point in American history.

"Just one month ago, our citizens powerfully re-affirmed the promise of America. That promise has been central to my service, to the contributions of my brothers, and to the age-old dream of millions.

"Long after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, long after Brown v. Board of Education, long after a young Baptist minister stood on the steps of Lincoln's Memorial and called the nation to the dream of equality, the moment finally is here. The time is now, the long march of progress has arrived at one extraordinary day in American history.

"We elected a 44th president who, by virtue of his race, could have been legally owned by the first 16 Presidents of the United States. We judged him, as Martin Luther King said, not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character and the capacity of his leadership. For America, this is not just a culmination, but a new beginning.

"Because in Barack Obama, we will now have a president who offers not just the audacity, but the possibility of hope for one America, strong and prosperous and free— “from sea to shining sea.”

"I am proud to have played a small part in this giant step forward in our history, and in the public life of this Commonwealth and this country for so many years. 50 years ago, I managed the successful re-election campaign for the junior Senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. Although I certainly did not anticipate it at the time, I myself have been deeply honored to hold that same seat for the past 46 years.

"During my service in the United States Senate, I have often been called a Liberal, and it usually was not meant as a compliment. But I remember what my brother said about liberalism shortly before he was elected president. He said: “If by a Liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind… Someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions… Someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties…Someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and the suspicion that grips us… If that is what they mean by a Liberal… Then I am proud to say I am a Liberal."

"As I said in Denver last summer, for me, this is a season of hope.

"Since I was a boy, I have known the joy of sailing the waters off Cape Cod. And for all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.

"In that spirit, I thank Harvard for this great honor—and I thank Massachusetts for the privilege of serving its people and its principles. I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world."

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.

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=1133449
___

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.
(...)

Aides strung a large blue-and-white banner reading "Welcome Back Senator" across the room, which is usually used for hearings.
(...)

The senator noted he and his wife were grateful for the many prayers and good wishes he had received.
(...)

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."

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1133002

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.

(...)

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.

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/11/18/kennedy_returns_to_senate/

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.

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1132295

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.

Go to: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/11/11/harvard_to_present_kennedy_with_honorary_degree_in_dec/

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.

Go to:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyrfk0712149713nov07,0,185296,print.story

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.

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/general/view.bg?articleid=1130595

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.”

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1130056

Kennedy returning to Washington

Aides to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who has been battling a severe form of brain cancer from his home in Massachusetts, said he plans to return to his second home in Washington this afternoon, a sign that his treatments have been progressing well.
The Massachusetts Democrat, who was diagnosed with a malignant tumor about six months ago, will continue his treatments in the nation's capital."His doctors are very pleased with his progress, and he will receive his treatments here," Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said yesterday. The senator plans to remain in his northwest Washington home and return to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, she added.
Aides declined to speculate on when Kennedy might return to his duties in the Senate, which is in recess for the rest of the year. But his return to Washington for the next several weeks could coincide with Democrats' plans to call a special session of Congress after the Nov. 4 election. Kennedy is also a strong supporter of Barack Obama, and left Massachusetts to deliver a keynote speech on his behalf at the Democratic National Convention in Denver two months ago.
Since his diagnosis, Kennedy has returned to the Senate just once, in July, to cast a tiebreaking vote on long-delayed Medicare legislation. He was briefly hospitalized last month after suffering a mild seizure, which doctors attributed to a change in his medication.

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/kennedy_returni.html

Kennedy to return to Washington, spokesman says

Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy plans to return to Washington Tuesday for the second time following an operation for a brain tumor in June, his spokesman said.
"Weather permitting, Senator Kennedy plans to leave Hyannis Port to spend time at his house in Washington later this afternoon. He hasn't been there for months and he thought this would be a good time to be back. He plans to return to the Cape for Thanksgiving," spokesman Anthony Coley said.
Kennedy has not decided if he will attend the "lame duck" session of the Senate following next week's elections, Coley said. The 76-year-old senator is not up for re-election this year.
In July, Kennedy made a dramatic visit to the floor of the Senate to cast a vote to help break a deadlock on an important Medicare bill.

Go to:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/28/kennedy-to-return-to-washington-spokesman-says/

Caroline Kennedy to campaign in Florida

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, will appear at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday afternoon at Savannah Center.Doors to the event will open at 3:45 p.m. The event is tentatively slated for 5 p.m.
“Caroline Kennedy is an icon of Americana. She’s been in the public eye since she was just a baby. Many people are excited about Barack Obama in the same way they were excited about John F. Kennedy in the 1960s,” said Laura McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama-Biden campaign.

(...)

Go to:

http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/articles/2008/10/28/villages/villages01.txt

Kennedy En Route To Washington

Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy is on his way to Washington after spending months in treatment for brain cancer at his Hyannisport home.
Kennedy's office said Tuesday the senior senator will head to the nation's capital to spend time at his residence there because he has not been there in months and believes it's a good time to visit.
His aides said Kennedy will remain in Washington until Thanksgiving when he will return to Cape Cod to celebrate the holiday.
It was unclear whether Kennedy will visit Capitol Hill while in Washington. They said he will continue to work from his district home on the Democratic agenda, particularly his health care bill.

