The well-worn books sit side by side on my bookcase as though they are companions.

One is Jimmy Carter’s “Keeping Faith, Memoirs of a President.” It was published in 1982, a year after Carter left the White House. Carter died last Sunday at age 100. He autographed it for me.

The other is Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass.” It was published in 2009, a month after the longtime senator’s death Aug. 25, 2009. He was 77.

They were not companions, of course, but antagonists, even though both were Democrats.

I met, covered and knew both — Carter slightly and Kennedy much more.

The pair battled it out in 1980 when Carter, seeking re-election, was challenged in the Democrat primary and convention by Sen. Kennedy.

Carter defeated Kennedy and won the nomination. But the party was divided and the split helped usher in the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan who defeated Carter in the election.

Kennedy’s dislike for Carter stemmed from Carter’s refusal to give Kennedy, a party insider, a speaking role at the1976 convention which endorsed Carter, a party outsider, for president.

Kennedy was also critical of the way Carter, a Christian moralist with a preacher’s streak, ran the White House, subjecting guests to his long “colloquies.”

And while Carter’s talks may have been informational, there was never any booze served during the seminars, according to the thirsty Kennedy.

“You’d arrive about 6:00 or 6:30 p.m.,” Kennedy wrote, “and the first thing you would be reminded of, in case you needed reminding, was that he and Rosalynn (Carter’s wife) had removed all the liquor in the White House. No liquor was ever served during Jimmy Carter’s term. He wanted no luxuries or any sign of worldly living.”

Despite these boozeless and boring seminars, and before Kennedy’s 1980 challenge, Kennedy supported most of President Carter’s initiatives, including the controversial proposal handing over the U.S- financed-and-built Panama Canal to Panama in 1977.

It is ironic that now, after all these years and the death of the president who “gave away” the Panama Canal, that the Panama Canal issue is front and center of the incoming Donald Trump administration.

And is it sad that the issue is being played out upon Carter’s death.

Trump is threatening to take control of the vital canal away from Panama on the grounds that China is infiltrating it, and that the Panamanians are “ripping us off” when it comes to ship passage fees.

China has increased its influence in Panama and other South America countries. While there are no Chinese troops in Panama, as Trump has wrongly suggested, China controls two ports of entry, one at each end of the canal, through a Hong Kong holding company.

China also obtains data on all U.S. ships, both military and commercial, that pass through the canal.

Carter, a one-term president (1976-1980), considered turning the Canal, which was built and operated by the United States, over to the Panamanians as one of the major accomplishments of his presidency.

It was “the most difficult political battle I had ever faced,” he wrote, “including my long campaign for President.”

On the opposite side of that battle was Ronald Reagan, then governor of California who, sounding like Trump today, fired up opposition by saying, “When it comes to the Canal, we built it, we paid for it, it’s ours and we’re going to keep it.”

Despite the odds Carter, the idealist, plowed ahead with his plan to turn the Canal over because it was, he said, consistent with America’s “commitment to freedom and human rights.”

“A great democracy practices what it preaches,” he said.

When the Senate approved a key vote on the issue, Carter said it was one of his proudest moments and “one of the great achievements in the history of the United States Senate.”

Perhaps so. But that was then. This is now.

It Trump gets his way, the next “proudest moment” will be taking it back.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Books by Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy sit side by side on the author’s bookshelf. (Photo Peter Lucas)