[jsares]

Surprisingly from Digg:

o The Civil Rights Act of 1964

o The Voting Rights Act of 1965

o The COBRA Act of 1985 (ever lost a job and still managed to keep your health insurance for 18 months?)

o The Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990

o The Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993

o Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

[idlewords]

The Civil Rights act and Voting Rights act aren't something you can credit Kennedy with - he was a junior senator.

That leaves four pieces of major legislation (or six, if we throw in a couple of increases in minimum wage) in a fifty year career. This seems out of proportion to the hagiography; I would be curious to know how we would be covering this story if his name weren't Kennedy.

[jsares]

I wasn't a huge fan of Ted Kennedy but after reading the list of major legislation he was involved with I have to admire the work he did.

[encoderer]

But the Civil Rights act took every vote, even if he didn't personally craft the bill. He was a vote for the bill, and more, he was a vote for cloture. And that's no small thing.. At that time, cloture hadn't been achieved in 40 years.

And even more, it very nearly killed him. The plane crash on the way out of DC after staying late to vote on the bill left him in a hospital bed for months.