Vice President Biden, a colleague of Ted Kennedy for 36 years in the U.S. Senate, broke from planned remarks at the Department of Energy this morning to pay tribute to the man he said was an anchor for him.

"He was never defeatist. He never was petty. Never was petty. He was never small. And in the process of his doing, he made everybody he worked with bigger -- both his adversaries as well as his allies," Biden said.

Choking up at times, Biden called it remarkable that "one of the most partisan, liberal men in the last century" was embraced so by his foes. He also said that it was his life's privilege to sit next to him throughout his tenure.

"I literally would not be standing here were it not for Teddy Kennedy. Not figuratively. It's not hyperbole. Literally," said Biden in his vintage style. "Every day I was with him ... he restored my sense of idealism and my faith in the possibilities of what this country can do."

He said his whole family was "distressed" by his passing. He quoted Kennedy's widow, who said he "was ready to go." "But we were not ready to let him go," he said.