to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it, who saw war and tried to stop it. >> give me a place where i can stand and i shall move the world. today i formally announce that i'm a candidate for president of the united states. for me, a few hours ago this campaign came to an end. for all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on. the cause endures. the hope still lives. and the dream shall never die. >> the pursuit of the presidency is not my life. public service is. >> as long as i have a voice in the united states senate, it's going to be for that democratic

platform that provides decent quality of health care north and south, east and west for all americans as a matter of right and not of privilege! >> it's time again for a new generation of leadership. it is time now for barack obama. >> this november, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of americans, the work begins anew. the hope rises again. and the dream lives on. >> for all my years in public life, i have believed that america must sail towards the shores of liberty and justice for all. teddy. let's play "hardball."

good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york. ted kennedy was the last hurrah, the big baritone out there demanding justice for the left out people, the african-americans, native americans, the old person, the immigrant family that wanted to be american. the sick scared person waiting in the er for hours with something really wrong. why would a big looking guy like him, a rich guy, spend his life worrying about the people left out? was it tribal memory of his own people left out, sent away, told to go back where they came from? was it those old boston signs that said, irish need not apply? what was it that made health care such a crusade for this guy? who do you know who has a broken back who spends his life and time thinking about other people's troubles? was it because his older trouble was secretly sick most of his

life? bobby liked to say of him if a mosquito ever bit jack, it was the mosquito that would die. was it his sister rosemary who never got the right care. this much we know for sure. he had two brothers shot and thought gun control made a certain sense. he saw violence in northern ird and wanted-edward m. kennedy, t his people fought the nickname and said call him edward. they protested. but those who cared for him the

tens of millions loved with his nieces and nef fuse called him, teddy, the emperor of ice cream, the big guy filled with life at those too many funerals. now there is his. let's bring in a pair of msnbc political analysts, news week's howard fineman and the "washington post" eugene robinson. howard, you and my friend eugene both my friends, it's a night to think to be a little irish i suppose, howard, you qualify. eugene, you qualify. let's talk about this guy, and let's start with the partisan stuff. this is the place for politics. let's talk about mr. democrat. ted kennedy. we'll talk with his friends, you two guys, i think i can call you his friend, howard, even though you're an objective reporter. and then we'll bring in pat buchanan to talk about what he was like as a rival. let's get it all together tonight here in the place for politics. howard, leader of the democratic party.

ted kennedy. >> well, chris, ted was ted and i just reflexively called him, was both the last of the great franklin delano roosevelt liberals in the democratic party and that's what his 1980 campaign was about against jimmy carter and evers the last of the great bipartisan irish-american dealmakers. i just got done writing a piece for msnbc.com which i always wanted to write about the irish in american politics. and i can talk about this maybe more than you can. for 150 years, the irish were the essential, the lubricant in the gears of american public life. they made the thing go. they made it happen. and i think ted kennedy was the embodiment of that. whatever gift the irish had for politics, for public life, for both idealism and deal making, ted kennedy had and he had almost more and more convincingly than his brothers

and it turns out that he was the one who did the hard work, the consistent work, and the work that won him the hearts of so many people in the senate on both sides of the aisle, that bipartisan spirit and desire to pakt deal and the joy in making the deal that met his dales and advanced the causes he cared about. it's something that everybody in public life whether an elected person or somebody like gene and i who cover politics can be inspired by. >> well, for 41 years, he beat the gunman. he avoided getting killed like his brothers by people carrying guns. eugene, for most americans living today, he was the kennedy. they don't remember joe. joe died fighting during world war ii and jack was killed by a real communist lover, lee harvey oswald and bobby was killed supporting israel in the middle eests. these where is politically motivated killings. the youngest brother survived.

