Kennedy twins Matt and Joe make party twice as nice

Meet the future of the Kennedy Dynasty: twin bros Matt and Joe Kennedy.
The sons of ex-Congressman Joe Kennedy, the handsome 27-year-olds have been front and center for the clan at the DNC in Denver all week long.
On Wednesday, the boys stood with grammy Ethel Kennedy and aunt Kerry Kennedy to welcome the hundreds of guests to the RFK Memorial reception. The twins spent over an hour shaking hands, schmoozing the guests and posing for pics in the receiving line. And despite the massive contingent of pols, fixers, celebs and Kennedys at the event, the buzz was all about Matt and Joe.
“They are really nice kids,” said one Demmie insider. “And they appear to have the Kennedy charm.”
Perhaps the clan’s famous charisma skipped a generation. Because the sons and daughters of JFK, RFK and Ted Kennedy haven’t exactly set the world on fire. But Matt and Joe seem to be off to a fine start if they have any plans to eventually enter the family business.
Joe, a redhead who more resembles the Kennedys, is entering his third year at Harvard Law. He is spending the summer as an intern at the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office.
Matt, the spitting image of mom, Sheila Rauch Kennedy, is a Harvard Business School grad who works full time for Barack Obama’s campaign. (Dad, Joe, BTW, dropped out of Harvard and eventually got his degree from UMass-Boston.)
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http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1115727

Kidney stones nearly derailed speech, niece says

Senator Edward M. Kennedy suffered a bout of kidney stones Monday, and his niece Caroline Kennedy said yesterday that he was feeling so ill he was nearly unable to deliver his dramatic address that night to the Democratic National Convention.
An aide to the senator said the 76-year-old lawmaker had kidney stones unrelated to the brain tumor that was diagnosed in May. Kennedy was treated at a Denver hospital for the kidney condition during the day Monday after suffering a sleepless night and pain in the morning, said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But Kennedy was determined to deliver the speech that he had practiced in Cape Cod while he was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for the cancer, Caroline Kennedy said in an interview with the Globe.
"There was nothing that was going to keep him away," she said. She did not detail her uncle's ailment.

During his speech, an intravenous tube, which would have been used for administering pain medication, could be seen poking out from under an ace bandage wrapping Kennedy's left hand.
Kennedy was better yesterday, aides said, and he was able to host a breakfast for friends and members of the Massachusetts delegation before returning to the Bay State.
The cancer treatment, Caroline Kennedy said, is "going better than anyone expected," and the Democratic stalwart is determined to return to the Senate chamber where he has served for nearly 46 years. "I know he's planning on going back to work," she said.
"He looks great. You could see it [Monday] night," she said, referring to the senator's surprise appearance on behalf of Democratic nominee-to-be Barack Obama.
(...) But by the next day, Kennedy "just wasn't feeling well," and "there was a second round [of discussion] about, 'Is he going to be able to do it?' " Caroline Kennedy said. Another Kennedy associate said it was "touch and go" even shortly before the senator's prime-time speech as to whether he would have the strength to deliver the rousing sort of address that is so characteristic of him.
But Caroline Kennedy said her uncle was determined to follow through despite concerns of his friends and family. "He knew it all along. There was no way he was not going to do it," she said.
(...) "On many levels, it was a very difficult thing to do - logistically, medically, emotionally," his niece said. "It was really inspiring to all of us."
Kennedy is continuing treatment for the cancer, but no longer needs to make the daily trips to Boston for the intense sessions that followed his surgery, Caroline Kennedy said. Patients with a brain tumor like Kennedy's typically receive six weeks of daily radiation therapy, and then continue with an oral form of chemotherapy for up to six months.
At the breakfast, Kennedy thanked friends and colleagues for their love and support. He looked "relaxed," she said, and was "joking around, kidding around."
(...) "I think the only thing that matches [Monday's speech] was the feeling I got when he walked on the Senate floor to cast the deciding vote for Medicare," Kennedy's son, Rhode Island Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy, said after the address.
(...) Caroline Kennedy - who was on the team that selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as Obama's running mate - said the search was extremely emotional for her, since so many people she talked to during the effort wanted to tell stories about her uncle.
"People wanted to talk about how he was the first one to call them when they lost a family member," or extended another kindness, she said. "It was really on a whole other level for me, of being able to see his effect and his reach, his impact on the Senate."

