Political luminaries to pay tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy at Boston service

Political luminaries to pay tribute to Kennedy

BOSTON — Now that the public has said goodbye to Sen. Edward Kennedy, a who’s who of politics is converging on Boston for a private service featuring music, laughter and, in all likelihood, calls to grant Kennedy’s last political wish — health coverage for all Americans.

The event, billed as “a celebration of life,” will contrast with the solemnity of the motorcade that carried Kennedy’s body from Cape Cod to Boston a day earlier and the sobriety of the public viewing, where an estimated 50,000 people filed past the senator’s flag-draped coffin at the presidential library named for one of his slain brothers.

The event will honor Kennedy’s love of family and friends and his commitment to public service. Scheduled speakers include Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. John McCain, Orrin Hatch, John Kerry and Christopher Dodd; and niece Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy.

Performances will include Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell singing Kennedy’s favorite song, “The Impossible Dream” from the musical “Man of La Mancha,” for which Mitchell was nominated for a Tony Award. Also on tap is a video tribute directed by renowned documentarian Ken Burns and Mark Herzog.

The speakers, many of whom worked for years with Kennedy in the Senate, are expected to share anecdotes of his congeniality and knack for compromise as they recall his congressional successes — and the ones he had yet to achieve when he died this week of a brain tumor at age 77.

The health care bill on which Kennedy took the lead has been among the most controversial pieces of legislation considered by Congress in recent years. Protests have erupted around the country, and opponents have called it a nationalized — even socialized — program.

Anyone addressing the health care bill at the service will tread a fine line between taste and politics, especially since conservative commentators have already objected to proposals to name the measure “The Kennedy Bill.”

The dangers of politicizing a memorial event were illustrated by a 2002 memorial for Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who was killed in a plane crash. The event became a political pep rally that turned off many voters, and some observers attributed it to Republican Norm Coleman’s victory over Wellstone stand-in Walter Mondale in the special election.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Friday that he planned to touch on Kennedy’s blend of a “larger-than-life quality and his down-to-earth quality.”

“He had such a lovely touch with people and did things, acts of real grace, that were out of public view, that were incredibly transformative and meaningful for the individual,” the governor told reporters Friday during a visit to Martha’s Vineyard.

Plans for the private memorial picked up speed Friday afternoon after officials ended the two-day public viewing at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Maureen Conte, 44, rode her bike 40 minutes to the library, and was one of the last people allowed in the viewing.

“I did it for my parents. My mom called me and was so sad. She said, ‘It’s the end of an era.’ I came to pay homage to Ted for all he’s done for our country,” Conte said.

Greeting visitors were members of the Kennedy family, including his daughter Kara Kennedy Allen, nephew Tim Shriver and 81-year-old Jean Kennedy Smith, the senator’s sister and the last surviving Kennedy sibling.

Smith, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, choked back tears. “This is a hard time for me,” she said when asked to talk about her brother.

A five-person military honor guard stood at attention around the casket in a high-ceilinged room with a spectacular view of Boston Harbor. Large photos greeted mourners on their way into the room, including one of Kennedy as a boy with his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, and a 1960s-era shot of Kennedy with his slain brothers, John and Robert.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica — better known as the Mission Church — in Boston on Saturday. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and tenor Placido Domingo will perform, and President Barack Obama is delivering the eulogy.

All the living former presidents are expected to attend except for George H.W. Bush. Spokesman Jim McGrath said Friday that the 85-year-old Bush feels his son’s presence will “amply and well represent” the family.

Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.

Associated Press Writer Glen Johnson contributed to this report.