Courtesy of NPR's Political Junkie blog

We at USDemocrazy woke up 0n Wednesday to the news about the death of celebrated and controversial Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy. When started to look closer at his career (after a very strong cup of coffee) we started to realize just what a complicated a political character he was.

Having served the third longest of any senator in history (after Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond), it is no wonder that Senator Kennedy has made a real name for himself in Washington and beyond.

From the ever-infamous “Chappaquiddick Incident” (explained at Wikipedia here) to Kennedy’s outstretched hand to a family of Russian “refuseniks,” his record is peppered with reasons to love or hate him (depending on who you are, and how you feel about liberals — or more specifically, Kennedy’s).

Because others say it better than ourselves, here’s a bit of an overview of the many things that have been said about the late Senator.

A burial with his brothers, a funeral back home.

Final thoughts for Senator Kennedy.

“Why Ted Kennedy was the last of his kind”

Senator Kennedy: a history in campaign buttons.

And because politics does not stop for death:

“Win one for Teddy” becomes the new health care reform battle cry.

“Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement.

Who will fill the empty Senate seat? (We’re hoping for a calmer replacement than the Obama seat controversy.)

While mourning his close friend, Chris Dodd also is faced with a huge decision.

The Connecticut Democrat could grab Kennedy’s gavel and assume the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, putting himself in the center of a historic health care debate at crunch time. Or he could keep his Banking Committee chairmanship and try to forge ahead with a major overhaul of financial regulations that could help dispel the perception that he is cozy with Wall Street.

Without its primary champion, who will win the health care fight?

Where does the Kennedy dynasty stand now?

Finally, the Washington Post and the Daily Beast come up with great guides on the legendary Kennedy to catch you up with the Senator’s accomplishments, in addition to the topic he died fighting for.

What are your thoughts on the loss of the “liberal lion?” Were you a fan of the Senator?

Budgets… bonuses… banks… bailout… borrowing… bankruptcy… They’re all BIG issues on Obama’s BIG economy plate. (His hopeful eyes must be bigger than his economy-sickened stomach.)

Yes, President Obama’s got a lot of money talk going on. 

And soon, Obama will be on the road again (what a great song!) doing some campai — er, we mean normal, regular old town hall meetings in California.

He’s even got a date with Jay Leno and his “Tonight Show,” making him the first sitting president to appear on the talk show. (But he did go on during the campaign…)

To help pass his budget, Obama called upon his campai — er, actually his normal, regular old supporters to phone and write their Congresspeople and neighbors to garner support for the President’s proposal. This all sounds a lot like the permanent campaign, like we talked about a couple weeks ago.

If all that weren’t enough to keep the poor guy busy, AIG has been acting up again. AIG decided that they were legally obligated to give some of its Bosses employees “retention” bonuses, totalling $165 million. 

Naturally, taxpayers are up in arms. And so is Chris Dodd, ever the taxpayer vigilante. “We can tax the dang bonuses!” he says. (Okay, you caught us, that’s not a direct quote…) We’ll see. However, Forbes seems skeptical that all this anger will last long, because fickle as “the public” are, we’ll all get over it.

Or we’ll just keep putting the pressure on Obama and his staff until the White House literally cracks in half.