Ted Kennedy dead at age 77

Senator Ted Kennedy from my home state passed away this morning from brain cancer. On a personal level, this saddens me as dying prematurely is a most awful thing. My condolences to his family. His political legacy, a most impressive legacy at that, will be primarily remembered for his never ending fight for "equality" and for defending the "rest of us". I am guessing that most people who do not follow politics closely will be emotionally affected by Kennedy's passing today and rightfully so. Teddy has been a fixture in politics for longer than most can even remember and even I will admit, a genius in his own right. Kennedy achieved a level of stature, importance and power that very few people ever experience. At the same time, I deeply disagreed with his fundamental political viewpoints and through the prism of libertarianism I cannot fondly reflect on his work as a senator. Some specific pieces of legislation and incidents are discussed on my Examiner article.

As of this moment, the most pressing issue will be his replacement and expect this discussion to dominate the screens and airwaves. Primarily, the issue is that Kennedy was instrumental in changing our laws back in 2004. When Mitt Romney acted as governor, Kennedy was concerned that hand picked successor would be a Republican in the event of a Kerry victory and pushed through a special election mandate. In the past several weeks however, Kennedy attempted to circumvent his own very law and urged for his successor to be hand picked. Hard to determine what will transpire here, but given the raging health care debate democrats in the senate truly need every vote they can get and waiting for at least 145 days may not be an option for them. Expect a battle over this issue.

RIP Teddy.

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