Sen. Ted Kennedy failed in his 1980 bid to become president. But last week's media coverage of his death, memorials, funeral mass and burial -- close to his brothers on the famed Arlington hillside facing the Lincoln Memorial -- approached the intensity level of presidential.
I covered the 1960s John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy burials for United Press International. Most memorable was watching as diminutive Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, with a flashy uniform of ribbons and slashes, wiped a tear from his eye, and as towering French President Charles de Gaulle, wearing a simple uniform and general's epaulets, saluted the JFK casket.
Although not at Arlington's green slopes for the latest Kennedy burial, I have these reflections on him from a Michigan perspective:
-His great cause was health reform, and much is made of whether his absence from the Senate will hurt, or whether his death will be a rallying point.
But no one on Capitol Hill has a longer record as a champion of health care than U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, who is dean of the House -- having been elected in 1955 upon the death of his father, John Dingell Sr., who was elected in 1932 and started pushing in 1943 for national health insurance.
-A Michigan native, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, son of 1963-69 Michigan Gov. George Romney, was, in the words last week of the Wall Street Journal on the health issue, "won over" as governor in 2005-06 by Kennedy "on 'universal' coverage that is proving to be enormously expensive" in Massachusetts.
In 1994, Mitt Romney, then a venture capitalist, gave Kennedy, who always was re-elected by solid margins, his toughest fight. It wasn't all that tough, really -- 41 percent to 58 percent. That's mighty solid.
(Romney, who won the 2008 GOP presidential primary in Michigan and could well run again, will be featured speaker at the 28th Biennial Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island Sept. 25-27.)
-Many a headline described Ted Kennedy as "the liberal lion of the Senate." His composite liberal score on annual rankings by the National Journal on economic, social and foreign issues often was in the 90s, and in 1983, 1988 and 2005 he had the Senate's most liberal voting record.
But in 2007, his liberal score was 76.2, making him only the 28th-most-liberal senator. That year, Sen. Debbie Stabenow's score was 82.8, and Sen. Carl Levin's score was 76.5. In 1981, Levin, who served with Kennedy for three decades, was the most liberal senator with a score of 94, compared to Kennedy's 93.3.
The lesson: be wary of labeling good lawmakers as knee-jerk liberal or conservative on all issues. Some are. But Kennedy's moderate voting record on occasion reflected his role as a legislative deal-maker who could work with Republicans on a bipartisan immigration reform proposal that he co-sponsored, and Food and Drug Administration and student aid legislation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Kennedy "made it easy to reach across the aisle." That bipartisan deal-making trait is desperately needed in Lansing in these days of legislative deadlock.
-Former Sen. Don Riegle, who was an honorary pallbearer for Kennedy, is an example of politicians with evolving political tags. He originally was a Republican congressman from Flint but, as noted in 1998 by the Almanac of American Politics upon his retirement after three terms as a Democratic senator, he became "a fiery liberal." --Among Republicans with positive reflections about Kennedy was 1969-82 Gov. Bill Milliken, who had a couple encounters with Kennedy in Detroit, considered him "one of the great senators of all time. ...A senator's senator." Or, to Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland: "A legislator's legislator." Kennedy was, as noted by President Barack Obama Saturday, not only an extraordinary member of an extraordinary family, but also an extraordinary legislator.
George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features
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