PHILLY POLITICIANS knew that they could count on Teddy.
Whatever the campaign, cause or battle, Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy was always available to lend a hand, local leaders recalled yesterday in the wake of the death of the 77-year-old political legend.
"His love for the city was tremendous," said U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah. "He credited Philadelphia with his brother's win for the presidency. When he ran for president, he won Philadelphia."
During his lengthy public career - championing social issues for more than four decades in the Senate, campaigning for Democratic candidates and carrying the family torch for his slain brothers - Kennedy influenced many Philadelphia political leaders.
One was former Mayor Bill Green, whose Democratic powerhouse family has ties with the Kennedys dating from the 1950s, when his father supported John F. Kennedy for president.
"It was stunning how full of life and energy he was," said Green, recalling a vacation in Colorado that he and Ted Kennedy took with their sons in 1972. "It seemed to me that there was a real sense there that time was not to be wasted."
Green met Kennedy in 1964, when the senator came to Philadelphia to campaign for Green, who was running to fill his late father's congressional seat.
"He had a great sense of humor," Green said. "When he was young and unscripted, coming into Philadelphia to campaign for a friend of his family's, he was a Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, World Series campaigner."
Green remembered an appearance that Kennedy made on his behalf in 1964.
According to Green, Kennedy jokingly said: "I'm not sure if I should be here. Frankly I resent anybody who takes advantage of a family name to get into public life."
Just after taking office as mayor in 1980, Green supported Kennedy's upstart bid for president against Democratic President Jimmy Carter. With Green's support, the state delivered a narrow win for Kennedy - essentially the peak of Kennedy's failed campaign.
Kennedy's presidential ambitions ended, but he remained in the Senate, where his record was marked by his dedication to issues such as health care, civil rights, education and immigration.
And although he never followed his older brother into the White House, Kennedy achieved the political longevity that his brothers never had.
Joseph Jr. was shot down in World War II, President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963 and Robert was assassinated in 1968 as a presidential candidate.
"He had some holes ripped in his heart by assassinations," said Green.
