Edward Kennedy's death yesterday triggered a rare moment of bipartisan unity in Washington at the end of a bitterly rancorous month in which the “Lion of the Senate's” lifelong goal of achieving universal healthcare had been called un-American by rightwing critics.
Kennedy's passing, which will almost certainly bring to a close the most celebrated political dynasty America has known, brought into sharp relief the waning of the principled and collegial politics he represented.
At the end of a month when opponents of healthcare reform had alleged Kennedy would be excluded from treatment for the brain cancer from which he died under the reforms he had championed, opponents rushed to praise his legislative accomplishments. “He believed in our country and fought passionately for his convictions,” Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, wrote on her Facebook site.