Ted Kennedy

With Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) undergoing surgery today and spending the week in recovery, his Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee colleagues Barbara Mikulski and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will help shepherd bills on mental health parity and higher education.

"Senator Kennedy turned to them because he didn't want his absence to slow progress just as these bills are nearing completion,” a Kennedy aide told The Hill last week.

Among the many gifts received by Sen. Ted Kennedy this week were some bagels and cream cheese from his friend and ally Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

It was a touching moment when West Virginia icon Robert Byrd broke down in tears on the Senate floor, lamenting the diagnosis of his friend, Sen. Ted Kennedy.

But relations were not so close a few decades ago, when Byrd managed to oust the Massachusetts Senator from his Senate leadership position in the Democratic Caucus in 1971, in part because of Kennedy losing a Maryland ally.

With major business pending before it, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) chairs will need someone to take the reins during his medical absence.

But because it is customary that a senator chair no more than one committee at a time, Politico reports that the chairmanship may very well fall to fourth-in-line member, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Baltimore).

A conference committee on an overhaul of the Higher Education Act is currently postponed, while a bill on electronic medical records is nearing completion.

The second and third majority members of the committee, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, respectively.

Mikulski would likely keep her seat on the Appropriations Committee as well.

Mikulski & Kennedy: In 1987

Cardin Reacts To Mass. Senator's Tumor

This afternoon, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin issued reactions to Sen. Ted Kennedy's diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor, announced earlier this morning.

Mikulski and Kennedy have been close colleagues for more than two decades, serving together on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Kennedy chairs.

In a statement, Mikuslki called the "wrenching" news "like a punch in the heart."

Senator Kennedy is one of my oldest friends in Congress. He's always been there when I needed him - I'm there for him now. No one knows how to fight harder and with more determination than Ted Kennedy. I know he will fight and beat this diagnosis. He can count on me to be at ringside with support, prayers and that smile of encouragement he always gives everyone else. My heart is with Teddy, Vicki and the Kennedy family as they rally behind him on his road to recovery.

As Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign winds down, the prospects of a cabinet post relaunching the political career of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend look less and less likely.

So where else could she re-emerge on the political scene? One major newspaper suggests it's in the U.S. Senate.

Moments after urging a packed banquet hall of Democrats to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Gov. Martin O'Malley reiterated his commitment to the delegate process and his standing as a superdelegate.

Superdelegates should be free to vote for their own candidates regardless of the given popular vote outcome in any given state, O'Malley said.

Max Pizarro reports from the campaign trail that Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy will be speaking in support of Barack Obama at the Bethesda Conference Center.

In case you're wondering why there's a picture of Ted Kennedy from the 1980 Democratic National Convention for the story about him and Mikulski....

Mikulski & Kennedy: In 1987Chides Her Chairman On The Future

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a staunch advocate for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy, discounted Sen. Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama today, saying, "[I]t's not about who was inspirational in the past, but about who can get the job done in the future.”

In a statement released this evening, Kennedy’s colleague of more than two decades acknowledged that his "endorsement was indeed a poignant statement, and I'm sure means a lot to a lot of people.”

However, Mikulski added, “I think what the American voters are looking for is not nostalgia, but who has the vision, the direction and the know-how to get out of the very challenging problems that we face.”