Quotes

Quotes

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Additional quotes from the segment "Ted Kennedy" which aired on 60 Minutes Sunday, June 7.

In the report, Stahl talked with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) about his bipartisan sponsorship of legislation with Kennedy. Hatch said, "We're called the odd couple, and the reason we are is
because he's odd." Stahl replied, "What's odd is that this unlikely duo has co-sponsored five major pieces of legislation since 1990, including getting a law passed last year that raises $50 billion in new taxes to pay for health insurance for poor children."

Hatch continued, "We have a good record together, except that whatever happens, he gets all kinds of credit, and I get beaten up like you can't believe by the conservatives." When Stahl told Hatch that conservatives say Hatch is a dupe of Kennedy's, Hatch responded, "Anybody who thinks that is stupid, because first of all, you've got to see how far he moved to the center." Stahl reported that despite all their cooperation, they seem to spend as much time bickering as they do legislating.

Hatch, said, "I told him, I said, I hate to use this language, but it's the language I used with him--sometimes the only way you can get through. And I said, Ted, you could be a really great senator here if you weren't such an ideological (censored)."

When Stahl asked Kennedy if he sometimes goes too far, Kennedy replied, "Yeah. Sometimes I don't go far enough. I get after Orrin on some of these other ones, but I think it's important. People need an advocate. I consider myself as an advocate for working families. I consider myself an advocate on health care and on education, jobs.

Senator Kennedy also said he will always feel responsible for the 1969 death of a companion, after he drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.

"That will remain with me for my whole life," said Kennedy, who has been tight-lipped on the Chappaquiddick incident.

"And I've indicated before, you know, that I've accepted responsibility for it. That doesn't change now. [That] won't change in the future. And it's something that I have to just live with."

In July 1969, while returning from a party, Kennedy drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick, an island off Martha's Vineyard, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

Kennedy reported the accident to police the following morning. He said at the time that the 10-hour delay in reporting the accident resulted from his confused and distraught state.

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