I was more touched by Biden's remarks than any I have heard so far.
It was obviously difficult for Biden, his heart hurt as badly as ours,
or maybe more.
Biden paid tribute to Kennedy in place of delivering prescheduled remarks, telling his audience his late colleague was "never defeatist ... He never was petty."
"Don't you find that remarkable, that one of the most partisan, liberal men in the Senate, that so many of his — so many of his foes embrace him?" Biden said.
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Thanks to vc2 and truebluemajority for the transcript!
... as we would say in the Senate, if you will excuse a point of personal privilege, I quite frankly think it would be inappropriate for me to dwell too much on the initiative that we are announcing today and not speak to my friend.
My wife Jill and my sons Bo and Hunter and my daughter Ashley, and I don't say that lightly because they all knew Teddy. He did something personal and special for each one of them and their lives truly truly are distressed by his passing. And our hearts go out to Teddy Jr and Patrick and Kara, and Vicki with whom I spoke this morning, and the whole Kennedy family.
You know, Teddy spent a lifetime working for a fair and more just America. And for 36 years I had the privilege of going to work every day and literally, not figurately, sitting next to him and being a witness to history every single day the Senate was in session. I sat with him on the Senate floor in the same aisle and I sat with him in the Judicary Committee next, physically next to him. And I sat with him in the caucuses. And it was in that process, every day I was with him, and this is going to sound strange but, he restored my sense of idealism and my faith in the possibilities of what this country could do.
He and I were talking after his diagnosis and I said you know, I think you are the only other person I've met who, like me, is more optmistic, more enthuisiatic, more idealistic, sees greater possibilities after 36 years than when we were elected. He was 30 years old when he was elected, I was 29 years old. And you would think that would be the peak of our idealism. But I genuinely feel more optimistic about the prospects for my country today than I did at—have at any time in my life. And it was infectious when you were with him. You could see it--those of you who knew him and those who didn't know him--you could just see it in the nature of his debate, in the nature of his embrace, in the nature of how he every single day attacked these problems.
And you know, he was never defeatist. He never was petty. Never was petty. He was never small. And in the process of his doing, he made everybody he worked with bigger. Both his adversaries as well as his allies. Don't you find it remarkable that one of the most partisan liberal men in the last century, serving in the Senate, that so many of his... [emotional pause]
so many of his foes embrace him. Because they know, he made them bigger, he made them more graceful by the way in which he conducted himself.
You know, he changed the circustamces of tens of millions of americans in a literal sense. literally. literally. Changed their circumstances. He changed also another aspect of it as I observed about him. He changed not only their physical circumstance, he changed how they looked at themselves and how they looked at one another. that's remarkable. a remarkable contribution for any man or woman to make. and for the hundreds if not thousands of us who got to know him personally, he actually, how can I say it? he altered our lives as well.
Through the grace of God and an accident of history I was privileged to be one of those people.
And every important event in my adult life as I look back this morning in talking to Vicki, every single one, he was there. He was there to encourage, to counsel, to be empathetic, to lift up.
From 1972 as a 29 year old kid with three weeks left to go in a campaign, him showing up at the Delaware Armory in the middle of what we called Little Italy, who'd never voted nationally for a Democrat, I won by 3100 votes and got 85% of the vote in that district or something to that effect.
I literally would not be standing here were it not for Teddy Kennedy. not figuratively, it's not hyperbole. literally.
he was there. he stood with me when my wife and daughter were killed in an accident. he was on the phone with me literally every day in the hospital when my two children were attempting, and God willing God thankfully, survived very serious injuries.
i turned around and there would be some specialist from Massachusetts, a doc I hadn't even asked for, literally, sitting in the room with me.
You know it's not just me that he affected like that, it's hundreds upon hundreds of people.
I was talking to Vicki this morning and she said, she said "He was ready to go, Joe."
But we were not ready to let him go.
He's left a great void in our public life and a hole in the hearts of millions of Americans and hundreds of us who were affected by his personal touch throughout our lives. People like me who came to rely on him.
He was kind of like an anchor.
And unlike many important people in my 38 years I've had the privilege of knowing, the unique thing about Teddy was: it was never about him. it was always about you. it was never about him.
Most people I admire are great women and men but at the end of the day it gets down to being about them With Teddy it was never about him.
Well, today we lost a truly remarkable man. To paraphrase Shakespeare, I don't think we shall ever see his like again.
But I think the legacy he left is not just in the landmark legislation he passed, but in how he helped people look at themselves and look at one another.
I apologize for us not being able to go into more detail about the energy bill but I just think for me at least it was inappropriate today. And I'm sure there will be much more that will be said about my friend and your friend. But, he changed the political landscape for almost a half a century.
I just hope--we say blithely, you know, "we'll remember what he did". I just hope we remember how he treated other people, and how he made other people look at themselves and look at one another.
That will be the truly fundamentally unifying legacy of Teddy Kennedy's life if that happens, and it will for a while, at least in the Senate.