Senator Edward Moore Kennedy (D) has died at the age of 77, after 46 years of service in Congress.
He had the good luck to be born into a wealthy and powerful American family, and the bad luck to be born the ‘caboose kid’ in an Irish-American family that imbued its every member with an outsized drive for success at all costs. The old man never let his older brothers Jack and Bobby forget that they’d never measure up to their eldest brother, Joe Jr, his martyred WWII flying ace; the rest of us never let Teddy forget that he’d never measure up to Jack and Bobby, our martyred political heroes. He inherited an orphanage full of traumatized nephews and nieces, the suspicion that his every success would owe more to sentimental nepotism than his own labor, and the undying resentment of every kleptocrat, paleoconservative, and Nixon-spawned ‘Reagan Republican’ bent on turning America into their version of a banana republic.
He survived in the Senate, for eight terms and counting, because he was renowned for his scrupulous adherence to the all-politics-is-local wisdom of “constituent service”. Even his fierciest local critics, the Chappaquiddick Chorus, admit that Kennedy’s office would go the extra mile to untangle the red tape obstructing every missing Social Security check or family-member visa petition. But he earned his “Lion of the Senate” title by fighting to ensure that every American could enjoy some basic level of human dignity, even those without access to a Senator of power and influence.
When his fatal illness was announced last year, a lot of the professional cynics in the “mainstream” media were shocked at how many people, of all political affiliations and income levels, had been touched by Teddy’s kindness while their loved ones were undergoing treatment in Boston’s great medical institutions. Going back to the early 1970s, when his son lost a leg and almost lost his life to bone cancer, it seems that Teddy had done a thousand small kindness for the families of cancer patients, especially pediatric patients — visiting devasted parents and terrified children, arranging special daytrips, setting his staff to battle recalcitrant insurance companies for the benefit of people who’d never have the chance to vote for him, under circumstances where no favorable publicity would accrue to him. The man did some terrible and many very stupid things in his life, but he also spent half a century in service, public and private, as atonement.
The glee of Senator Kennedy’s enemies and ours will be unbounded over the next few days. I’m sure the birfers, astroturfers, industry shills, talibangelicals, Blue Dog DINOs, glibertarians, neocons, and general malefactors of great wealth will weep crocodile tears as they lament that Teddy’s death should not be used as an opportunity by crass liberals to pass the kind of serious health care reform he spent the last thirty years championing. And that, my friends and President Obama, is why it’s time to come back after Labor Day with a single coherent Senator Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill, and to twist whatever arms, ears, or other parts are necessary to get a good strong comprehensive bill passed and signed, NOW. We owe the memory of a great man no less.
Koz
Right, and then the Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill can be filibustered with 59 votes in favor of cloture, 40 opposed and one vacant.
Napoleon
Unfortunately people like Kent Conrad will use this as a reason we now need to slow walk a health care bill. We truly live in the era of midgets.
RIP Teddy.
auntieeminaz
Amen.
Tattoosydney
Thankfully it’s evening here, so I can have a drink for Ted. To you, sir.
Thalia
Absofuckinglutely. I actually cried a little when I heard the news, which shocked the hell out of me. I’m so glad that Teddy had a chance to reintroduce himself to a younger generation through the Obama campaign and to remove the specter of 30 years of being a right wing boogeyman. The more I looked into his record and his random acts of kindness, the more impressed I was and the more disgusted I became with right wing attacks on this devoted public servant whose only crimes were being liberal and being all too human.
RIP Senator. Thanks for all that you did for us. We will make sure that your dream of health care for all Americans comes true.
Steve Balboni
Well said. It’s time that we, the reformers, take this issue back from the Baucus obstructionists. Let’s do it for Teddy.
Sloth
Words fail me. This guy spends most of his adult life fighting for an issue and just when his voice and talents are needed most, he’s sidelined. Then when his vote is needed most, he passes.
I am just saddened beyond belief. For my entire country.
RIP, senator Kennedy.
Sloth
Well said. It’s time that we, the reformers, take this issue back from the Baucus obstructionists. Let’s do it for Teddy.
Time for the nuclear option. Enough of this bullshit. We, as a country, are being played by the right. The only way to make that clear is to prove it.
Just pass a bill that extends medicare down and make it effective as of 1/1/2010. Leave the insurance companies alone but allow anyone to opt in to americare or whatever you want to call it. Give americare a one year mandate to be the best damn insurance in the world, work with the health providers to make it as easy as possible to work with, and start driving down costs.
Forget the individual mandate, offer insurance to the young for a song. Let the existing companies scream.
Call it KennedyCare, that might help.
Ailuridae
I’m not going to lie – I cried a lot when I heard the news and am still up, putting off work and listening to speeches. At the same time I am a FaceBook junkie and have already seen two Right-leaning friends update their status to “Rest in Peace, Mary Jo Kopechne”. I think over the next few days we might see some tags around here with ‘Peak Wingnut’ but sadly we won’t see the actual phenomenon.\
Anne, did you mean Reagan Democrats to close the first paragraph? That would seem to make sense as the Southern Strategy was all about turning working class whites against the Great Society which as the years went on Kennedy came to embody.