your thoughts about the democratic leader, ted kennedy. >> the first thing that popped into my mind this morning when i heard had he died, chris, was perhaps inconveniently a line written by an englishman i thought at the end of hamlet when he dice and flights of angels sing me to thy rest not just perhaps because it's the most beautiful eulogy ever written but because hamlet was a prince and teddy was a prince in a family of kings and queens. his father was a king. his brother jack was a king. his brothers joe and bobby were supposed to be king but they died young. he was fated to be a prince and that's a much more difficult role to play and he -- it took him awhile to grow into it, to learn how to play that role. but he came to play it not just with tremendous grace as a leader as the leader of the

democratic party as the soul of the democratic party but also to tremendous effect. his stamp is on so much of the landmark legislation of that that's been passed in the last 40 years. it's a very sad day and a very historic day. >> well, you quoted the greatest, the greatest writer of poetry in british english history. mack verily, many believe the greatest writer of prose, but the prince, the very words used here bring to mind the job description of a u.s. senator, to be a prince, not a king, to deal with others of equal power and to get those men and women of equal power to do your bidding. >> chris, the thing i remember most about ted kennedy is his laugh. that big bursting joyous laugh of his. he never wrote anybody off. he never wrote anybody out of his story. in that sense, he was a generous spirit.

i think that the tragedies that he suffered and the mistakes that he made made him a less judgmental person. >> yeah. >> while he kept his ideals, he was always willing to go back to people, not write them off and in the united states senate where he served for all those many decades, nobody was ever written out of his universal because and that's the way the senate should operate. when he laughed, it was a laughter that embraced the whole chamber and took joy in the process of legislating. now, we make fun of it. we are cynical about it. but the floor of the senate is one of the places where the will of the american people is expressed. and ted kennedy never forgot the solemnity of the responsibility that he will but the joy that he had in trying to do the people's work, and he convey that had to everybody on both sides of the aisle or none. anybody who was around him felt his sense of joy as the process

of being a public person in a democratic country. that was the key to it, and that's really what made him so successful i think. >> you know, there's a great story gene, and howard of david nye and the great boston globe reporter who was working, he had a deal, he was a fellow at harvard kennedy school and teddy was kidding him and said you finally got into harvard. he said yeah, i'm having trouble with my spanish exam. and teddy said i've got somebody who can help you. laughing about the fact that he got in trouble for cheating on his spanish exam 50 some years ago. because he did, he got kicked out of the school for a period of time, went into the military and probably became a better man for having served as an enlisted man in the army working had i way whack to harvard. >> he probably did become a better man and certainly retained throughout his life the ability to laugh at himself. if there was a fundamental generosity about ted kennedy that extended to his relations

with fellow senators and others, as well. i was at that 1980 convention when he gave that incredible line of the work goes on. the cause endures and the dream shall never die. and right after the convention, i was assigned to do my first big political story for "the washington post" and it was about ted kennedy and what was he doing to help the carter ticket. >> that wasn't much there's a short column. >> it was a short story. but a well written one. >> but he made it more than it otherwise could have been by being extraordinarily generous with his time and access and candor to a 26-year-old political reporter from the post" who didn't know which way the capitol was and which way the white house was and didn't

know nothing. and he gave me the same sort of consideration he would have given to david broder or had he been doing the story. he was just a generous guy. >> howard and eugene, we grew up with leaders in both parties sort of central to the party, they weren't presidents necessarily but the heart of the parties. it's hard to imagine the democratic party in the 50s without hubert humphrey the great leader of civil rights. it's hard to imagine a republican party without everitt dirksen or barry goldwater or the republican party without nelson rockefeller. without a leader like teddy, where is the democratic party right now? >> that's a really good question, chris. i'm not sure because you don't have those -- those independent leaders of stature in the congress that you used to have. they're just not there. senate in recent years has become much more like the house.