Go to:

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/17821200/detail.html

'Fitz' house for sale

The Kennedy compound has been restored to its former glory. No, not that one.
While the family enclave in Hyannis Port is indeed known as the Kennedy compound, part of Allerton Hill in Hull is considered by locals to be the original. The property was owned at the turn of the 20th century by John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, then mayor of Boston, father of Rose Kennedy and grandfather of president John F. Kennedy.
The 16-room Victorian multi-gabled mansion had fallen into disrepair over the last several years and was purchased in 2006 by developer Ernesto Caparrotta of Hull, owner of Seven Hills Corp. in Weymouth. He paid $950,000 for the 7,163-square-foot house at auction.
Former owner Jamie Edelkind was sent to prison after his 2005 conviction on charges he used phony mortgage and payroll documents to buy the house in 2000.
Caparrotta wouldn't say how much he spent renovating the house, a project just recently finished. It is assessed by the town for $1.52 million and is now on the market for $2.37 million.
"I don't usually renovate homes, I prefer building them from the ground up," said Caparrotta, a native of Italy who came to America 30 years ago and has lived in Hull ever since. "But I always drove by this house, always loved it, so when the opportunity came up, I took it."
The house was built in 1892, and bought by Fitzgerald in 1915 as a summer retreat for his growing family; he sold it in 1921. After Rose Fitzgerald married Joseph P. Kennedy, her father had a home built next to his, down the hill and next to the water. The Tudor-style house was dubbed Rose Kennedy's Dollhouse.
"You can almost see Rose Kennedy walking up the driveway with little John on her shoulders," said T. David Raftery, who 12 years ago bought the Rose Kennedy Dollhouse and has lived in it since, absorbing the local Kennedy legend and happily imparting it to anyone who asks. "There's a lot of Kennedy history there."
JFK reportedly played on the nearby beach, he said, and many were the quiet, respectful parties Fitzgerald threw in the sprawling, three-story home.
"They weren't wild parties; he'd hire quartets to play in the living room," said Raftery, an assistant district attorney in Norfolk County.
The Allerton Hill area was popular with the Boston elite, he said, as a summer getaway, as was Cohasset, but at the time that town turned a cold shoulder to Catholics, Raftery said.
"The Kennedys weren't allowed in," he said. "It was very anti-Catholic at the time, but they were accepted in Hull. Allerton was a summer home for a lot of Boston people."
And the home may be the only one on the South Shore to have been frequented by three American presidents - or those who would be. A photo in Rose Kennedy's autobiography, "Times to Remember," shows her father shaking hands with President William Howard Taft outside the Hull home. Rose Kennedy's son would go on to be elected president in 1960. Another visitor to the home was Calvin Coolidge, then a Massachusetts governor, who became president in 1923.
(...) On the third floor is a wide-open, airy room that he said was a "gentlemen only" room in Kennedy's day, where men would gather to smoke cigars, sip brandy, and discuss heady matters of the day and most likely the effect on their respective fortunes.
(...) But none of those big names possess the uniquely Massachusetts mystique of the Kennedy clan.
"Not many people know about the history of the Kennedys here - I bet if you asked schoolchildren in Hull today, they wouldn't know," Raftery said. "But the old-timers in Hull, they know."

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/19/fitz_house_for_sale/?page=full

Robert Kennedy's daughter in Derry

A daughter of assassinated US politician Bobby Kennedy was in Derry yesterday to address an education conference in the Millennium Forum.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, was the keynote speaker at the Association of Northern Ireland Education and Library Boards (ANIELB). She was welcomed to the conference by the Mayor of Derry, Councillor Gerard Diver.

Professor Kennedy Townsend, a niece of former American President John Kennedy, teaches at Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy and is the eldest daughter of Robert Kennedy.

The conference, which continues today, was also attended by chief executives from all the education and library boards across the North as well as representatives of conference partners NorthgateIS, and sponsors: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Allianz, Fujitsu, Imex, Eteach and Amey.

Incoming ANIELB President, Pat Brannigan, said that the conference provides a vital showcase for education providers in Northern Ireland during a period of educational reform.

“As we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we have the responsibility to develop our education system into one which is not only fit for purpose now but which can meet challenges that no-one has yet thought about,” he added.

Go to:

http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/Robert-Kennedy39s-daughter-in-Derry.4602049.jp

Jackie Kennedy, book editor, to be subject of new bio - October 16, 2008

Jacqueline Kennedy's years as a book editor, many of them at Doubleday, will be the subject of a Doubleday book coming out in 2011.
Historian William Kuhn, who has written about British royalty and politics, is writing a biography, currently untitled, about the years that Kennedy worked in the publishing business, starting in 1975 with a brief time at Viking Press and then her 16 years at Doubleday, right up to her death in 1994.
Kennedy's authors ranged from celebrities Michael Jackson and Carly Simon to Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian novelist.
"Her books were a way of revealing the experiences, recollections and passions of a lifetime; in the end she told her own story — her journey as a wife, a mother, aesthete, armchair intellectual and unwilling celebrity — through the medium of other people's books," Kuhn said in a statement issued by Doubleday.
"My book will mine this critical period in her life, the one in which she became the woman she'd always intended to be."
According to Doubleday, Kuhn will draw upon "previously untapped archival material" and has "conducted a series of interviews with her authors, collaborators and friends from the 1980s and 1990s."

