Washington, on certain special nights, feels like America's living room writ large. Last night, it was Uncle Teddy's living room. They all crammed in, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's whole Washington familial tableau, eager to wish him a happy, if belated, 77th birthday. The senators and the staffers, the television anchors and the social secretaries -- generations of official Washington all brought together. They slipped into gowns and dark suits, and mingled familiarly in the red-carpeted halls of the Kennedy Center. [Snip] A few steps away, there was John Dingell, the Democratic congressman from Michigan, leaning heavily on two canes....