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A collection of memories as told to National Journal and CongressDaily reporters.
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I remember his personal touch. I have a very vivid recollection of a night I didn't think the Senate was going to be in session late, and I had invited my parents to come down to Capitol Hill to meet me for dinner, and we ate at a restaurant that no longer exists called the Brasserie. It turns out the Senate was in session late, so it was awkward for me to leave to have dinner with my parents, but I did it. And I left word with Senator Kennedy's secretary that I was going to be at that restaurant, in case I was needed. And when we sat for dinner, the waiter brought over a bottle of wine and said Senator Kennedy wanted us to enjoy that. I just thought that was just such a lovely touch.
Then I brought my parents over to the reception room off the Senate floor after dinner. The Senate was in session very late and I went over to the floor of the Senate and asked Senator Kennedy if he would come over to the reception room to say hello to my parents. And he was very tired, I recall, but he understood how important that was to me and to my parents, so he pulled himself up and we walked out. My mom, who was actually a Republican, just gasped at seeing me with Senator Kennedy because for my parents, the Kennedys were a part of history. I was so proud to be with him at that moment, to show my parents.
I was asked to be an usher at Arlington for the burial. It felt so right to be staffing Senator Kennedy one last time, right up to the end.
I grew up in Anaconda, Montana, which was Irish Catholic. And there were two pictures on everybody's wall, and that was one of the pope and one of John F. Kennedy. My first encounter with the Kennedy family was with Eunice. I was coaching Special Ed, and I was chosen as one of the coaches to attend the International Special Olympics at that time in Stowe, Vermont.
I was running for Congress in 2000, and in 1999, the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]] had a gathering at the Kennedy compound. And at that time Patrick Kennedy was leading the DCCC, but Senator Kennedy spent the weekend with those of us that were running for the House. And for me that was a profound experience to be there at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port and to sit on that porch. Again, from a family that adored the Kennedys growing up, it was amazing to be sitting there and almost hear the voices of the past. You could picture them playing football on that lawn.
Senator Kennedy was always, truly a champion of choice for us. I think what I noticed most about him was you immediately felt like you were the only person in the room that he was speaking to. And that there was a sense of humor there, and always, always, always a smile. And mostly there was this presence about him that everybody was important to him.
At every critical stop along the journey -- from the denial of public accommodations, to the right to vote, for the right of women to serve on juries, for 18-year-olds and the right to vote, to voting on campuses, to bilingual voting, to the Americans with Disabilities Act, to standing with Dr. King, or [United Farm Workers' founder Cesar] Chavez, or Nelson Mandela, or Obama -- Ted Kennedy has always been there. Along that journey, for most Americans under 50, he's been there for all of our lives.
When I was coming out of jail at one point in the South, it must have been in Greensboro, [N.C.], I was coming across campus, and it was right after, I guess, the Birmingham period, and Ted said he'd just met with his brother Bobby, and that the matter of what was happening in the streets of the South was not just a matter of law, it was morally wrong. I had never heard a white leader say that before. I had never heard those words.
And under those circumstances, for him to declare that it was immoral, and then to have the power to change it! Many leaders in some measure either tried to reinforce the status quo and justify it, or tried to dip it out, dip it out of the ocean with a bucket. He helped with the '64 Civil Rights Act; the '65 Voting Rights Act; the '68 Fair Housing Act.
You know, he was always such a funny guy, full of glee, with a tremendous capacity to play with pain, like champions do. Those things, frankly, do not hit me as much today as this: He was not a partisan -- Democrat or Republican. I think that is not the right language. He found the moral center. He went beyond Democrats to democracy; beyond Republicans to the republic. So, when you look back today, the public accommodations law was not Left -- that's the moral center. The Voting Rights Act is not Left. Women's right to vote is not Left. Americans with Disabilities [Act] is not Left, or partisan. Those are moral [rights]. Even those sitting against him now, who are partisan, none of them is campaigning against a public accommodation bill, whether it's in Utah or Alabama. They're not campaigning against a woman's right to vote. I mean, he chose a note [for which] they ultimately found he prevailed.
He would call when there were certain bits of legislation: "Jackson, we must do this. You must contact our people." He would call and say why we had to make a certain case, you know, for health care; make a certain case for people with disabilities; a certain case for liberal wages, or for some such legislation. He would weigh in, and he would call personally.
When he got sick, I did call. I did stay in touch, you know, with family members and friends; wanted to give them space. One difference, of course, with Dr. King, and his brothers, and with Medgar Evers - their deaths were traumatic, and sudden and quick. In his case, as God would have it, God let him down easy. He was able to take the last year of his life and write his own eulogy. You know, he was able to put the signature on it, he signed the dotted line: "This year I'm endorsing Barack Obama for president." It was a fundamental change in course and a high point in America's maturity. He made that decision. This day a year ago, August 28, he spoke before the convention in Denver, Colorado. He was able to make his case for the need for liberal wages for working people. He was able to declare, "I did not vote for the Iraq war." He was able to say, "My last testimony will be for the need for a conference of a health care bill to include all people." No one reached further back for the poor. No one exalted them higher, and he didn't have to -- a man of wealth with a heart for the poor.
