The Greatest Senator in American History
I don't even think it's close.
I take history very seriously, have studied it closely, and I am not given to hyperbole (as awful as George W. Bush was, for example, I still hesitate to join the many historians who call him the worst President ever, because James Buchanan was truly horrendous). But with Teddy Kennedy, I don't think there is much debate.
There were other Senators who served a very long time and have many notable achievements to their credit. There were others whose oratory and personality dominated the Senate chamber for awhile. There were others who were held in great esteem by their Senate colleagues. There were others who became a recognizable face as a representative of Senate traditions and honor. But no one in all of America's great history combined all of these things with getting more tangible things that mattered accomplished for the American people.
On issue after issue, Ted Kennedy was at the center of the debate, and he delivered one great piece of legislation after another to all of us. There was not a single significant issue that he didn't play an important role on in the past 45 years.
It saddens me beyond words that he passed before seeing health care reform finally get passed, as it had become the great passion of his life. I hope we can finally get it done for him now.
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I think it is close. It is challenging to compare Senators over the centuries, and maybe it's not even fair. But I have no doubt that Sen. Kennedy was the most important Senator of the last half century.
Two competitors for the Greatest Senator Ever (at least to my mind) remain Robert Wagner of New York and Charles Sumner, also of Masschusetts. What Wagner did (with FDR) to create the modern labor movement, and what Sumner did, before, during, and after the Civil War, actually changed history. What the country would be like without the Wagner Act is hard to imagine. Similarly, how Lincoln succeeds without the pressure of the Radical Republicans is unimaginable, not to mention Sumner's role in Reconstruction after Lincoln's assassination.
None of this is to minimize the contributions of the estimable Sen. Kennedy. I am certianly not looking forward to a U.S. Senate without him. It's never happened in my professional life! The two challenges that we face now are (1) how to finish what Kennedy called "the cause of my life" which is real health care reform; and (2) how do find/create the next progressive Senate leader. Neither will be easy, but both have to be done.
in honor of this great man, Sen Edward Kennedy Public Healthcare option for me please!
I have to chime in on subjects very close to my heart: Henry Clay and the Kennedys. Undoubtedly Henry Clay was the greatest congressional leader of the 19th century. He is the quintessential congressional leader of American History; what Washington is to the presdency Clay is to being a member of Congress. He very much wanted to be president and if he had made it in 1840 when he had an actual chance of winning I believe he may have prevented the Civil War and sent us done the road to the non-violent freeing of the slaves. I can't put Stephen Douglas up there at all. Just the opposite. His lust for the White House helped send the country down the path of civil war. His Kansas-Nebraska Act overthrew everything Clay and others had bulit and created a situation where compromise became impossible. The only greatness in him is the size of his failure.
Something enormus and profound passed today. The last of the Kennedy brothers. Whether you liked them or not you cannot deny the size of the imprint they made on this country and it's politics. Ted Kennedy served as long as JFK's lifespan and longer than RFK's. I am grateful we got to see one of them grow grey and old and die a natural death. I personally feel a giant loss. As an actual working senator he is unsurpassed. He will go down as the greatest senator of the 20th century.
Godspeed Teddy!
Douglas' mission as a senator was adding new states to the union. He worked tirelessly to help usher in new states and he was very successful at doing so. If you go to many states capitals today you will see statures of Douglas.
It's impossible to compare a modern senator with one from 150 years ago. Don't bother. Judge each senator by the standards of their time. Henry Clay, for all his greatness, would have probably had a heart attack at the prospect of a black President.
He will be missed, and yes it is almost impossible to imagine how the void will be filled. But the future has a way of finding its voice even as we remember and respect the past. I am a tomorrow kind of guy, and believe that there is no limit to what we can do as long as the "dream lives on."
Daniel Webster?
RIP, Great man.
in honor of this great man, Sen Edward Kennedy Public Healthcare option for me please!
Kennedy was certainly one of the greatest, although Wayne Morse was up there too.
Good call on Morse. One of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
The name Robert Byrd would be part of this conversation if not for his racist beginnings--at least, I assume that's what keeps him off these "greatest senators" lists. Why else neglect a man who's been a senator since 1959, has held many meaningful Senate leadership roles and committee chairmanships, and was a leading voice against both Reaganism-run-amok and the Iraq war when many members of his party were lying down like whipped dogs. (It should be pointed out that Byrd repudiated his racist past before most of us were born and lived long enough to give Obama a ringing endorsement for president; Calhoun, who is rated highly by some readers here, was an unrepentant racist his whole life.)
Today, I agree with Mr. Lux. Today, I say Ted Kennedy is the greatest US Senator. Yesterday and tomorrow I may feel different, but today Sen. Kennedy has no equal.
Naming a "best" U.S. Senator is on a par with naming a "best" classical composer, a "best" wine, or a "best" book.
true. there is room under the banner of great senators for more than one.
Greatest senators of all time
1. Henry Clay
2. Daniel Webster
3. John C. Calhoun
4. Robert Taft
5. Stephen Douglas
Agree with Clay, would also state that I beleive there were others. And besides, a person whose entire resume, however good, is strictly written on being a career politician, is just that.....a career politician. Nothing bad in that, but I am not sure if there is anything good in it either.
Far better in my eyes, is a public servant who puts his hand to various jobs, and does well at all of them. And one who is involved in more than just standing in the spotlight, one who sponsors and actively participates in other organizations/forums that better our world. Elihu Root comes to mind.
Besides, during his tenure the individual citizens portion of the national debt went from about $1000 to $32000 per person (rough numbers there, but close enough). Not sure if I am going to call anybody who had their hands involved in that little tidbit "great". Its easy to pass all kinds of great legislation to help everybody out if you just keeping passing the bill on to your kids.
One of the good guys, for sure....not great.
I agree with you about Teddy, but I take issue with GW. Now, I know it's too early to judge, but Buchanan doesn't hold a candle to GW. That's actually giving Buchanan too much credit.
But, let history decided.
Pierce and Harding were pretty bad too.
Bush was the worst, hands down.
The Iraq war was the most egregious act ever committed by a U.S. president. Morally, strategically, politically, militarily, economically--any way you want to look at it, Bush's war was a disaster without precedent. Vietnam was ugly for many of the same reasons, but it took four presidents many years to create that mess; Bush proudly created his all by himself in just a few weeks. The Iraqi body count, whatever estimate you choose to believe (maybe someday our government will tell us how many innocent families in Iraq were destroyed with our tax dollars), is enough to reserve Bush a furnace-side seat in the hottest corner of presidential hell.
Pierce, Harding, Grant, and Buchanan might have been hapless ne'er-do-wells who presided over corrupt administrations, but they didn't use baldfaced lies as an excuse to take over a non-belligerent country and slaughter innocent people.
I'm with those who say that Henry Clay was the greatest senator. In fact, I'm surprised that you could condemn Buchanan's presidency so severely without at the same time elevating Clay to that position. It is precisely in the contrast with Clay, "the Great Compromiser," that Buchanan and those like him look worst. With the Compromise of 1850, Clay showed that it was possible at that time to prevent a Civil War without committing the USA to a future as a slave economy. The northern capitulationists who accepted the Kansas-Nebraska Act and supported the Lecompton convention failed to learn Clay's lesson, and undid his work.
But look at the negative side of the Compromise of 1850. If escaped slaves were caught in the North, the judge would receive $5.00 if he freed the slave, and $10.00 if he returned the slave to his master. Now, how many slaves were freed by that?
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