The Trouble With Teddy

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-- In that case Teddy would probably have run for President against Richard Nixon in 1972. Kennedy might have lost that year (the incumbent has the advantage). But Ted would probably have run again in 1976 and won, then run for re-election in 1980 and served another four years.

-- An eight-year Kennedy presidency might have run Ronald Reagan off the political road. Therefore no Reagan '80s. At least, one can make that case. Reagan in 1984 might have mobilized a conservative reaction against the liberal eight-year Kennedy regime and won.

If . . . If . . . If . . . The exercise is fanciful. Maybe some other logic entirely was at work. Perhaps Ted did not want to run for President. As the youngest in an enormous family, Ted had Joe, John and Robert all lined up ahead of him to fulfill the ambassador's ambitions to put a son in the White House. Then, quite suddenly, he found himself at the head of the line. Maybe the man prone to accidents and to drinking too much was trying to escape the responsibility -- to immunize himself from it by making a mess of his life. Prince Hal may have noticed that kings get slain.

In the '60s and '70s political writers ended their profiles of Ted by noting, "After all, he has lots of time. If he does not run this year, he will remain a plausible presidential candidate until the year 2000." No political writer advances that theory anymore.

But if Kennedy were to retire now, his accomplishment would be memorable. Almost all the major pieces of social legislation in the past quarter-century bear his fingerprints. He has been the nation's leading advocate for the disabled, the aged, the less privileged. He has promoted the Voting Rights Act and its extensions, the Freedom of Information Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Eighteen-Year-Old Vote law, the Age Discrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Act for Better Child Care, among others.

Ted Kennedy is the heart and conscience of traditional American liberalism, even in its present wan and dormant state. Judith Lichtman, president of the Women's Legal Defense Fund, has worked with Kennedy for 25 years on civil rights, sex discrimination, health care and child care. Says Lichtman: "He's the best legislator I know. He's up early, works all day and calls in the middle of the night to make sure he's got it right."

Kennedy has a superb staff of some 100 people who organize his ideas and initiatives. Those who watch Kennedy at work on Capitol Hill observe a stamina, energy, attention to detail and intellectual alertness that contradict the image of Kennedy as a feckless drinker. An alcoholic, especially at the age of 59 after years of habitual drinking, often finds it difficult to keep up with his work, or to keep a job at all. Alcohol punishes brain and body and wears them down.