Go to:

http://www.mercurynews.com/books/ci_10738056

Kennedy will not testify in Stevens trial (October 8, 2008)

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy will not testify in Ted U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Hyannis Port)Stevens' corruption trial, The Hill reports.
Kennedy, a Hyannis Port Democrat, was named as a possible witness at the beginning of the trial.
The Hill reports that Kennedy was not on the list of 15 witnesses submitted by Stevens' defense.
Stevens, a Republican U.S. Senator from Alaska, is on facing seven felony counts for allegedly failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts from an oil-services company in campaign finance reports between 1999 and 2006.
The Hill reports that former Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Stevens', are on the list of witnesses that are expected to testify to Stevens' character instead.

Go to:
http://www.politickerma.com/jeremyjacobs/1466/kennedy-will-not-testify-stevens-trial

Big Dig park named for Rose Kennedy

The Rose Kennedy Greenway was abloom yesterday as families from across the area showed up for the park’s inaugural celebration.
“It’s nice to come in here and see this on the way to the waterfront and not just steel,” said Paul Lakus, 62, of Medford, who enjoyed the park with his wife, Alma, also 62.
The park sits where the Interstate 93 Central Artery once dissected the city’s skyline. The Big Dig brought the ugly roadway underground and made way for the narrow, 1.5-mile-long urban park.
Lilacs, day lilies, geraniums and other blooms fill the park’s gardens and offer a respite from the constant stream of cars buzzing by on either side.
Yesterday’s festivities included local musicians, dance troupes and a Ferris wheel.
“What the Greenway has always been about is beauty and connection,” said Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. “You can really see people remember how much joy there is in city life.”
Brennan said thousands of people attended yesterday’s celebration. Among the attendees were Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg - Rose’s daughter and granddaughter, respectively - as well as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Medford native, and Hub Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Urban Adventours offered free bike tours of the park yesterday, though bicyclists usually must use the surrounding roadway..
“This is miles better than what it was,” said operations manager Mike Maker, who credits the end of the Big Dig with making the area more bike-friendly, with fewer potholes and detours.
Deb Murphy, 32, of Acton stopped by the park with her daughter Hannah, 1.
What’s their favorite part? “The highway that’s gone,” Murphy said. “But isn’t that a given?”

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1123482

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. champions new national energy policy during Fremont speech

Energy policy is by far the most important issue in this year's presidential election, one that transcends partisan politics and dwarfs the nation's current economic crisis, according to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
AP file photoRobert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy, an environmental activist and attorney, addressed a crowd of nearly 700 people Tuesday at Grant High School. His visit was part of the Fremont Area Community Foundation's Speaker Series.
In a nearly two-hour speech, the son of the late Bobby Kennedy opined on everything from pollution and politics to religion, world history and how he believes media monopolies are hurting the nation's democracy.
But his central theme was that America must transition from a carbon-based economy, which relies on petroleum products, to one powered by clean energy harvested from the wind, sun and the Earth's heat.
"The way we deploy energy in this country is really the key economic and national security issue in this election," Kennedy said. "Carbon is the principal drag on American capitalism.
"We're borrowing a billion dollars a day to buy oil from countries that don't like us very much," he said. "What we're spending to bail out Wall Street ($700 billion) is chump change compared to what we spend every year on foreign oil."
Massive wind farms in the Great Plains and solar power fields in the Nevada desert could provide all the electricity needed for every building and vehicle in the U.S. That would end America's need for foreign oil, generate billions in new investments and create millions of jobs, Kennedy said
The nation's current energy policy relies largely on foreign oil and coal-fired power plants, which contribute to global warming and a host of other environmental and public health problems.
Kennedy said the U.S. should follow the lead of countries like Sweden and Iceland, which use alternative energy sources -- wind, solar and geothermal -- to generate nearly all of the electricity needed to power their economies, homes and vehicles.
Building the energy grid needed to capture and distribute energy from clean sources could cost more than $500 billion. But a modern power grid capable of handling wind and solar power could do for the nation's electric economy what the Internet did for the personal computer industry, Kennedy said.
"The electrons are hitting the Earth every day, free of charge -- all we have to do is harvest them and get them to the consumer," Kennedy said. "All it takes is a little leadership."
He praised presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama for pledging support for alternative energy and reducing America's dependence on foreign oil. Kennedy said either candidate would be an improvement over President Bush, who he called the most environmentally destructive president in the nation's history.
"He's lead a stealth attack ... that has eviscerated 30 years of environmental regulations," Kennedy said.

