girl, six months after the assassination of senator robert kennedy. mrs. kennedy, who was 40 years old, now has four daughters and seven sons. both mother and daughter are in excellent condition. senator edward kennedy and mrs. kennedy stayed with mrs. kennedy in the delivery and recover rooms. >> i want to say how happy we are today. i told ethyl i think joan and i are going to take this baby home. we think ethyl has enough of them. ♪ >> keep it moving! >> i say to you, we will restore the strength of america. sock it to 'em! sock it to 'em!

>> richard milhous nixon will be the next president of the united states. >> we have a new president. he has shown that he's an extremely hard and industrious worker. this morning he indicated that he wasn't going to use the oval room. my mother read that in the paper and she called me up and said teddy, i see where the president isn't going to use the oval room. she said, i think someone ought to use it. we're looking into that. >> in 1969, we had a republican president. and it seemed important that we begin to have a loyal opposition. and to the extent that i could be a part of the leadership in the senate, it seemed to be both an important opportunity as well as responsibility. and one that i couldn't let go by. >> a new congress opened for business today in washington.

an opening day produced an important victory for kennedy of massachusetts. democratic colleagues chose edward kennedy as assistant majority leader in the senate. this opening day of the 91st congress will most likely be the day remembered as the day senator edward kennedy moved out of the long shadow of his two brothers and began to stake out his own future. >> senator edward m. kennedy drove a car off a narrow bridge on martha's vineyard, massachusetts. kennedy survived but a young woman with him in the car was drowned. >> mary jo kopechne drowned. >> i made an immediate and repeated effort to save her by diving into the strong current, but exceeded only increasing my utter state of exhaustion and alarm. i was overcome by a jumble of

emotions, grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock. my conduct and conversations during the next several hours make no sense to me at all. >> according to police, eight hours e collapsed from the time of the accident until he showed up to report it. >> a spokesperson said he might attend the funeral for miss kopechne tomorrow in plymouth, pennsylvania. a hearing of the charge against senator kennedy has been scheduled for next monday. >> today, police moved to prosecute the senator on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. >> this morning, i entered a plea of guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. i regard as indefensible the fact that i did not report the accident to the police immediately. these events, the publicity,

innuendo, and whispers which have surrounded them, and my admission of guilt this morning, raises the question, in my mind, of whether my standing among the people of my state has been so impaired, that i should resign my seat in the united states senate. i've been impacted by a number of tragedies in my life. the loss of life of people, members of my family. those were circumstances which i really didn't have control. i could feel the sense of regret and the sense of sadness and the sense of loss. but this was a circumstance in which i did have a responsibility. in that sense, it was quite different from other life's experience. >> senator kennedy returned to the senate for the first time since his automobile accident and seldom has a return to work been marked by such public

attention. >> kennedy said last night he had decided not to resign from the senate. >> i made the decision to continue in public life after the tragedy of chappaquiddick. i'm a very different person than prior to that tragedy. the way that i'm a different person, i think is probably reflected in my own view about, sort of life and people and faith in god. but i'm a different person. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

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senator, there is obviously a great price one has to pay these days for political life. that some have to pay. your brother john thought the price worth paying. so obviously did your brother bobby and so do you, it seems. but when you talk to your own two sons and to your nephews, do you encourage them to go into politics as your father did you? is the price worth the pain? >> well, this generation is going to have to make up their own minds about what they're going to do. 20 odd nieces and nephews of mine, their talents should be devoted towards, not their own personal kinds of satisfactions but towards helping and assisting others.

