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McCain’s Absence Could Impact Health Care Bill

July 21, 2017 at 6:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “The circumstances are eerily similar. In the middle of contentious health care deliberations, a larger-than-life figure in the Senate learns he has a very serious form of brain cancer. A leading voice goes quiet and the Senate suffers for it.”

“Such was the case in 2008 when Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, learned he had brain cancer and again this week when it was announced that John McCain, Republican of Arizona, had the exact condition that claimed his colleague — a man who shared Mr. McCain’s zest for a good argument and for cutting a deal.”

Filed Under: Health Care, Senate Tagged With: John McCain, Ted Kennedy

The Kennedy Interviews

September 30, 2015 at 6:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Miller Center at the University of Viriginia posts 19 interviews with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) on topics ranging from immigration reform and health care reform to his family’s impact on American politics.

New York Times: “The 694 pages of transcripts contain few revelations but offer detailed accounts of how legislative fights were won or lost, interspersed with arguments for a strong, assertive role for the Senate.”

Filed Under: Political History Tagged With: Ted Kennedy

Quote of the Day

March 30, 2015 at 7:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 15 Comments

“People fight to get in the Senate and then they’re afraid. We fight to get these positions and then don’t want to do anything with them. And Ted understood the only point of running for office was to get something done — not to posture; not to sit there worrying about the next election or the polls — to take risks.”

— President Obama, quoted by the Washington Post, at an event to dedicate an institute honoring the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his vision of the U.S. Senate.

Filed Under: Senate Tagged With: Ted Kennedy


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Hatch Sees Warren as the New Kennedy

January 22, 2015 at 8:17 am EST By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told Yahoo News that he thinks Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), “who showed up at a well-attended reception to celebrate Hatch’s chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee and said a few words in his honor, would like to form a friendship with him ‘like Kennedy had.'”

Said Hatch: “We’ve become friends. I think she would like to have a relationship with me like Kennedy had. I like her. I think she’s a very bright woman. She’s certainly playing the media in a beautiful way.”

Hatch added that he’d like to see Warren become “the new Kennedy.”

Filed Under: Senate Tagged With: Elizabeth Warren, Orrin Hatch, Ted Kennedy

Network Lives On 5 Years After Ted Kennedy’s Death

November 16, 2014 at 8:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard 2 Comments

A Boston Globe review of “thousands of lobbying records and interviews with two dozen former aides reveals an informal network that is almost unrivaled in the nation’s capital, both in size and quiet clout. Some among them, who have gathered regularly over a good meal to kibitz, recall, and strategize, call themselves the T-birds — T for Teddy.”

“It is a remarkable flock… The stories of many of them are little known but, taken together, provide a revealing portrait of Kennedy power that continues to reach deep into Washington and Massachusetts. It is a corps of well-placed Washington players who say they still hear the echo of the late senator’s booming baritone in their ears and are still moved by his priorities, even as they have followed the well-worn track of many former Congressional staffers, parlaying inside connections into lucrative lobbying careers.”

Filed Under: Lobbyists, Senate Tagged With: Ted Kennedy

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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