BOSTON — President Barack Obama was part of a large contingent of political figures on hand Monday to launch an institute that honors the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and his grand vision of the U.S. Senate, where Kennedy spent nearly half a century.
The dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute — a $78.4 million, 68,000-square-foot building overlooking Boston Harbor — gave elected officials from both parties a chance to reflect on how disenchanted Americans have become when it comes to the people they send to Washington, and whether it’s possible to restore public confidence in government.
“We live in a time of such great cynicism about all our institutions. And we are cynical about government and about Washington, most of all,” Obama told a crowd of roughly 1,800. “And this place can help change that.”
The president addressed his remarks not just to dozens of Kennedy relatives, more than two dozen current and former senators and “pretty much every elected official in Massachusetts,” as he put it, but to the more than 1,000 men and women who had worked for the legendary senator over his nearly 47-year career in the Senate. Obama said that “since this is a joyous occasion, this is not the time for me to suggest a slew of new ideas for reform.” Still, he decided he would “just mention one.”
Reflecting on Kennedy’s ability to forge compromises with lawmakers across the aisle, Obama said, “What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we worked to follow his example a little bit harder?”
The president said elected officials had lost sight of why they came to Washington in the first place. “People fight to get in the Senate and then they’re afraid. We fight to get these positions and then don’t want to do anything with them,” he said. “And Ted understood the only point of running for office was to get something done — not to posture, not to sit there worrying about the next election or the polls — to take risks.”
Speaking of Kennedy’s long friendship and legislative partnership with Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, Obama said, “The point is we can fight on almost everything. But we can come together on some things. And those ‘somethings’ can mean everything to a whole lot of people.”
Prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, echoed that theme.
Recalling how he and Kennedy engaged in a shouting match on the Senate floor once as junior senators in their respective parties, McCain said, “I miss my friend. I miss him a lot.
“I have no doubt the place would be a little more productive, and a lot more fun, if he were there,” McCain said, adding that Kennedy knew how to make “incremental progress on the problems of our time.”
“We all listened to him,” McCain added. “He was hard to ignore.”
The institute’s building, adjacent to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston, boasts clear, angular lines in white concrete and a dark-gray composite with metallic paint on the upper level. It includes a full-scale replica of the Senate chamber measuring 4,369 square feet, a 5,558-square-foot Senate gallery and a 783-square-foot replica of Kennedy’s office and reception area.
Kennedy viewed the Senate as “an institution with the potential to make us all better,” said Vice President Joe Biden, who served with him for decades.
Recalling his long friendship with Kennedy, Biden challenged the idea that America was more divided now than at any time in its history.
“On every major issue, there’s a consensus in America,” he said. “It’s the political process that’s broken.”
And the event provided Obama — who received a crucial boost when he won Kennedy’s endorsement in the 2008 Democratic primary, just days before the Super Tuesday primaries — a chance to pay homage to one of his political mentors.
“I did not know Ted as long as some of the speakers here today,” said Obama, who left the event to headline a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Cambridge. “But he was my friend. I owe him a lot.”
Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, said that the 2008 endorsement and the new institute are both a part of the late senator’s legacy. “I thought of it as just looking to the future. It’s what Teddy was always about,” she said Monday. “That’s really what he was doing with that endorsement, he was looking to the future. … That’s actually really what this whole institute is about — it’s about inspiration, it’s about the future.”
Afterward, several dozen current and former senators joined Biden in the replica Senate chamber. The rugs, desks, staff benches, public galleries and press galleries were built to specification, and the Kennedy family even brought in the current chaplain, the Rev. Barry Black, and the former parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, to convene a special “session.”
Former Senate majority leader Thomas Daschle, D-South Dakota, occupied his old spot in the leader’s chair on the Democratic side of the aisle, former Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, and Bob Graham, D-Florida, took seats in the back.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Senate,” Biden said as he took the seat designated for the president of the Senate.
Obama made a brief appearance on the replica floor, thanking the Kennedys and those who attended and shaking hands with students.
Biden gave a lengthy speech about his time in the Senate. He noted that despite the enormity of the issues that come before the chamber, the battles take place in a tiny room. “It’s an enormous yet so intimate place,” Biden said.