Biden: Kennedy's death could be 'catalyst' for reform

[Jennicut]

Biden: Death 'catalyst' for reform

By CAROL E. LEE | 08/27/09 9:12 AM

Vice President Joe Biden said Sen. Ted Kennedy's death could be a "catalyst" for passing health care reform this fall.

"God willing, maybe his loss and all about him will be the catalyst to make people come around and begin to compromise to get something really important done," Biden said in an interview that aired Thursday morning on NBC's "Today" show.

Yet Biden also mused about why even Republicans say the health care debate has been hurt by Kennedy's absence.

"They’re kind of drawn to him because, look, this is a guy who understands the deals, this is a guy who knows how to take a hit," Biden said of conservatives. "That’s why you hear John McCain talking about 'We probably would be further along on health care if he were in the Senate working on some of these deals.'"http://www.politico.com/politico44/

The Rethugs won't be any help but maybe it will light a fire under the Dems.

Joe also talked about Teddy on GMA:

Vice President Joe Biden said Sen. Ted Kennedy had made up for mistakes he made in his life, such as when he left the scene of a car accident on Chappaquiddick in 1969 that left a 28-year-old woman dead.

"Every mistake he made in his life, he made a lie out of the mistake by the way he lived the rest of his life," Biden said in a taped interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

The day after President Obama's Inauguration, Biden said Kennedy called him. The Massachusetts senator had been rushed to the hospital following a seizure during the Inaugural luncheon, and he wanted to know how Biden's granddaughter, who was sitting at his table, was doing, the vice president recalled.

"Here is a guy who has a terminal disease, has a seizure in front of my granddaughter and he's only worried about did it negatively affect my granddaughter," Biden said. "There are just so many little things that Teddy did that were just amazing."http://www.politico.com/politico44/

Okay, I am going to go cry all over again.

[Inuca]

1. The bit about the granddaughter

is incredible. What an incredible person to know he must have been... not in spite of his faults but maybe because of them. A great Hemingway quote that I already posted yesterday and that I heard that historian lady whose name I cannot think of right now mention again last evening "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. "

[MarjorieG]

2. Curious. Dems need to make more deals. We offered them everything, even to get them to reveal

themselves, and they did. What do we do if they don't want competition in the marketplace.

Do we now have to repeat the charade for the media, and slow it down some more?

Kennedy did make deals, and the ones everyone here is criticizing Obama for, and called it a partnership with insurance. Insurance has to allow more regulation and competition in return for a bigger pool of insurers and cash.