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May 21, 2008

Bush pays tribute to Sen. Kennedy with bill signing

WASHINGTON -- As Sen. Edward M. Kennedy settled in at home in Hyannisport today to ready for his battle against brain cancer, President Bush paid tribute to the Massachusetts Democrat’s long fight for a new anti-discrimination bill that he signed into law at an Oval Office ceremony.

As he prepared to sign the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, Bush said he wished to "pay homage’’ not only to the bipartisan group on hand for the ritual "but also to Senator Ted Kennedy, who has worked for over a decade to get this piece of legislation to a president's desk.’’

Bush said, "All of us are so pleased that Senator Kennedy has gone home, and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.’’

The gathering was typical of the sort of ideological cross-section that the Massachusetts Democrat – very liberal but very practical-minded – has long specialized in lashing together to pass laws.

Bush’s description of the bill at hand was likewise a good fit for the type of compromise between public welfare and business needs that is Kennedy’s stock in trade. The bill "protects our citizens from having their genetic information misused,’’ Bush explained, "without undermining the basic tenets of the insurance industry."

The White House ceremony for the signing of the health-related legislation came hours after Kennedy, the longest-surviving brother in the nation’s most celebrated political family, was discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where doctors diagnosed his malignant brain tumor on Tuesday.

Kennedy, who traveled home by car with his wife, Victoria, was to remain there as he and his doctors chart a course of treatment over the coming days.

Rhode Island Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy planned, meanwhile, to spend as much time as possible at his father’s side. He returned to his home in Portsmouth after seeing the senator off at Mass General. Family members have spent much of the time there since last Saturday, when the elder Kennedy was stricken by a seizure later determined to have been caused by the tumor.

-- John E. Mulligan, Journal Washington bureau

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 5:17 PM | Permalink

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