Grim news out of Boston: Sen. Edward Kennedy, patriarch of America’s most famous political family and the third-longest-serving senator in US history, is suffering from a malignant brain tumor.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said it’s still too early for any definitive word on the 76-year-old Kennedy’s prognosis.
But it can’t be good.
For nearly half a century, Ted Kennedy has been a towering figure on the American political scene. He is as much an icon of liberal orthodoxy as Barry Goldwater was for conservatives – perhaps the left’s most effective and, often, most eloquent advocate on Capitol Hill.
And, of course, for a generation of Americans he is the survivor who assumed the mantle of his slain older brothers, Jack and Bobby, and helped shape a turbulent era – though his own hopes for higher office effectively ended in the summer of ’69, at Chappaquiddick.
Love him or otherwise, Ted Kennedy has always roused intense emotions.
Today, however, partisan differences must be set aside. All Americans of good will are united in prayer and best wishes for his recovery as the senator faces a most daunting personal battle.