Inspiration

by: Adam Bink

Wed Aug 26, 2009 at 11:00

I used to intern on Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Ted Kennedy's (or as we called him, EMK) committee staff. He was then ranking minority member. I started in January 2005, as Bush was gearing up to gut Social Security through privatization. Most people think of interns as answering phones, running memos, getting coffee. I did a little of that too, but on the committee staff, you do very real, substantive work. One of my principal responsibilities was to do research showing how privatization would hurt Massachusetts seniors, or single mothers, low-income folks, other communities. I would then make these into Powerpoint charts, run them down to a Senate office that had them printed up into large posterboard charts that the Senator could take on the floor. Then I would bring them back to the office for his legislative assistant to take to the floor with him, and since he liked to have something to hold during his speeches, we would decide what to give him to take to the floor, which he would usually shake to punctuate his speeches- a magazine article, or a newspaper clipping, for example. If he didn't have anything, he would rip off his glasses and gesture with them passionately.

Then he would take to the floor and we'd see our efforts culminate as he quietly stood up, said the usual "Mr. President, I rise today..." and launch into a diatribe about economic fairness, about FDR's legacy, about the plain economics of how this was the l last leg of the three-legged stool on which Americans' retirement now shakily stood. He would get more and more passionate until you could actually see members of the Senate standing behind him, watching, on C-SPAN2. I remember going to other offices on errands during my tenure and their Senators would be on TV, but they'd be going about their work. I found that odd, because when Ted Kennedy came on TV, our office would literally stop. One of the Senator's disability staffers would come out of a meeting, the committee minority staff director in our office would stop his crazed day, we would all look up from our computers and watch. Then we would all go back to work, a little more inspired by his passion and idealism. I remember that most about him- his ability to inspire. He made us all feel our work was doing some good. My tenure there convinced me I wanted to work in politics full-time.

The other thing I want to say is about what comes next.

I remember when a member of the House died- an Ohio Republican, I think- and Chris posted it and offered some thoughts about the replacement procedure and opportunities to pick it up. A lot of folks in the comments angrily accused Chris of being a heartless politico.

After we've all had a little space, I don't think we should hesitate to think about- in the coming weeks- what comes next for Sen. Kennedy's big shoes, and take action if we have to. Let me tell you why.

At the end of my tenure in the Senate, all the interns had a chance to sit down en masse with the Senator to chat and take photos. He asked if we had any questions, and I raised my hand and because I was writing a term paper on the 1993-94 health care fight, I asked him what went wrong and what should be done differently next time. He sat up straight and went on for a good 20 minutes about the policy issues in the bill, what the Clintons did wrong politically, what he did wrong, where our allies went missing. I noticed a number of my fellow interns start to get obviously bored with the wonky discussion (clearly most of them expected to talk about his two dogs and the Red Sox), but he just kept on going. This, clearly, was at the top of his wish list to do one day.

We now face a critical process in making sure that wish gets filled. I do not think Ted would want us to miss having his vote on a strong health care bill- or, for that manner, a number of other important issues coming up, including immigration. I think that's why he asked the Massachusetts legislators to change the succession law. And that law is a problem for getting health care done, as may be a fair number of people I have heard wish to take his seat with regard to other issues. So I don't think we should hesitate, if it becomes necessary, to put pressure on the Massachusetts legislature, or support the most progressive candidate we can find who is willing to run for Sen. Kennedy's seat. He was known as the liberal lion, and it I think it would be a disservice to his legacy to replace the great progressive icon with someone who will not continue that legacy.

Meanwhile, I will keep fighting the Senator's fight with all my heart, and continue to be inspired by his work.