that's really what robert kennedy would have wanted of his children, and president kennedy would have wanted of his. and that can take a variety of different expression, it doesn't take necessary that they run for any office, but it -- it's that they devote themselves to the public good, and i think they'll do well. >> so it is worth the pain? >> well, i suppose it is. >> on an occasion such as this, it's a pleasure to introduce my four strongest supporters, my wife, joan, patrick joseph kennedy, edward moore kennedy and kara anne kennedy and with that basis of strength and

support, i'm announcing my candidacy for re-election for the senate of the united states from massachusetts. >> the next president, not this one but the next one coming up? >> i think if there's been something that our family has learned over the period of time, is that we don't make long-term plans. that's been an experience that we've had. >> at a time when there are high government officials that are playing to the fears and frustrations of the people within our society, i want to be a voice of reconciliation, a voice that appeals to the best within people, within our country, and i return to the united states senate for that

purpose. >> i'd like to get teddy taped. that's why i want a lot more use of wiretapping. >> supposing it's something that we can really have, teddy or the kennedy clan. we're going to want to run with it. >> maybe we can get a real scandal on them. >> just looking for scandal or improprieties. >> now you're talking. >> you hear about wallace? it's quite serious. >> governor george wallace, of alabama was shot and wounded today while campaigning in laurel, maryland. his press secretary says he is in critical condition. >> he's got one bullet in the

stomach and near the spine. and they think he will live. he may be paralyzed, he may not be, but be that as it may. >> we've identified the fellow who had this gun and was the assailant apparently as arthur herman bremer. >> can we pin this on one of theirs? >> sure. >> look, can we play the game a little smart for a change? >> just say he was a supporter of kennedy. just put that out. just say you have it on unmistakable evidence. >> there ought to be a record. >> screw the record and put it out. >> it was clear that this was an atmosphere and a climate in -- where the white house was politically taking no prisoners. they were infiltrating the movement. >> kennedy has written asking for secret service protection. >> you understand what the problem is. if the son of a bitch gets shot, they'll say we didn't furnish it until after the election.

he doesn't get a thing and if he had a chance. >> i'd do it on the basis though that we pick the secret servicemen. do you have anybody in secret service that you can get to? do you have anybody that you can rely on? >> yeah, we got several. >> plant one, plant two guys on him. this could be very useful. >> senator kennedy, there's a thing today that i would love to get your reaction to. it's preposterous. they talk about it as the james bond plot that took place in washington where they found these people sneaking into democratic headquarters with eavesdropping devices. one of them was a cia man. i wear when i heard this over the radio, i thought it was a prank on the local radio station. what diabolical information and secret could there be in there that they would have to go to all that risk and effort to get? >> in the democratic national committee? >> yeah. >> i'm not so sure, but it does -- i don't think any of us

really know exactly what they were up to. but this is enormously desperate kind of an attempt by the -- this fellow, who is the head of security for the committee to reelect the president. and i don't -- i don't know, really, what -- i don't know -- i can't figure it out. can you? >> good evening. the complicated, confusing, alarming story of political espionage and eavesdropping that has come to be known as watergate today came under the scrutiny of a committee of the united states senate. it's purpose? to get to the bottom of what threatens to become the worst scandal in the nation's political history. >> i do know that there was extensive surveillance on senator kennedy, which i've testified to. >> was this for political purposes? >> yes, sir, it was. >> who else?

>> senator kennedy was the principal one, where i would say the greatest amount of surveillance was conducted on senator kennedy and subsequently, politically embarrassing information was sought. >> was the fbi aware that this surveillance was for political purposes? >> the fbi didn't perform this. this was performed directly by the white house. >> i welcome this kind of examination. because people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. well, i'm not a crook. >> senator edward kennedy, his oldest son, teddy junior, 12 years old, had the lower portion of his right leg amputated because of bone cancer. >> i had a son that lost his leg to cancer. that was really one of the raw occasions that have been very close to -- deep in my heart and soul. >> teddy was so overwrought with the news that his son had his leg amputated.

over the last several years, teddy had more tragedies than anyone starting with the loss of his brother in 1963, up to 1973. he's had tremendous, tremendous crosses. >> of course in the past few months, i've had the unfortunate situation of having my son affected by cancer as well. and, of course, what i want to see is the kind of very superior attention that he's received, made available to all of the other 12-year-olds. ♪

