Ted Kennedy

WASHINGTON -- A Republican senator jokingly warned Ted Kennedy during a heated moment in last week's health care debate that Kennedy was so riled up he might keel over from a heart attack.But that's not how fate works in the Kennedy family.Teddy is the survivor. The only one of the handsome princes allowed to grow old, wrinkled and fat. The only one to truly fulfill the promise of his family's commitment to public service.Yesterday as he traveled to Long Island to console his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, on the loss of her brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy once again took up his role of patriarch-by-default: the one left to pick up the pieces of a family plagued by tragedy.

I WAS DRIVING to the funeral of my cousin George Floyd Jr. when I heard the news on a radio broadcast that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane was missing and that he hadn't been heard from for hours.My heart sank. I feared the worst, and it was confirmed later this week. John F. Kennedy Jr. is dead at the age of 38, killed in a plane crash along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette. Kennedy Jr.'s father -- President John F. Kennedy -- was only 46 when he was assassinated in 1963.

OTIS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Mass. -- Five days after the plane he was piloting crashed into the waters near the summer home he loved, the body of John F. Kennedy Jr. was raised from the ocean floor yesterday as his relatives looked sadly on.This morning, Kennedy is expected to be buried at sea from the deck of the USS Briscoe, a Navy destroyer, in a Roman Catholic service.As the search ended yesterday, Kennedy's body and those of his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were lifted onto the USS Grasp, a Navy salvage vessel, authorities said.

A STAR was born in the last statewide election campaign, an unlikely star.Sure, she comes from political royalty. But who would have suspected that Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, once a dowdy and seemingly vapid chatterbox, would have emerged at this stage as a true political beauty queen and the early front-runner in the 2002 race for governor?Gov. Parris Glendening was one of the first to recognize this dramatic transformation. He capitalized on Ms. Townsend's high poll ratings, mentioning her name repeatedly at every campaign stop last year.

Some childhood memories are best left unrevisited. Which is why you may want to think twice about watching ABC at 8 tonight."Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- They're back ... even Michael Nesmith, who until now has avoided much of this foolishness. This time, it's for what is essentially another episode of their TV series (nearly 30 years later), as we watch the boys get ready to perform at a swanky country club. Chuck Woolery plays the club's manager. Bet you can't wait.

I'M LOOKING AT the Kennedy wedding picture. I can't take my eyes off the picture. I'm entranced by the picture.And, all the time I'm looking, all the time I'm entranced, I can't help wondering -- because it's the '90s and Camelot was a thousand years ago -- if it wasn't some kind of setup.Walk through this with me, if you will.You've got the biggest wedding since Chuck and Di (if you don't count Michael and Lisa Marie, which, technically, you probably shouldn't).They hold the ceremony in virtual privacy on an island off the Georgia coast.

"Rose: The Life and Times of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy," by Charles Higham. 454 pages. New York: Pocket Books. $23Charles Higham writes about movie stars and royalty. Now, he turns to Rose Kennedy. And why not? The Kennedys are America's royal family, and icons of popular culture. Books about Joe, John, Bobby and Ted Kennedy could already fill a good-sized book case, but the section on Rose is still pretty empty.Unfortunately, Mr. Higham's addition to the Kennedy bibliography does not do the genre of celebrity biography proud.

Boston. -- Massachusetts may be the Jurassic Park of American politics, where the dinosaur of liberalism lumbers on, oblivious to the fact that its era has long since passed. But the Tyrannosaurus Rex is endangered.For some while, whispers have been heard: This time, Ted Kennedy may actually have to break a sweat to get re-elected. Then last Sunday a poll by a respected Cambridge firm showed Senator Kennedy in a statistical dead heat with his likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.Mr. Romney, a 47-year-old venture capitalist, is approximately what Republicans would have asked central casting to send to them as the ideal contrast with Mr. Kennedy.

SEN. TED KENNEDY of all people is demagoging the religious issue against his opponent in the Senate race in Massachusetts.Sadly ironic, considering that his name is associated with taking on and de-fusing the religious issue in American politics.That was in 1960 when his brother John ran for president. No Catholic had ever been elected president. JFK challenged the prejudiced to consider him as a "the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic."Now Ted Kennedy, who won his brother's Senate seat in 1962 and has been there ever since, is being challenged by Mitt Romney, a Massachusetts businessman and the Republican candidate for the Senate who happens also to be a Mormon.

DEBATES probably don't affect the outcomes of elections, so they ought to be entertaining. Some are, some aren't.I watched two last week. Paul Sarbanes vs. Bill Brock on WMPT and Ted Kennedy vs. Mitt Romney on C-SPAN. The latter was more interesting by far.For one thing, it was a surprise. For weeks Senator Kennedy has been ducking the confrontation, allegedly because he was old, fat and ugly, couldn't think on his feet, couldn't put together coherent statements. A 32-year veteran of the Senate, he was the perfect example of what the anti-incumbent, anti-Washington crowd loves to hate.

