Let's get on with Health Care

I couldn't tear myself away from the television during the Sen. Edward Kennedy memorial and funeral service -- start to finish.

To me, this represents the best of television -- why we have one. My husband didn't watch. He gets antsy when he sits that long. He's not crazy about anything political or emotional for that matter. I am just the opposite. I love politics and love to feel something when I watch television. Whatever I watch, or do, I immerse myself in it. Otherwise, it just isn't worth doing in my view.

I got a new sense of understanding from Orrin Hatch after hearing him Friday night as he spoke about his relationship with Ted. And the emotion from John Kerry was the kind of emotion that could have won the White House.

The magnitude of information that streamed over the airwaves was nothing short of miraculous in the lengthy coverage.

I have an enormous respect for Vicky Kennedy and her composure, especially in light of how well she coped with that long Catholic funeral, a bit much in my view.

Speaking of Vicky, perhaps she will reconsider filling her husband's vacant Senate seat. It would be a comfort to have his soul mate fill his chair, even though there can never be another Ted Kennedy. His life was shaped in part by the losses he endured -- losses so immense that it is hard to imagine what it would be like to walk in his shoes. A lesser man would have succumbed to the pressure. Ted conquered it. He really was a lion.

President Barack Obama provided a beautiful eulogy to his friend. It is now time for the President to take the Kennedy torch he was given and run with it, right up the steps of Congress, and right into the Senate and House chambers. It is time for the kind of leadership on health care that Kennedy would have provided, had he been able.

It is time for the members of Congress to honor him with the kind of health care for all Americans for which he devoted his life to providing. Let's get on with it.