Looking to further their political agenda on the news of Kennedy’s death:

Dear MoveOn member,
The Lion is at rest.
Senator Teddy Kennedy passed away last night and our movement lost a hero. His leadership, his vision, and his passion will never be forgotten.
As we grieve, we must honor his memory and re-dedicate ourselves to his fight. Right now, let’s listen to his words. Below is a powerful video that lots of MoveOn members are passing around this morning:

It really doesn’t matter if it was his agenda, using his death for political gain is unseemly:

“You’ve heard of ‘win one for the Gipper’? There is going to be an atmosphere of ‘win one for Teddy,'” Ralph G. Neas, the CEO of the liberal National Coalition on Health Care, told ABC News.
Democrats are hoping that Kennedy’s influence in death may be even stronger than it was when he was alive as they push for President Obama’s top domestic priority. Democratic officials hope that invoking Kennedy’s passion for the issue will counter slippage in support for heatlh care reform.

In other words, the reform is not popular right now so let’s use Kennedy’s corpse to push it through. Evidently, his ghost will help pass his agenda:

“I’m sure this is going to come down to cloture votes,” said a health care source. “That is one place where his ghost, so to speak, in the chamber could have enormous impact.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday, “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year.”
Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California echoed Pelosi. “He did not spend his whole career trying to pass a bill that would tweak health care. Sen. Kennedy wanted universal health care, and certainly progressives want universal health care. We need to have a good robust public plan,” she said.

And even though most Americans don’t want universal health care, we are going to get it because it’s a memorial to Kennedy? I’m sorry but we don’t have political royalty in this nation, the death of one politician doesn’t mean we have to abandon capitalism for socialism and take away our current health care for substandard medical care.
His seat isn’t even cold and Reid is already making sure another Democrat gets it:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wasted no time applying pressure to replace his colleague, calling Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday to express concern about the “promptness with which we fill the vacancy,” said Patrick, who added, “I . . . support Sen. Kennedy’s request that the governor be given the authority to appoint an interim senator.”

Which the governor had before Kennedy pushed to change to law to make sure Kerry’s seat wouldn’t go to a Republican when Mitt Romney was the governor:

In a move slammed by critics as a power play to ensure the passage of the health-care bill, Kennedy asked lawmakers to allow Patrick to name a successor until a special election so the Bay State would be represented in Washington. It would reverse a measure he pushed in 2004 to take appointment power away from GOP Gov. Mitt Romney.

And let’s not forget the lefty media who are also pushing for the use of Kennedy’s death to push health care “reform.”
BTW, the tributes to Kennedy by the British press haven’t been that glowing. Maybe they’re still upset about this.