Biden on Ted Kennedy Death

The following is the full text of Vice President Joe Biden's heartfelt remarks delivered, emotionally and without notes, on August 26, 2009 about the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

In his comments, Biden concluded, "... he changed the political landscape for almost a half of century... I just hope we remember how he treated other people and how he made other people look at themselves and look at one another...

Vice President Biden's Remarks on the Death of Sen. Ted Kennedy

My wife, Jill, and my sons, Beau and Hunter, and my daughter, Ashley -- and I don't say that lightly because they all knew Teddy. He did something personal and special for each one of them in their lives -- truly, truly are distressed by his passing.

And our hearts go out to Teddy Jr. and Patrick and Kara and Vicki, with whom I spoke this morning, and the whole Kennedy family. You know, Teddy spent a lifetime working for a fair and more just America. And for 36 years, I had the privilege of going to work every day and literally -- not figuratively -- sitting next to him and being a witness to history every single day the Senate was in session.

I sat with him on the Senate floor in the same aisle. I sat with him on the Judiciary Committee physically next to him. And I sat with him in the caucuses. And it was in that process -- every day I was with him -- and this is going to sound strange, but he restored my sense of idealism and my faith in possibilities of what this country could do.

He and I were talking after his diagnosis, and I said, 'You know, I think you're the only other person I've met who, like me, is more optimistic, more enthusiastic, more idealistic, sees greater possibilities after 36 years than when we were elected.'

He was 30 years old when he was elected. I was 29 years old. And you'd think that would be the peak of our idealism, but I genuinely feel more optimistic about the prospects for my country today than I did -- have at any time in my life.

And it was infectious when you were with him. You could see it -- those of you who knew him and those of you who didn't know him -- you could just see it in the nature of his -- the debate, in the nature of his embrace, in the nature of how he, every single day, attacked these problems.

And, you know, he was never defeatist. He never was petty. Never was petty. He was never small. And in the process of his doing, he made everybody he worked with bigger; both his adversaries as well as his allies.

Don't you find it remarkable that one of the most partisan, liberal men in the last century serving in the Senate had so many of his -- so many of his foes embrace him because they know he made them bigger? He made them more graceful by the way in which he conducted himself.

You know, he changed the circumstances of tens of millions of Americans in the literal sense; literally, literally changed the circumstances. He changed, also, another aspect of it as I observed about him. He changed not only the physical circumstance; he changed how they looked at themselves and how they looked at one another.

That's a remarkable -- a remarkable contribution for any man or woman to make and for the hundreds, if not thousands, of us who got to know him personally. He actually -- how can I say it? He altered our lives as well. Through the grace of God and an accident of history, I was privileged to be one of those people. And every important event in my adult life, as I looked back this morning in talking to Vicki, every single one, he was there. He was there to encourage, to counsel, to be empathetic, to lift up.

From 1972, as a 29-year-old kid with three weeks left to go in a campaign, him showing up at the Delaware Armory in the middle of what we call Little Italy, would never vote nationally for a Democrat, I won by 3,100 votes and got 85 percent of the vote in that district or something to that effect. I literally would not be standing here were it not for Teddy Kennedy -- not figuratively. It's not hyperbole. Literally.

He was there -- he stood with me when my wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He was on the phone with me literally every day in the hospital when my two children were attempting, and God willing, got -- thankfully -- survived very serious injuries.

I'd turn around and there would be some specialist from Massachusetts -- a doc I never even asked for -- literally sitting in the room with me.

You know, it's not just me that he affected like that. It's hundreds upon hundreds of people.

I was talking with Vicki this morning, and she said -- she said, 'He was ready to go, Joe, but we were not ready to let him go.' He's left a great void in our public life and a hole in the hearts of millions of Americas and hundreds of us who were affected by his person touch throughout our lives; people like me who came to rely on him. He was kind of like an anchor.

And unlike many important people in my 38 years I've had the privilege of knowing, the unique thing about Teddy was it was never about him. It was always about you. It was never about him. There was people I admire, great women and women, but at the end of the day, it gets down to being about them. With Teddy, it was never about him.

Well, today, we lost a truly remarkable man. To paraphrase Shakespeare, I don't think we shall ever see his like again. I think the legacy he left was not just with the landmark legislation he passed but in how he helped people look at themselves and look at one another.

I apologize for -- for us not being able to go into more detail about the energy bill, but I just think, for me at least, it was inappropriate today. And I'm sure there will be much more that will be said about my friend and your friend, but he changed the political landscape for almost a half of century.

I just hope -- we say it lightly, you know -- we'll remember what he did. I just hope we remember how he treated other people and how he made other people look at themselves and look at one another. That will be the truly fundamental, unifying legacy of Teddy Kennedy's life if that happens, and it will for a while at least in the Senate.

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Mystery over Libya rebel leader death

Details murky on Libya rebel chief deathNEW: Younis' killing is "more proof that the transitional council of the traitors is not able to lead," says IbrahimThe death of the top rebel commander in Libya stokes speculation of a rebel rift An ex-ambassador says "revenge by Tripoli" is the "most likely scenario"One expert says the death is a reminder of the rebel coalition's fragility

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The killing on Thursday of the top rebel military commander shows that those forces are in disarray, a spokesman for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Friday.

Gen. Abdul Fattah Younis and two other rebels were killed after the country's main rebel organization, the Transitional National Council, sought to question him about military matters and allegations that he or those close to him had ongoing ties to Gadhafi, Younis' supporters said.

