Against The Wind: Edward Kennedy And The Rise Of Conservatism 1976 - 2009, Gabler - A*

                      This is the second volume of the author's masterful biography of the Massachusetts senator. In the first, the theme was Ted's contribution to the causes of liberalism that dominated the 60's. This book, however, is about how the wind shifted in the 70's, "and how Ted Kennedy attempted to defy it, then bent into it, charged into it, even as he realized that the moral moment had passed and the nation's values had changed..." Under Nixon and Reagan, America abandoned "the ideals that had held the liberal consensus together." The Republican Party was now about "the politics of anger and resentment." This story is about the flawed senator's battle to protect liberalism and its political morality. 

                    When Jimmy Carter ran in 1976, both Ted and the liberal establishment showed little enthusiasm for the conservative Georgian. Ted continued to plug away at his senatorial responsibilities with the thoroughness and modesty that had impressed all since his arrival a decade and a half earlier. He was considered the hardest-working senator and everyone agreed that he had the best staff, one fiercely loyal to him. Knowing full well that his presidential prospects had materially dimmed, he focused on becoming a legislative maestro in the style of Lyndon Johnson. He understood the institution as well as anyone, knew how it worked and worked to make it work for him and his causes. He was polite to all, never, ever made enemies and excelled at bringing people into his circle. 

                   Carter's objective was to govern as a moralistic technocrat, not an ideologue. Tip O'Neill observed that he wanted to change everything, but didn't understand anything. He had a meaningful majority in both houses but squandered it by insulting and ignoring the leadership. The first sign of discord with Ted was Carter's apparent indifference to universal health care. As they proceeded to talk and talk, it was apparent to Ted and big labor that Carter would never really pursue healthcare legislation. By the end of 1978, there was a clear break and Carter feared Ted would challenge him in 1980. At year end, Ted achieved a major goal when he became Chair of the Judiciary Committee. He worked very hard to create and pass the Criminal Code Reform Action effort that the Washington Post called "one of the greatest legislative feats of modern times." He then tacked to the right and passed both airline and trucking deregulation laws. Everyone expected Ted to run, particularly in late summer 1979 when Cater's approval ratio dropped to 19%. He felt he had to run to uphold the legacy of his brothers and to protect the liberal wing of the party. He made a lackluster announcement on Nov. 7th that had been preceded by a Roger Mudd interview that was so horrid, it is remembered as having scuttled his campaign before it began. Immediately afterwards, Carter's approval rating skyrocketed as America rallied behind him when the embassy hostages were taken in Tehran. The campaign was rudderless and lacking a message. Ted was a better senator than his brothers, but totally lacked their campaigning abilities. Furthermore, the moral mission of liberalism was not on the minds of a people facing 12% inflation, 8% unemployment, and unheard of interest rates. Carter beat him in Iowa. Ted switched the focus from Carter's leadership to time honored liberal values, but those issues failed to resonate as they once had. Ted won enough primaries to keep going and fight over the platform. Speaking to the Platform Committee, he closed the best speech of his life with "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." He now was, in the words of Ted Sorenson, "the conscience of the party, the hope of the nation."

