Wow — I’m away a few days and something momentous happens. I didn’t know it at the time, but I guess my last post about his rush to fill his Senate seat was pretty timely, after all.

Senator Ted Kennedy died Tuesday shortly before midnight after a long battle with brain cancer at the age of 77.

Sen. Ted Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77.

The man known as the “liberal lion of the Senate” had fought a more than year-long battle with brain cancer, and according to his son had lived longer with the disease than his doctors expected him to.

… Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, known as Ted or Teddy, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent a successful brain surgery soon after that. But his health continued to deteriorate, and Kennedy suffered a seizure while attending the luncheon following President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Here is the Kennedy family statement:

“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost
the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

Of course, quite sickeningly, liberals have immediately started using his death as some sort of political football. They’re using his death to try to push their government run health care reform through. It’s disgusting. The man’s not even in his grave yet, and his death is already being exploited. I wonder: did anyone in Congress who knew him actually care? Did any of them weep? Did any of them feel even a twinge of sadness? Or was it just an immediate feeling of excitement, because now, they could use his passing to their advantage. These people are seemingly heartless and soulless, and it makes me sick.

What these liberals don’t count on is that Ted Kennedy’s death just goes to show that our system does work, and we don’t need government run health care screwing it up. After his diagnosis, a 77-year-old man was able to live for over a year with brain cancer. That’s pretty amazing. And while politicians are allowed to opt-out of Obamacare, what are the chances that, if health care reform is passed, the same would happen five or ten years from now?

Now, as for Ted Kennedy himself, there is a place and a time for criticizing him and pointing out his obvious flaws and mistakes. This is not it. I don’t know where Ted Kennedy’s soul is now, and as a fellow Catholic, I sincerely hope he is in Heaven. I hope that, at the very least, in his understanding that death was knocking at his door, that he was repentant enough to make a full confession of his sins and die in a state of peace and forgiveness. No one can really know for sure, but I do pray that he found repentance in his heart. In any case this is not the time to gloat or celebrate, or to criticize and attack him. This is not he DailyKos or the Democratic Underground or the HuffPo. If you want to act like those people, go hang out with them. This is not a place that tolerates attacks on the dead before they’re even in the ground, so just keep that in mind.

As a closing, I hope that the Kennedy family finds peace and strength in this sorrowful times. I doubt that his passing was unexpected, but it’s devastating all the same. They will be in my thoughts and prayers.