Ted Kennedy Gets a Little Republican Respect

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), joined, from left, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; and Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) at a news conference this month to announce a compromise on immigration legislation with the White House. (By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)

In a recent speech to a Mississippi civic group, Sen. Trent Lott brought up Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's role on important domestic legislation, including Kennedy's latest push to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

When Lott was finished, a man in the audience came up to him and said: "You did real good. But that part about Kennedy -- don't say that no more."

"He is the number one boogeyman for conservative Republicans," Lott said later of the longtime Democratic senator from Massachusetts. But, Lott added, "he is a good legislator, and you can't take that away from him."

That Lott would praise a liberal icon of the Democratic Party might seem odd. But Kennedy's work on the immigration bill is, in fact, the third time he has thrown himself behind a major initiative of President Bush's. Kennedy gave crucial support to two of the president's key first-term domestic achievements, the No Child Left Behind education law and a Medicare prescription drug bill. That he helped Republicans burnish their record on such trademark Democratic issues as education and health care mystified some in both parties. But his alliance with Bush on immigration is simply a matter of necessity.

"Senator Kennedy's name has been on every major immigration reform bill since 1965, and he has always teamed up with Republicans," said Cecilia Muñoz, senior vice president of policy for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization. "The fact that President Bush is pro-reform . . . creates the political opportunity."

In an interview, Kennedy said that the possibility of providing millions of illegal immigrants with a road to legal status was too important to ignore. "It's a defining issue about the kind of country we are," he said. "It's a moral issue. It's how we treat people."

Bush and Kennedy have discussed immigration issues for years, but when they met in January at a White House event marking the fifth anniversary of No Child Left Behind, it seemed that the time was right for both men. "He spoke about this issue knowledgeably," Kennedy said. "And he was willing to take some political hits on this. That caught my eye."

Kennedy, now in his 75th year and his 45th in the Senate, is the third-longest-serving senator in history -- the only current senator who beats his record is fellow Democrat Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Kennedy has served on education panels since he entered the Senate, and today he chairs its committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. In 2001, Kennedy was the lead Senate Democrat behind No Child Left Behind because he said it promised the measurable achievement for the poor that he had envisioned for years. He stressed to Bush his desire that the homeless, immigrants and other traditionally weak performers get special assistance. But, Kennedy says, program budgets have since shortchanged those students, leaving him deeply disappointed.

"With the program now up for renewal, he said, "I want to get a reauthorization, but we want to work with the administration and we want a give and take."

In 2002, Kennedy sponsored a bipartisan Medicare drug bill, a precursor to one he backed the next year. Then Republicans shut him out of the conference to write a final bill, while AARP, which had not split with the senator before, switched sides. The legislation that emerged favored the health-care industry more than seniors, in the view of Kennedy and many other Democrats.

"We went in with our eyes wide open, and we passed a very good prescription drug bill with 76 votes in the Senate," he said. "Virtually overnight, we were isolated."

Bush touted both domestic programs in his reelection campaign, while Kennedy characterized the president's record this way in a 2004 speech: "Iraq, jobs, Medicare, schools, issue after issue -- mislead, deceive, make up the needed facts, smear the character of any critics. Again and again we see this cynical, despicable strategy playing out."