Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) -- Rest in Peace. I pray for his family and the loss they must feel. He will be missed.

There should always be room in our society and government for "dissenting voices" and at times, Senator Kennedy was exactly that. He also had the priviledge of having the "majority voice" and he was that.

Sen. Carl Hayden of Arizona served the longest as a Senator, then Sen. Robert Byrd of WV and Senator Edward Kennedy of MA, the third longest serving Senator.

After the assassination of his brother, the President, and the murder of his brother, the Senator from New York, many people assumed and yearned for the ascendancy of the 36 year old third brother, Ted, to the Presidency. I was one of those.

But the Presidency would not happen because of events on July 18, 1969, when 29 year old Mary Jo Kopechne was killed, between 11:30 pm and 1:00am, in the car that Sen. Kennedy was driving, after he drove it off the road into a pond on Martha's Vineyard; the car landed upside down. Kennedy escaped, but Ms. Kopechne did not. The issue that would track him the rest of his career was the over eight hour delay before two fisherman found the car and the body, with no report from the Senator.

What was Senator Kennedy doing during that time? Was he contacting his advisors and constructing an excuse for his behavior? Were President John F. Kennedy's speechwriters fashioning a statement for him? Were his lawyers huddling with Massachusetts politicos to save the scion's Senate seat? Was all of this happening at once during the 8 hours of silence?

The Presidency was out; there were too many questions.

The ghost of that evening would haunt him the rest of his life and for many, would overshadow his accomplishments, casting questions about his motives for everything he stood for and anything he said.

There are some who would point to his castigation of President-elect Carter at the 1979 Democrat Convention as the most dramatic speech he ever delivered and there are others who would say that his 1989 allegations against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, set the stage for the divisive atmosphere in politics we have today.

Others would say the Senator Kennedy stood for the best that liberalism had to offer and lived a life to prove it.

Dear reader ... I hope you will join me in praying for him and his family.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam (Gaelic for "may he rest in peace.")