Reply #44: Aw, dammit.

[americanstranger]

Godspeed and good luck, Old Lion.

On edit: Here's a short story about TK to maybe lighten the mood. It makes me smile every time I think about it.

In 2003, my wife and I went to the first meeting in the Senate Office Building in DC to discuss advancing liberal media outlets (both Air America and Nova M were the eventual result of this conference). The entire day was a series of visits by senators to hear our ideas for advancement of liberal media in this country. About midway through, Senator Kennedy was scheduled to appear. We all took a short break and headed into the hall to wait for Kennedy to show up.

After a couple of minutes, the mood in the hall became electric, and people were buzzing that Kennedy had arrived. I looked down the hall and saw the senator approaching - with a dog on a leash!

I asked one of the Senate pages what the deal was with the dog, and he told me it was Teddy's dog, and he didn't go anywhere in the Senate without him. We re-convened to the conference room, the senator (with dog!) came in and took a seat to await his turn to speak. His dog curled up at his feet and went to sleep. Senator Kennedy made his remarks, took a few questions, then got up to leave. His dog, on cue, woke up and headed out of the room with him.

Many things have been said about Teddy Kennedy over the years, and the legend often outpaces the actual man. But I thought that day that any senator who takes care of business with dog in tow was just beyond cool.

Love the family, love the man. Sincerely hoping for the best in a bad situation here.

- as