A flawed, effective champion

A flawed, effective champion

Philadelphia Inquirer: The passing of Sen. Edward Moore “Teddy” Kennedy has silenced the greatest liberal voice of the past 50 years and drawn the curtain on an epic generation of a political dynasty.

Kennedy, 77, who died Tuesday night from brain cancer, was the third-longest serving senator in the nation’s history. Although his liberalism was legendary, this Democrat’s true effectiveness was in his ability to compromise with Republicans to get his initiatives enacted into law.

He never quite matched the public’s adoration for his older brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, whose lives were cut short by assassins’ bullets. But Ted Kennedy’s legislative achievements far surpassed the impact of his brothers in the lives of ordinary citizens.

Record of achievement

In 47 years in the Senate, Kennedy passed more than 300 laws. Among them are the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which made public places more accessible to the disabled, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program of 1997, which funded the largest expansion of health insurance coverage for children since the 1960s. The COBRA Act of 1985, signed into law by President Reagan, gave workers the ability to continue health insurance after leaving employment. And Title IX opened up college sports to young women.

He was a lifelong ally of organized labor and a relentless advocate for increasing the minimum wage. Kennedy also was a champion of education; in 2002 he worked with President George W. Bush to enact the No Child Left Behind law. Earlier this year, he teamed with President Obama to enact a law to encourage more national service. When he died, he was still pushing for his longtime goal of universal health care.

Despite self-inflicted scandals, Kennedy always rededicated himself to work harder in the Senate, renewing his focus on improving conditions for average Americans. Accomplishments such as the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, which forced insurers to treat the mentally ill more fairly, and the Ryan White Care Act, which enabled low-income AIDS patients to receive better treatment, are part of his compassionate legacy.

Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2009, but Kennedy was too ill to attend the ceremony. In recent months, his illness kept him from his duties in the Senate where his voice had boomed on behalf of the disadvantaged for so many decades.

For millions of Americans, Ted Kennedy made this country a fairer and better place to live.