Ted Kennedy

Latest Articles

A Statesman Too Late?

John Kerry heads to work on the debt ‘super committee’ with his usual earnestness and high hopes — despite the circus that surrounds him
The congressional debt "super committee" has begun its work, and already there are signs that its task is hopeless.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 21, 2011

The plan to turn Rhode Island red

GOP strategist Ken McKay is quietly plotting a data-driven explosion of the state’s one-party rule
The Rhode Island Republican Party's reputation for ineptitude is, by any reasonable measure, richly deserved.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 12, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Dream on

Heinrich Schütz’s swan song; the Pops’ 125th-anniversary commission
Some lovers of religious music consider Heinrich Schütz even greater than Bach, who was born 13 years after Schütz’s death.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 27, 2010

BU offers the class of 1970 a second chance at complacency

After School Special
Boston University’s class of 2010 celebrates its commencement this weekend, and BU has invited the class of 1970 to tag along.
By CLIF GARBODEN | May 12, 2010

Cape Wind: It’s Complicated

Obama gave the green-energy project a green light. Now, a slew of messy coalitions are going to battle over the future of clean energy.
Thousands of years ago, the terrain beneath what is now Nantucket Sound was dry, and populated by the ancestors of the Wampanoag people, who continue to revere it.
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | May 07, 2010

Stars, bars, and open arms

Flags + Guns Dept.
The first thing I noticed when pulling into the Preble Street parking lot on Back Cove for last Sunday’s open-carry firearm event, which had been organized to encourage Mainers to legally wear their guns in public, was the Confederate flag.
By RICK WORMWOOD | April 28, 2010

What now?

Kennedy's exit rewrites the political game book.
Representative Patrick J. Kennedy's campaigns were always about something far larger than Rhode Island's First Congressional District, which snakes from Burrillville down through the Blackstone Valley and into Newport.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 17, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Wink!

Idiot Box
The GOP pulled a Coup D'e Tea Bag on the Massachusetts Senate Seat.
By MATT BORS | February 04, 2010

Deeply ashamed

Failure
On the plus side ...
By KARL STEVENS | January 29, 2010

Rhode Island’s own stab at health reform

Get Healthy
Health care reform, if it survives the election of Republican Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat, will make insurance accessible and provide a slew of new consumer protections for millions of Americans.
By MARION DAVIS | January 20, 2010

Does Scott Brown’s victory mean doom for RI Democrats?

Fallout
Republican Scott Brown's stunning victory this week in the race for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts has created something approaching panic in the ranks of Congressional Democrats.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 20, 2010

What’s next for Cicilline?

After a couple of tough years — and some jabs from Buddy — how bright is his political future?
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline rode into office seven years ago as the fresh-faced anti-Buddy. Bleach for a soiled City Hall.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 21, 2010

How Brown won

While Massachusetts Democrats assess blame for who lost the Senate seat, the truth is that Scott Brown won it
As the Massachusetts US Senate election unfolded yesterday, all that the pols and pundits wanted to talk about was how Martha Coakley managed to lose the race. And there is plenty there to dissect. But there is another part of the story, and that is how Scott Brown managed to win it.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 22, 2010

Tea-bagger Brown triumphs

Obama must rally independents
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley may be a good person and a dedicated public servant, but thanks to her gut-wrenching loss to tea-bagging Republican Scott Brown in the race for the US Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, Coakley is now — quite rightly — a figure of local scorn and national derision.
By EDITORIAL | January 20, 2010

Coakley for Senate

She has the talent and gumption to tackle the future
When Massachusetts voters go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a successor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, they face a choice that is as clear as the difference between black and white.
By EDITORIAL | January 19, 2010

Capuano for Senate

Plus, Obama's Afghanistan blunder
After a telescoped campaign, Massachusetts Democrats go to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to a legend, Ted Kennedy.
By EDITORIAL | December 04, 2009

The X factor

Come Monday, it's a one-week spring to the primary — and to capture the hearts of undecided voters.
Martha Coakley should be plenty thankful for the holiday weekend. The polls suggest that, if nothing significant changes between now and the December 8 primary, she should handily claim the Democratic nomination for US Senate.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 24, 2009

Taking sides

The US Senate election is forcing Massachusetts pols to choose their team. Plus, Pagliuca’s plan, and the state GOP tries to get serious.
The stakes are high in the battle for Massachusetts’s first new US senatorship in a quarter-century.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 04, 2009

Camelot: The Next Generation

Patrick Kennedy is a square peg in his family's historic round table
Senator Ted Kennedy's months-long battle with brain cancer inspired endless commentary about the demise of Camelot.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 01, 2009

Disclosure: not a dirty word

Menino's shame and Kerry's blunder. Plus, Olympic follies.
The City Hall e-mail scandal that has scored headlines in recent weeks exemplifies Mayor Thomas Menino's antagonistic — almost contemptuous — attitude toward public accountability.
By EDITORIAL | September 30, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Six for the seat

After a tumultuous week, these half dozen are still in the mix for Kennedy's seat.
Over the next few months, as candidates for the US Senate travel the state, you're likely to hear them say again and again that nobody can ever truly replace Ted Kennedy. That's the truth. But what does the state want next, after such a legendary, larger-than-life figure?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 16, 2009

Blowhard, interrupted

If Curt Schilling runs for Senate, will he keep his sports-media perch?
Former Red Sox great Curt Schilling isn't the only prospective US Senate candidate agonizing over whether to run for Ted Kennedy's old seat. But unlike some of his potential rivals the Bloody Socked One seems determined to share his Hamlet act with the biggest possible audience.
By ADAM REILLY | September 11, 2009

With Kennedy's death, a chance to move beyond royalty

Dynasties
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the last "lion" of the Massachusetts clan, finally rests – in peace, I hope.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | September 02, 2009

Rhode Island weighs a succesions drama of its own

Political Watch
The death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy has Massachusetts' political class speculating, in not-so-hushed tones, about the odds of a next-generation Kennedy running for and winning the seat.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 03, 2009

Onward, Christian governor!

Carcieri gets "loose"; plus, farewell to Tedy, and mind-boggling Bush
It's nice to see Governor Don "Laughing Boy" Carcieri loosening up by sharing the real Donnie Boy with the people of Vo Dilun. Initially (certainly in his first campaign for governor in 2002) Don tried to come across as a moderate conservative, not unlike his immediate predecessor, Linc Almond.
By PHILLIPE & JORGE | September 02, 2009

Have you heard the one about Chappaquiddick?

Funny Peculiar
Last week, during an appearance on the Washington, DC–based Diane Rehm Show on NPR, Ted Kennedy biographer Edward Klein suggested that if Kennedy could witness his own funeral he'd probably crack a joke.
By ADAM REILLY | September 02, 2009

Giant shadow

Though he won't be on the ballot, Ted Kennedy's influence will be keenly felt in the special election to replace him.
One striking aspect of the Kennedy tributes was the focus on the help he and his office provided for ordinary individuals in Massachusetts — all those things that fall under the category of "constituent services."
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 02, 2009