The last days of Ted Kennedy

If missing his sister’s funeral wasn’t an indication enough that Sen. Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor is about to claim his life, today’s letter to Massachusetts state officials is. In it, Kennedy asks the state to revise a 2004 law to allow a temporary appointee to fill his unexpired term.

The political analysts suggest the move is also an admission that health care reform itself is on its deathbed at the Capitol.

I prefer to use the occasion — as a son of the Bay State — to recall significant moments in Kennedy’s life. Such moments, it seems, have to start with this one:

Never quite the orator that his brothers were, it only took two words to finish Kennedy’s career as president-in-waiting: “I know.”

His national “goodbye” came one year ago next Tuesday. :

Regardless of where you stand on Kennedy politically, you’ll want to spend some time with the Boston Globe’s seven-part series on him.