No surprise here, but The New York Times obituary page had vastly more laudatory things to say about Ted Kennedy than former North Carolina U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. TimesWatch.org has the comparison:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77.

Versus:

Jesse Helms, the former North Carolina senator whose courtly manner and mossy drawl barely masked a hard-edged conservatism that opposed civil rights, gay rights, foreign aid and modern art, died early Friday. He was 86.

Who says getting stuck in the obits department is a dead-end job!