The lion in winter

Iconic Irish American last lion in the Senate

• News / A great Irish chieftain has passed / Click here
• News / Tributes pour in for the late Ted Kennedy / Click here 
• News / Lion of the Senate is dead / Click here
• News / Undocumented Irish say farewell / Click here
• Multimedia / Videos and photos - Irish visit, immigration, The Kennedys/ Click here

• Comment / Senator Edward Kennedy - The lion in winter / Click here
• Comment / Niall O'Dowd - Why Teddy picked Obama / Click here

• Roots / The Irish Kennedys / Click here
• Roots/ Irish America magazine 1997 interview with Ted Kennedy / Click here

Back in 1994, I had the pleasure of accompanying Senator Edward Kennedy on a campaign whistle-stop tour during his Senate re-election race in Massachusetts. I was the only journalist on the trip, and it was just the three of us plus an aide for much of the time until his wife, Vicki, joined us.

It was a fraught time for Kennedy.  A relative unknown called Mitt Romney was threatening to pull off the impossible and defeat the incumbent senator in the state that had given birth to the Kennedy legend.

It was a time when Newt Gingrich was king and Kennedy was portrayed widely in the right-wing media as a liberal whose time had come and gone, “big, fat and out of date” as one pundit put it.

The Kennedy I saw was very different.  He had all the old-time fervor of his beloved grandfather, Honey Fitz, former mayor of Boston and the ability to connect with voters that is a unique Kennedy trait.

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Nster.com