Douglas Alexander: “I would not want all the accolades to Senator Kennedy to come from that side of the aisle. Forty years ago, in 1967, I…”

“I would not want all the accolades to Senator Kennedy to come from that side of the aisle. Forty years ago, in 1967, I came to this body as a very young legislative aide to Senator Howard Baker, and Ted Kennedy was a very young Senator but already in his second term. All the talk for the first few months--and I imagine Senator Byrd can remember this--was about how long would it take for Senator Baker, a new Republican Senator, to break on some important issue with father-in-law, the Republican leader, Senator Everett Dirksen and after a few months we knew because Senator Baker walked across the aisle and joined with Senator Ted Kennedy and they fought against Senator Dirksen, Baker's father-in-law, and Sam Ervin, the most respected constitutional lawyer in the Senate, on the issue of one man one vote. I remember working with Jim Fluge, Senator Kennedy's friend who came back to work in the Senate 3 or 4 years ago. The upstarts won that debate; Baker and Kennedy beat Dirksen and Ervin on the one man one vote issue. That was my first exposure to working with Senator Kennedy. Several years passed and President Bush the first asked me to be the Education Secretary, and I came to Washington and what did I discover? I have to be confirmed by a committee chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy. That was 1991. That was 16 years ago. I was eventually confirmed and then we worked together for nearly 2 years on educational issues.”