Edward M. Kennedy, The Lion Of The Senate, Dies At 77

(February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)

AP- HYANNIS PORT, Mass. – Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, has died after battling a brain tumor. He was 77.

Kennedy's family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.

For nearly a half-century in the Senate, Kennedy was a dominant voice on health care, civil rights, war and peace, and more. To the American public, though, he was best known as the last surviving brother of a storied political family.

Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962, when his brother John was president, and served longer than all but two senators in history.

Over the decades, Kennedy put his imprint on every major piece of social legislation to clear the Congress.

The youngest of the Kennedy brothers, considered the least likely to have an impact, and in many ways the most consequential. So closely after the death of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Kennedy family must grieve again and again the nation must grieve with them....

After the death of President John Kennedy, LBJ picked up the banner of justice and equality and so it was that a Southerner from Texas was able to get The Civil Rights Act and The Voting Rights Act through congress. In many ways this was done in memory of his predecessor in office JFK....

This congress has the opportunity to pass the Edward M. Kennedy Health Care and Insurance Reform Act ( with a public option, not as a sliver, but as the center piece) in honor of the Lion, now gone, who spent a significant portion of his career on trying to repair the broken system for the benefit of the common person.........