DEMOCRATS AND Republicans were already squabbling bitterly over Edward Kennedy’s legacy in advance of his funeral today at a Catholic church in Boston and his burial alongside his two assassinated brothers at the national cemetery in Arlington.
Aides to Barack Obama, who will deliver the funeral oration today to a congregation that will include three former US presidents and several foreign leaders, dismissed conservative allegations the president would use the occasion to try to breathe life into his tottering healthcare reform drive.
Senior Democrats have said the healthcare bill should be renamed after Kennedy, who said achieving universal health insurance was “the cause of my life”.
But a spokesman for Mr Obama said he would steer clear of politics in today’s address. “Our country lost a beloved leader and the politics and implications of that are the last thing on the president’s mind right now.”
Conservative critics of healthcare reform nevertheless accused Democrats of exploiting Kennedy’s death. “The Democrats are playing the death card again, wrapping their wildly unpopular healthcare bill in the sentimental gauze of Ted Kennedy’s memory,” said Laura Ingraham, a conservative commentator. “It is disgusting.”
The row over the alleged politicisation of Mr Kennedy’s passing is likely to continue after the funeral as Democrats step up plans to amend state law in Massachusetts so Mr Kennedy’s seat can be filled by a temporary appointee, and the party can keep its potentially critical 60-seat majority in the Senate during the key autumn session.
Under existing Massachusetts law, an election should be held 145-160 days after the seat is vacated. That would leave the seat vacant until January – too late for a vote in the Senate to shut off an opposition filibuster, which needs a majority of 60.
Shortly before his death, Mr Kennedy urged Deval Patrick, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, to amend the state law.
Interim candidates include Joseph Kennedy II – son of Robert Kennedy – and former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
“There is no mourning period when it comes to ensuring adequate representation for Massachusetts in the US Senate,” said the Boston Globe in an editorial yesterday. “Important votes on healthcare and climate change draw near.” Any attempt to amend state law would trigger further conservative fury, since the law was rushed through in 2004 during the presidential election when Democrats feared Mitt Romney, the then Republican governor of Massachusetts, would appoint a Republican to replace John Kerry, had he won the election. On Thursday, Mr Kerry added to calls for that law to be rescinded.
“Given how bitterly polarised and partisan the healthcare debate has become, it is conceivable it could all boil down to a party-line vote in the Senate to shut off a Republican filibuster,” says Thomas Mann, a veteran commentator on Congress.
Senior Republicans including John McCain and Orrin Hatch, both friends of Mr Kennedy, have suggested that, had he lived, a bipartisan compromise on healthcare would be possible. That claim is impossible to disprove and seems implausible; both senators oppose key planks of healthcare reform.
Nor is his death likely to alter the debate in favour of reform. Mr Kennedy, whose posthumous memoir, True Compass, will be published on September 15th, had been absent from the Senate all year. “Healthcare reform was in trouble before he died and it is still in trouble now.”says David Frum, a leading conservative commentator. – Copyright Financial Times Ltd 2009