Go to:

http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/10/robert_f_kennedy_jr_champions.html

Kennedy ties helped secure waiver

It was the dog days of summer, and secret negotiations between Massachusetts leaders and federal officials had dragged on for months. The word was that future funding for the state's first-in-the-nation healthcare law looked bleak.
But then, something shifted in the talks. And now, four months later, state leaders are jubilant that Washington will send more money than most had dreamed possible to keep the state's pioneering program afloat. News of the $10.6 billion in federal aid arrived last week.
At a time when many other states are lamenting the lack of support from Washington for health programs, how was it possible for a state known for its liberal leanings to win such backing from a conservative administration?
An unlikely bond forged years ago between Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, an icon of the left, and US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, a conservative former governor of Utah, is part of the answer. The friendship set a collegial tone for the negotiations. It was crucial in salvaging talks when the White House threatened to slash nearly $2 billion from the state's health financing package, key players familiar with the negotiations said in interviews last week.
The package, known as a Medicaid waiver because it offers not only money but flexibility in federal regulations, allows Massachusetts to provide subsidized health insurance to some residents with incomes higher than would typically be allowed under traditional Medicaid rules. It authorizes Massachusetts to spend up to $21.2 billion, half of it federal money, over the next three years on health programs. That's an increase of $4.3 billion over the state's last Medicaid waiver package.
Leavitt, who oversees the agency that negotiated the waiver with Massachusetts, said he has privately sought Kennedy's advice on reconciling Democrats and Republicans over health insurance issues.
"What I appreciate about him is he is unvarnished on what the political pressures on his side are and what needs to happen to progress," Leavitt said.
He traces their friendship to 2003, when President Bush nominated Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Leavitt asked for Kennedy's support, to which the Senator suggested Leavitt come to New Bedford to tour some polluted sites. Leavitt agreed and, after winning confirmation, visited the city.
"We are in different parties and have different ideas on the issues, but no one can fail to admire his devotion and that day, and others, formed the basis of our relationship," Leavitt recalls.
That friendship was tested in early June, when the Office of Management and Budget stepped into the waiver negotiations because, the regulators said, they discovered that Massachusetts for 10 years had incorrectly listed many children in its Medicaid program when they should have been counted under a program called the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is not funded by the waiver. The state's way of counting those children had, by Washington's estimate, given Massachusetts about $2 billion more than it was entitled to over the last decade.
"We are talking about having to write a check for $2 billion and having to send it to the federal government," said Governor Deval Patrick. "It was a big problem."
The clock was ticking. Federal funding for Massachusetts' last waiver package was set to expire June 30. Negotiations had hit an impasse. That's when Leavitt went to bat for Massachusetts, said a source familiar with the negotiations, calling Joshua Bolten, President Bush's chief of staff and former director of the Office of Management and Budget, to argue the state's case.
Kennedy also called Bolton from his cellphone on June 19, while en route to Hyannis Port from Boston, where he was receiving cancer treatments.
"We were all very conscious of his very personal challenges," said Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Massachusetts secretary of Health and Human Services, who helped negotiate the state's waiver. "We wanted to respect the fact that even though he was very committed to this and we wanted to make sure he was kept informed about what was going on, that we would only use him when we needed him," Bigby said.
In his conversation with Bolton - and with $2 billion on the line - Kennedy suggested that if Massachusetts universal healthcare initiative was successful, it could be a model for the rest of the country, and a legacy for the Bush White House.
"The senator and Josh definitely did talk," said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto. "And Josh communicated to OMB the interest, and then they were able to work out their agreement in a way that was mutually satisfactory."
That agreement on the $2 billion difference came after several more weeks of tense talks, with Washington agreeing to extend the June 30 deadline. During that stretch, the normally restrained Leavitt posted on his blog a candid entry about a phone conversation he had with Kennedy.
"He sounded great! We talked briefly about his health. He was forward looking, crisp and as passionate as always," Leavitt wrote. "There wasn't a single hint of negativity or worry. I'm sure he has moments when both creep in, but the call was an unexpected lift to my spirits."
Ultimately, Washington allowed Massachusetts to keep the disputed $2 billion but insisted that it change its accounting method.
So why was Washington so generous with the Bay State?
"We are all going to learn from what Massachusetts is doing," said Leavitt of the state's innovative attempt at near-universal health coverage. "We will learn from things that don't work and do work, and every state will benefit from what is going on in Massachusetts."
Kennedy was not available last week to talk about his role in the negotiations, but heralded the outcome in a statement: "Any reduction in commitment would have put our reforms at risk."
Final details of the agreement are being worked out and officials say a signed deal is expected soon. Health policy specialists underscored the unusual nature of the agreement, in the context of shrinking federal dollars.
"You have bad relationships between the states and the administration around Medicaid recently, and in the middle of an economic meltdown and an environment where the federal government is not looking to spend money, Massachusetts' waiver stands out as truly unusual," said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that researches and analyzes health policies.
Several other states are cutting back their programs to reform healthcare, Altman said, because of a lack of funding.
"That's the reason Massachusetts, from a national perspective, is so significant," he said. The new waiver "allows the most sweeping health reform plan in the country to continue."

