R.I.P. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Though the Cause Endures...)

Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy died after a more than year-long struggle with brain cancer.  He was 77.

The Boston Globe has an extensive interactive timeline of his life here.

The New York Times has a timeline as well here.

The Washington Post has coverage here.

You'll read these stories -- and much more -- about the Lion of the Senate.  As you should. 

Senator Kennedy was larger than life, and there is likely no one in the country whose life he has not changed for the better, at least in some capacity.

If you have ever had to utilize COBRA for health care costs, you can thank Senator Kennedy.

The millions of children who are healthy because of SCHIP can thank Senator Kennedy.

HIPAA affects all of us, and we can thank Senator Kennedy for it.

This is not to mention civil rights, his work on the Judiciary Committee, his support of labor, and education.  Ted Kennedy was the senior Senator from Massachusetts -- but he was really America's Senator.

And that is why you'll be reading a great deal about Senator Kennedy, and hearing much more eloquent tributes than this one.  As it should be. 

Still, I have a story about Senator Kennedy.  Here it is.  

In 2000, I was working for the United States Department of Justice, and my wife (now ex) was working in the White House.  I'll be honest, I can't remember who invited us or how, but she was invited to a fundraiser for Senator Kennedy that year.  

The fundraiser was being held at Eastern Market on Capitol Hill.  I was wearing a Dr. Seuss tie (please, don't ask), and was, in those days, sporting 90210-style sideburns (again, it's better not to ask).  I recall that the event was filled with young people -- people more or less my age.  It was crowded and busy, and there was a crowd around the cheese table and the cash bar where they were selling cheap wine and cheaper beer.

My personal policy at these kinds of events is to hang back.  It's not that I don't like meeting people and talking to folks -- I do.  What I don't like is having to fight my way through a big huge crowd.

Not so with Senator Kennedy, who, after he and Mrs. Kennedy were introduced, made brief remarks on stage and then almost threw himself into the adoring crowd.  Hands all around him, he made his way around the big room, seemingly overjoyed to be there.  I chilled out in the corner with my wine.  

I expected to hang out at the event for a bit and then talk my wife into taking off.  But before I could get to her, I found myself in the most unlikely of positions: I was having a conversation with Senator Kennedy.  To be sure, he'd worked his way to my corner, the effort of working the room entirely his, not mine.  

Now he had faced a fairly tough re-election bid in 1994 against a Reagan-wannabe named Mitt Romney.  But this was 2000, and he was going to sail on to re-election with almost 73 percent of the vote.

So here we were in the midst of a big fundraiser in the heart of Washington, DC, raising money for a race that was destined to be a runaway, for a candidate with one of the most recognizable names in politics.  If you if you can imagine a more inane question than, "how is the campaign going," I would like to hear it.  And yet, that is exactly what I found myself asking Senator Kennedy. 

As I recounted earlier, Senator Kennedy is responsible for a great many good things in this country.  His career was long, fruitful, and important.  But that day, I got a glimpse of the young guy who managed the 1960 presidential campaign of his older brother, John F. Kennedy.

He told me, graciously, that the campaign was going fine, and that he had a lot of hard work in front of him.  But his eyes deceived him.  He was hungry -- he wanted a fight, and his 2000 election simply wasn't going to provide it.  He wanted a rough-and-tumble campaign.  He wanted the unique challenge, the adrenaline rush that you get from working on a hard-fought political campaign. 

I have two pictures with him taken from that day, and they are among a small handful of a few priceless treasures I own.  I'll never forget the time I met Ted Kennedy.  It was the day I learned that once you fall in love with politics -- whether you are a low-grade administration staffer and campaign hack, or the most influential United States Senator of all time -- you never fall out.

His family will be in our thoughts and prayers.