Ailuridae
@Sloth:
I hate to parse language in a time like this but reconciliation is by no means what the “nuclear option” refers to. If you buy the right’s framing they have already won a huge portion of the fight.
JK
Keith Olbermann had a great segment on Monday about those 2 miserable bastards John McCain and Orrin Hatch saying that if only Ted Kenndy had been available the last few weeks, it would have been possible to get a healthcare bill. Count me as someone who doesn’t trust a word these lying SOBs have to say. They and their fellow Republican zombies in the Senate are hell bent on driving a stake thru the heart of Obama’s presidency.
I hope Obama has the guts to tell McCain, Hatch and the other Repubs in the Senate and House to go fuck themselves if they want to pursue their obstrcutionist scorched earth policy.
JK
Keith Olbermann had a great segment on Monday about those 2 miserable bastards John McCain and Orrin Hatch saying that if only Ted Kenndy had been available the last few weeks, it would have been possible to get a healthcare bill. Count me as someone who doesn’t trust a word these lying SOBs have to say. They and their fellow Republican zombies in the Senate are hell bent on driving a stake thru the heart of Obama’s presidency.
I hope Obama has the guts to tell McCain, Hatch and the other Repubs in the Senate and House to go fuck themselves if they want to pursue their obstructionist scorched earth policy.
Thalia
@Sloth:
KennedyCare it is. I love it on so many levels. It honors a great public servant with his pet cause, it ensures that he will never be forgotten as the plan will be a fixture of American life….
…and it will make the wingnuts even more insane, if that is even possible.
Which we all know is totally fucking possible. Likely, even.
JK
Bullshit reaction comments from Michelle Malkin
“Yes, there will be a nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations — and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death. That’s no excuse to demonstrate the same lack of restraint in the other direction. Not now.”
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/26/sen-edward-kennedy-has-died/
Riggsveda
Brava.
TOP
I was, quite literally, stopped in my tracks today when I walked past a tv at the office showing the news on CNN. Though I guess I knew it was coming, I was surprised by how much the actual image on the screen hit me.
I work in South Korea, a country actually rather intimately acquainted with real Stalinists next door, and one thing I have noticed, especially during the recent mourning for Kim Dae Jung, is that many of my older contacts here, retirees who could comfortably be described as paleoconservatives, who struggle for a kind word to say about the late President and still harbor admiration for the military rulers, are stunned, absolutely stunned, when I tell them that President Obama is being called a socialist and a communist for advocating health care reform. Everyone is covered here, and covered affordably, and… of course! It’s just what developed, modern countries do!
Here’s to the Edward Kennedy Bill.
JK
One more reason why Nick Gillespie is a flaming douchebag
He’s the author of this tripe posted on the website that increasing excreable publication Reason
Ask Not What Ted Kennedy Can Do For You, But What You Can Do For Ted Kennedy’s Sense of Paid Voluntarism
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/133020.html
RIP Ted Kennedy
Up Yours Nick Gillespie
someguy
It’s a shame we’ve lost this saintly man.
Thalia
@JK:
Next she’ll be “reporting” on what type of “cadillac” coffin he has at his funeral and how that is damning to the health care issue somehow.
His body is still warm and she’s already starting this shit.
That bitch is using oxygen that could be being absorbed by people with souls.
geg6
I fell asleep in my chair last night and woke up around 1am to the teevee telling me the great Lion of Liberalism is gone. Iwent to bed with a few tears on my cheeks. They are rolling down my face now as I type. I’m a little astonished at my emotional reaction. But, as a little girl growing up in a Catholic home with my Irish liberal mother, the Kennedys were icons and Ted was the last living symbol of that for me. I have to do something to honor that. I will double down now on my efforts to get my congresscritters to get health care reform passed. Kennedy Care, indeed. Fuck these assholes on the right. Fuck Grassley and McCain and every mother fucking GOP senator. Kennedy Care for all Americans. Now.
2th&nayle
Not to be overly officious, but Joe Kennedy Jr. was not a ‘flying ace’ in the classic sense. He was a Naval PB4Y ‘Liberator’ pilot. That particular a/c was a land based naval patrol bomber. Be that as it may; R.I.P. Teddy, you’ll be missed.
PeakVT
RIP Senator Kennedy.
It would be nice if the Mass legislature took action on his recent letter soon.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Well shit, I got out of bed for this?
Farewell Senator Kennedy.
Sloth
It would be nice if the Mass legislature took action on his recent letter soon.
Don’t count on it. In sort of a bizarre twist, our legislature seems to think this would be “too partisan” or “unseemly”, which would be absolutely hilarious except for the timing and who they are dicking over.
If the dems are waiting on the Kennedy vote, they are waiting 145 days. No less.
bob h
It seems we now must count backwards from 58 to see how long the assholes list is. Lieberman, Lincoln, Nelson, Conrad are probably on it, but that still leaves 54 to vote for the Kennedy Act.