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i feel that i speak out on the issues, call them as i see them. i'm recognized, being a figure

that people feel strongly about. but that's the kind of senator i want to be. >> today's march came three days before 18,000 public school children in boston will board buses to begin the first stage of school desegregation. >> east boston says no! >> never before had a kennedy been met with such a reception in boston. he was booed. the crowds surged towards this once favorite son. as he walked towards the federal building, tomatoes and newspapers started flying and the nonviolence stopped. >> senator, how do you explain that crowd's reaction to you? >> i think their first concerns really not with the issue of bussing but what's going to be at the other end of the bus.

>> why did they react to you so violently? >> because first of all, they have very deep concerns about the whole question of the desegregation plan here in the city of boston, and i think that they've -- they're expressing their frustrations and their concerns. >> it was the senator's first public appearance in boston since he was roughly treated by an anti-school bussing crowd two weeks ago. but kennedy said that played no part in the decision that it was for personal reasons he had come to this decision. >> it has become quite apparent to me that i will be unable to make a full commitment to the campaign for the presidency. i simply cannot do that to my wife, my children and other members of my family. therefore, in 1976, i will not be a candidate for president or vice president of the united states. >> jimmy carter will be the next president of the united states. >> senator kennedy's office.

can you hold a moment, please? >> maybe we can get henry royson and two, three republicans to put this in. >> inflation is a clear and present danger for this nation. >> everybody has to -- >> we can't get everybody. >> come on down here. come on now. >> brad, that's all right. >> millions of our fellow citizens are out of work. >> we'll come to order. we have the agenda before us, the first issue. >> do you gather any impression about whether they were going to move at all on the immigration issue? >> it is wrong women and minorities are denied their equal rights. cities are struggling against decay. >> we're going to pursue this matter until the job gets done. >> the president, at that time, was not really challenging the country, and when he was talking about the malaise of the american people, that isn't the democratic party that i know. >> we have been able to try and

pass this health care for all americans' legislation. >> i have a very fundamental difference with president carter on the health care issue. >> the next panelist, distinguished senator from the state of massachusetts, edward kennedy. >> thank you very much. sometimes a party must sail against the wind. it is time for the democratic party to take up the cause of health. there probably has not been a family in this country that has been touched by sickness, illness and disease, like my own family. i had a father that was touched by a stroke, and sick for seven years. we were able to get the very best in terms of health care, because we were able to afford it. it would have bankrupted any average family in this nation.

i've been able to receive it for myself and for my family, just like all of us that are on the tip of the iceberg. way up high in the health care services. we've got the very best, all of us at the tip of the iceberg. but i want every delegate at this convention to understand that as long as i'm a vote, and as long as i have a voice in the united states senate, it's going to be for that democratic platform plank that provides decent quality health care, north and south, east and west, for all americans, as a matter of right and not a privilege. >> his publicity has been almost fawning and standing in public opinion polls high. president carter's standing dismal and going down, with inflation going up. kennedy for president became possible. >> let's take personal considerations.

have you promised your mother, that you won't run for the presidency while she's still alive? >> i didn't promise her that i wouldn't run while she was alive. but my mother has indicated that she would support any decision that i would make in the future. >> would your wife's well being, in terms of her efforts to deal with her problems, be a factor in making you not run? >> joan has courageously stated, has had a battle with alcoholism, i admire her and respect her for the forthrightness in which she faced this issue and for the efforts that she's making. >> some people ask whether or not you're enjoying this role that you have, in the sense that you're plague cat and mouse with the president. are you doing that? >> not really. i've stated my areas of difference with the president and i'll continue to do that. >> the growing political frictions between president carter and senator kennedy became a bit more lively today. two congressman, william

broadhead and thomas downey reported that during a dinner conversation with the president earlier this week, they twice were startled when they heard the president say, quote, if kennedy runs, i'll whip his ass. >> i'd like to ask you in response to the president's declaration that he will whip your ass, do you think he will? >> no. i'm racing cross country in this small sidecar, but i've still got room for the internet. with my new netbook from at&t. with its built-in 3g network,

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♪ today i formally announce that i'm a candidate for president of the united states. i could not have lived with myself if i had stayed on the sidelines and been silent. i could not have lived with myself. nice to see you.