Go to:
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2008/10/07/kennedy_ties_helped_secure_waiver/?page=full

Ethel Kennedy to campaign in NH for Obama

October 2, 2008

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, is visiting New Hampshire on Saturday to campaign for Sen. Barack Obama.
She will campaign alongside her grandson, Matt Kennedy, who currently works for the Obama campaign in Manchester. She is scheduled to meet with seniors and residents in Salem and Manchester.
Kennedy says she supports Obama for president because he has the same commitment to the country as her husband did.

(...)

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2008/10/02/ethel_kennedy_to_campaign_in_nh_for_obama/

Kennedy clan member stumps for Obama

Max Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, told Democratic volunteers assembled in a church hall Wednesday, Oct. 1, that this is the most important election of his lifetime.
"The stakes have never been higher," Kennedy told roughly 35 Sen. Barack Obama supporters at Mt. Zion Apostolic Temple. "The last eight years has become a steady and resolute assault on the Democratic Party, which means a steady and resolute assault on labor."
Kennedy talked briefly about his family's commitment to the Democratic Party — being nephew of America's 35th president and the ninth son of a man who may have become president himself if he wasn't assassinated in 1968 — totaling 88 years working for labor issues.
It was a fiery call to arms, ending with the whole room shouting, "Fired up, ready to go." Kennedy said the party's goal is to get one third of the electorate to the polls in the next six days, before a window closes allowing voters to register and vote the same day.
"If we win Ohio, I guarantee we will win Pennsylvania and Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States," Kennedy said.

(...)

Go to:

http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/10/01/hjn100208Kennedy.html

Kennedy rushed to Cape hospital

Senator Edward M. Kennedy was briefly hospitalized yesterday after suffering a seizure, triggering worry throughout the political world as the nation's leading liberal battles a malignant brain tumor.
Kennedy was rushed by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital after authorities received an emergency 911 call at 5:12 p.m. from the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port reporting he was feeling ill, said Barnstable police Sergeant Ben Baxter. He said Kennedy was alert and conscious when emergency crews arrived.
Kennedy's representatives released a statement last night, saying, "Doctors believe the incident was triggered by a change in medication. Senator Kennedy will return home tonight and looks forward to watching the debate."
Kennedy was adamant about returning home in time to see last night's presidential debate, which began at 9 p.m., said a Kennedy associate who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of Kennedy's illness. The senator returned home by 8 p.m., according to Melissa Wagoner, family spokeswoman.
The associate said that Kennedy received a brief phone call last night from Senator John F. Kerry expressing concern and that they discussed the debate and the preparations for it in Mississippi. Kennedy was one of the first high-profile figures to publicly endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.
Last night, Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, mentioned Kennedy during the debate, saying, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the lion of the Senate."
The associate said that doctors told Kennedy that seizures will become more common as he battles the brain tumor and that they were adjusting his antiseizure medication.
The associate said Kennedy was now feeling better, and "everything was mild."
It is not uncommon for patients with brain cancer to suffer seizures intermittently, said Dr. Deepa Subramaniam, director of the Brain Tumor Center at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C.
"Even for those patients whose tumors have been completely taken out, you still have an area of their brain that remains abnormal for the rest of their lifetime," Subramaniam said.
The region of the brain where Kennedy's tumor was located - pivotal to speech and movement - is especially prone to seizures.
Subramaniam, who does not have direct knowledge of Kennedy's condition, said seizures can be triggered by a number of factors. After surgery, the brain can be left susceptible to the electrical malfunctioning that is the hallmark of a seizure.
Additionally, changes in medication can spark a seizure.
A seizure most often manifests as trembling of the hands and legs; in other cases, it can result in a sensation of blinking lights or cause an abnormal smell sensation.
"The seizure by itself in the brain doesn't cause permanent damage," Subramaniam said. "They are usually temporary events."
Once the immediate medical problem has subsided, doctors typically adjust a patient's medication to reduce the prospect of future seizures.
(...)

Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed legislation - which Kennedy had pioneered - giving aid to state and local law enforcement to help address the needs of nonviolent mentally ill offenders. The law authorizes $50 million in grants to law enforcement agencies.

Go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/27/kennedy_rushed_to_cape_hospital?mode=PF