Brick Oven Bill
And she was in her seat, regaining awareness after the shock. She was alone and the water was at the steering wheel, rising. Where was Ted? The water touched the sensitive part of her neck. The sensation was sharp, then panic. Ted would come back. Then the chin. Strain the neck upward.
The water reached her lips and she screamed, only to have the water enter her mouth. Hold off, don’t breath. Water over her eyes. Ted will come back. Strain. Ted will make it OK. Panic. Release. Take it in. Ted was walking away to sober up as the darkness came down upon her. She died at 28 years old, childless.
Personally, I prefer to keep my own doctor. I like my doctor.
4tehlulz
@Brick Oven Bill: Oh, you were there?
Indylib
@Brick Oven Bill:
Let me be the first one this sad morning to tell you to go fuck yourself.
robertdsc
As I said in the other thread:
Go fuck yourself, BoB.
Xenos
BOB- assholes like you, through intent and callous negligence, have caused hundreds of thousands to die in war, and millions to die of hunger, or preventable disease, or to suffer needlessly and pointlessly.
On the balance of history there is one death caused by Teddy, and hundreds, every day, for decades, by Teddy’s detractors. You don’t give a shit about Kopechne, she is just one more tool for you to manipulate and lie about for your own ends.
Fuck you very much.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@4tehlulz: No, he gets off on thoughts of women who are trapped and can’t get away.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie:
I’d like to think that Teddy, who knew he was dying, got some last bits of advice to Obama before passing on, spoken in that Boston-like Kennedy accent, something like, “And if ah dah before that health bill is passed, you use my death to guilt the bastards into it. Understand?”
.
Thalia
Don’t pollute this thread with that crap, BOB. For god’s sake, not only is the man not even in the grave yet, he may not have even been moved out of the bed that he died in. Incredibly inappropriate and offensive, even if I am 99.9% sure that you’re a (usually much more well done) spoof. Take it over to Malkin.
I’m glad that you like your doctor. It would be nice to have the means to see one, myself.
KennedyCare now!
aimai
Ignore BOB, he just wants to poison our memories of Senator Kennedy, as he wants to poison all discussions here. There’s a time to tell trolls to stfu, and a time to just ignore them.
I’m devastated. Kennedy was my Senator–he’s been my Senator my whole life. He was truly noble and gracious as a Senator. I never needed his help, but I know that his office would have helped me, or anyone, if we’d called them for it. And more importantly I knew that every single day, despite a vast personal fortune, he got up and went to work in Washington whether the Dems were in the majority or the minority, to try to get something done helping people. Not for him the Republican Senator’s mantra “give me my paycheck and my government healthcare and then let me fuck over the rest of the country.”
The outpouring of love that Eunice Kennedy Shriver got, with its concommittant tinge of right wing hatred, will be as nothing to what Kennedy will receive. I only hope the Dems are, for five seconds, as strong and as noble–and I don’t use that word lightly–as Kennedy was and decide to take Doug J’s advice and ram this a Public Option/road to single payer through over the steaming corpses of the Republican opposition.
aimai
Thalia
@JGabriel:
Can you imagine the win of a “beyond the grave” letter or op-ed to the American people about why we need to pass health care?
I’m getting tingly just imagining it.
JGabriel
@Thalia: Ooh, nice idea. That would be pretty awesome. Or wicked, as the people I knew in Maine had a tendency to say.
Thalia
@aimai:
I interned at an “end the drug war” non-profit earlier this year in the federal policy department. One of my jobs was to go through Senate correspondence that we had been collecting since the 90’s, scan it, and better organize the filing cabinet. Most Senators sent rote responses (you should have seen McLame’s pathetic ones) and only to their own constituents. Ted Kennedy came out against the drug war early on (early 90’s), sent thoughtful responses actually addressing the points that constituents had written about, and he even responded to people who were not his constituents, something that no other Senator did.
A true servant of all the people who was unafraid to take an unpopular stance in the era of “Soft on Crime!” and executing retards.
Cyrus
Um…
I think I see a contradiction between the first and third paragraphs here.
mellowjohn
‘Of all the comrades that ere I had, they’re sorry for my going away,
And of all the sweethearts that ere I had , they wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise while you should not,
I will gently rise and I’ll softly call, ‘Goodnight and joy be with you all!'”
good-bye, ted. you will be missed.
Indylib
Kennedy’s death feels like the end of something ethereal. The final demise of a certain kind of liberal idealism. I know I felt something like that idealism a year ago when Kennedy gave his speech at the Dem Convention, a passing of the torch to a generation that were babies or not even born when his brothers were killed. Yet here we are a year later and wingnuts have completely refused Obama’s offer to be part of a United States of America. Instead they wallow in fear and lies and insist on seeing themselves as victims. It’s depressing. I hope a little of that feeling will come back if we pass healthcare reform.
BR
Now, if there ever was a time, we (you!) need to be talking up Kennedy’s medicare for all:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-2229
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1218
The reasons this needs to be talked up:
– this was kennedy’s last piece of unfinished life work
– kennedy himself was personally pushing for the ultimate public option (this powerfully negates BS from the media about how kennedy would have not supported a public option, etc.)
