Teddy Kennedy did not trumpet his faith, but his life in the Senate surely reflects it. Again and again and again until the very end, Kennedy was unstinting in his support for and protection of the poor, the needy, the oppressed, and those on the margins.

We don’t know how Ted Kennedy’s death will affect the health care fight. And every minute we spend wondering about it–rather than making it happen–is a dishonor to the man.

They just can’t help themselves. You’d think they could’ve waited, oh I don’t know, 24 hours before they started picking at the corpse like vultures. Nope.

I’d say going forward, we’re likely to get a bill out of the Senate that’s quite a bit weaker than Kennedy’s HELP committee bill for the sake of getting Republicans on board. Rather than coming together to pass a better bill in his honor, Democrats are likely to take up Robert Byrd’s call to name the bill after him, then gut his bill use his legacy to get it passed.

a classic moment from 2004.

Last night Jim Moran managed to draw the rolling freak show down on himself in Reston with a town hall targeted by out-of-district teabaggers. Reston has a voting population that is about 75-80% Democratic, so as Moran noted when Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, started agitating from the crowd, these weren’t people who lived there.

Liveblog of Obama’s public statement on Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy, the lion of the Senate, has passed. His legacy of political achievement is long: his constant and continuing fight (YouTube) for the child health insurance program (CHIP), support and legal equality for Americans with disabilities, reforms of mental health programs, national community service, the voting rights act, substantial work for years on civil rights and civil liberties concerns.

Because even if his name was just Edward Moore, he would be one of the giants of the Senate.