Teddy

I was too brief in my praise for Teddy Kennedy, and as you can see from these quotes there are lots of ways to praise him. But I want to highlight Mike Lux' piece, where he displays the remarkable output by America's greatest living Senator.

I have recently completed my book manuscript on the history of the debate between progressives and conservatives in America, and I have been researching a lot about the congressional debates this country has had in these last 220 years, and I have no doubt that Kennedy should be ranked as the single most important and effective senator in terms of progressive politics. Other senators I would put high on the list- including the great champion of abolition Charles Sumner, the great Progressive era leader Bob LaFollette, Sr., FDR's partner on much of the New Deal era legislation George Norris, and liberal lion Hubert Humphrey- all accomplished great things, but had neither the longevity in the Senate nor the breadth and depth of accomplishments of Ted Kennedy.

Kennedy has been a player in literally every major progressive accomplishment of my life, usually a major player, quite often the leading player: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, Legal Services, the War on Poverty, environmental legislation, OSHA, bringing down Richard Nixon on the Watergate investigations, ending the Vietnam War, stopping military aid to the Contras in Central America, the Martin Luther King holiday, stopping Robert Bork, the increases in the minimum wage, Family and Medical Leave, National Service, Motor Voter Act, S-CHIP. His fingerprints are on all of that legislation, and more.

In the blogosphere we like to look at numbers and votes and margins of victory and how many sets we hold in the House and Senate. The truth is that without leaders like Ted Kennedy, you could have 95 Democrats in the Senate and nothing would get done. He is the man who, through power of intellect and willingness to fight, has brought progressive policy to America and untold benefits to its people.

Over the next few days we'll find out the extent of his ailment and whether he can pull through. But it's unmistakable that a Kennedy loss would be almost as great a factor as an Obama Presidential gain, from the perspective of real change. You need advocates to get the legislation needed to create that change, people with respect and courage. I really want to see Ted Kennedy on that stage in Denver. I want to see him back in the Senate. And the reason is that I believe in a progressive America, and fighting for the causes I believe in. I don't see how we get to where we need to be without Ted Kennedy. We're not yet ready for that torch to be passed to a new generation of leadership.