– this is an example of what he would have wanted to pass (he reintroduced the bill, so it wasn’t just some one-time crank idea of his)
– the bill was amazing in its simplicity: every year the eligibility for medicare was lowered by 10 years (and raised from below by 10 years), with those under 65 being asked to check a box on their taxes if they signed up for medicare (to be charged for it). it’s a great model for the public option, and makes the argument for us a lot easier.
– if this legislation can be recovered even in spirit, then it would be fully justified to name it in kennedy’s honor
mai naem
Instead of Kennedy Care it should be TeddyCare because you know for Americans you have to market everything. It would help fight “death panels” and “we’re gonna kill grandma.”
BTW why is Dick Cheney still around bleating about how wonderful torture is while Ted Kennedy who actually tried to do something productive for the average American is dead?
Comrade Jake
Awesome post Anne. Just… awesome. Thank you!
parksideq
Kennedy’s career of social justice advocacy spanned almost double my lifetime. Hopefully when I’m 46 I’ll have done at least a quarter of what he did to help out the least among us. RIP Teddy.
Re: Passing HCR in his name- I say “hell yeah.” Health care reform was his signature issue, and we need to honor his legacy by continuing his life’s work of making ordinary Americans’ lives better.
Thalia
@Indylib:
I’m reading Nixonland right now, and as someone who was born in 1978 (and I’m from the South with full wingnut saturation in my family) I’m truly astounded at how everything old is new again. It’s like I’m reading a story of now but with different actors and the racism on the down low. Well, down low in the sense that they aren’t overtly calling the President the n-word in public.
harlana pepper
God bless you, Teddy.
Betsy
Hear fucking hear.
zoe kentucky
Great post, Anne.
As for BOB, you should be banished from here, as you have revealed to all that you have rotten maggots where your heart and soul should be.
geg6
Fuck you, BOB. Seriously, fuck you and I hope you die right now, you inapppropriate pig. How many people have your guys killed compared to the accident that Ted was respnsible for that killed, tragically, that young woman who, if she could would repudiate your lies and bullshit. Get the fuck out of here and crawl back under your lonely misogynist rock.
Brick Oven Bill
I would not walk away from a drowning girl Zoe. Reflect upon your statement.
Rey
@#32 JGabriel
I’m laughing through my tears…..
RIP, Liberal Lion.
Ash Can
Well said, Anne Laurie. Splendid tribute.
I was just barely old enough to comprehend JFK’s death and the tragedy of it. When RFK was shot, so close on the heels of MLK’s assassination, I was old enough to be horrified not just by the acts but their significance — I sincerely feared for the future of progress and civility in this nation. Since then, the nation has taken steps forward and steps backward. The forward steps have outnumbered the backward steps, but not by much.
Teddy’s passing marks the end of an era. We can call it noblesse oblige, but the fact remains Teddy took his committment to public service seriously, and did a great deal for his constituents and other Americans. I take comfort in my belief that there’s an afterlife, and that he’s been happily reunited with his brothers and other family in it. We who are still here must finish his work for him.
zoe kentucky
You would however, gleefully spit and piss on someone’s grave, you sick fuck.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? It was a freaking tragic drunk driving accident that happened 40-something years ago– get over it. The man has done more for other people in a day than you’ve done in your entire maggoty, hate-filled lifetime.
JGabriel
The Beloit Mindset List each year provides an enumeration of freshman cultural touchstones for each incoming class, things that were always that way for them like, “Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice,” and “The European Union has always existed.”
I’m 44 years old. In my world, in my mindset, Ted Kennedy has always been in Congress. Kennedy’s passing leaves a very large, very odd hole.
It’s like ice cream without the ice, or books without pages. How can you have a Congress without Ted Kennedy?
.
NobodySpecial
It’s like ice cream without the ice, or books without pages. How can you have a Congress without Ted Kennedy?
Oh, you can have one. Too bad it’ll be smaller and meaner, and filled with timorous spirits like Harry Reid.
Morbo
@Brick Oven Bill: Tsk, here I had hoped for something original. I guess I should know better.
JGabriel
@Brick Oven Bill:
You do it every time you come out against health insurance reform, asshole.
.
zoe kentucky
Hey, could you be a peach and remove all of BOB’s posts and related replies from this thread? It really has no place here. Thanks.
Demo Woman
@zoe kentucky:
Those were actually kind words for BOB.
Every 18 year old that voted in the last election can thank Ted for that. Title 9 was passed because of him. Cobra of which I am taking advantage of is because of him.
He’ll be remembered for his dedication to children and civil rights but there are bills that he sponsored that effect us all.
In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, if George Bailey had not been born, the world would be totally different. Imagine if Sen. Kennedy had not been in congress for all these decades.
Napoleon
@JGabriel:
I am 48 (like our Prez) which means I was 2 when he took his Senate seat.
joe from Lowell
BOBs comment warrants a ban. Some things are beyond the pale.
