The American Spectator

p> TED’S JOHN br> Some supporters of Sen. John Edwards were surprised by the recent endorsement of Sen. John Kerry by his senior Massachusetts colleague, Ted Kennedy . Edwards had assiduously cultivated Kennedy as a backroom adviser during the initial stages of his presidential bid. “We thought we had him as a supporter and were telling people as much,” says an Edwards campaign staffer. “We didn’t see it coming.” /p>

True, Edwards and Kennedy did appear to be getting cozy during 2002. Kennedy on background and even occasionally on the record said nice things about Edwards, particularly when the North Carolinian was pushing a version of a patients’ bill of rights near and dear to Kennedy’s heart. But Kennedy, still a decent political strategist when he wants to be, never went so far out on a limb for Edwards that he couldn’t easily back off it. Particularly so when the junior senator from Massachusetts started making noises about running for president too.

Edwards and his staff might have thought they had an edge on gaining Kennedy’s support — something that would have helped Edwards with the East Coast liberal vote, and perhaps especially in New Hampshire at primary time — because the relationship between Kerry and Kennedy has been chilly in the best of times. Kerry has always sought to get out from under the shadow of the Kennedy mystique, while at the same time paying tribute to the state’s seeming royal family.

But perhaps sensing that Kennedy had eyes for other competitors, Kerry sucked it up and by last summer started kissing Kennedy’s pat-tooty big time. At every turn in New Hampshire and home in Massachusetts, Kerry talked up the Kennedy legacy. And recently he was quick to support Kennedy’s position on taking it slow with Iraq, this after the two men went in opposite directions last year, with Kerry supporting a resolution for military action against Iraq and Kennedy fighting it.

“Kerry really went out of his way to let Senator Kennedy know his support was very much wanted and needed if he was going to succeed,” says a Kennedy staffer in Massachusetts. “It was the kind of deference that should have been exhibited a while ago.”

If some Edwards campaign people didn’t see it coming, others Edwards staffers. Journalists doing profiles of Edwards were being told off the record by the candidate’s Senate staffers that they didn’t expect support from Kennedy given the presence of Kerry in the race.