>> how are you? >> senator. >> how are you? >> good morning. how are you? nice to see you. >> you are as handsome as your brothers. >> nice to see you. help us out now. give us a hand. >> enough of high unemployment, and enough of jimmy carter. >> i don't think i come as a candidate with all of the answers, but i come, as i think, probably over a lifetime that's been tested by a variety of different, both challenges, tragedies, and also some successes. >> and some failures, right? >> and some failures. >> on the day after the southern primaries, kennedy was much more upset by a newspaper article than any defeat. a front page chappaquiddick story in "the new york times" that cam up with almost nothing new with his actions there. kennedy was as angriest as reporters have seen him. >> there has been no family, the time that i have been in the public life, that has been

investigated, whose personal lives have been investigated as much as my life. the life of my wife, my children. i'm not interested in the personal lives of other candidates for the presidency. >> yesterday's polls show him trailing president carter for the first time. kennedy attributed his decline to carter's high visibility during the iranian crisis. >> just as the iranian situation has come up, president carter's ratest has went up in the polls. now we still have inflation. talk of depression, high energy cost, people are still hostages. so what has he done? [ applause ] >> well, i'm sure i'll think of something on that, but --

>> i want to thank you very much for coming out here this afternoon. thanks an awful lot. >> go, teddy. >> kennedy for president. [ speaking foreign language ] >> let's fight back. >> with the presidential nomination under way, kennedy's side says it still does not have the votes to win. kennedy's decision to withdraw from the race for president when it came, came quickly. >> for me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. i congratulate president carter on his victory here. for all of those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the

hope still lives and the dream shall never die. [ applause ] >> i ran for president, and lost. i wanted to be president. that was not in the cards. and that's certainly not a pleasant experience. >> for the members of my family, the 1980 campaign was a difficult experience. i am involved in a divorce, it's a painful experience. both for joan and myself and for the members of my family. ♪

>> i'm going to be active in terms of party affairs, active in terms of discussions and the debate. by disposition, nature and desire. i'm an activist. >> i will not rest or retreat until our nation at long last holds this truth to be self-evident, that not only all men, but all people are created equal. >> you don't have to be president to make a difference, all you have to do is care, and be involved. >> if the government cannot control nuclear arms, then people will change the government. >> ronald reagan must love poor people, because he's creating so many more of them. >> the bride arrived with her uncle, senator edward kennedy. he particularly looked pleased and proud at the opportunity to

give away his niece. >> it was touching in so many different ways. her gown had little shamrocks on it, it was something that, you know, i think her father would have been very, very touched by. he would have been very proud of her. >> i want to read you something that jackie kennedy wrote in a thank you vote after you gave caroline away. "on you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. everyone was going to make it, because you were always there with your love. jackie". >> that's about as nice as you can get. >> that's one of my pretty sisters, eunice. here's another pretty sister, pat. >> we grew up in a family that

public service was thought to be a noble profession, in which individuals should be very much involved. in what oliver wendell holmes called action of our times, not just my brother. my sister eunice starting the brothers and sister program, brought enormous joy to the mentally retarded, and sister, jean with the arts to the handicap and my sister pat, has been equally active. that's been a family tradition. >> we got it, gang. okay. >> thanks a lot. >> i'm one voice and i'm one vote. but people are entitled to know what i'm going to do and why i'm going to do it. that's what this whole process is about. >> in robert bork's america, there is no room at the inn for blacks and no place in the constitution for women. and in our america, there should

