An era is certainly over in the U.S. Senate with the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, the third longest serving Senator in Senate history.
One thing I learned fast when I started covering politics was how much of a lightning rod he was for voters and for political groups on the GOP side.
I would love to know how much money Kennedy helped Republicans raise over the years, because he certainly starred in their fundraising appeals.
Just as "San Francisco Liberal" is a term that Republicans love to throw around, they also loved to tie just about any candidate to Ted Kennedy, to send a message of disapproval.
I used to joke that Kennedy seemed to be running for re-election in multiple states every two years, because Republicans were busy trying to link Democrats to him whenever possible.
While the Senate is out of session right now, officials placed an arrangement of white roses on top of Kennedy's desk on the Senate floor, with a card that had Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken."
I will miss Kennedy for one main thing, which is really the basis of an inside joke amongst radio reporters who cover the Senate.
Years ago, I dubbed Kennedy "Senator Line Level," because when you recorded a news conference from the Senate Radio TV Gallery, his voice was so loud that it overwhelmed the usual microphone input on our tape recorders, forcing you to use the "Line In" instead.
And when he got rolling on the Senate floor, there weren't many who could compete with his voice.
While some Senators argued, Kennedy "bellowed" on the Senate floor, as he made his points, taunted his political opponents, and wound himself up on whatever subject he was addressing.
Sometimes he would yell so loud and over emphasize his words so much, that portions of his Senate speeches became almost unintelligible, just a lot of loud yelling from the floor that would make us run into the galleries to watch first hand, where you could hear his voice echo through the chamber.
While Kennedy became the Liberal Lion of the Senate over the years, his behavior outside the chamber - long after Chappaquiddick - won him attention that certainly detracted from his image.
After getting divorced from his first wife Joan, Kennedy took on the air of the playboy, as tales of drinking and womanizing always seemed to swirl.
There was the William Kennedy Smith case, which sullied the Kennedy name on live TV in the early days of cable news. While Smith was found not guilty of rape, the trial included the story of Teddy urging his younger family members to join him for some late night drinking out on the town in Palm Beach.
There was the story of Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd carousing in a French restaurant on Capitol Hill, which included tales of under the table activities.
There was the time Kennedy was photographed indelicato in a boat, which prompted Sen. Howell Heflin (D-AL) to reportedly say that Kennedy had seemingly changed his position on "offshore drilling."
When Kennedy remarried in the early 1990s, it did seem to calm and refocus him. The playboy days were over and it was back to work in the legislative and partisan trenches with a sharper focus.
Whether you liked him or not, Ted Kennedy made a major impact on the Senate over the last 46-plus years.
Just as I miss the sound of Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, Fritz Hollings and many others that I have covered on the Senate floor, Kennedy's death closes another chapter in Senate history.
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