The most surprising thing I found out about Ted Kennedy this week...

[Bucky]

I had no idea he turned down a job starting with the Green Bay Packers. This would've been before the Lombardi years, when the Packers were a notoriously losing team barely hanging onto NFL membership. Head coach Liz Blackbourn apparently scouted Teddy personally, trying to save his team in an increasingly professional & sales-conscious league. He was the most athletic of the Kennedy brothers, Robert being a bit scrawny and Jack having lifelong back problems (he was rejected by the army in WW2 and had to pull strings to get his navy gig). But he wasn't just the happy jock type, of course, Ted was a real renaissance man.

What's surprised you most about Kennedy this last week?

 

[Patsy Stone]

1. That he brought soil from Bobby and Jack's graves

to Yitzak Rabin's funeral, in a shopping bag, and spread it on the grave when everyone had left.

[Parker CA]

18. That story really got to me. Such a quiet, yet incredibly powerful and meaningful thing to do.

[Avalux]

2. I didn't know he was a painter - and gave his paintings as gifts.

I loved Obama's story of admiring the painting in Kennedy's office when he first arrived in Washington; when Obama came to work the next day, the painting was on his desk with a note. He now has it hanging in the library at the WH.

[AwakeAtLast]

3. Yes! I loved hearing about his artistic side

So many wonderful things came out about him. He was a wonderful person anyway, but all of these other things coming out were just good to hear!

[Inspired]

4. I knew a little about his family but I didn't know

how remarkable those who will continue the Kennedy legacy are. Ted Jr., Patrick, Kara and those wonderful grandchildren! The vision of Teddy III from yesterday won't leave me for a long time.

I have a renewed admiration for this great American family. There are many members of this family who have the tenacity and the compassion to carry on.

[orpupilofnature57]

5. That he was such good Friends with Shelby Foote ,to be a fly listening to them.

Great historian and great history maker.

[Spazito]

10. Among the many things I learned about Senator Kennedy these last days...

the mention of Shelby Foote by Ted Kennedy Jr. struck me as well. I had watched Ken Burn's series "The Civil War' where Shelby Foote had a prominent place in it and thought, as you did, oh, to have been around to listen to the Senator and him talk!

Last night, on PBS, was the final episode of "The Civil War" entitled 1865 and I watched it again and there was Shelby Foote and, instantly, I paired him with Senator Kennedy. I suspect that will always be from now on.

[orpupilofnature57]

16. Me too

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. That he was instrumental in Airline Deregulation:

Kennedy Pushed Airline Deregulation, Changed U.S. Air Travel

Deregulating the airline industry was a major legislative achievement for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who pushed the issue even though he didn’t have jurisdiction over aviation and used his substantial charm and persuasiveness to change the way America travels.

In the early 1970s, Sen. Kennedy held extensive hearings as chairman of the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, pushing deregulation as a way to increase competition and bring affordable air travel to millions of Americans. At the time, the Civil Aeronautics Board, a government agency, set airline fares and routes, limiting competition and guaranteeing airlines’ profits. The hearings drew media attention and raised the profile of what had been a largely academic issue to major pro-consumer status.

Two aides, Phil Bakes and Stephen Breyer–who later became a Supreme Court justice– convinced Sen. Kennedy to lead the deregulation charge, even over objections from the labor unions that supported the Massachusetts senator. Deregulation appealed to conservatives who hated government intervention in business and to consumer groups who thought air travel should be more affordable. But the issue wasn’t a natural one for Sen. Kennedy. Yet he saw it, in part, as a broad issue that could give him more clout for presidential runs in 1976 and 1980, according to Thomas Petzinger Jr.’s definitive account of that era in aviation, “Hard Landing.’’

