Plans for Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral services have been made: The Boston Globe reports, "The path of remembrance for Senator Edward M. Kennedy will follow the trail of his celebrated life - from his beloved Hyannis Port to his fallen brother’s presidential library in Dorchester, from the Mission Hill church where Kennedy prayed for his daughter to survive her bout with cancer to Arlington National Cemetery, where he will be buried beside his brothers after losing his own yearlong battle."
Kennedy's body will lie in state at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library for two days. Vice President Joe Biden, Senator John Kerry and Senator John McCain are expected to speak at the Friday night memorial. At the funeral at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica on Saturday, President Barack Obama will speak, as will Kennedy's sons Edward Kennedy Jr. and Rep. Patrick Kennedy. Afterwards, his body will be flown to Arlingtown, Virginia, for a 5 p.m. burial next to his brothers President John F. Kennedy Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
The appraisals of the late Senator laud his legislative victories and skills in achieving Republican support for measures. The NY Times editorial writes, "Having failed in his insurgent challenge to President Jimmy Carter, Mr. Kennedy was finally free to focus with passion and political craft on his more natural calling as one of the master legislators and great reformers in the modern Senate. The record Mr. Kennedy leaves after 46 years can only be envied by his peers ... — a record firmly anchored in Mr. Kennedy’s insistence that politics be grasped and administered through the prism of human needs." The Wall Street Journal editorial reminds, "Most young people who know him for his liberalism might be surprised to learn that he championed both airline and trucking deregulation in the 1970s... Kennedy was a great and effective champion of the political left, and his Senate career is a lesson for politicians of all stripes who want to make history, as opposed to sliding in history's wake."
The Washington Post emphasizes, "Throughout his career he stood by some of the country's most neglected and abused people: minorities, immigrants, the poor and those lacking access to good health care, to name just some of them." And the NY Post touts its George Will-penned analysis of Kennedy's career on the cover, "At the Democrats' 1960 convention in Los Angeles that nominated John Kennedy, his 28-year-old brother, Ted, was standing with the Wyoming delegation when it sealed the victory. He was then a sibling for minor missions. He would become the most consequential brother."
However, "Chappaquiddick"—the incident where Kennedy's passenger, a former RFK campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, died after Kennedy drove his car off a bridge from Chappaquiddick Island (Kennedy also failed to contact authorities and left the car and Kopechne's body in the water)—looms large while discussing his legacy. The Daily News says, "The darkest episode in Kennedy's life also marked the moment when the hard-drinking, skirt-chasing, pampered son of priviledge began to morph into the much-loved Massachusetts senator millions mourn today." Tufts University political science Jeffrey Berry explained, "Chappaquiddick was a point at which his career could have ended and instead he asked forgiveness and was granted a reprieve by the voters in Massachusetts. This allowed him to go on to build a glorious record of accomplishment in the Senate." However it, he added, "will always be part of his biography, there's no way to minimize his irresponsibility."
Kopechne's aunt told the News, "All I have to say about Ted Kennedy is I don't give a damn. My husband was Mary Jo's uncle and we had our own thoughts when it happened. I have no feelings one way or the other about it now."
