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By Richard E. Cohen
When John Kennedy was president, I was a fairly junior member and didn't have a heckuva lot to do with the White House. Then Ted Kennedy won the Democratic primary in 1962 against Edward McCormack, who was the nephew of my dear friend, Speaker John McCormack. But there were a lot of issues on which we worked together, and some where we disagreed.
Family histories are important and can be helpful. But friendship also flows from mutual respect and shared common interests.
On broader health reform, he didn't fall short, we all fell short. It was Truman, and then other presidents too. Our adversaries have been so determined and well-financed. On the Medicare prescription drug bill [in 2003], I had no trouble with Kennedy's attempts at bipartisanship. I tried that all of the time. But when he tried to work with Republicans, he found that it was impossible to do. He and I worked together on many health-care issues, including SCHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, food and drug safety, etc.
On gun-control issues, we had strongly held differences. But it didn't affect our friendship. With Ted and Orrin Hatch and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, we found a way to make Instant Check work, even with a huge amount of trouble on both the left and the right. After five years of work, we got the thing through. That showed that Senator Kennedy was a sensible fellow and that he could work with the other side. He showed an ability to find the middle, and come together on an issue of concern to everybody. That served all of our collective interests.