they're raising money all the time. sticking with ideological brethren all the time preaching to their respective choirs all the time, not independent perps or independent personages if you will, they're not independent moral forces and whether it was barry goldwater as you said or gene mccarthy that will somebody else you might mention or hubert humphrey or ev dirksen on the republican side, those kinds of figures who provide ballast for the party are gone. right now all the power of the democratic party is concentrated in barack obama. >> that's a lot of weight on one guy's shoulders. >> it's too much weight to carry and i think he's finding that makes his efforts in health care and other reforms more difficult because he doesn't have other people holding onto the oars to rowe along with him. >> in ghost busters language, how going to call if you're barack obama? who you going to call? >> that's a good question. >> without ted there. >> the answer is under other happier circumstances, to get

health care done, he would have called on ted kennedy. who would be -- who would be leading the fight, leading the negotiations, leading the process in a way that frankly no, one in the senate is able to do for him right now. >> i'm sure gene and i can tell you exactly how it would have gone down, chris. ted kennedy would have been at his desk in the back there in the senate pounding on the podium for the full public option as part of the deal. and then at the very last minute, to get the best deal he possibly could, he would have brokered the compromise with republicans to get the kind of all encompassing deal that he would want and that the president would want because i think the president's instincts are like teddy's in the sense that he knows that for a big piece of legislation like health care reform, you need the broadest possible consent. but it's become so difficult in this country and in the congress and in our political system the

way it's set up to get broad consent for anything. and that's what dies with ted kennedy here i fear. i hope that's not the case. >> well, maybe someone will come in from right field like mike enzif wyoming. somebody's going to come in and win this game for the country. stay with us. when we return, we'll be talking to you in a minute when we bring in pat buchanan to mix it up. maybe it's been one-sided in terms of focusing on the democratic party. i want to talk about what ted kennedy's importance was as opponent. we'll be right back to talk about what it was like to go after ted kennedy. they had a few people up there checking up on him over the years. i think pat knows about that. we'll be right back. >> the work goes on. the cause endures. the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. real food at the right price! this is the primo stuff.

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his extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end, an extraordinarily good that he did lives on. for his family, he was a guardian. for america, he was a defender of a dream. >> welcome back to "hardball" and our coverage of the death of senator edward kennedy. news week's howard fineman is with us as well as "the washington post" eugene robinson. and joining us right now is msnbc's political analyst pat buchanan. i remember the old joke when it wasn't so much a joke after the nixon white house in the 70s when they named archibald cox a special prosecutor basically

because ted kennedy demanded he be named special prosecutor and nixon said i thought it was any cox they named, his son nall. he pulled one over on you. archibald cox in the campaign against you guys, pat and he ends up as special prosecutor against dick knox on and brings him down. i would say that's partisan politics by ted kennedy. i guess you think so. >> i think, look, the kennedies were let's get it out front, were savage partisans. nixon felt they had stolen illinois and texas with some justification. he had been himself audited by the irs. he had larry o'brien was deep into the hughes stuff. all of those things archibald cox was a kennedyite and kennedy's right there when he's sworn in and nixon thought they were trying to take him down and he was exactly right. they played "hardball" and nixon played "hardball" himself, chris. i recall nixon wanted me and

others to find out exactly what happened in those cables going to and from saigon before the assassination. that's the way the game was played. >> what do you think nixon was smart to try to find out what larry o'brien's deal was with howard hughes? >> i think he would probably not go about it the way did he, i would say. i think as we said at the time, chris, when we sent in those cubans like kennedy, we forgot to send in air cover. >> we're talking about the watergate break-in as a bit of a political "hardball" that got out of hand. >> cubans without air cover. >> let's step back from the brink of the -- to the question of political "hardball." what was it -- what was the importance of ted kennedy as an opposite number for you guys on the right? >> well, i felt that i think first jack kennedy was a conservative in my judgment. >> i agree with you on that, a gut conservative. >> i think bobby kennedy moved very sharply to the left to run against lbj. teddy kennedy, the original

teddy would have within a formidable candidate but he evolved into the kind of liberal, quite frankly on issues like abortion and gay rights and out front on spending and social and economic policy. all these things that his own brother jack kennedy would have mocked when adlai stevenson was for him. so kennedy evolved. there's no question before chappaquiddick kennedy looked like the odds-on favorite. he would be forced to run against us in 1972, no doubt about it. >> had teddy waiting outside with his bags waiting to go into the white house right after you guys were inaugurated? >> i think mcnally came a little later i think than that. mcneilly died young bulis cartoons were phenomenal. got three pul listers. i would have felt teddy would have been the nominee. i always felt for example in '68 that humphrey was the strongest candidate. he could bring the liberal wing

