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If the Senate expected a spoiled parvenu, it found instead a diligent, diffident, intelligent freshman who avoided publicity as well as a Kennedy could, and concentrated on the business of his committees and his state. While an undergraduate at Harvard, Ted had once been suspended for having another student take a Spanish exam for him. As a Senator, he has never been caught with homework undone. He made courtesy calls on his elders, including those with whom he completely disagreed. When Mississippi's James Eastland, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of which Kennedy was a member, entertained him in an early-morning interview with a stiff shot of bourbon, the guest smiled and accepted. The moment Eastland's eye was elsewhere, he emptied his glass into a wastebasket. Kennedy was soon a subcommittee chairman. He made his way. "Teddy" gradually gave way to "Ted."
Comfort vanished with "the events of June," as Ted refers to his brother Robert's assassination last year. The surviving Kennedy became the immediate target of conflicting pressures—to save the Democratic ticket by running for Vice President, to save his brother's cause by running for President. He ruled out the second spot. Although there was some talk of a draft for the presidential nomination, and although Eugene McCarthy offered Kennedy his delegates during the convention, there was no assurance that Ted could get the nomination, and no certainty in his own mind that he should try for it. In any event, he decided to give a firm no to any attempts to draft him. The opportunity passed.
Family Responsibilities
During the summer and much of the fall, Kennedy was in a kind of hibernation as a public man. The murder had shattered him. He wept in the company of others and alone. Even Ethel seemed to bear up better than he. He spent much time sailing alone, or with a few intimates, or with some of the Kennedy children, often lying on his sloop and staring at the sky. One of the first times that he attempted to return to his suite in the Senate Office Building, he found himself unable to enter, unable to face his staff or the reminders of his brother. He drove home.
The rest of Ted Kennedy's days were devoted to family affairs. He had become the custodian of the family archives. The John F. Kennedy Library project needed attention. Ted joined in setting up a $10 million social-action foundation in Robert's memory. He was responsible for his own, Robert's and John's children, 15 in all (Ethel's latest made it 16, but Jacqueline's marriage gave John and Caroline a stepfather). Two of Robert's sons were having prep school problems that needed attention. Ted arranged summer trips abroad for the two oldest boys, escorting one of them to Spain. While Ethel Kennedy was hospitalized, he kept a paternal watch over her brood.