The newest attraction in Massachusetts was dedicated today at an event headlined by President Barack Obama. A who’s who of political heavyweights praised a civic education center that was conceived by U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy.
President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a host of top national, state and local politicians attended Monday’s formal dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston.
The $79 million facility that features a full-scale replica of the Senate chamber where visitors get to role-play as senators is a living legacy to the Democratic “liberal lion” of the U.S. Senate and tribute to the institution he loved and served in for more than half of his life.
Mr. Obama called it a “fitting tribute.”
" No one made the Senate come alive like Ted Kennedy," said Mr. Obama.
The president, Biden, Massachusetts Senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Governor Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, several former Senate colleagues, and members of the Kennedy family spoke at the ceremony held outside the front entrance to the institute.
Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama helped him secure the Democratic nomination and win the 2008 presidential election. Kennedy died from brain cancer in 2009 before construction of the institute began.
The institute was envisioned by Kennedy as a way to demonstrate the power of democracy, according Vicky Kennedy, his widow and head of the institute’s board of directors.
" Just as Teddy approached politics differently, he wanted to approach the institute in a unique and fresh way," she said.
Although the focus of the institute is on the institution of the Senate, much of Monday’s dedication ceremony was a tribute to Kennedy, who represented Massachusetts for 47 years and is one of just 8 people to serve more than 40 years in the Senate.
Biden, who considered Kennedy his mentor, talked about how Kennedy helped him as a young candidate and a freshman senator.
" All politics is personal," Biden declared. " And no one in my life understood that better than Ted Kennedy."
Markey declared Kennedy to be the “greatest senator of all time” There was also bipartisan praise for Kennedy from former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott and Republican Senator John McCain.
" I miss my friend. I miss him a lot. I knew I would when I said six years ago the Senate would not be the same without him, " said McCain. " I have no doubt the senate would be a lot more fun and more productive if he were there."
The Kennedy institute is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. It is next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
The institute opens to the public Tuesday.