Camelot, Schmamelot. Despite some of the headlines, what died this week was something that never actually was: The Kennedy Camelot, we now know, was largely myth, created in the wake of a president's assassination and offering a context in which to process so traumatic a national event. But when Ted Kennedy died this week, it was as a man, not a myth. That is the price, or actually the gift, of living to be an old man rather than dying as a young one. What he left behind was something more earthbound than lofty, more practical than poetic.

An unlikely, flawed heir to America's political royal family who experienced tragedy, disgrace and triumph in a life of epic proportions, Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy will be remembered as not only one of the most influential political figures of the era but for a life that was quite simply larger than life. For many Americans, he will be recalled fondly as the last of a generation of Kennedys who brought glamour, celebrity and a healthy dose of charisma to public life. But it was only after the untimely deaths of his older brothers that he stepped to the fore - and soon brought scandal to the family name with the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick Island.

Veterans of Woodstock '69 will look back fondly on that rock concert of rock concerts on its upcoming 40th anniversary. Those who attended (and others who claim they did) will make a pilgrimage to the Bethel, N.Y., site to wax nostalgic over what became a defining moment for early wave baby-boomers. I didn't attend Woodstock, now sorry to say - but I did, along with millions around the globe, follow that other great 40th year past event: Apollo 11. Those of a certain age carry their own special where-we-were, what-we-were-doing stories vis-?

Anyone caught in the logistical nightmare formerly known as Barack Obama's inauguration can take heart that democracy was at work: Even some Kennedys got frozen out. Three of former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's four daughters planned to attend the swearing-in. Yes, they had Uncle Ted to get them tickets, but they waited in line like everybody else to get inside the Purple Zone. And waited. And waited. In a tunnel. In the cold. And mostly in place. They moved a bit over the course of three-plus hours, but not enough to get them inside.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski calls Sen. Edward M. Kennedy "one of the Galahads." When the Maryland Democrat arrived in the Senate two decades ago, Kennedy was ready to show her the ways of the upper chamber, to help her win a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, to team up with her on several measures to improve women's health. Yesterday, Mikulski called news of his cancer diagnosis "wrenching -- like a punch in the heart." "Senator Kennedy is one of my oldest friends in Congress," Mikulski, who wiped tears from her eyes yesterday as she entered the Senate chamber to vote, said through a spokeswoman.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - It probably won't go down as an important moment in the history of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, but it was my favorite sports story of the week until good sense and a spirit of compromise came along and ruined everything. Manhattan lawyer Kerry Konrad bid $2,325 in an eBay charity auction for the one-day naming rights to Boston's FleetCenter, but the arena balked at his desire to rename it "Derek Jeter Center" in honor of the popular Yankees shortstop and frequent Red Sox nemesis.

Chip Franklin appeared on Fox News Channel to play the role of Mayor Martin O'Malley's goader-in-chief. In the words of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly: "Is this guy just insane or what?" Franklin's helpful reply: "He's a bit nutty." Franklin has made O'Malley a repeated target of jibes on WBAL radio in recent years, and he stayed true to form on national television. "He's out of touch," Franklin said. "He's ignoring the fact that the city - the real problem in the city is to walk some of the streets.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - This year's presidential election will probably be even closer than the 2000 race, and the outcome will be determined by turnout, the former head of the Republican National Committee told a gathering of activists yesterday. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who served as RNC chairman for most of the 1990s, said the American voting population is about evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with very few open to changing their minds between now and November. "In the last three presidential elections, neither candidate got a majority of the vote," said Barbour, referring to the 1992, 1996 and 2000 contests.

WASHINGTON - Edward M. Kennedy's voice, more monster-truck rally announcer than Boston Brahmin senator, booms through a packed hotel ballroom here as he warms up a crowd of donors for John Kerry. "There's a wave that's coming across this country," roars Kennedy. "You give John Kerry the opportunity to get his message across to the American people, he'll give America back the White House." It is a pitch Kennedy delivered loudly and often as a prominent figure in Kerry's campaign for the Democratic nomination.

WASHINGTON - It certainly didn't take President Bush long to indicate his response to the political problem created by Sen. Trent Lott's reminiscences about the good old days of segregation, now that Mr. Lott has been thrown to the wolves. Some civil rights advocates may have deluded themselves into expecting the president to be cowed by Democratic plans to put Republican race policies under a greater microscope now and thus back off his most controversial earlier judgeship nominations.