Kennedy Working Now for January Health Care Push

Congress will lead the way on health care reform next year, not waiting for the next president, whoever he turns out to be. And key backers of a move toward universal coverage don't plan to waste any time either. Among the lessons learned from the last major attempt at health care reform in 1993 is that it needs to be tackled in the first year of the new Congress during the "honeymoon period" -- just after the election and before everyone starts focusing on the next campaign.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who has long championed health issues, plans to be ready in January, and he's determined not to let his own health issues keep him from being at the forefront of what will be difficult negotiations. Kennedy, who is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is a man in a hurry. He wants to hit the ground running, introducing a plan soon after the new Congress convenes in January.
His goal: affordable and accessible health care for all. Kennedy is well liked on Capitol Hill, and there's a big emotional push to get this done "for Ted." Kennedy and his staff have already held meetings with his Republican counterpart on the Committee, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), in hopes of crafting a bipartisan bill that will win broad support. Kennedy has a reputation for reaching across the aisle, and he and Enzi have partnered a number of times on other health care issues. But if the talks fall through, expect Kennedy to introduce a bill on his own and try to win bipartisan backing later.
Kennedy is also working with other committees in finance and budget jurisdictions committees, to ensure their cooperation so that the bill isn't bogged down by jurisdictional issues -- another lesson learned from the '93 battle. Major stakeholders are being called in as well -- business, labor, medical, insurance and consumer groups -- to sound them out on potential approaches. Also, Kennedy has added John McDonough to his staff -- he was in charge of implementing Massachusetts' groundbreaking universal health care law.
What will the proposal look like? Talks so far are just preliminary, with the more serious work to be done after the November election. But the betting is that it will seek to build on the employer-based system that now provides coverage for 177 million people. Universal coverage will be the goal, although it may have to be phased in, thanks to federal deficits likely to rise due to the financial crisis. The idea will be to make health care coverage available to all who want it, but not mandatory.
Getting coverage for the 46 million uninsured will focus on strengthening public programs such as Medicaid as well as providing more affordable options to people through the private insurance market.
How to finance the plan will be the biggest challenge. The tax treatment of health insurance will be on the table, but it's unclear if it will be in Kennedy's bill. Big revisions to the tax code are unlikely, and there may be a cap on the health insurance tax exemption for high earners.

Go to:
http://www.kiplinger.com/printstory.php?pid=14662

Congress Approves Mental Health Bill

Congress approved legislation yesterday that would require private insurers to provide the same level of benefits for mental illness as they do for physical maladies, a change lauded by advocates as a great shift in the nation's understanding of mental health.
"We've always had a stigma, sort of like mental illness is a character flaw," said Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and co-sponsored the House version with Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), a recovering alcoholic. "But now science has moved forward, and we can see the complexities in the brain that lead to eating disorders, compulsive disorders. All these connections are being made, the science is just becoming so firm. And it destroys the myth that this stuff is a choice."
The measure has received strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate and has the backing of business, insurance companies, health advocates, the medical community and the White House. But its passage into law was not ensured last night.
The remaining obstacle appeared to be ironing out differences in how to pay the cost to the federal government -- estimated at $3.4 billion over 10 years, in the form of forgone tax revenue. Lawmakers also needed to resolve whether the final bill should be a standalone measure or part of a larger package of legislation.
(...) Federal law now allows insurers to set higher co-payments or stricter limits on mental health benefits than they do for medical or surgical coverage.
"You go in there with a broken arm, you have a $200 deductible and your insurance kicks in," Kennedy said. "You have depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse, and you find out you have a $2,000 deductible, you've got limitations on your treatment and all kinds of co-pay."
Typical annual limits include 30 visits to a doctor or 30 days of hospital care for treatment of a mental disorder. Under the legislation passed yesterday, those limits would no longer be allowed if the insurer had no limits on treatment for medical conditions such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees would be exempt.
Currently, 42 states require insurance companies to cover mental and physical illnesses equally, as does the federal employees' health benefit program. But 82 million people work for employers who self-insure, which means they are exempt from state parity laws. An additional 31 million are in other plans that do not have to offer equal coverage.
The legislation is the culmination of more than a decade of lobbying by mental health advocates and several members of Congress.

Go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/23/AR2008092302882.html?hpid=sec-health

Kennedy’s mental-health bill rejuvenated in House, Senate votes

After languishing for months in disagreements over how to pay for it, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy’s signature mental-health bill was rejuvenated yesterday in separate House and Senate votes.
But enactment of the mental-health parity bill is far from a sure thing as Congress rushes to bail out the financial system, come up with the money to keep the government running and finish the rest of its “must” legislation before it adjourns for the remainder of the campaign season.
In keeping with this week’s frantic atmosphere on Capitol Hill, the parliamentary outlook for Kennedy’s measure is complex. Ostensibly, the chances for a bill-signing ceremony with President Bush look good, because Kennedy and his allies have mustered overwhelming support in both houses for their effort to make insurance companies cover mental illness in the same way as physical illness. But in order to beat the legislative clock, mental-health advocates are pursuing a two-track approach that could yet come up short.
About a year ago the Senate unanimously passed a version of the bill that enjoyed broad support from the mental-health lobby, the insurance industry and business interests generally. That represented a victory for the longtime chief Senate sponsors of the initiative, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M.
The House followed suit early this year with a more generous version, cosponsored by Patrick Kennedy and Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., that risked opposition from business groups. The two men were linked by their experience as alcoholics who found recovery, in part, because they had medical insurance that covered addiction treatment.
After months of negotiations, supporters of the two bills struck a compromise on the workings of the equal insurance coverage for mental-health patients and addicts. But differences persisted over how to cover the cost of the new system. Budget and tax writers in the two houses made strides on that front over the summer — tentatively settling on a plan to attach the mental-health bill to a big package of tax legislation that was considered a good bet for passage. But that deal failed to materialize before Congress adjourned for the summer.
Last night, the House voted 376 to 47 to pass a standalone mental-health parity bill that embraces the earlier compromise on how the insurance coverage would work, plus a new financing mechanism considered acceptable to the Senate.
Now the bill’s supporters on the other side of the Capitol will try to squeeze it onto an already-jammed Senate floor agenda. If the stand-alone bill is to go to Mr. Bush for his signature, it must go under a special procedure that requires a unanimous vote. Therefore a single objection could kill that version.
That is why parity supporters are simultaneously pursuing a second strategy to pass their bill. The mental-health bill was still included in the big package of tax extensions that, coincidentally, passed the Senate 93 to 2 last night.
Just as the standalone House parity bill may have trouble getting a Senate vote, the Senate tax-extenders bill — which contains mental-health parity — may face problems in the House because some budget-minded Democratic conservatives could object to its overall financing.
Not much time remains. The House has a target adjournment date of Friday. Debate over the bailout of the nation’s financial system may push the deadline back by some days, but members of both houses appear to be intent on avoiding a post-election lame-duck session this year.
So if parity fails to pass in the next few days, Kennedy and his allies will have to start from scratch next year — without the help of retiring colleagues such as Ramstad and Domenici.

