By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.
Hours after the country collectively woke up last Wednesday and learned that the legendary Ted Kennedy had died, Florida U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (right) met with reporters in a small room at his Tampa downtown district office.
Nelson hailed the liberal lion's towering achievements in the Senate, crediting them in part to his knack for bipartisanship. Then this reporter asked him what, if anything, would Kennedy's death mean for the troubled healthcare legislation that the late Senator had called "the cause of my life"?
"As we bring to closure this healthcare debate, there's going to be a void, but at the same time, there's a memory," Nelson replied. "And I think with a country that is increasingly having difficulty for people to obtain health insurance, and affordable, I think this is just going to give an additional impetus in the memory to Senator Kennedy to pass legislation that will reform the system, and make it affordable."
It was stirring stuff. It was also something of a different tune than he was singing 24 hours before, when he addressed the Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County. There he argued that attempting to push through a sweeping healthcare reform bill at this time would likely be doomed for failure.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2009.