be no seat on the supreme court for robert bork. and i urge the committee and senate to reject the nomination of mr. bork. >> so the vote 58-42 against robert bork. his nomination to the u.s. supreme court has been defeated. >> i want to sign a civil rights bill. i will not sign a quota bill. >> quotas schmotas. quotas are not the issue, job discrimination is the issue. >> senator kennedy eloquently said quota schmota. and he predicts a veto will be overridden. >> time to provide equal opportunity to women and minorities no ifs, ands and buts, and no matter -- watered down compromises either. >> president bush is ready to this country to war in the persian gulf without the support of the country and without the support of the american people. does my dog get any less excited for a milk-bone

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police in palm beach, florida say today, late today that the nephew of senator edward kennedy is a suspect in an alleged rape. police say the senator, who was also staying at the compound over easter, failed to respond to initial inquiries about what happened the night of the alleged rape. >> edward kennedy came to court and talked an emotional conversation with his sister about the death of her father and then invited son patrick and william to go out. >> we went to a bar. i wish i had gone for a long walk on the beach instead. but we did go to a bar. >> in the halls of congress, he is somewhat damaged. >> kennedy also brushed off a suggestion from fellow senator orrin hatch, that he quit drinking. >> with so much controversy about his own private life. and facing a tough re-election fight, the senator appeared at the john f. kennedy school of harvard today and admitted some

personal faults. >> i'm painfully aware that the criticism directed at me in recent months, involves far more than honest disagreement with my positions. or the usual criticisms from the far right. it also involves the disappointment of friends. and many others, who rely on me to fight the good fight. to them, i say, i recognize my own shortcomings. the faults and conduct of my private life. i realize that i alone am responsible for them. and i am the one who must confront them. >> well, i'm gratified by the verdict of the jury in palm beach.

i always believed that when all of the facts were in, that will would be found innocent. and i suppose if there's anything good that has come out of this long experience, it's the renewed closeness of our family, and our friends. ♪ >> i'm basically a hopeful and optimistic person, and i believe deeply in hope. i believe in love, the power of love. >> you've changed. what happened? >> vicki entered my life. i never thought i was going to get married. i don't think i was ever really prepared to think in those terms again. and vicki really awakened these feelings, emotions, that i think had been really banked in my life.

and that i didn't really think probably existed there anymore. so it's been a very extraordinary reawakening and wonderful, wonderful time in my life, our lives. >> you're on the campaign trail full time now? >> absolutely. all of the time. vicki is as well. not here today. she's busy in other places. she's been a great asset. >> senator of massachusetts. >> teddy! teddy! >> it's a very uplifting time for me. >> nice to see you. thanks very much. good to see you. >> how are you? >> did you think so? >> feels good. we're getting a good response. we're going to win it. >> i said when i first ran for the senate, what the senate needed was a young person with new ideas. now i say there's nothing like age and experience. >> i don't think i'm too old to be your united states senator, do you? >> i need your help, i need your vote.

i need that help. ♪ >> thank you. >> i may not be the youngest. eventually i'll be the thinnest, but i'll be the fightingest candidate that you ever had. and i won't let you down. i won't let you down. i won't let you down massachusetts. thank you. ♪ >> mother knew this day was coming. but she did not dread it. she accepted and even welcomed it. not as a leaving, but as a returning. she has gone to god and she is home. and at this moment,

she is happily presiding at a heavenly table with both of her joes, with jack, kathleen, bobby and david. she will be there, ready to welcome the rest of us home some day. of this, i have no doubt. whatever any of us has done, whatever contribution we have made, begins and ends with rose and joseph kennedy. for all of us, dad was the spark. mother was the light of our lives. he was our greatest fan. she was our greatest teacher. >> while senator edward kennedy is the lone remaining political patriarch of this time carrying the democratic liberal mantel for 35 years there's a whole second generation of kennedys that followed in the footsteps of john, bobby and teddy.

