The lion in winter

Iconic Irish American last lion in the Senate

He knew everyone, and I mean everyone. From the doorman in the buildings we visited to the lady making the tea in the cafeteria, he knew first names, family tree, where the son in the army was serving.

It was an incredibly impressive feat, given the literally millions of people he must have crossed paths with to that point in his senatorial career.

When it came to retail politics, Kennedy was king.  I did not have the slightest worry after leaving him that he would win, and he did handsomely. 

I had another sense of the man on a different occasion when he took me on a tour of the Kennedy Library near Dorchester. I got a brief sense then what it must have been like to walk in the footsteps of two older brothers who had become American icons overnight after their assassinations. I wondered that night how he managed to shoulder the impossible burden of carrying on their legacy.

Ted was all too much flesh and blood, a human being with all the frailties, yet somehow he has lived up to -- and in my opinion surpassed -- his dead brothers in many ways.

I was reminded of that day and night when reading the latest book on Kennedy, titled The Last Lion, which is a detailed and highly enjoyable account by a slew of Boston Globe reporters who have covered Kennedy’s incredibly long career.

It is a warts-and-all look that doesn’t gloss over Chappaquiddick or the womanizing, but the rounded portrait that appears is of an extraordinary politician and leader who late in life achieved redemption for past ills and who will exit the stage as the greatest senator in the history of the U.S.

The list of his accomplishments is staggering, from every possible form of advance in health care for everyone, especially children, to major bills on disability, workers’ rights, cancer research and transparency in politics.

Now in the twilight of his Senate career he is championing one last cause, universal health care. Given his incredible ability to battle back against all the odds, I wouldn’t bet against him.

The book reveals the complexity of the man, from the tough upbringing in the shadow of so many legends, the early missteps, including the dreadful Chappaquiddick incident, the period when he seemed lost in the darkness after the assassination of his brothers, to the gradual renewal and incredible comeback in the autumn of his life.

It was hardly surprising that he passed the torch to Barack Obama last year in an act of exquisite timing that boosted the young contender at a critical time, and left him forever in Kennedy’s debt.

That day in 1994 I saw one of the main reasons for his unlikely renaissance.  His wife Vicki is simply the right woman, from an old political family herself.  She re-energized and refocused him in a way that seemed impossible at first. Little wonder there is speculation that she may one day replace him in the Senate.

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Nster.com