Ted Kennedy Biography

ted-kenEdward Moore Kennedy (born February 22, 1932) is the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, having served since 1963. The most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he is the brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and former US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Because of Kennedy's personal prominence and his longtime advocacy of liberal principles, he is often regarded as a "lion" of the Democratic Party.
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Supporters admire him as a forceful and reliable advocate for liberalism, whose personal and political skills enable him to achieve some gains even in an era of conservative ascendancy; however, some Democrats see him as being too ready to compromise with Republican legislators. His critics on the right charge that he is stuck in a "big-government" ideology from the 1960s and that his consistent opposition to Republican initiatives has caused him to lose credibility. Republicans seeking to rally their supporters often invoke Kennedy as the politician who must be opposed, citing his liberal politics and what many see as failings in his personal conduct.

Kennedy is the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He attended the Fessenden School, and later Milton Academy and entered Harvard College in 1950. He was forced to withdraw for two years from Harvard in May 1951 after he was caught cheating on his final examination in a Spanish class. Kennedy then entered the U.S. Army for two years and was assigned to the SHAPE headquarters in Paris. He eventually re-entered Harvard, graduating in June 1956. In the 1955 Harvard/Yale football game (won by Yale 21 to 7) Kennedy caught Harvard's only touchdown pass. In 1958, he attended the Hague Academy of International Law. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1959. While he was in law school, he managed his brother John's 1958 Senate re-election campaign.

His home is in Hyannis Port, Mass., where he lives with his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy, a Washington lawyer and daughter of a Louisiana judge, and her children, Curran and Caroline. He has three grown children from his first marriage with Virginia Joan Bennett whom he met while delivering a speech at Manhattanville College: Kara (b.1960), Edward Jr. (b.1961), and Patrick (b.1967) and four grandchildren. After his brothers John and Robert were assassinated (in 1963 and 1968, respectively), he took on the role of surrogate father for his brothers' 13 children.

In 1962, Kennedy was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by his oldest brother, John, upon the latter's election as President of the United States. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was reelected in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, and 2000.

As of 2005, Kennedy is the second-longest serving current senator, behind only Robert Byrd. According to NPR, Kennedy plans to run for an eighth full term (and ninth overall term) in 2006. If he wins and serves out his full six-year term, he will have served in the U.S. Senate for fifty years.

In May of 2006, Kennedy plans to release his children's book My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C. [3] In the tone of Barbara Bush's tome Millie's Book, the narrator is Kennedy's Portuguese Water Spaniel, Splash.

John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy, circa 1960Kennedy is the senior Democratic Party member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He also serves on the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he is the senior Democratic representative on the Seapower Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, a founder of the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C..

Kennedy's career in the Senate attracted national attention at its inception, as it has several times since. During his 1962 campaign, he was accused by his opponents of riding on his family's name and fortune, and (having no previous experience in elected office) of not being sufficiently qualified to hold so high an office. Soon after entering office, he went through the trauma of the assassination of his brother John, an event that focused much attention on him.

In 1964, Kennedy was in a plane crash in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides were killed. He was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch E. Bayh II (D-Ind.) and spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.

In 1968, his last surviving brother, Robert, was assassinated during his bid to be nominated as Democratic candidate for the presidency. Kennedy delivered a very emotional eulogy at Robert's funeral. After the shock from this event wore off, Kennedy was looked upon as a likely future presidential candidate. For about a year, the Democratic establishment began to focus attention on him as the new "carrier of the torch" for the Kennedys and the party. His eulogy showed one thing: Since his father suffered a stroke which left him invalid, he was seen by many as the family patriarch and had given such tributes for the family in times of crisis.

In January 1969, Kennedy defeated Louisiana Senator Russell B. Long to become Senate Majority Whip. He would serve as Whip until January 1971, when he was replaced by Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.

In October 1971, Kennedy called for the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland, and for all political participants there to begin talks on creating a United Ireland. The senator has retained an interest in the Irish political situation since that time.

Profile:

Office: Senior Senator, Massachusetts
Political party: Democrat
Term of office: January 1963�Present
Preceded by: Benjamin A. Smith II
Succeeded by: Incumbent (2007)
Born: February 22, 1932
Boston, Massachusetts
Spouse:Virginia Joan Bennett, divorced
Victoria Reggie

TED KENNEDY PICTURES

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TED KENNEDY BIOGRAPHY