Go to:
http://www.projo.com/health/content/mental_parity_09-24-08_CFBMQNC_v9.17c237f.html

Sen. Kennedy: 'A friend to Chile'

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has visited Chile many times over the past 35 years. But yesterday Chile came to him. And it came bearing gifts.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet arrived at the Kennedy family compound yesterday afternoon to honor Kennedy for his longtime support of human rights and democracy in the South American country.
Kennedy has fought to support Chile's democratic government since 1973, when he pushed Congress to cut off military support for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Yesterday, Bachelet, elected president in 2006, offered her country's gratitude, presenting Kennedy with the Order to the Merit of Chile, the government's highest civilian award.
"You, Senator Kennedy, were such a friend to Chile in our hour of need," Bachelet told Kennedy and several of his family members and friends who gathered outside at the compound.
"You were there for us when human rights were being massively and systematically violated," she said. "You ... Kennedy understood what was happening from the very beginning ... and you acted accordingly."

Kennedy became involved in Chile's human rights struggle in 1973, after Pinochet had toppled the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in a military coup. Kennedy lobbied hard for support for tortured, captured and displaced civilians, and in 1974 he pushed "the Kennedy amendment," which cut off support for the Pinochet regime.
In the years since, Kennedy has returned to Chile on several occasions, including in 1990 to witness the inauguration of President Patricio Aylwin, the first democratically elected leader after Pinochet left office.
"All of us are very mindful of the extraordinary struggle that Chile made in its battle for freedom and democracy," Kennedy said, as American and Chilean flags snapped in the wind.
"This was not an easy time, and it took great suffering and great courage of the Chilean people."
(...)

Go to:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080924/NEWS/809240313

Kennedy seeks rights protections in FBI probes

Three Democratic senators including Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy demanded "bare-minimum" civil rights protections today for Americans who might be targeted in FBI national security investigations without any evidence of wrongdoing.
In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the senators also urged the Justice Department to delay still-tentative rules that would expand FBI powers to seek out potential terrorists. They said the new policy could allow surveillance of Muslim- or Arab-Americans based, in part, on their race, ethnicity or religion.
"The Justice Department’s actions over the last eight years have alienated many Americans, especially Arab and Muslim Americans," wrote Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold and Kennedy. "We are concerned that issuing new attorney general guidelines without a more transparent process will actually make the FBI’s job more, not less, difficult by exacerbating mistrust in communities whose cooperation the FBI needs."
The rules, known as the attorney general guidelines, do not require congressional approval. The Justice Department has said it wants to have them in place by Oct. 1.
But a growing group of House and Senate lawmakers — comprised of both Democrats and Republicans — has urged Mukasey to release the policy to the public before it takes effect, allowing scrutiny and easing concerns about rule-making done in secret.
"To do otherwise could hinder the Justice Department’s efforts to protect our national security," the senators wrote.
First reported by The Associated Press, the rules are intended to update policies governing investigations as the FBI shifts from a traditional crime-fighting agency to one whose top priority is protecting the United States from terrorist attacks.
The Justice Department says the guidelines will merely streamline existing authorities used in criminal and national security investigation. Critics call them a broad expansion of FBI powers that could result in racial, ethnic or religious profiling without any evidence of wrongdoing.
Today’s letter also urged Justice Department anew to shelve the rules until after a new president takes office.
Barring that, the senators wrote, the guidelines should at least include what they called "bare minimum" safeguards "to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans and ensure that limited FBI resources are used effectively."
Those protections include:
—Explicitly banning surveillance or other investigative activity based on a suspect’s race, ethnicity, national origin or religion. The Justice Department maintains that the guidelines do not — and will not — allow investigations to be opened based only on such factors.
But the senators noted that traffic stops and other routine law enforcement activity specifically prohibit officials from considering race or ethnicity in any way, and urged Mukasey to adopt the same standards in national security cases.
—Require some factual proof, allegations or other grounds, known as predicate, for opening inquires that fall short of an investigation. The draft guidelines would allow surveillance, interviews and other intrusive activity of Americans without evidence of a crime.
The senators said such activities could "lead to fishing expeditions that waste valuable resources and damage the reputations of innocent people."
—Require specific plans to protect information that the FBI collects about U.S. citizens and residents, particularly in gathering foreign intelligence data

