“Kennedy was the only liberal with the stature to sell a painful compromise to the base. Would he have succeeded [with health care reform]? I'm skeptical.”

“Kennedy's life was indeed a mixed sack of good works and sometimes-deplorable behavior.”

“There's something reassuring, calming about seeing a Kennedy brother's funeral that is sad, sorrowful, but not at all tragic.”

“Even the death of a major political figure whose cause this was is not going to make the insurance companies, the drug companies, or a single GOP colleague of Kennedy's suddenly see the light.”

“The determination of the Democratic party to exploit Kennedy’s death for political gain puts the political commentator who doesn’t wish to speak ill of the dead in something of a bind.”

“Every once in a while, the conventional wisdom is basically right. The generally agreed-upon story line is that Kennedy found himself through the experience of defeat.”

“Honor Ted Kennedy by putting his picture on the $100,000 bill. With hyperliberal policies, we're going to end up with hyperinflation.”

“Kennedy and Sweeney ... probably will be the last major Irish American leaders to have risen through what were, or recently had been, Irish American institutions”

“[Ted Kennedy] drank too much, ate too much, risked too much and did not have the imagination to ever question a liberalism that desperately needed updating.”

“I do not use the occasion of somebody's death to get into the details of their faults in life, and Ted Kennedy had many.”

“Senator Kennedy is beloved for one reason: He used the government to take money from people that work and give it to people that don't.”