And so there are others who have served longer than him, but none with more distinction. When it comes to distinction and making a difference, he was without peer.
I was up there in Massachusetts campaigning for him in '94, when there was a very tight [Senate re-election] race. When he was for [Democrat Paul] Tsongas [in 1978], I was for [former Republican senator from Massachusetts] Ed Brooke for re-election, but those things never became personal, or acrimonious, you know what I mean? Philosophically, there was obviously such kinship. We were looking for Senate voices that supported civil rights, and Ed Brooke did. We were looking for ways to expand the Republican Party to make it more civil, and Ed Brooke was the only African-American in the U.S. Senate, and we thought that was important. But again, that was a difference without a fight, you know? He was bipartisan, in that sense, sometimes, and so was I, but that didn't affect our relationship one iota. In '94, I was in Massachusetts campaigning for him. And with him, we went to churches together.
Ted Kennedy and I ran against each other for the Senate in 1962. It so happens that my father ran against John F. Kennedy for the Senate and I ran against Ted, and my great grandfather was a senator who defeated the Democratic candidate Honey Fitzgerald -- Ted Kennedy's grandfather. But there's never been anything but positive feelings between us. It turns up in the press now and again that there was a feud between the families, but there never was one.
In fact, my father served as ambassador under President Kennedy, and President Kennedy reappointed me in the Labor Department. And I was very close friend to Robert Kennedy. We played touch football and I was captain of the losing team -- Robert was on the winning team.
Before I left Washington, Robert gave me a going-away party on the Honey Fitz, and he advised me not to go back and run for the Senate seat. He said Teddy would beat me. Of course, I didn't pay any attention to him.
But when I started running for the Senate, Ted Kennedy had not yet announced. The office was filled by Benjamin Smith, who had been appointed to a finish out the term of President Kennedy. So when I announced, I wasn't running against Ted. In fact, Ted ran against me! People forget that -- I was running first -- that's all I'm saying.
Ted, though, was a wonderful human being -- he just had such an all-encompassing nature, and had a wonderful sense of humor. We were very lucky to have him as a leader.
I never covered Ted Kennedy in the Senate. But as a Boston Globe reporter covering President George H. W. Bush and then national politics, I would naturally deal with him and his staff from time to time. Since I'm one month older, there was always a lot of friendly banter between us about our ages -- mostly about who looked the oldest. The Irish sense of humor was a great weapon of his in interviews with journalists on serious, or even controversial, matters.
In my retirement, three or four years ago, he was kind enough to invite two of my granddaughters to the Senate. The invitation came after he attended a book party in my home and I could not find my camera to take a picture of him with Emily and Rebecca. He spent more than one hour with them, even inviting them over to the room adjacent to the Senate floor while making a short speech. He then sent them outside to play with his dogs, Splash and Sunny. The girls were thrilled and have a picture of the visit at their home in Bethesda.
Finally, Ted and Vicki attended Mass now and then at Epiphany Parish in Georgetown. One Christmas Eve, I was taking up the collection and they were there. As I stopped at their pew, I told him to "get the cobwebs out of that wallet." Both of them laughed as he dropped a fistful of bills into the collection plate.
(Photo credit: Charlie Archambault/U.S News & World Report)
At the opening concert hall at the Kennedy Center after it had been remodeled [in 1997], courtesy of government funding, we scheduled a concert for the Kennedy Center family and people who had worked on the renovation. The person who opened the evening was Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who professed his dedication to the Kennedy Center and his commitment to full funding of renovation which had just been completed. Mind you, Newt had been talking about cutting funding for the arts. The person who closed the show was Ted Kennedy, conducting the National Symphony Orchestra. The next morning Newt Gingrich got a handwritten note from Ted Kennedy thanking him for his support for the Kennedy Center. That kind of handwritten touch makes all the difference in the world and that's what's missing in Washington these days.
The first person who reached me by phone within minutes of Ronald Reagan's passing [in 2004] was Ted Kennedy. He called me at my home to express his and Vicki's condolences to Nancy Reagan. He said that it was the Reagans who opened the doors of the White House to the entire Kennedy family, including his mother, and it was something they would never forget and that he and Vicki were on their way to church to say a prayer and light a candle.
I would tease Kennedy that if anyone knew how close we were I'd lose my security clearance. He would often pick up the phone to say he's working on this or that, and where did I see this going in the House, where did I see the votes breaking down or where did I think or had heard some of his Senate colleges would be. I'd say he could push the envelope a little bit here, or there would be too much resistance. He would call up and say come up to the office. And I'd spend an hour with him and Mike Myers, his legislative guy. We'd sort of go through what was possible and what were the realities in the House.
