---

Add your Encore tribute to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

Senator Ted Kennedy's death brings back lots of memories for me. I was lucky to have a chance to work with Senator Kennedy and his extraordinary staff on public issues for nearly 50 years. I was no intimate, but I did lots of public interest lobbying and our paths crossed many times. Happily for me, I had a chance to work on the Serve America legislation that is named in Senator Kennedy's honor.

The Serve America Act

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009 encapsulates Senator Kennedy's legacy: serving others and giving back by those who are fortunate to benefit from what society offers. The legislation demonstrated the careful preparation to substance and detail long associated with the senator and his team. He was practical. What he proposed was based on need and thorough thought on how to meet the need. For Serve America, Kennedy drew on lots of ideas, including those from Civic Ventures and Experience Corps and others who believed in and practiced service.

At its core, the legislation was bipartisan. It reflected a long and productive working relationship with senators on both sides of the aisle. Though embraced by candidates Obama and McCain in the 2008 election campaign, it was legislatively initiated by Senators Kennedy and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). Kennedy was its driving force. The combined work of these senators forestalled the desire by some political extremists to block the legislation by filibuster or by fatally undermining it.

Kennedy as Legislator

As Adam Clymer, Tom Oliphant, David Broder, Mark Shields, David Brooks and others have noted, Kennedy was a superb legislator. His ability to build enduring personal relationships drew others to him, including conservative Republicans. His mastery of policy and legislative details made him a respected and much-admired legislative "workhorse" and not a "show horse." I saw him in action while working on the poll tax ban in 1965, protecting one person-one vote reapportionment legislation in the 1967 and while advocating for refugee and immigration legislation in the '80s and '90s. Friends who witnessed his work on education, health, minimum wage, disability, and civil and voting rights legislation confirmed my impressions.

Kennedy knew that getting important legislation enacted is about addition. He compromised when necessary, as he did on education reform, immigration issues and other issues. But he stuck to his principles on civil rights and voting rights and stretched the art of the possible on minimum wage legislation.

Kennedy as Moral Leader

There were times when Kennedy stood nearly alone – as he did on the Iraq war. When he did, he served as the legislator who educates others, speaking out crisply, cogently and drawing on the best advice he could find.

As a moral leader he was willing to make tough choices, as he consistently showed on health, education and immigration issues.

As a moral leader he was a superb listener and learner. He learned – painfully, as I can attest – to the legacy of segregationist judicial appointments made by President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to the South's Fifth Judicial Circuit. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he helped foster a brilliant statement on judicial qualifications that centered on a necessary belief in the 14th Amendment from the conservative scholar Phillip Kurland and his liberal counterpart Lawrence Tribe. That letter laid the basis for the intellectual opposition to many of the extremist judicial appointments (including Robert Bork) coming from Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Kennedy as Paul Revere

When Kennedy raced to the Senate floor to denounce the Bork appointment to the Supreme Court and alert Americans to what it means, I commented publicly that Kennedy was Paul Revere summoning all of us to action. He succeeded.

Little did I know nearly 20 years later that when he accompanied Caroline Kennedy to Politics and Prose (a Washington bookstore co-owned by my wife Carla Cohen) to read The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, he would be called on by Caroline to read some poems. Kennedy recited from memory Longfellow's “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” with his extraordinary command of language and tone.

Kennedy's Humor

Kennedy was funny and playful, ironical and deep. He was never cruel or abusive. To be on the receiving end of his humor was to have arrived. I was lucky that way. A few years ago I was walking with a conservative senator. Kennedy passed us and said to the senator, “You should not be seen talking to him.” Then he turned to me and said, “David you're in trouble by talking to him.” We all laughed.

Kennedy's Lasting Lessons

Through his own example, Kennedy left some enduring lessons. Among them:

• Treat your political opponents with respect. Never demonize the opposition.
• Live your faith, practice it and never impose it on others.
• Don't use your ideology to prevent significant advances even if they are partial.

This last lesson matters in the unresolved health care issue. Kennedy wanted the public option. We have to fight for it. But the choice may be achieving strong requirements that: prohibit insurance companies from withholding insurance coverage with preexisting illnesses or dropping coverage when a person is sick; bar the capping of out-of-pocket expenses or lifetime caps; and significantly narrow price differences for comparable policies.

These represent major advances. Senator Kennedy's history points to embracing these advances and not waiting for the "perfect legislative wave."

Let us learn to apply what we have learned from Senator Kennedy's life and legacy.

David Cohen
Senior Fellow, Civic Ventures
President, Global Integrity