The Hill News

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) would have been a positive force that might have eased tensions during the healthcare debate, retiring GOP Sen. Sam Brownback suggested.

Brownback, a Kansas senator and noted social conservative, told NBC News that the veteran senator would have made the debate less partisan because of his close relationship with many members of the upper chamber.

"It was one of the laments on this healthcare bill. A lot of people were saying that if Ted Kennedy were here, we wouldn’t have had as partisan of a healthcare debate as we just came through," he said in an interview published Monday.

The healthcare debate, which lasted about a year, was arguably the most contentious! legislative battle between Republicans and Democrats since President Obama took office, and its after-effects continue to resonate during the midterm election season.

Kennedy was absent for most of the debate, though, due to a battle with brain cancer that forced a prolonged absence from the Senate until his death in August of 2009.

All GOP lawmakers in Congress voted against the final version of the bill. Republicans ripped the almost-trillion-dollar proposal as an Orwellian effort to control people's private healthcare decisions that was drafted behind closed doors without GOP consultation.

Most Democrats, however, supported the legislation and frequently criticized Republicans for opposing the measure and refusing to negotiate.

Kennedy, who passed away last year, was known as the godfather of healthcare reform in the Senate. Even though conservatives often criticized Kennedy as one of the most liberal lawmakers in Congress, Republi! can senators such as Brownback praised him for reaching out to! their s ide.

"I enjoyed working with Ted Kennedy â€" I think because I felt like if I could agree, if we could get something work[ed] out, if there was a topic that had passion for both of us and we could work out the details, I felt like we could get a bill through … getting bills through here is really hard just because the systems is built to stop things. It’s not built to pass, it’s built to stop things," Brownback said. "And so I would often go as far to the ideological left as I could reach in getting a partner on a topic that they would have some passion on … So they would push, I would push and felt like if we could get it agreed to, it would probably make it through."