NobodySpecial
No. Don’t ban him. We need someone on here to remind us where John Cole used to be coming from, and why we’re so glad he’s here now.
4tehlulz
>I would not walk away from a drowning girl Zoe.
The absolute certainty of your statement leads me to believe that you would.
Napoleon
@NobodySpecial:
Why, was John and racist sociopathic fuck or just a wingnut?
Napoleon
@Napoleon:
Christ, I need more coffee. That should have been “Why, was John a racist sociopathic fuck or just a wingnut?”
Keith G
A yucky week just got worse. Fun.
JD Rhoades
I’m sure the birfers, astroturfers, industry shills, talibangelicals, Blue Dog DINOs, glibertarians, neocons, and general malefactors of great wealth will weep crocodile tears
The ones I’ve seen so far are openly rejoicing. Classy as always.
Genine
RIP Ted Kennedy. He’s done a lot of good for people in this country. He will definitely be missed.
arguingwithsignposts
Just to add to the general sentiment. Fuck you, BoB.
R.I.P. Sen. Kennedy
4tehlulz
@JD Rhoades: Let them. That will make defeating them all the more satisfying.
So what’s the over-under on GOP Senators showing up to the funeral? 2? Or will they go the full Ron Brown and have none show up?
Ash
Huh…….wow, I don’t know why this is hitting me so hard. He was just one of those people you thought would be around forever.
He fought a lot of demons, but probably saved thousands along the way.
Mike D.
Here here.
Ash Can
@4tehlulz: I understand that, behind the scenes, Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy were good friends. I’d be sincerely shocked if Hatch, at the very least, didn’t show.
The Saff
Ted Kennedy was a true statesman. I was stunned, though not surprised, to hear he died last night. I feel sad today but I hope this will give the Democrats the backbone they need to pass meaningful healthcare reform – with a public option – this year. Naming this legislation after Senator Kennedy is a splendid idea.
Excellent post, Anne.
JGabriel
Sloth, et. al.:
AS and agnostic, I don’t know if there’s an afterlife or not. I suspect not, but let’s assume that there is one for the sake of speculation.
In that case, I don’t think we should so quickly wish Sen. Kennedy a restful peace, at least not until health insurance reform is passed. I expect he feels the same way, and I hope the Ghost of Ted Kennedy haunts every GOP senator until they either commit to voting for HIR or die of a heart attack.
St. Augustine used to pray to the lord to deliver him from sin, but “not yet”. So: Sen. Edward Kennedy, R.I.P., but not yet.
.
Passing Through
Just to commiserate with you folks and observe that from the evidence of my travels, BoB has even out-Malkinited the Malkinites, who are currently whooping it up big time, as might be expected.
Fuck you, BoB, you worthless attention-seeking POS.
May you contract something highly painful and incurable and have your health insurer tell you it was a pre-existing condition.
JGabriel
4tehlulz:
At least two. My guess would be 5-10. With about 30 showing up for the properly inevitable DC memorial service.
.
IndieTarheel
No question, Senator Kennedy will be missed.Also, no question that BOB is the most useless piece of shit on this blog.
kay
@4tehlulz:
They’ll all be there. They’re already rewriting history. They would have supported reform had it not been for Kennedy’s absence. McCain is (again) out and out lying about how he “would have” worked with Kennedy on reform. I’m starting to think it was no accident McCain picked Palin. They have a lot in common, as far as truth-telling.
Except McCain didn’t. Work with Kennedy. 3 months ago. When he certainly could have.
So, that’ll be this week’s Big Right Wing Lie. “We would have worked with that single person who is now dead”.
I have nothing but admiration for Kennedy’s work simply because he was an effective Senator. It’s really, really difficult to operate at all effectively in that arena and he got things accomplished no matter who was ostensibly “running” things. That’s an achievement all by itself, and it’s rare.
zoe kentucky
For pete’s sake, when Reagan died the dems had no problem lionizing him, giving him proper respect, shutting down DC for his memorial service.
This certainly does put the GOP in a interesting pickle– if they show too much respect for Kennedy their base will get ticked off. If they don’t show enough they’re going to be exposed as the douchebags that they are…
toujoursdan
I think it’s just as inappropriate to bring Chappaquiddick up on Kennedy’s last day as it would be to bring up that fatal Midland traffic accident on Laura Bush’s last day. Both are more than this one event.
Sanka
That, epitomizes what is wrong with politics and our political discourse today. Glorifying career politicians is hardly what the founders envisioned—especially those of the corrupt dynastic sort represented by the Kennedys. The only reason we are talking about Ted in the first place is because he was born of wealth and privilege, which in itself, was a direct result of the conniving, corrupt and sleazy way that Father Joe carried himself.
RIP, but end it there.
leinie
Always lurk, never post.
Let me come out now to say Fuck you, BOB.
And no bullshit healthcare reform in Senator Kennedy’s name. It needs to be real reform, not some goody basket handout to the Insurance companies with mandates but no public option.
It needs to be his reform – the simple one, with the slow buy in to Medicare.