                  Reagan convinced "Americans that they had no civic obligations to Americans in distress." Ted's objective was to fight in the minority against the Reagan agenda. He was disillusioned, drinking and newly divorced. He found his footing when he worked the Voting Rights Act extension through the senate with Republican help and no support from the White House.  However, day after day battling the turn to the right was a losing cause. Under Nixon, the Republicans had taken a portion of the Democratic base on the issue of race. Reagan took the Catholics on the issue of abortion. Equally important, fewer and fewer of the old coalition were as poor as they once had been. They were middle class and inclined toward the Republican status quo. With the economy booming in 1984, Reagan was a shoo-in.  Ted visited South Africa and championed an American refutation of apartheid. When apartheid ended, Sen. Lowell Weicker said that Ted more than anyone in the world was responsible for the accomplishment. Ted embraced arms control and acted as a critical go-between for Reagan and the Soviets. When the Dems took back the senate in 1986, he left Judiciary and became chair of the Labor Committee. Realizing the presidency would not be in reach at any point, he recommitted to the Senate. In 1987, the Labor Committee introduced forty-five bills that became law. He passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act over Reagan's veto. That summer, the president nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. In addition to his extreme views, Bork had also fired Kennedy-family friend Archibald Cox in 1973.  Ted came out swinging in what is known as his 'Robert Bork's America' speech, heatedly eviscerating the nominee. He organized a nationwide opposition, personally made thousands of phone calls, and his staff created the 'Book of Bork' with the jurists extreme positions detailed. Ted went after him with a ferocity that surprised his colleagues. In the end, Bork's arrogance at the hearing did him in. In Bush's first year, Ted worked diligently with any and all in Congress who had a connection to the disabled, and passed the A.D.A. which was essentially a civil rights act for forty million disabled Americans. In 1990, he forged the coalition that passed the Ryan White Act. In the first two years of the new administration, his committee passed fifty-four bills. 

                    Nonetheless, the late 80's and early 90's were a difficult time for a man approaching 60. Battling from the minority was wearing. He had a vast set of responsibilities to Bobby's eleven and Jack's two children. His own sons and Bobby's seemed to be in constant trouble. On a daily basis, he was reminded of the loss of his brothers. He dated, but never overcame the loneliness. And, he drank - a lot. After a night of bar-hopping in Palm Beach over Easter in 1991, his nephew William was accused of rape and Ted was investigated for obstruction of justice. The tabloids and the mainstream press crucified him as the man who had turned the Kennedy myth from a "brief shining moment" to a "sordid aftermath." He was mocked on the late night shows and became an object of national derision. The tide began to turn that summer when he started dating Victoria Reggie, a family friend and recently divorced lawyer. Although Ted believed Anita Hill and not Clarence Thomas, he was relatively quiet that fall during the hearings, and was accused by many for letting Thomas on the court because he had been unwilling to fight the way he had against Bork. His marriage to Victoria significantly changed his life for the better. He was now a devoted husband and a superb step-dad.

                 With Bill Clinton in the White House, Ted began to put through many bills that George Bush had vetoed. The press began to report that America's "liberal titan" was back. He was concerned about what he considered Clinton's tepid approach to health care, an approach that ignored the congress. With Finance chair Moynihan opposed, and the bill not presented until 1994, matters did not look promising. As much effort as Ted and Majority Leader Mitchell put into it, it failed.  For the first time in thirty-two years, Ted also faced a Republican opponent who could possibly unseat him. Mitt Romney was charming, good-looking and totally without any personal baggage. Romney had money to spend and he did. Polls in September showed them neck and neck. Ted looked old, overweight and worn out.  He called in an army of old Kennedy hands. Ted's campaign found Romney's weakness and hammered away on it. His company took over a business, laid off people and cut benefits, and they did it to a company that had been in Holyoke for a century. Ted pulverized him in their debate with his knowledge of the Senate and the details of legislating. Ted won by 18 points, but for the rest of the party, 1994 was a disaster. Republicans won both houses and a number of governorships. The new Republican leadership declared war on civility and on the US government. Ted set "the democratic strategy against Gingrich's dismantling of the government." The Republican budget made massive cuts to Medicare and other programs for people in need in favor of benefitting major corporations. Clinton vetoed them, and then when the government was shuttered, the public blamed Gingrich. Ted was the "spine stiffener" in the senate, and Clinton was the "executioner" of the Gingrich revolution. Ted spent the first half of 1996 tying Bob Dole up in knots over a minimum wage bill, which Dole could not support as the Republican nominee. Ted so masterfully "ran the senate" with amendment after amendment that Dole eventually resigned his senate seat. That summer he passed HIPPA and medical savings accounts, and was being praised as one of the greatest senators of the century. Unlike LBJ's powers in the Senate forty years earlier, Ted's power was not muscular, but rather "the soft power of congeniality" and "legislative integrity." He loved the Senate, respected everyone in it, and still worked harder than anyone else. He was generous, considerate, caring and incredibly thoughtful. He had an unparalleled personal decency. "He was the master because his colleagues knew that Ted Kennedy, for all his flaws, or perhaps because of them, really cared about them and about others."