together because of his civil rights record. bobby i think and others don't, i think we would have beaten bobby handily. >> but you beat humphrey. >> we did beat humphrey but it was very close. >> why do you say he was the best candidate. >> when the democratic party came together, it was almost twice as large as our party and he gained 13 points in october alone. i was out in breaking out and everything else. and we heard, we were down 43, 40 in the harris poll. at the end, we thought we were going to lose. >> i think bobby would have spooked nixon. nixon won't have known what to do with bobby. that's my thought. haurd? >> what's the question? >> your witness. no, we want to move around here. howard, your sense as a reporter how important teddy was as a punching bag for the republicans all those years. >> i think he was very important and the amazing thing and the important thing is that he didn't mind being the punching bag. as pat said, you know, the kennedys played the hardest of

"hardball." the stuff going on in the senate for the most part was patty cake by comparison to some of the stuff on the presidential level. i think teddy understood it was okay to be a lightning rod. it was okay even in some cases to be a caricature because that would draw attention to him and allow him to make his case and more important, allow him to do the deals that he did. yes, he was as i said, he was the last of the fdr liberals. he became that in pat's recounseling of the story but also knew precisely when and developed that sense over the decades of when to cut the deal, when to get the half a loaf, when to do incrementally what couldn't be done all in one piece and then he would come back a few years later and get another amendment to push the thing farther along. he did that repeatedly with republican support. >> gene, your sense of this fight where teddy became the lightning rod. >> i agree with howard that it was very useful for him to be the lightning rod because it provided cover not only for the

deal that he would eventually make but for other democrats as well who could come in to the right of ted kennedy that wasn't very far to the right at all because he was staking, you know, the purest position. and as long as people, you know, people were shooting at him figuratively. he could take it. he was safe in his seat. nobody was going to beat him in massachusetts. whereas other democrats had opponents annen problems. and he could provide cover for them. >> pat, why do you think he went left? >> i think probably he was not formed in his convictions the way jack kennedy was. i look at jack kennedy as howard i think did it very well on teddy. teddy's a big irish guy. you can see him as a bartender in college singing danny boy and all the rest of it. jack was a cool customer, an irish wasp.

he was somebody who was aristocratic and his hand in his pocket and perfect all the time. kennedy is this big gregarious, even with me, hey, pat how are you doing. >> why did he go left. >> i think he moved with the -- i don't think he had firm deep convictions. i think he moved with the '60s right on along with that whole generation and frankly, he was staying out in front of it the whole time. i mean, i can't see jack kennedy or even bobby taking some of the positions today on right to life and things like that that teddy eventually did. >> one theory i had, gene, is his brothers moved on civil rights strongly. jack was there by coincidence in a way and he became a forceful spokesman because of history. bobby became passionate. i think teddy followed it one further step toward a real committed liberal on civil rights. >> yeah, i think that's absolutely right. that's the way it happened. but you know, the whole family i would argue might have evolved

with the country. so it's very difficult to say what jack kennedy would have been like in 1968 and or what bobby kennedy would have been like in 1972. the country was moving so rapidly and changing so rapidly. it's difficult to -- >> the other thing that happened was when jimmy carter became president, i think ted kennedy saw the legacy of the democratic party as he read it going back to roosevelt under assault. >> yeah. >> because jimmy carter as you know, was a different kind of democrat. and i think. >> he was grover cleveland. >> and teddy move even more to the left to challenge jimmy carter and preserve the legacy of the old democratic party. >> gentlemen, all three of you, as they say in massachusetts, you're the smart ones. thanks very much. you are the smart guys. i mean it. thank you howard fineman, eugene robinson and pat buchanan. much more on the life and death

of senator ted kennedy and the future of the issue which he thought fought for for so many decades universal health care when "hardball" comes back. >> this november, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of americans so with barack obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause, the work begins anew. the hope rises again. and the dream lives on. once you've mastered the complexities of a headache...

