BOSTON — When senators convene in the Senate chamber Monday to honor the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, it won't be in Washington.
Instead, Vice President Joe Biden will preside over a full-size replica Senate chamber at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, with current and former senators at their desks, high school students on the floor and Kennedy family members in the gallery.
The institute opens Monday with a dedication speech by President Obama.and a who's who of Massachusetts politicians, United States senators and Kennedy kin.
Dreamed up by Kennedy himself seven years before he died of brain cancer in 2009, the institute was shepherded into existence by his widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Its mission: to immerse visitors in the experience of being a senator — debating the great issues in the nation's history, visiting a facsimile of Kennedy's Senate office, and sneaking sweets from the "candy desk."
As they began to descend on Boston for the opening ceremony over the weekend, Kennedy's former colleagues said the institute highlights the respect and affection Kennedy had for the body where he served for 47 years.
"I would not be vice president, and I would not have been a United States senator, but for Ted Kennedy," Biden wrote in the
Boston Globe's Sunday magazine. "Teddy was the embodiment of what I believe the Senate best represents. It's remarkable that one of the most liberal senators of the last century had so many of his adversaries ultimately respect him."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Kennedy's unique background — "the Kennedy family is probably as close to royalty as this nation has ever had" — made him a formidable opponent.
"He dedicated his life to the institution, and thereby being able to become one of the most effective members of the United State Senate," McCain said on CBS's
Face the Nation Sunday. "And I might add, probably the greatest antagonist I ever had on the floor of the Senate."
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For Boston, the opening is such an event that the dedication will be broadcast live on at least two local television stations. In addition to Obama, Biden and McCain, other speakers in Monday's lineup include Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass, former senators Tom Daschle and Trent Lott. Kennedy's widowand sons Ted Kennedy Jr. and Patrick J. Kennedy, will round out the agenda.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who served with Kennedy as Massachusetts' junior senator, is negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran in Switzerland and canceled his planned appearance.
The $78 million building was constructed with both private contributions and taxpayer support, with Congress earmarking a total of $38 million after Kennedy's death. The institute sits on the University of Massachusetts campus, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.
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