"Uncle Teddy" wants Caroline to carry forward the Kennedy legacy

London, Dec 22 (ANI): Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the assassinated President John F Kennedy, has decided to pursue a Senate seat out of a sense of responsibility to her dying "Uncle Teddy" - Senator Edward Kennedy, according to his friends.

According to a report in the Times, after his brothers JFK and Robert Kennedy were shot in the 1960s, Senator Edward Kennedy regarded it as his solemn duty to pick up the family's "fallen standard".

As he battles against an incurable brain tumour, his fervent wish is to pass the family banner to his niece in the Senate.

For nearly half a century, Edward has occupied JFK's old seat at the back of the chamber and the friends said that he regarded it as unthinkable for the hallowed chair to be occupied by an outsider after his death.

"He wants her in the Senate. There is no question about it," Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York, whom Caroline Kennedy rang for advice last week, told the Times.

"I believe she is highly intelligent, dedicated and as qualified as Hillary Clinton was when she first expressed an interest in running," he added.

Edward Kennedy has been quietly twisting arms to ensure Caroline's selection for the seat being vacated by Clinton as she prepares to become secretary of state.

He has even talked privately to influential senators such as Charles Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

"Uncle Teddy" has been a father figure to Caroline for years. As a girl, she spent summers working as his intern in the Senate.

Caroline's chief rival for the seat is a member of another dynasty, Andrew Cuomo, the son of Mario Cuomo, a former governor of New York who is polling roughly the same level of support - 25 percent. (ANI)