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you'll know it we are our own mixed up blend of one of a kind spices we are miracle whip and we will not tone it down and some day, long after this convention, long after the signs come down and the crowds stop cheering and the band stops

playing, may it be said of our campaign that we kept the faith. may it be said of our party in 1980 that we found our faith again. >> welcome back to "hardball." tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern, the premiere of our documentary "the kennedy brothers," the a look at the live much ted, john, robert and joseph kennedy junior. here is a look at ted kennedy's speech at the 1980 democratic convention. >> at the convention, ted gave more of an acceptance speech than what it was supposed to to be, an endorsement of carter. >> for me a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. for all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. >> they got to see the ted kennedy they should have gotten to see earlier in that campaign.

>> by convention's end with the balloons falling and the democrats vetting president carter, kennedy speechwriter bob schrempf quietly counseled ted to be a good soldier and a team player. >> i said are you going to raise his hand aren't you? and he said yes. and i went out into the audience and it never happened. >> some people in the crowd still shouting we want ted, we want ted. this is slightly awkward. >> and finally i guess at the very end, there was some sort of you know, brief hand touch but it was on full view of the nation, this absolute physical contempt for the senator toward the president. >> the kennedy brothers premieres tonight at 9:00 east enon msnbc. almost tomorrow night at 7:00 eastern right here on the place for politics. we'll have much more. coming up next, one ever ted's closest friends and allies in the u.s. house of representatives, massachusetts congressman ed markey of

massachusetts joins us when "hardball" comes back. >> my brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it, who saw war and tried to stop it. 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, it's fast and small, so it goes places other laptops can't. i'm bill kurtis, and i've got plenty of room for the internet. and the nation's fastest 3g network. gun it, mick. (announcer) sign up today

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i'm julia boorstin with your cnbc mark wrap. stocks end the day relatively flat despite encouraging economic reports. the dow jones up four points, stand and poors and nasdaq up a fraction ever a point. new home sales shot up more than 9 much 5% in july blowing past

expectations and dropping inventory of unso would homes to its lowest level in 16 years. builder stocks soared on the news. beazer homes moved almost 5% higher. citigroup, fannie mae and freddie mac finished slightly lower on the day in what one analyst is calling a dash for cash, trading has accounted for one quarter of all trading volume over the last three days. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." so many of his foes embrace him. because they know he made them bigger. he made them more graceful. by the way in which he conducted himself.

>> welcome back to "hardball." that was, of course, the vice president paying tribute very emotionally to ted kennedy who just died. joining me right now, we couldn't have a better guest right now, ed markey, a close colleague, so close. congressman, thank you for joining us. you and i are friends. i am so admiring of and what you've been able to do all these years. what i don't know and i'm going to ask you right now, what was ted kennedy like to work with inside the scrum more or less when you really have to get something done? >> well, on the one hand, during the six years that the republicans controlled the senate during the reagan years, during the six years they controlled it during the bush years, as you know, he was a warrior. he was going to fight to block bad things from happening. but on the other hand, if senator hatch or senator cas sabaum or senator mccain wanted to work with him towards putting together bipartisan packages, he

was willing to do so, as well. so it was almost your choice if you wanted to fight, he enjoyed the fight. if you wanted peace and you wanted to find a way of moving forward together, he was willing to do that, as well. >> what was he like, congressman, as a spotter? telling you how to work with somebody when he said, what's that guy's story, that kind of thing? hatch, what's his story? did he ever tell you that stuff, how to work with hatch and that sort of thing. >> he knew everything, a human encyclopedafter american politics. there really has never been anyone like him in terms of his family's history, his personal history, there was no one he didn't know. no one that he hadn't already had some kind of a relationship with that would give him an insight as to what would motivate that member on a particular issue. if you had one person to call and it was, you know, and you're on the millionaire call, you would call ted kennedy on

