Ted Kennedy: The Lion of the Senate. This is Why.

Yesterday, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) accepted an honorary degree from Harvard University.  Kennedy, cheered on by family, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and other colleagues from the U.S. House and Senate, fondly recalled his life in the Senate and expressed his hope for America’s future with President-elect Barack Obama as President.

“There is no other time when I would rather receive this honor than this year, at this turning point in American history,” Kennedy boomed. “I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world.”

And here's the money quote from his remarks:

"I have often been called a liberal, and it usually was not meant to be a compliment. But I remember what my brother said about liberalism shortly before he was elected president. He said if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people...If that is what they mean by liberal, I am proud to be a liberal."

Author's Note: I am totally, unapologetically and forever biased when it comes to Ted Kennedy.  As an eighth-grader, I had the great honor to meet Ted Kennedy when he was just a freshman senator.  In the few moments he spent with me and my giggling tween friends (decades before the word "tween" was coined), the young Senator (he was 33) told us that as girls we could do anything we wanted if we studied and worked hard and he talked about the equality of all people and our obligation to end poverty.  It was 1965 and no one had ever, ever, ever spoken to me of those things. I'm pretty sure that was the exact moment I became a liberal and a feminist.

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[Dr. Larry Mitchell]

A good senator, but a bad date, yaknowwhatimean?