Ted Kennedy

At 3:27 p.m. on Nov. 6, the senior senator from Massachusetts enters the Senate and strides down the aisle, thick frame filling his double-breasted suit. The chamber is vacant but for a few tourists and the pantheon of marble busts--John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr--in their honored niches above the gallery. For a moment, the senator slumps in a chair, studying a black briefing book on HR 2710, a bill to raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1981.

The ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has asked the Legislature of his home state to overturn a 5-year-old law under which the voters, not the governor, will choose a successor if Kennedy can't complete his term. Kennedy's unselfish idea probably won't be adopted, but it could help derail an unnecessary amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Kennedy, who suffers from brain cancer, understandably wants a senator sworn in swiftly to help the Democrats enact healthcare reform, long a priority for him. He's also right on the general principle.

For once, the extravagant elegies for a departed public figure are appropriate. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, in President Obama's words, was "the greatest United States senator of our time," at least for those who shared his passion for an activist federal government attuned to the needs of the poor and the marginalized. Speculation about whether Kennedy might have pursued his passion for equality from the White House once occupied by his brother is inevitable, as is meditation on the multiple misfortunes of the Kennedy clan.

If it weren't for the familiar rows of Chiclets-sized teeth, the trio in the 1962 photo that appeared on scores of front pages last week, with their slim-cut suits and skinny ties, could have been mistaken for the ad men of "Mad Men's" Sterling Cooper agency. The senator from Massachusetts, whose life would forever be framed by the brothers who predeceased him, looks directly at the camera, as sharp and focused as Don Draper on the Kodak account. His suit, several shades darker than his brothers', is set off by a crisp, white triangle of a pocket square.

No free ride Re "No papers and no way to get ahead," Aug. 23 Reading this article made me better understand why California is in the current financial mess and why newspapers are losing readers: Politicians and their helpers cannot punch their way out of a wet paper bag, and journalists forget how to think for themselves. It is stated that Jamal King, who lives in Los Angeles and has no ID, could not appear in Sacramento to testify about a bill because "no one could figure out a way around identifications requirements at the airport."

In assessing the legacy of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, most eulogies have begun by celebrating his legislative achievements, which have touched virtually every American. He is routinely -- and rightly -- placed among the greatest senators who ever lived. Others have pointed to his less tangible contributions to the nation -- that as his brothers' heir, he kept the Kennedys' progressive flame lit and continued to carry the torch for the least powerful among us. Both of these, however, were more than a matter of his fulfilling a role as America's foremost liberal.

Ted Kennedy wakes up mornings in his house on Cape Cod to a packet of news clippings put together by his wife. If there's a hearing going on in Washington, he watches on his computer. Five hundred miles away, Congress is wrestling with historic legislation to give every American access to quality healthcare. It is the moment the Massachusetts Democrat has worked toward for 46 years.

How dare Ted Kennedy sit in judgment of Clarence Thomas? How dare Ted Kennedy sit in judgment of anyone? PAT SAMUELSON, Costa Mesa

A man who built his career on testosterone, who spent years pumping iron and staring at himself in mirrors, who thrived in the egocentric troika of sports, Hollywood and politics is probably not a good candidate for faithful husband. Maria Shriver had to have known that when she married Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold and men like him are supreme narcissists. Sure, they are charming, dynamic, seductive, even magnetic, but the world beyond their own minds and bodies is an abstraction.

The Democratic ticket for '88? Ted Kennedy and Bruce Springsteen--or should it be reversed? W.E. EARL SR. Palm Desert