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Determined to Give Speech, Kennedy Left Hospital Bed

Senator Edward M. Kennedy had just left a hospital bed here when he delivered his speech to the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, after suffering a debilitating bout of kidney stones Sunday upon arriving in town, aides said.Mr. Kennedy’s aides described a harrowing 48-hour period in which it appeared that Mr. Kennedy would not be able to give the convention speech.

In June, he had told family members when he left the Duke University Medical Center, where he was operated on for brain cancer, that he was intent on giving the speech.And with less than two hours to go before he was supposed to take the stage, Mr. Kennedy — sitting unnoticed in a room at the University of Colorado Hospital — told his wife, Victoria, and doctors that he wanted to go to the Pepsi Center and deliver the speech.He was driven there, accompanied by a doctor and paramedics, perched on a golf cart that took him inside. Mr. Kennedy, with his wife and his niece Caroline at his side, walked gingerly onto the stage, where he delivered a highly acclaimed address.

Once done speaking, he returned to the Denver hospital, where he spent the night.

(...) His aides said that after Mr. Kennedy finally decided he was well enough to come to Denver over the weekend, they became alarmed when he arrived on Sunday after a long charter airplane flight, accompanied by family members, aides and doctors, and reported being in excruciating pain.Their first concern was that the pain was somehow related to his cancer, or the chemotherapy and radiology he had undergone, and that it had been complicated by the long flight or the high altitude of the city.

A visit to a local hospital Sunday night revealed it was kidney stones and was unrelated to his cancer. Mr. Kennedy had no previous history of kidney stones, aides said.One close associate, who demanded anonymity to discuss any element of Mr. Kennedy’s medical condition, disclosed that the senator had suffered an unspecified but serious setback in July after he flew to Washington in the midst of treatment to cast a vote on a Medicare bill.Mr. Kennedy’s aides said he did make one concession to the kidney stones: the speech he gave was about 10 minutes, roughly half the length of an earlier draft.Kidney stones are notoriously painful, and typically treated with morphine or other painkillers.

(...) Mr. Kennedy’s longtime associate Bob Shrum said that as soon as the senator became ill, he sent an even shorter three-sentence statement that Mr. Kennedy could read at the Pepsi Center. He said Mr. Kennedy, in informing him that he wanted to speak, had rejected that option.“He said, ‘I’m not getting up to go over there and give a three-sentence speech,’ ” Mr. Shrum said. (...) Mr. Kennedy’s advisers said he had begun working on the speech about three weeks ago and went through rehearsals every day when his health permitted.

They said he made clear that he did not want to be represented at the convention only by a videotape tribute. One of the complications, though, was that Mr. Kennedy now goes to bed generally early, and the speech was scheduled to begin at 9:15 p.m.

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Ted Kennedy is in Denver

Barack Obama's campaign is hoping for a surprise convention appearance from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the ailing party elder whose January endorsement electrified Obama's campaign, and who has sought to pass his family's torch to the young senator from Illinois.

(...) "Things are day to day," said the Kennedy source said, saying Democrats shouldn't count on his presence.

His spokeswoman, Melissa Wagoner, called an appearance "extremely unlikely."

But another two people familiar with the plans said Kennedy was likely to appear, with one saying he has a "better than 50 percent" of making it to the convention.

(...) "My three children are here, lots of cousins are here, obviously many of the Robert Kennedys are here," Caroline Kennedy said on Meet the Press Sunday. "It's the 40th anniversary of [Robert F. Kennedy's presidential] campaign, so I think for all our family, this is incredibly emotional."

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12777.html

Kennedy will attend DNC tribute

(...) Former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairmanchair Phil Johnston said tonight’s tribute will be “a very important moment for him and for Massachusetts.”
“For the Massachusetts delegates, it will be the most emotionally powerful moment of the week,” Johnston, who is in Denver, said. “We all love him and we’re so happy that he’s being honored.”

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