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: Outside Counsel

By Bill Altreuter

I'm sad about Ted Kennedy, who was probably no more flawed than most people, although his flaws were more visible. Giving every possible benefit of the doubt Senator Kennedy's death leaves us with eleven senators that are worth a damn, and I'm not seeing a towering leader among any of them.

UPDATE: Via Lawyers, Guns and Money, Erik Loomis has a list of the six greatest senators in US history. It isn't a hard list to guess, which says something about the institution.

It occurs to me that one of Kennedy's legacies will be something people off the Hill won't really be able to see. It is pretty generally acknowledged that he had the best staff in Congress. (When I worked for Birch Bayh we thought we were in the same league, 1A and 1B, if you will.) That staff scatters now. Some will be picked up by the next senator from Massachusetts, but for the most part they will probably take their expertise to other Democrats on the same committees. In that way a great deal of the good work that Kennedy has done over the years will continue.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on August 26, 2009 (boomark / email).