politics because he would know the answer. >> cover -- this is dangerously close to psychobasketball but let's try it. why did he care so much about health care? were you ever able to get that from him? >> well, you know, his entire family and its history was touched by his sister, rosemary, by the illnesses and the tragedies that befell his family almost in a greek tragedy like way. so i think as the years went by, he became more and more empathetic as to how health care issues would affect ordinary families. and because he was the chairman of the committee, it gave him an opportunity to touch the lives of every single american and to give them the access to the health care which he knew his family had been provided. >> how was he with the casework in massachusetts? you know, some politicians are big picture, they think it's gut

work. i have a sense that ted kennedy relished the ability to help people with particularly strange little problems they had that he only knew about and he only cared about in addition to them caring about them. >> you can only imagine what the reception was on the other end of the line when someone handed a phone to a bureaucrat saying, senator ted kennedy is on the line in terms of what the likely outcome was for a constituent if there was a problem. again, there's really no one else like him. he -- he was someone who transcended mere mortals in politics. >> what was it about constituent service? because a lot of guys i think of pat moynihan and being so big picture they're almost ethereal. what brought him down to earth when a mayor wanted something, for example. >> remember his grandfather was the mayor of boston. so he grew up in that culture with his grandfather, honey

fitts helping him in his first campaign, being there. i mean for his brother jack in that first campaign. so all of this was part of the family history. they understood that the foundation was at the grassroots. it was bloc to bloc. it was ward by ward. and in each of them had an ability to talk about chickapee or to talk about everitt. >> i know about chick a pea. >> as though they were the ward boss in those communities. >> i went out with somebody from chick a pea once. let me ask you, congressman, about vicki kennedy. we haven't talked about her. ted kennedy's second wife. his first marriage ended badly with joan. vicki seems to be someone who really gave him a second effort in life. not just in politics. >> you know, vicki for the last 17 or 18 years, has been

inseparable from ted kennedy. i cannot think of a single place that i saw ted kennedy that i did not see vicki, as well. they became a team, a partnership. and because of that, he became even greater than he had been in the past. and vicki is as much of this story as is the senator because they did create that partnership, that made it possible for him to become the greater senator of all time. >> congressman, our condolences from msnbc and everybody here to you, sir. i know how close you are and to the parents of vicki and vicki who has been an amazing loving spouse. i think she gave him that booster rocket. >> if i could just say this, you and i know where we were when

jack kennedy died. we know where we were when bobby kennedy died. that's the power of this family. and i'll never forget the day that ted kennedy pass away either, okay? it's been an incredible gift that this family has given to our country and to me personally and i think to millions of other people out there. they inspired me to go into government. they changed our country for the better. and there's no way of really measuring how much they had an impact on the families of millions of people all across our country. >> yeah. congressman markey, thank you so much. what a great brother ted kennedy was to his brothers. up next, much more in the life of ted kennedy, the senator from massachusetts and his impact on the debate we're having right now. it's very much alive on health care. we'll be right back with "hardball" after this. >> as long as i have a voice in the united states senate, it's going to be for that democratic platform plank that provides

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i hope our senators are listening.

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>> that was the american university speech last year. we're back. joining us right now is politico's roger simon and ron brownstein. it's so great to have you two on tonight. i'm not going to lead you much at all. roger, you first. stories about ted kennedy. you're very good at finding these stories. >> i've heard the news last night, i went down to the basement and looked up my old kennedy columns. he was always a great interview, but there was always this, i found anyway, this air of sadness over him and the rest of the family. i found a column i had done in october of 1974. this was a low point for ted kennedy. he had just been chased off the stage in boston by anti-bussing demonstrators shouting impeach kennedy. this was where he was a tomato was thrown at him, a woman punched him in the shoulder as he left the stage. he had decided not to run in

