U.S. Sen. Kennedy hospitalized after seizure

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a leading Democrat and patriarch of a prominent American political dynasty, was hospitalized on Saturday in Boston after suffering a seizure at his vacation home.

Kennedy, 76, was rushed from the family compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to Cape Cod Hospital at 9 a.m., before being airlifted to Boston.

"He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure," his office in Washington said in a statement.

"Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours," it added.

Kennedy, a Massachusetts senator and youngest brother of assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was joined by family members in Boston including his eldest son, Edward Kennedy Jr., 46, who was at the hospital, according to a Reuters photographer.

Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the U.S. Senate, is a leading liberal voice in the United States and has actively campaigned for Barack Obama in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"As I've said many times before, Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history. He's done more for the health care of others than just about anybody in history," Obama told reporters during a visit to a hospital in Eugene, Oregon.

"We are going to be rooting for him, and I, I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out."