Don’t call it TeddyCare if it fucks the people and helps the corporations.
Sanka
@JK: Of course, neglect to cite this part from the same post:
I’m sure you didn’t see as you hastily cut and paste….
Leelee for Obama
Here’s to Teddy-the only Second generation Kennedy son who lived to comb grey hair. If he was flawed, so are we all. He spent his life trying to help those who had little means and many needs. Flights of Angels, Senator. Many will miss you, and those who won’t do not matter.
HRA
Thank you Annie for this well written right on the money piece.
I was instantly side-winded by a coworker reading the comments from the crazies before I could get to my desk.
cosanostradamus
.
Get ready for the video marathon of old Chappaquiddick footage. Will CNN try to scoop FuxSnooze?
Anything to kill healthcare.
.
harlana pepper
It makes me sick to my stomach to think about the cruel wingnut rejoicing that I am sure is going on right now on the right-blogs. I don’t have to look, I know it’s there b/c they are sick fucks who despised Kennedy and the next several days of msm coverage is going to tear them up.
John PM
This post brought tears to my eyes. I just saw the news this morning. How does Mass go about picking a replacement? If they can, Mass needs to get a new senator ASAP.
Fleem
@Ailuridae:
I’ve seen the same Chappaquiddick stuff on Facebook too. I’m actually shaking because it makes me so angry. I can’t believe that people I know and like would buy into such evil, petty bullshit.
Damn.
MazeDancer
@robertdsc:
Absolutely.
And maybe “Do it for Teddy” can be the single, loud rallying cry that helps people if not take to the streets, at least not let up on pressuring Congress.
Annie Laurie, beautiful work in your post. Thank you.
satby
@Fleem:
Well, I’ve linked to this on my Facebook because it’s a great tribute to a great man. Thanks Anne Laurie.
Skepticat
No matter how often I saw him, I always noticed anew how short Senator Kennedy was, for he’d have had to be nine feet tall to match his impact and influence. He was surprisingly low-key and unstated, rather reticent, when not in campaign mode. In going through files the other day I found two brief personal notes from him, and tucked them away carefully, though I don’t consider myself particularly sentimental about the Kennedy mystique.
This bright and sunny day is dimmed somewhat by his loss to our country. It’s also besmirched by the poo-flingers who somehow feel that one cannot show any respect for anyone who doesn’t meet all of their strict, pure ideological requirements or match their standards of purity. On that front, it’s going to be a revolting couple of weeks.
Napoleon
By the way, something I found interesting about the Kennedy family. In one of Kevin Phillips’ books he discusses how the richest families in the country remained the richest and how little movement there was for, if memory serves, something like the entire mid-late 1800s until WWII. He has charts showing various people/families wealth at various intervals during that time period. The only person that managed to break into the group and ruin a perfect 100% win ratio for the oligarchs during that period was old man Kennedy.
dmsilev
As one might expect, Erick The RedState is all class:
I can’t say that I’ll miss him. He, to me, represented all that is wrong with Washington — a kingdom of nepotism and worship at the alter of failed liberal policies that get repeated ad infinitum. He opposed school choice for the poor while segregating his kids from the poor in school. He supported policies opposed to life except when life could be advanced through the destruction of the unborn. He opposed a strong national security against even the evidence of its necessity during his brother’s Presidential administration.
Ted Kennedy supported the expansion of the welfare state and a culture of dependency on government, made all the more tragic given how ensnared his life was to dependency. He should have known better given his own life and that of his family.
And then there’s Mary Jo Kopechne. May she rest in peace.
Senator Edward Moore Kennedy of Massachusetts is dead at 77. John Kerry is now the senior senator. God help that state.
-dms
Cyd
Time for the Teddy Kennedy Memorial Health Care Reform Bill —
And that, my friends and President Obama, is why it’s time to come back after Labor Day with a single coherent Senator Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill, and to twist whatever arms, ears, or other parts are necessary to get a good strong comprehensive bill passed and signed, NOW. We owe the memory of a great man no less.
Right…considering Teddy’s 1965 Immigration Act turned out so well, why not ram something else through with bullying and deceit?
Sheesh!
Tom Degan
The lion sleeps….
“….to speak for those who have no voice; to remember those who are forgotten; to respond to the frustration and fulfill the aspiration of all Americans seeking a better life in a better land….for all those whose cares have been our concern, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”
Edward Moore Kennedy, August 12, 1980
I’ll never forget the night Ted Kennedy gave that speech at the Democratic National Convention after failing to win his party’s nomination for the presidency. I was staying in a one-room kitchenette in Liverpool, NY, just outside of Syracuse. It was – and remains – the greatest political oration of my lifetime. Watching the event on a small, black and white TV I instinctively knew I was witnessing one of those sublime moments in American history that would be remembered a century into the future.
Teddy Kennedy died late last night at the age of seventy-seven. In a life that is littered with ironies, here’s the biggest one of all: His three older brothers – Joe, Jack and Bobby – are eternally frozen in our imagination as the personifications of youth. How poignant that our final image of the baby of that family will be as an old man, frail and mortally ill.