Go to:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/politics/view.bg?articleid=1120980&format=text

As Chile hails his support, Kennedy projects aura of strength

He moved gingerly, in small, careful steps, looking down at the lush grass beneath his feet as he slowly made his way to the podium.
Then, Senator Edward M. Kennedy stood straight as the wind whipped a flag behind him at his seaside family estate, and in a clear, strong voice introduced the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet. Before a group of media gathered on the lawn, he praised Bachelet's leadership and accepted the highest award the Chilean government bestows to foreign citizens.
"I am deeply humbled by this honor," he said at the afternoon event.
It was Kennedy's first public appearance since his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. But aides say Kennedy, who has undergone treatment for brain cancer, has resumed a busy work schedule from his home that includes daily teleconferences with fellow senators.
Yesterday, the senior Massachusetts senator and liberal icon did not formally field questions from the media, but in passing said he has been feeling well and at one point flashed a thumbs-up sign to photographers.
The event seemed designed to help keep the ailing politician in the public eye and show that his health is not keeping him from fully performing his duties as senator. He plans to return to Washington in January, his aides said.
Kennedy's health troubles have added prominence to his public appearances, and the audience seemed to scrutinize his movements and facial expressions.
They watched carefully as Kennedy, dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, greeted Bachelet in his driveway with his wife, Vicki, and as he tentatively lowered himself into the back of a golf cart that drove them near the podium.
Kennedy, who is 76, smiled broadly and laughed heartily in easy exchanges with Bachelet and other dignitaries. He looked well-rested and relaxed but was somewhat unsteady on his feet and at the end of the event needed slight assistance up the porch stairs.
Neither Bachelet nor Kennedy mentioned his illness.
In his first remarks about the deepening financial crisis, which he said "threatened the economic security of the United States and other countries," Kennedy called for "accountability and full disclosure" in the handling of the Wall Street meltdown.
Kennedy also praised Congress for advancing mental health parity legislation he had sponsored, calling it "the most important healthcare legislation that has been passed in some time."
The measure, which passed the Senate last night and was expected to pass in the House, requires equal coverage for mental health ailments under group health plans involving 50 or more employees. It would affect about 113 million people, including 82 million who are in self-funded plans not covered by state mental health parity laws.
In her speech, Bachelet extolled Kennedy's leadership in working to cut off US aid to the dictatorial Pinochet regime in the 1970s and helping her country achieve democracy.
"You were there for us when human rights were massively and systematically abused," she said, calling him "one of the great and true friends of Chile."
"You not only understood, you acted accordingly," she added. "In you, we see the United States we love and esteem."
Kennedy said Chileans had shown great courage in overcoming dictators and repressive conditions and were a "shining example" to the region and the world.
Bachelet, who flew to Boston after the event to speak at Harvard University, went out of her way to visit the Kennedy home, a gesture that seemed to move the senator. After their remarks, he struck a nostalgic note.
"This has been a very special place for our family and you do us a great honor, a great honor, to join us here."

Go to:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/09/24/as_chile_hails_his_support_kennedy_projects_aura_of_strength?mode=PF

New JFK findings debunk single-gunman theory

New research suggests that science cannot support the assertion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
Cliff Spiegelman, a professor of statistics at Texas A&M University, said that five bullet fragments taken from JFK’s body could have come from more than the two bullets which are said to have cut down the president in Dallas in November 1963.
“The claim was made that those five fragments could only have come from two bullets,” Spiegelman said. “Our research showed it could have been two or more.
“And if it is more than two, there is an increased likelihood that someone else provided one of them.”
He organized a six-member team that compared the composition of the fragments from the JFK shooting to other bullets from the same manufacturer.
The group found that those fragments weren’t nearly as rare as the government’s expert witness concluded in 1976, when Dr. Vincent P. Guinn determined that all five fragments came from two bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. A third shot missed.
Spiegelman said many of the test bullets showed the same “chemical composition,” and one matched fragments from the assassination bullets.
The study does not say there were two or more gunmen, only that the single-gunman theory can’t be supported by science.
Naturally, that triggered “a bit of a buzz,” said Gary Mack, curator of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
“The no-conspiracy folks, they accepted (Dr. Guinn’s) analysis without too much questioning,” Mack said. “But others wondered whether he knew what he was talking about. And the sharp ones were very skeptical that (the one-shooter findings) could be so definitive.”
The team’s research won them the American Statistical Association’s 2008 Statistics in Chemistry award.

Go to:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view.bg?articleid=1120600&format=text