Sen. Howard Cannon of Nevada, the chairman of the Senate aviation subcommittee, supported the CAB and airline industry against deregulation, but was eventually persuaded to switch views in large measure by Sen. Kennedy. The Kennedy-Cannon airline deregulation bill was signed by President Carter in 1978.

more: http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/08/26/kennedy-pushed-airline-deregulation-changed-us-air-travel/

[Bucky]

9. He was also involved in deregulating taxi cabs at airports, breaking the Yellow Cab monopoly

It resulted in better customer service, more competition, and lower costs. He wasn't against free enterprise, he was against exploitative capitalism--a distinction that wingnuts try to obscure.

[demosincebirth]

24. Deregulation of the Airline and Trucking industry...my only compaint against him

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Didn't Airline Deregulation make air travel affordable for the common man?

:shrug:

[demosincebirth]

29. I don't know if it made it more affordadable... but the

airline unions and the trucking unions (teamsters) took it in the shorts because non-union companies could,now,open up and charge lower rates (which they did) and undercut union companies. They didn't have to pay their employees benifits and wages like the union companies did. The end result was the few unions trucking companies left are barely hanging on and their wages have dropped significantly because of the competition from non-union carriers who pay their employees far less in wages and benifits.
Many may say that thats the way things work in this country. But if you put union workers at a disadvantage from the get-go then we desperately need change in the law to give is a fighting chance against those who want to take what we have to line their pockets.
Deregulation was suppose to increase competition and lower prices of all the goods shipped from point A to point B and in the end lower retail prices. I haven't seen that happen yet. The only thing lower has been wage and benifits of all workers in this industry .
This is why the passage of the EFCA will give all workers (union and Non union) an even playing field against those who have exploited us since this country was founded.

Sorry for the rant.

[undeterred]

7. That he has a surviving older sister, Jean,

who used to be the ambassador to Ireland.

[babylonsister]

8. That he called over 170 families after 9/11, and then kept

in touch with them. :cry:

[douglaspar]

11. Ted Kennedy tribute

I will tell you over the past week I have learned so much about Ted Kennedy. It's a shame we wait until people pass to learn so much about them. I created a tribute to the "liberal lion." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6XjTKr2V_Q
God bless.

[cleveramerican]

12. not about Ted but about Jack

Harvard(and the city of Cambridge) turned down the presidential library?
while Jack was still alive and thought Harvard was a fitting spot for it.
I live in Ma and I had never heard this story before

[TayTay]

19. Oh I remember that fight very, very well

It raged for a few years and was pretty vicious.

OF course now it's hard to imagine the library anywhere else. But that was some fight. There was a time when I didn't think it would get built at all. Silly me, Teddy wanted it done, so it got done.

[cleveramerican]

28. could it be true.....

that they didn't want generations of catholic school children taking field trips to Harvard?

[TayTay]

31. LOL, possibly

but I think it about that school overshadowing all else at fair Harvard. So, Columbia Point got the JFK Library and Fair Harvard got the JFK School of government. not a bad resolution.

[EFerrari]

13. He knew the words to "Jalisco"!

:)

[stray cat]

14. I didn't know the person his grandchildren knew....

[grantcart]

15. I believe that it was said that he turned down a try out and not a starting position

This was still a big revelation - it would have been interesting to see him just try out for the hell of it.

[Bucky]

17. You're right.

But he was a Kennedy. Do you really think he was going to end up a benchwarmer?

[IcyPeas]

20. all of the above, plus this funny video...

the video of him conducting the Boston Pops is so funny. Please watch and have a laugh. With all his seriousness, he definitely had a silly side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKwjGssH6zs

[kath]

22. That was wonderful to watch. Many Thanks!

[cleveramerican]

30. wow! I missed this at the time

even at this you can tell he had recived some expert instruction
being prepared was one of his hallmarks
check out the face on Bono.

[Hepburn]

21. Yeah, the Packers thing was a surprise....

...I never figured him for that much of a jock.

[Odin2005]

23. He was behind the Americans with Disabilities Act.

[EFerrari]

25. I'm starting to think it would be easier to list the progressive causes

he DIDN'T quarterback in the last 47 years. :hi:

[Catshrink]

27. I didn't know he took time to read to school children

in DC and tutor them.