An incredible realization just came to me: Teddy represented the state of Massachusetts for forty-six years, eight months and nineteen days. That is nearly three months longer than all the years his older brother Jack lived on earth. Forgive the cliche that is so overused it has become trite through repetition, but this really is the end of an era.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Ash Can
@dmsilev: That is the epitome of warped. His ideas of service, responsibility, community, and life itself are distorted to the point of being almost unrecognizable. It’s sad and disturbing.
Michael
A couple of things:
1. Fox News decided to define its own version of classy by ignoring it for the most part, devoting its morning to its continous “Obama and the Democrats suck on everything” theme. The other channels were overblown to the other direction.
2. As a late boomer/Generation Jones/Early Gen X guy, i’m ambivalent about Ted. I am aware that he’s done valuable work over the past decades, and am appreciative. I’m also, however, aware that he helped tube Jimmy Carter in 1980 and am of the personal opinion that he should’ve stepped aside after Chappaquiddick. Had he done so, I’m wondering if a less flawed individual’s delivery of his message would have been more effective over the long haul. That also gets to my basic theory that no over-70 politician is so invaluable that a bench shouldn’t be constantly under development – there should be an explicite understanding that at some point in the early 70s you shelf your ego and allow your bench to come into play.
Anyway, that’s my navel gaze for the morning. I sincerely hope I’ve not offended anyone.
Fleem
@satby:
Good idea, and thanks Anne Laurie. People should read this post.
gopher2b
Can we please return to the days when only Tim F. and John posted. Reading this dribble is like a car accident, want to look away but can’t.
Persia
There was a 9/11 widow on the NPR obit this morning; Ted had called her quite soon after the attacks, and had never forgotten her or her family– had in fact asked her to go sailing with the family one year when, she said, everyone else had forgotten about her.
Like most great men, he had great flaws. But he was a great man, all in all. There will not be the likes of him again.
Passing Through
“Can we please return to the days when only Tim F. and John posted. Reading this dribble is like a car accident, want to look away but can’t.”
Why don’t you go back to Free Republic and Stormfront?
This “dribble,” as you illiterately call it, drew me and a few others out of lurking, and to recommend it to others.
asiangrrlMN
@dmsilev: Oh my god. Words fail me. They really do. I can’t even touch that one or I will go ballistic.
I do want to thank my fellow BJers (minus a certain one who shall remain nameless) for the class and compassion they have shown all around. This post is one reason that this is my favorite political blog of all.
Senator Kennedy, I thank you for your countless years of service to our country. I thank you for working on behalf of all the people who most needed to be heard. You have spent your life atoning for the troubles of your youth, and you grew into the man you are today, dedicated to doing what’s right for the most disadvantaged people of America.
My deepest condolences go out to the Kennedy family. Journey safely to the other side, Senator Kennedy, but like JGabriel, I do not want you to rest just yet. We still need your guidance to get your final legacy done. Then, you will have the rest you have truly earned.
Bill H
No. Don’t do it for Ted. Ted didn’t want it for himself. Just finish Ted’s work, because he is not here to finish it for himself. Let him rest knowing that his work is done.
asiangrrlMN
P.S. To the lurkers/first-time commenters out there, glad to see you de-lurk. Please continue to do so.
I, for one, am glad to have Anne as a front-pager. Don’t like her? Don’t read her.
Irrelevant,YetPoignant
Ezra Klein says it better than I can:
gopher2b
@Passing Through:
You know what happened last time people tried to turn the death of a progressive icon into a political movement? Norm Coleman was elected.
PS used dribble on purpose, so suck it.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
RIP, Senator Kennedy.
BOB deserves a ban. If he’s not going to get banned for this, what would he have to say to get banned? Could he just start copying and pasting pages from Mein Kampf on here?
chopper
@Brick Oven Bill:
of course you would. you’d probably run, in fact.
Polish the Guillotines
@Brick Oven Bill:
Because the restraining order would prevent you from getting within 500 feet of her.
chopper
@gopher2b:
plenty of other blogs out there you can read instead. i suggest you go find one. or better yet, get your own.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Brick Oven Bill:
“I would not walk away from a drowning girl.”
You’d probably be holding her under, you sociopathic asshole. Why aren’t you banned yet? Is DougJ writing you or something?
chopper
@dmsilev:
hah! i love how conservatards act like they give a damn about kopechne. i mean, i understand they want to use her death as a club to hit kennedy with, but don’t get all disingenuously weepy over the memory of a woman you couldn’t give two sh1ts about.
JGabriel
@gopher2b: Dude, I think you need to switch to decaf.
.
WereBear
Nice work, Anne Laurie.
And anyone who “haven’t got time for the pain” can go away.
You probably won’t be missed, and you’ve established you don’t want to be mourned.
Ash Can
@chopper:
Q F T
The Saff
Ted Kennedy loved his dogs. I like that clip they show on MSNBC of the senator’s wife, Vicki, walking with the dogs and Senator Kennedy into the capital building (I think that’s where they were).