That's not to mean that Teddy and I didn't oppose each other philosophically. I was basically the sherpa for several Supreme Court nominations that he did not support, but we understood one another. He was always the master of putting together coalitions. He wanted to know how much can I get, how much was doable, how do I put this together? Who are the Republicans that I need to be talking to and my staff needs to be talking to? Not too many people think that way anymore, unfortunately. Teddy was an absolute master about it and you knew when you heard that voice and that chuckle, he was going to get you to the word "yes."
He came out to campaign for me when I was running in that North Shore district -- I think it was '76 or '74. He came out for a fundraiser and then we went campaigning. You know the L -- the elevated train -- the Skokie Swift was part of the elevated system. It was then the furthest stop, probably, that the public transportation made. It was the stop where all of the suburban businessmen and suburban community that commuted would get on the train. This was an obvious place that I would want him to campaign with me.
So we were standing at the L stop shaking hands, and I was fascinated by two things. One, the number of Republican businessmen, because most businessmen in that area were Republican, standing in line for a half-hour to shake Kennedy's hand. Just so that they could go down to the office and say it.
But the more fascinating part was that those same trains which took the white businessmen down into the Loop also brought the African-American cleaning ladies out to the houses to be cleaned. So there were two separate lines of people getting off the train and recognizing him, none of which, unfortunately, could vote for me, [but] he wasn't about to ignore them. He literally was shaking hands in two cafeteria lines, one black and one white -- not intentionally segregated but economically segregated, and both groups were equally eager to be able to shake his hand. It was a great picture of his fame.
Senator Kennedy's efforts to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito stick out to me. Even though it might be a lost cause, he was willing to put his name and reputation on the line for the filibuster. He actually collaborated with us on that. And we had meetings on Capitol Hill on Saturdays and Sundays for that. And he led the meetings. He was very personally engaged; he didn't just send staff in there.
And Ellie [Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation] and I talked with him outside by the van, and Vicki was there. We talked with him for quite a while, and he talked about possibly leaving the Senate some day. And he said that he would like for Vicki to take his seat. He said that to Ellie and me, and Vicki was standing there. I don't know -- it may be that she got in the car and said, "Don't ever say that again!"
I was also on the drafting committee of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. And he was very involved with that, hands-on. And that was a surprise because the abortion issue, I think, has been somewhat difficult for him because of religion and family and the Catholic Church and all of that. But he was appalled by the violence at clinics. And he was very hands-on, and he made sure that a good bill came out.
In my eight years of working for Senator Kennedy, from 1999 through 2007, first as his chief labor and pensions counsel and then as policy director, the thing that surprised me the most was just how hard he worked. He loved numbers and charts and stories about how people would be affected by legislation that he backed, such as boosting the minimum wage. It took 10 years before the minimum wage was finally raised in 2007, and it required hundreds of hours of floor speeches, in an effort that highlighted how relentless he could be on issues that he felt strongly about.
My fondest memories of him were on the Senate floor where I had a lot of opportunity to be with him. We all loved working for him because of what he stood for: justice and fairness for all. For me what was especially important about working for Kennedy was how much he could accomplish since his goal was always to pass legislation even though Democrats were in the minority. For instance, I'll always remember taking a trip with the senator to West Virginia after a big mining accident had occurred. He spent a lot of time with the families of dead or injured miners and clearly empathized with their grief. When we returned to Washington, Kennedy succeeded in leading the effort to negotiate a bipartisan mine safety bill.
When I came to the Senate in 1981, CETA [the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act] was about to expire and I was the new chairman of the employment subcommittee on the Senate Labor Committee. I sat down with my staff and said, "To get this bill through, it's got to be bipartisan. It can't just be my bill." I said, "Let's go for the ranking member," who was Ted Kennedy. I talked with him and we worked out a bill that he could support and I could support. I had a huge battle with the Reagan administration. Ray Donovan, the Labor Secretary, was against it, but President Reagan was for it. Kennedy had to bring the labor groups along and some of the liberal interest groups. We both recognized that we had to work together. I'll tell you, when he gave me his word, he always kept it. The bill passed the Senate 94-0. People said to me that if Quayle and Kennedy are for it, there's not a lot of room for disagreement. We forged a friendship out of that. I was proud to call him a friend.
Do you remember the Letelier case in Chile, where General Pinochet was accused of being behind the car bombing of [Orlando] Letelier? Kennedy was very interested in that case. I was going down to Chile [in 1990] for the inauguration of [Patricio] Aylwin, who was taking over from Pinochet. Kennedy wanted to go with me because he wanted to talk to people there and he wanted to be part of the official delegation. I said, "Look, you can come but you can't go down there and criticize the United States while you're in Santiago." He said he understood, that was his brother's policy -- you don't criticize the U.S. government while you're on foreign soil. He kept his word. He made some critical comments when he got back, but that was fine.
In '88, when I was running for vice president, he sent me a note. He basically offered me words of encouragement but not his vote. He said, "I'll be glad to speak well of you or negative of you, whichever will help you the most." He had a passion for life. He loved people. He was very kind to my family, my children -- he knew all their names. He just loved people.
