Kennedy's illness stirs talk about family legacy

By Jason Szep

BOSTON (Reuters) - As U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy battles a brain tumor in Massachusetts General Hospital, his home state is hoping his illness will not bring a swift end to the Kennedy era.

Kennedy, 76, the last of four brothers in America's most storied political dynasty, has been in the hospital since he suffered a seizure at his family vacation home on Cape Cod on Sunday.

"There seems to be no one there to pick up the torch," said Thomas Whalen, a professor of politics at Boston University.

"There doesn't seem to be someone in the next generation to carry the load here -- Ted Kennedy might be it, he might be the end of the line," said Whalen, author of "Kennedy versus Lodge: The 1952 Massachusetts Senate Race."

Massachusetts, a bastion of the type of liberal politics Kennedy championed for four decades, has been stunned by the Democratic icon's diagnosis of glioma, a type of tumor that kills half its victims within a year.

"Everyone has to take a deep breath," said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. "There will be no pressure on him to step down even if he becomes quite ill from treatment."

"Nobody is going to be in a rush to replace him with a new senator who starts at the bottom of the seniority chain."

It is unclear whether Kennedy will have to resign because of his illness, but he is expected to take time off from the Senate while undergoing chemotherapy.  Continued...