The Senate was united in grief Tuesday upon hearing the news that its second most senior member, Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, was suffering from a malignant brain tumor.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the only lawmaker who has served longer in the chamber, broke down in tears on the Senate floor upon hearing the diagnosis, which was disclosed Tuesday by Kennedy’s doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“I love you and I miss you and I would want to say thank God for you, Ted, thank God for you,” Byrd said in tribute.
Senators first heard about Kennedy’s brain tumor while gathered at their respective party luncheons. They emerged saddened and shocked at the prospect of the man regarded as one of the last lions of the Senate might succumb to an often-fatal disease.
Republicans said a prayer for Kennedy at their luncheon, GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, disclosed after his party met.
“I know I speak for every Republican in the conference that this was a development of great concern and sadness to all of our members,” he added.
Democrats, emerging from their luncheon, took no questions at their weekly meeting with reporters. Instead, they paid tribute to Kennedy.
“Anyone who knows Ted Kennedy knows that he’s a fighter,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. “He has a work ethic like no other and has risen to every challenge he’s faced, and he’s had plenty of challenges. And we’re confident that he will rise to this one as well.”
Kennedy’s longtime friend, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor several years ago, pointed out that doctors gave him just three to six weeks to live and he has beaten
those odds.
“Senator Kennedy is a real fighter, we all know that, and I am betting on Senator Kennedy,” Specter said.
The three presidential candidates also weighed in on Kennedy.
Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain called Kennedy “the single most effective member of the Senate.”
Hillary Clinton, who unsuccessfully sought Kennedy’s endorsement, put out a statement calling him “one of the greatest legislators in Senate history.”
Barack Obama, who Kennedy endorsed, issued a lengthy statement and also extensively praised him in an MSNBC interview.
“Ted Kennedy is a master of the Senate,” Obama said. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that I might not be in the Senate had it not been for him because of the battles that he fought for voting rights and civil rights early in his career and then later on in his career.”
