June 2008 Issue
The President’s ‘kid brother’ faces
his first political challenge.
By C. Todd Williamson, III
The United States and the world became sullen with the untimely news that Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) is suffering from a malignant brain tumor. The Democratic ‘lion’ is
the second longest current serving senator. Known for his tough stances on
education, healthcare, and civil rights, Kennedy is beloved on both sides
of the political aisle.
The ‘lion’ and ‘the little
brother:’
Sen. Ted Kennedy, 2008 (left) 1962 (right) Library of Congress.
“ On numerous occasions I have described Ted Kennedy as the last lion in
the Senate . . . because he remains the single most effective member . . . if
you want to get results," said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on his presidential
campaign bus.
It can take many years to attain such deep respect in the exclusive club known
as the U.S. Senate, which contains 100 of the largest egos east of the Mississippi
River. Although the ‘liberal lion’ came from one of the largest
political and financial fortunes in American history, his first campaign was
filled with all the chips stacked against him.
Working as a part-time unpaid assistant district attorney in Boston in 1962,
Edward Moore Kennedy’s reputation would have been a nightmare job for
even the biggest K street PR firm. Expelled from Harvard after caught cheating
on a Spanish exam, Teddy, as he was called, left for the U.S. Army, where he
would serve from 1951 to 1953. He went on to graduate from Harvard in 1954
after being reinstated.
The odds of a Senate candidate winning a seat with an expulsion looming over
his record would’ve been tough enough, but Ted was only 30 years old
during his 1962 run, the youngest age required for the Senate. Meanwhile, his
oldest living brother was in the thick of his own presidency.
It was President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy,
who was initially against the run. But in the end, their father’s opinion
outweighed the two most powerful men in the country. “You boys have what
you want now, and everyone else helped you work to get it. Now it’s Ted’s
turn,” said Kennedy patriarch, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
While their mother Rose Kennedy and Teddy’s wife at the time, Joan campaigned
hard for him in Boston; President John F. Kennedy was strategically trying
to keep the world from utter nuclear destruction. Alongside Robert Kennedy,
the president was dealing through 13 of the tensest days in global history
as the Soviet Union placed nuclear offensive missiles in Cuba, only a few miles
off the coast of Florida.
Therefore the younger Kennedy didn’t feel slighted when his brothers
didn’t take time from their busy schedules to come and make a cameo during
his Senate campaign.
But Ted had planned to run for JFK’s old Senate seat as early as 1960.
According to Kennedy biographer Laurence Leamer, the then 28 yea-old Ted approached
President-elect John Kennedy about a position in his soon to be administration.
Worried about the already ensuing nepotism claims surrounding word that JFK’s
younger brother Bobby was already to be named attorney general, JFK told his
youngest brother to earn the Senate seat in his own right.
“ Teddy, you ought to get out and get around. I’ll hear whether you
are really making a mark up there. I will tell you whether this is something
that you ought to seriously consider,” said JFK to Teddy. Leamer points
out, “That was not the president-elect speaking. That was the firm older
brother who was not about to have his brother riding on his success. ”
Ted Kennedy in a parade during his
first campaign, 1962.
Between 1960 and 1962, JFK’s Senate seat was temporarily held by his
old roommate Ben Smith. By the time 1962 rolled around, Teddy had an uphill
climb. In the Democratic primary he was to face Edward McCormack, the “favorite
nephew” of the current Speaker of the House, John McCormack. If he were
fortunate enough to beat McCormack, then he would go head to head in the general
election with Republican George Cabot Lodge, the son of Henry Cabot Lodge the
man JFK beat to earn the seat in 1952.
Any doubts in Massachusetts about Teddy’s age and maturity would come
to head during the Democratic primary against McCormack. McCormack would use
the phrase, “I back Jack, but Teddy ain't ready." Prior to the locally
renowned debate between the two titled the “Teddy and Eddy” debate,
Kennedy solicited the help of his older brothers. They both warned him not
to let McCormack’s claims of his inexperience and family ties get under
his skin. During the debate, McCormack didn’t waste anytime and came
out swinging. "Teddy, if your name was Edward Moore instead of Edward
Moore Kennedy, your candidacy would be a joke, " said McCormack.
The strategy backfired as McCormack, although well known in Massachusetts as
the state’s attorney general, came across as an overbearing bully. Kennedy
would go on to win the primary race with 65% of the vote. So much was made
of the primary that Kennedy easily rolled over George Cabot Lodge in the general
election. The Kennedy-Lodge race would’ve made more headlines due to
the familial significance of the Senate seat and that the fact that Lodge’s
father, Henry Cabot Lodge was currently serving as Ambassador to Vietnam in
the Kennedy administration.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Sen.
Ted Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy, 1963.
Kennedy would win his brother’s seat and launch a political career that
has lasted more than 45 years. But this time in 1962 captures a moment in the
heart of a short dynastic period for the Kennedy family. A year before President
Kennedy’s assassination, six years before Robert Kennedy’s assassination,
two years before Teddy’s back breaking plane crash, seven years before
he drove his car over a bridge resulting in the death of former Robert Kennedy
aide Mary Jo Kopechne, and 12 years before his own run for the presidency in
1980, the family claimed the attorney general, a senator, and a U.S. president.
But through it all, Ted Kennedy would go on to have a much longer life and
make a greater legislative impact on the United States than either of his three
martyred brothers. 1962 represents the time before Teddy transferred into Ted,
before he transformed himself from ‘Jack’s kid brother’ to ‘lion
of the Senate.’
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