1976 for president even though we thought the democrats could win. and yet, he still -- he went to southern illinois to give a speech for paul simon who was running for congress. there was no national press there. had i come down from chicago that, doesn't qualify as national press and kennedy gave everything for that speech. i mean, he gave a rip roaring speech and when it was all over, we went back to the airport. and he turned to his advance man, jam kaine and he saiddy do a good job in did they like me? was i good tonight and jim king said yes, they liked you. you did very well. it always amazed me that real politicians care about every speech. and they care about connecting to every crowd. and ted kennedy to every crowd ted kennedy was like that. >> i had a similar experience in utah in 1971 in the wayne owens campaign where he gave a barn burner for his former aid. ron, your thoughts on when

kennedy became the top democrat in the country. >> my memory is ted kennedy as a legislator on the inside of congress, making change happen. i remember talking to him in 2006 when he was engaged in arduous negotiations with republicans like john mccain, business and labor, trying to pull together an immigration reform package with the bush administration, and he was talking about the effort to kind of reach out beyond the traditional democratic coalition and work with voices that were not often heard in democratic houses. it became his hallmark actually after the presidential race. i asked him what the tolerance level was for the negotiating on both sides for enganling in these negotiations. he said, you know, the old guys -- the old guys understand it, but the young guys it's not where they're at. and, in fact, ted kennedy was, as i said in the atlantic, he was really a last in a breed. a senator that believed that an

individual senator through their intelligence and work and understanding could build coalitions that wouldn't be formed other wise. now we're moving towards a much more parliamentary system where everybody is expected to stand with their own side against the other and the opportunity for someone to do what ted kennedy did so well for almost three decades really is eroding. >> a friend of mine said the worst thing that ever happened in the u.s. senate were the weekly lunch where is they all get together and agree on being in the same party. by the way, as tribute to the fact that ted kennedy could put a coalition together, the people who were speaking at the wake on friday night, this is an unusual format far catholic service, but it's going to be a wake up there in boston. joe biden, the vice president of the united states who spoke so emotionally today. john mccain of arizona, who was the republican nominee, he's going to speak. and john kerry, the junior, now senior senator from massachusetts. roger, it looks to me like a ticket that ted kennedy forged. >> it was.

as ron said, he really could bring people together. but he cared about doing so, and now there's just not the same feeling. i know there's the natural instinct whenever a great man passes to say oh, there will never be giants like this again. and in the olden time, everyone was great, not like now. but it is hard to view the passing of a figure like ted kennedy and look at people today in the senate who are going to devote their lives, decades, to doing what he did. who really care more about passing legislate than about advancing a partisan cause. it's very hard to see that. and i don't think that argues good things for the years ahead. >> yep, i agree. >> older an older, i tell you, i was in politics with kirk o'donnell and tip o'neill and ted i c teddy kennedy pat moynihan and they're all gone. what's coming up next in terms of kennedy and obama.

boy, talking about the kennedy legacy and the saga. and there's one more step in this saga. the new brother, barack obama. he got the torch handed to him last year. we'll be right back to talk about that as politics continues here in america and on "hardball." ...it's like your old mop's worst nightmare. ♪ [ thunder crashes ] [ man ] love stinks. ♪ love stinks! ♪ yeah! yeah! [ female announcer ] swiffer wet cloths clean better than a mop with new cleansers that attract dirt deep into the cloth and lock it away. new swiffer wet cloths clean better, or your money back. ♪ love stinks! ...or if you're already sick... ...or if you lose your job. your health insurance shouldn't either. so let's fix health care. if everyone's covered, we can make health care as affordable as possible.

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for all my years in public

life, i believe that america must sail towards the shores of liberty and justice for all. there is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. >> wow. i wanted to ask about the new brother, barack obama. the kennedys passed the torch from brother to brother, joe kennedy jr. to jack to bobby to ted. and then kennedy last year gave it toe barack obama. he said he is the new brother. i want to ask you that spobsability and what it means. it seems to me he has yet to take that full responsibility, and i'm being tough here, i'm being