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.

The prospect of his incapacitation has sparked inevitable speculation over who might succeed the second-longest serving current senator, and whether a new generation is poised to emerge from his shadow to continue the family legacy.

QUESTIONS OVER KENNEDY SEAT

Many younger Kennedys are active in civic life but none on the scale of Ted Kennedy and his celebrated brothers -- assassinated President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was shot dead in 1968.

The eldest brother, Joseph Jr., was killed in World War Two.

The options are limited for another Kennedy to take the Senate seat held by the family for nearly five decades.

Kennedy's nephew, Joseph Kennedy -- son of Robert Kennedy -- is often cited as one possibility.

He served six terms as a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts and now runs the non-profit Citizens Energy Corp, which delivers cheap heating oil to the state's poor.