>> i owe a special debt to the man, his nephews and nieces call teddy. >> i'm so proud to introduce my father, the senior -- >> in our family, he's never missed a first communion, a graduation or a chance to walk one of his nieces down the aisle. >> there were nine of us, 30 in the next generation. and 100 in the next generation. ♪ >> i'm immensely proud of the way that all of them have accepted the challenges of life. and i think making important useful contributions. i think their fathers would be very proud of them as i am. i love them all. ♪ >> now are you glad to see old kennedy?

are you glad to see me? >> i never looked at it in terms of questions of a legacy, i think i always wanted to try to be a better person. >> i have worked hard for schools that teach. and health care -- >> i always perceived my role as to try to get some things done. >> it's time for americans to lift their voices now, in pride for our immigrant past and in pride for our immigrant future. >> you hear that? we are excluded from having an opportunity to debate this because of the power of the insurance industry. >> the new deal, the new frontier, and the great society, are not the end of american social history. >> make that argument on the floor of the united states senate. >> our day will come again. and we must keep the faith until it dawns. >> we'll be back to fight and fight and fight again. >> we ought to hear at least what the reality is of the american people ought to understand, that the parents of those servicemen ought to

understand what their children are going to be faced with. >> whether the odds are in my favor or against me. i will continue to stand up for the people that sent me to the senate in the first place. >> our troops deserve better, mr. secretary. i think the american people deserve better. they deserve competency and deserve the facts. in baseball it's three strikes, you're out. what is it for the secretary of defense? >> well, that is quite a statement. or sit on her bed and talk about her day. but she's ready. thanks to walmart's unbeatable prices, i was able to get her everything she needed. as well as what she wanted. letting go?himom! (mom) that's the hard part. set them up for success, for less. save money. live better. walmart.

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thank you, thank you. thank you. >> i'm proud to stand with him

here today and offer my help, offer my voice, offer my energy, my commitment to make barack obama the next president of united states. >> i stand here today with a great deal of humility. i know what your support means. i know the cherished place the kennedy family holds in the hearts of the american people. and that is as it should be. because the kennedy family, more than any other, has always stood for what's best about the democratic party, and what is best about america.

in the year i was born -- hold on a second -- in the year i was born, president kennedy let out word that the torch had been passed to a new generation of americans. he was right, it had. it was passed to his youngest brother. from the battles of the 1960s, to the battles of today, he has carried that torch, lighting the way for all who share his american ideas. it's a torch he carried as the lion of the senate. to have this man stand beside me today, is more than just politics for me. it is personal. ♪

in the first pictures released since his diagnosis, senator ted kennedy is joined by his wife, vicki, at massachusetts general hospital as the family comes together to discuss his treatment. >> just a few minutes ago massachusetts general hospital issued a statement saying that after a series of tests, doctors discovered a brain tumor, a cancerous brain tumor. >> kennedy's colleagues struggled to absorb the news about their friend, third longest serving senator in american history. >> ted, my dear friend, i love you. >> he's a strong guy. and has great heart.

and we're confident he's going to be back here. >> kennedy's wife said the senator is making her crazy, by insisting he's going to take part in a sailing race off cape cod this weekend. in the end, kennedy would steer his boat to a second place finish in his class. >> couldn't be a more beautiful day. we had wonderful friends, family and this great tradition out here, we always enjoy it. i think we ended up in the front part of the fleet. >> we won. >> let them disprove it. >> overnight, a message from kennedy's wife, vicki, to friends, said in part i want you to know that teddy is in fighting form and ready to take this on. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> nothing, nothing is going to

keep me away from this special gathering tonight. i have come here tonight to stand with you to elect barack obama president of the united states. the torch will be passed again, to a new generation of americans. and i pledge to you that i will be there next january on the floor of the united states senate when we begin the great change for a better country. so with barack obama, and for you, and for me, the work begins anew. the hope rises again and the dream lives on.

>> teddy! teddy! teddy! ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ ♪