In which it would be nice if McDreamy was real and less annoying

During 2000, when I was finishing up grad school in Washington, DC, I covered a Senate subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill. It had something to do with technology. Tom Daschle was speaking. I wasn't really paying that much attention because 1. I couldn't stop fondling my Hill credentials and being amazed that I was actually there, doing something that felt REAL; and 2. I was starstruck because, in the back of the room, joshing around with his favorite reporters, was Ted Kennedy and no Senate hearing could compete with him. Red-faced (you could literally SEE the years of drinking), rotund, with that iconic smile dancing around his face, it felt like being 15 feet away from history. Which I guess in a way it was. He was effortlessly at ease in what was shortly a target-rich viper pit (the election was like a week away), and I could see immediately why he was on a pedestal, why the Kennedy legend was still alive. I was too young for all the dramatic Kennedy stuff, but it still broke my heart to hear that Ted Kennedy has brain cancer. Being a Massachusetts native, I always felt kind of safe knowing that Ted was in Washington looking out for us (unless you're Mary Jo Kopechne, but again, too young). I hope he is able to stick around for a while longer.