Washington says goodbye to Kennedy, a liberal giant

WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - Washington said goodbye to Senator Edward Kennedy on Saturday as the casket of the man President Barack Obama called the "greatest legislator of our time" was driven through the capital to his burial.

The body was flown from Boston where the patriarch of America's pre-eminent political family received an emotional sendoff at a Roman Catholic funeral Mass attended by the elite of U.S. politics.

Lawmakers from both political parties, staffers and a crowd of hundreds of others clapped as the hearse stopped at the U.S. Capitol for a brief prayer service with his family and sang "America the Beautiful" and "God bless America."

The motorcade continued to Arlington National Cemetery where he would be laid to rest near the graves of his brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, assassinated in 1963 and 1968.

Since Kennedy died on Tuesday of brain cancer at age 77, Americans have held a series of memorials for the last of the Kennedy brothers, showing the fascination many have for a family that is the closest thing to U.S. royalty.

"Ted Kennedy's life's work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard," Obama told mourners who packed a 130-year-old basilica in a working-class neighborhood of Boston.

Obama lost an important ally for his push to overhaul U.S. healthcare in Kennedy, a leading liberal who the president called the "soul of the Democratic Party." Kennedy could have helped Obama overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system in which nearly 46 million people go uninsured.

Kennedy was a senator under 10 presidents over 47 years, championing causes from civil rights, immigration and healthcare to the end of apartheid in South Africa, opposition to the war in Iraq and peace in Northern Ireland.

He could charm Republicans into backroom deals even while conservatives ridiculed him as a hopeless lover of big government.

'WHERE WOULD I BE?'

Police said 50,000 people came to a two-day public viewing of his casket at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

"Where would I be as a black man without the Kennedys?" said Clint Haymon, one of hundreds of mourners gathered outside the church in pouring rain. "They believe in civil rights and that's why I am here to honor this great man."

Mourners from Hollywood star Jack Nicholson to Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen crowded the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica as cellist Yo-Yo Ma played and tenor Placido Domingo sang. Readings came from several generations of Kennedys.

Obama and former presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton sat at the front with their wives.

After his eulogy, Obama hugged Kennedy's tearful widow, Victoria, with one of his hands on the casket.

Loved by liberals, Kennedy was both respected and reviled by conservatives, many of whom never forgave him for the Chappaquiddick car accident in 1969 when he drove off a bridge, escaping while a woman who was with him died. He did not call police for nine hours, and the incident may have ended any chance he had of becoming president.

Obama recalled the many tragedies the senator lived through, calling them "a string of events that would have broken a lesser man." (Additional reporting by Scott Malone and Patricia Zengerle in Boston and Ross Colvin in Washington, Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing Anthony Boadle)