Younis' killing represents "more proof that the transitional council of the traitors is not able to lead any sort of government or have any control of eastern cities of Libya," said Musa Ibrahim, the Gadhafi spokesman.

Ibrahim accused two members of al Qaeda of having arrested Younis with the help of the Transitional National Council and subsequently charging Younis with treason for "betraying the cause."

But the abductors knew that a fair trial would have been lengthy and that Younis' tribe would have intervened to help him, so they killed him, Ibrahim said. "He was shot and his body was immediately disfigured," he added.

The killing shows that "al Qaeda is the real power among the rebels," he said, repeating Gadhafi's assertion that rebel forces are allied with al Qaeda. "They have the most soldiers; they have the training; they have the weapons; they have the faith -- a wicked faith; they have the strategies."

The killing also sends a powerful message to other tribes: "Try to exclude us from your settlement, your political settlement, and this is your fate," Ibrahim said.

Younis was killed along with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel, the Transitional National Council said in a prepared statement. No further details were immediately released.

The deaths have provoked questions and stirred speculation that they might cause a rift among opposition leaders.

"We really don't know what happened yet," said Marina Ottaway, senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East program. "Politically, it's a reminder of how tenuous a coalition it is."

Rebels have been battling government troops in a fight to oust Gadhafi, who has ruled the North African nation for nearly 42 years.

NATO has used air power to enforce a U.N. resolution protecting civilians from the regime, and world powers have announced their support for Libya's rebel umbrella group.

This week, the United Kingdom joined the United States and other Western powers in recognizing the TNC as the legitimate governing authority in Libya, a decision that could steer millions of dollars to the opposition.

Younis had served as interior minister in Gadhafi's government until February, when he defected to the Benghazi-based rebel movement.

A onetime general in Gadhafi's army, Younis told CNN in February that he switched sides after Gadhafi told him he planned to bomb Benghazi -- a move Younis said would have killed thousands.

A young man in a tan uniform who spoke in Benghazi after Friday Muslim prayers said on rebel TV that Younis "was assassinated by him like the other martyrs of Libya" and called for "revenge for everyone who took part in this crime." It wasn't clear whom he was implicating in Younis' death.

The man said that "knowing the truth of what happened to him and avenging his death is a debt every Libyan man and woman owes. My message to Mustafa Abdel Jalil is we will be with you on this path," the man said, referring to the leader of the rebels' government.

Alistair Burt, the British Foreign Office's minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said, "Exactly what happened remains unclear." He added that the "killing will be thoroughly investigated."

"We agreed that it is important that those responsible are held to account through proper judicial processes."

Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya and associate fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Programme of the London-based Chatham House, said "one scenario is revenge by Tripoli."

However, Dalton said, the ultimate impact of the killing on the opposition movement will depend on the facts that emerge about the killing.

"They've been promising it for a while," he said of the Gadhafi government. "Right from the start, they've threatened people who've turned away. There are stories that AFY (Younis) had rebuffed approaches by Tripoli."

There have been tensions between different parts of the opposition forces, Dalton said. So a "second hypothesis" is that a quarrel got "out of hand. But he warned not to jump to conclusions about the significance of a "single episode."

"We haven't got much to go on," he said. "I think our governments will find out soon."

Ottaway, the Carnegie Endowment scholar, said the killing raises questions about the rebel council.

"It's clear there are divisions" within the Transitional National Council, she said. "There are suspicions of some of the people who went from being close allies (of Gadhafi), as Younis was, to joining" the rebels.

The motives of those who switched sides have been questioned by people who weren't sure whether they had truly made the transition or were just pretending to have changed. There has been speculation, she said, that Younis might have been dealing somehow with Gadhafi.

"The main point perhaps is that the unity at the Transitional National Council is tenuous at best. This is a strange coalition at best," she said. "They are very aware of the fact that they are not an organization that represents the entire country."

As for how the killing might affect the rebels' military effort, Ottaway said it's not clear how much control Younis had. She pointed out that the killing occurred on the same day rebels embarked on an offensive in western Libya. The fighters said their forces captured five towns and surrounded a sixth in the plains below the Nafusa mountain range, which borders Tunisia.

Mark Quarterman, a senior adviser and director of the Center for Strategic and InternationalStudies' Program on Crisis, Conflict and Cooperation, said the "potential implications" of the death are "very worrisome" and could help the Gadhafi regime in the short run.

The death has had the effect of "roiling rebel politics," Quarterman said. The killing has fomented anger among members of Younis' Obeidi tribe, according to news reports.

Quarterman, an expert on the Libyan crisis, said the killing undermines the bet NATO powers have made that, by enforcing the U.N. resolution protecting Libyans, they would give rebels space to defeat Gadhafi forces.

Quarterman noted that Younis had been engaged in a dispute with another rebel commander, Khalifa Hifter.

"They seem unable to take and hold territory. This makes things worse," Quarterman said. "You can't have a lot of faith and confidence in forces saying, 'I'm the commander, no I'm the commander.'

"If this disarray does continue, this only benefits Gadhafi. And it makes the coming of a post-Gadhafi Libya that much more distant."

There has been talk among world powers about negotiated settlements and scenarios that could include Gadhafi remaining in Libya after the conflict ends, Quarterman said.

The international sense that the conflict would end quickly with "capitulation on the part of the Gadhafi regime is fading," Quarterman said.

"As a result, the end game is seeming much more murky."

CNN's Joe Sterling contributed to this report.

Quoting : CNN.com