Kennedy - A Flawed Force

From Statesville, NC

Fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx

I was never a particular fan of Senator Ted Kennedy, but I did hold a grudging admiration for amount of work he did and the passion he brought to it.

We all know all of the personality flaws with which Kennedy was afflicted. We know about Chappaquiddick and the rest. I get all that, but Kennedy was a man who didn't have to do much of anything with his life yet decided he was going to do as much as possible with his life.

For that, he deserves a great deal of credit.

A story:

In 1981 when the GOP took over control of the Senate on the tails of Ronald Reagan's victory the previous November, a young freshman Senator from Indiana became the chairman of the Subcommittee on Employment of the Senate Labor Committee.

Senator Kennedy was the senior Democrat on that Subcommittee.

That was how Kennedy and Dan Quayle came to know each other, work together, and become friends.

The Quayle-Kennedy connection resulted in the creation of the Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA) which was the controlling federal jobs legislation from its passage in 1982 until 1998.

I was Quayle's Senate press secretary at the time and my last assignment was to organize the press conference at which Quayle and Kennedy would announce the bill's introduction. The Kennedy people were - um - aggressive in their desire to control where, when, and how the presser would be conducted. But they were representing the ranking minority member while I worked for the chairman and so they came to see the wisdom of a jointly-planned operation.

Came the day of the event and we all believed that, if nothing else, the uniqueness of Quayle and Kennedy agreeing on anything, much less having worked together to produce a major piece of legislation would pack the room.

In the event, about the only reporters who showed up were the people who wrote for the trade press covering employment.

It turned out that the Vice President, George H.W. Bush, was being driven to work that morning when something hit his limousine. The Secret Service didn't know whether it had been hit by a bullet or not, but they treated it that way and every bureau in the Washington mounted up to cover this potential attempt on the Veep's life.

It turned out that a rivet or a bolt had fallen from a construction site and happened to hit the car as it drove under it, so all was well, but it wrecked my press conference.

I have used this as a lesson for communications types: No matter how closely you plan your event, you will never account for a bolt hitting the Vice President' limousine on Massachusetts Avenue.

Quayle had just beaten another huge presence in the Democratic Senate caucus, Birch Bayh, in the 1980 election. He was in his early thirties. Kennedy was already a major force in the Senate as an 18-year veteran about 50 years old.

Nevertheless, Kennedy - unlike some of their colleagues on both sides of the aisle - took Quayle as a serious Senator and together they forged a long-term professional relationship.

The coverage of Kennedy's death has the breathless feel of the coverage following Michael Jackson's demise. In fact, it would not surprise me to learn that producers and news division presidents from across the spectrum ordered their self-important young assistants to the viewing rooms to count the hours spent on Jackson to ensure the Kennedy coverage would not fall short.

Another thing about Kennedy. When the Chappaquiddick affair ruined his chances to be President, he didn't sulk his way out of the Senate as a certain Secretary of State appears to have done. He focused on the Senate and, according to one biography, produced over 300 pieces of legislation.

Ted Kennedy is a good object lesson for something I've preached for years: We can be passionate political opponents; without being mortal enemies.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: A link to the JTPA and to a Kennedy bio. A Mullfoto of a headline from a newspaper in Dubai and a Catchy Caption of the Day.