From the Office of Senator Kerry

Thursday, March 14, 2002

Mr. President, Several days ago my senior colleague and friend Ted Kennedy celebrated his 70th birthday, and recorded a milestone quite extraordinary -- almost forty years of service to Massachusetts and his country in the United States Senate.

Sen. Kennedy started his career by setting quite a high standard when it comes to birthdays - it was when he reached the minium Constitutional age, thirty, that he first came to the United States Senate -- one of just 16 Senators among thousands in American history to be elected to the Senate at such a tender age. But what we celebrate today -- Democrats and Republicans, all in awe of a lifetime of achievement -- is the way in which literally every year since he's been marking the passage of time by passing landmark legislation.

The Boston Globe put it best, writing not long ago that "in actual, measurable impact on the lives of tens of millions of working families, the elderly, and the needy, Ted belongs in the same sentence with Franklin Roosevelt."

That sentence is not constructed lightly -- it is the measure of a public servant who doesn't know the meaning of the words 'you can't pass it' - 'it can't happen'-- 'impossible.'

It is the measure of a United States Senator who -- on every issue of importance: health care, children, education, civil rights, choice - can always be count on to be in the lead, challenging on the issues, and fighting for the principles which guide our party and lift up our country.

As all of you here know, Ted is an extraordinary public servant not only because he knows who he is, and sticks to his guns, never bending with the political currents -- but because he has in his life and in his career proven again and again that progress doesn't happen by accident, it doesn't happen when you stick to the text of the latest opinion poll or the whispers of the morning focus group, it happens when leaders define and fight the fights that need fighting - when public servants of conscience and conviction refuse to take no for an answer. That is why for Ted Kennedy, the 'cause' has not just 'endured' - but triumphed, again and again.

Agree with him or not, and we all know that Ted has never been afraid to be a majority of one, Ted is such an extraordinary leader because he has excelled while completing the work in the United States Senate that so many others were afraid to begin.

And, ironically, in being a standard-bearer for an ideal, Ted has become -- as Clymer wrote -- "not just the leading senator of his time, but one of the greats in its history, wise in the workings of this singular institution, especially its demand to be more than partisan to accomplish much."

His partnerships with his fellow Senators are well-known and oft-recited, testimony to his skill and to his convictions. From Howard Baker, Jacob Javits, and Hugh Scott to Arlen Specter, Dan Quayle, Orrin Hatch, Alan Simpson, and Nancy Kassebaum - Ted has never hesitated to cross the aisle to accomplish his goals - to further a common agenda -- finding always -that ideologies, however incompatible according to conventional wisdom - can be put aside for a greater good when Senators - however different - work in good faith to make their country a better place, to improve the lives of their fellow Americans.

Ted has always believed you can put aside partisanship - push away division - and that faith has mattered most in some of the most trying and divisive times our nation has endured.

I remember to this day that more than thirty years ago, after I'd come home from Vietnam to find that few of our leaders were willing to listen, and even fewer were willing to reconcile the promises made to our soldiers when we left for Vietnam. Ted Kennedy was among the brave few who listened to the veterans describe the realities we'd found there .

He reached out and demonstrated -- in actions as well as words -- that as much as we had a right to tell truths many would've preferred we left unspoken, government had a responsibility to listen.

He's listening still - to the voices his conscience tells him must never be ignored.

He hears of children who go through their early years without health care and come to school unable to learn. And he's made their care his crusade. And so millions more children see a doctor today because of Ted Kennedy - and millions more will before he's done.

He hears of workers sweating it out - punching a time clock - doing back-breaking work over the course of a lifetime. And he's made their economic security his agenda. And so millions of workers have seen wages increased over partisan objections, seen pensions protected when others said leave it to the market, and seen a safe workplace and the right to organize put back on the nation's agenda - and these issues will again and again be advanced by Ted Kennedy.

That is the drive - the passion - the special commitment we celebrate today - not a new ideology or a new age vision, but an age old belief that Americans have a responsibility to each other - that America is still in the process of becoming - and that we are privileged to serve here to make that dream real for all Americans.

These are the qualities that make Ted Kennedy the lion of the Senate, that make him the most prolific legislator in American History, and make him, above all, the very embodiment of the word his brother Robert said was the most meaningful in all the English language - a great citizen. For that and so much more, we honor our friend and our colleague Ted Kennedy.