The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy - Bill Adler [29]
While the mood was light and the crowd played along, behind the laughter there was a question worth thinking about. Why wasn’t the Vice President involved in each of the policy matters that affected so many millions of Americans? While Kennedy made his point with humor, at the core of the question was a concern that still resonated after the laughter was gone.
That was often the case with even his lightest remarks: that you knew he cared. When he heard that North Carolina Senator (and arch-conservative) Jesse Helms, scheduled to undergo heart surgery, had quipped beforehand, “It’s no piece of cake, but it sure beats listening to Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor,” he sent him this get-well note: “I would be happy to send you tapes of my recent Senate speeches if that will help your speedy recovery.”
If, as the old saw has it, laughter is the best medicine, then Ted Kennedy was a wonderfully skilled healer.
We have learned that it is important to take issues seriously, but never to take ourselves too seriously.
—Speech at Harvard, December 2008
Well, here I don’t go again.
—Remark on announcing that he is not
running for president in 1988
Finally, after all of these years, when someone says, “Who does that damn Kennedy think he is,” there’s only a one in three chance they’re talking about me.
—Remark following the election of his son Patrick
to Congress, joining nephew Joseph Kennedy II.
Frankly, I don’t mind not being president. I just mind that someone else is.
—Speech at the Washington Gridiron Club dinner,
March 1986
They [the Moral Majority] seem to think it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a Kennedy to come to the campus of Liberty Baptist College.
—Speech at Liberty Baptist College,
October 3, 1983
She’s a wonderful, wonderful person, and we’re looking to a happy and wonderful night … er, life.
—Comment about Victoria Reggie,
to whom he had just become engaged
Well, I learned to lose, and for a Kennedy, that’s hard.
—Answer to the question of what he’d learned from
his failed run for the Democratic nomination
for President in 1980
It’s a privilege to be here tonight among friends. It isn’t always that way. Not long ago, I was addressing a group, and shortly after I started speaking, a heckler in the audience jumped to his feet and shouted: “Senator Kennedy is a horse’s rear end.” I’m paraphrasing slightly. Right away, members of the audience rushed to my defense. They threw the heckler out, and told him never to come back. So I said to the chairman of the event, “I had no idea this was Kennedy country.” And the chairman said, “It isn’t. It’s horse country.”
—Remarks at the American Constitution Society
Conference, September 25, 2002
It’s a frequent joke in Democratic circles, as you may have heard, that for Republicans, life begins at conception and ends at birth. We know it’s not true, and it’s certainly not true for education.
—Commencement address at Springfield College,
May 14, 2006
On hearing that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the husband of his niece Marie Shriver, and a lone Republican in a family of Democrats, was going to run for governor of California:
He’s a brilliant actor, but what makes Republicans think he could do well in politics? Of course, it’s hard to argue with Arnold when you’re hanging upside down by the ankles.
—2003
Though very near the end of his life himself, Ted Kennedy found time to call Senator Chris Dodd, who was recuperating from prostate surgery. Kennedy told him:
Well, between going through prostate cancer surgery and going to town hall meetings [on the Obama health care plan], you made a great choice!
—Recounted by Senator Dodd at the memorial
service for Ted Kennedy, August 28, 2009
Speak of a vision, work hard, and get a good road map of Iowa.
—Quip when asked