                      The second Clinton administration saw Ted working with Orrin Hatch, a Republican Mormon senator from Utah with whom he had, on the surface, little in common, but who became his great friend and colleague, to pass a bill providing health care to children under six even though both the administration and the Republican leadership were opposed. He worked on the culmination of decades of support for Ireland by collaborating with Bill Clinton and George Mitchell to establish the accords that ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He backed Clinton when his impeachment ordeal began in early 1998. As the matter dragged on, Clinton's approval ratio increased and for the first time since 1822, the party of a second term incumbent picked up seats in the mid-terms. Thus, Newt Gingrich, "the vainglorious opportunist who had always put his ego above his nation's interests" resigned from the House. 

                     Although he seldom agreed with George W. Bush, Ted initially liked him. He worked closely with the administration on No Child Left Behind. But although, "Bush was charming and congenial, he was still a hardcore conservative who was not willing to make major compromises, and his ambitions were seemingly no different from those of Reagan and Gingrich." After 9/11, Ted called the families of each of Massachussetts'  187 victims offering sympathy and more importantly, help. He obtained free legal assistance for them, and obtained a dedicated social worker for each family. Soon, the Bush administration was ginning up their war on terror to include Iraq, a godforsaken country, but not one with a connection to 9/11. Ted became the leading voice trying to stop the madcap rush to war. Bush, Cheney, et. al. wanted war, lied extensively to get it, and began shooting in March, 2003. After Bush pushed his war through and deceived Ted on funding for NCLB, and on details of the bill for Medicare prescription drugs, Ted reluctantly concluded that an institution where one could rely on a man's word was changing for the worse. Ted no longer would go to the White House or talk to the president, whom he now lambasted in public as comparable to Nixon. He raged against George Bush throughout 2003 and 2004, campaigned vigorously for John Kerry, and was crushed when Bush was reelected. He spent a vast amount of time in the new year and in 2006 working with John McCain to pass immigration reform. They passed it in the Senate, but it died in the House. The last years of Bush's presidency saw a collapse of his popularity, and Democratic control of both houses after the mid-terms. Ted was finally able to push through the first increase in the minimum wage since 1994. Ted came close in 2007, but once again immigration reform failed.

                    In January of 2008, Ted, as well as Caroline Kennedy, endorsed Obama over Clinton for the presidency. Both Kennedys thought he had the ability to inspire and compared him to JFK. Ted campaigned for Obama with an enthusiasm not seen on the campaign trail in years. But everything came apart in May when he received a diagnosis of incurable brain cancer. Although surgery was considered a long shot, he had much of the tumor removed in June. The hope was to defer the inevitable. He spoke to the Democratic convention in August. In a crowning "last hurrah" speech he spoke of the passing of the torch to new generation and closed with "the dream lives on." He brought down the house. When Obama won a clear and convincing victory, Ted returned to Washington to work on a lifetime dream - health care. He was not well enough though to go to the senate. On the day of Obama's inauguration, he had another seizure. He came to Washington for his birthday and  received the Profiles In Courage Award at the Kennedy Center. He worked from Hyannis with his staff and the Democratic majority, and felt confident that the ACA would pass. The end came on August 25, 2009.

                   This is an extraordinary and very powerful book about a very human and very special man. At 1041 pages of text, one might suggest it's a tad too long. The two books total 1773 pages, but I believe every one is worth reading. He was as focused and as committed to his beliefs and goals as anyone I have ever read about, and his beliefs have proven, and will continue to prove, that he had the wind and the long arc of history at his back.