Angela
So the year I turned 18 I registered with a political party for the only time in my life; I registered as a Democrat so I could vote against Edward Kennedy in the primary.
Soon after I returned to my independent status and have kept it since- in the last ten or so years Senator Kennedy has completely changed my mind about his legacy.
He was a man who lived out his fatal flaw at a young age and persevered despite it. I used to be firmly on the side that he should have never run for public office again. Now I am grateful for his advocacy and his work.
I was surprised to find tears and a deep feeling of sadness for this country this morning when I heard about his death.
Really, the man deserves to be mourned.
Throwin Stones
RIP, Teddy
Evinfuilt
The Lion Sleeps tonight… I’m saddened by his passing.
I hope that in a way he is a martyr and his HELP bill is the chosen platform of Health Care reform, it is the strongest of all three, and the one us liberals have pushed hardest for.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
As I’ve said before and will no doubt say again,
What asiangrrlMN wrote.
geg6
@Sanka:
You are either a troll or woefully ignorant of the history of the last 40 years. No, Ted wasn’t a saint, but no one really is, not even Mother Theresa and certainly none of the corrupt popes over the centuries. However, Ted Kennedy did more for more people than any saints of whom I’ve ever read and certainly more than Mother Theresa.
Ted Kennedy was a hero to people like me and mine who believe in progressive causes and who want the best for the most people. So, as I said to BOB, fuck you.
Jeff
An actual comment, pointing to the post above: Yes. Simply, yes.
Steeplejack
@Cyrus:
The Senate is one of the two houses of Congress. The other is the House of Representatives, in which members are colloquially called “congressmen” or “congresswomen.” Technically they are representatives.
So Ted Kennedy did serve in Congress.
canuckistani
No, I bet you’d stay and watch, just to see her die.
You are a contemptible bag of pus.
RIP, Ted.
harlana pepper
@dmsilev: Well, yeah, like I was sayin’ Fuck him with a glowstick.
lamh31
Damn ya’ll Joe Biden is breaking my heart! someone needs to get the video of Biden’s statement. He looked like he would cry at any moment.
kay
Kennedy died at home, surrounded by his family.
Conservatives think we’re too stupid to make decisions like that. They need to protect us from “coercion”. But well-advised and wealthy people can and do make those decisions.
Irrelevant,YetPoignant
James Fallows on Ted Kenndedy:
harlana pepper
CSPAN is airing some of Kennedy’s speeches as we speak, just fyi
Betsy
@Steeplejack:
Right, but 8 6-year terms and counting would mean more than 48 years, not 46. Math fail.
DonkeyKong
And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:
“I am a part of all that I have met
To [Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are —
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end.
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
-Edward Kennedy
Will we continue to dream, or is the dreamer awake?
Suaimhneas síoraí duit, a dheartháir óg. Rest in Peace Little Brother (Gaelic)
Tropical Fats
Maybe his death will finally put to bed the 40 years worth of crocodile tears the Republics have been weeping over Mary Jo Kopechne. Not because they have any decency, of course, but simply because she becomes a less useful cudgel.
Steeplejack
@Betsy: Oops. Point taken.
mike
Anne,
Yours was the first obit I got to this sad morning, and I doubt anyone will say it better. Thank you.
Hail and farewell, Teddy.
-mike
cosanostradamus
.
Smear their shite is all the Repukes can do today. They never had a real hero who actually fought for their real interests. All they had was DUMBYA!!!
I’ll match your Chappaquiddick with a hundred Abu Graibh’s, lowlifes.
Teddy Kennedy will be mourned and missed by all REAL Americans.
–Not you, conservatard.
.
KDP
BOB – Your mother would be ashamed of you; you know she raised you better than that.
Senator Kennedy – RIP. We have lost one of our staunchest advocates for ensuring that each and every one of our citizens can avail themselves of the opportunity for ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ I only hope that the Obama administration and the Congress will do everything in their power to override those who seek to profit from the status quo of the health care industry and pass a comprehensive Medicare for All option. KennedyCare sounds good to me. How do we make it happen?
Betsy
@Steeplejack:
I’m just grateful. This is possibly the first time in my life I’ve been able to correct someone *else* about something math-related!
Sanka
A hero? For what? Being the son of a conniving capitalist? The heir to a political dynasty built on corruption?
Ted Kennedy in 1974:
This coming from a man who maintained a C grade average throught his tenure in law school, used Father Joe to save his arse from cheating (TWICE) and “place” him into Harvard, solely because of his name, practically drove his first wife to alcoholism because of his derelict ways. Not to mention pulled himself, not his passenger, out of a submerged car, walked past several houses and a firehouse, before realizing that “hey, maybe I should report this incident to the police, being that I’m, like, a student of law, and, like, a Senator, and stuff” the next day to report the incident. And these are just the things we know about.
Never mind the profiteering off of the fortunes of Wall Street, insurance, other industries, the same industries that he would whine about taking advantage of the poor and downtrodden, while stuffing some coin in his back-pocket.
Great hero you have there…
CaseyL
They’re rerunning Teddy’s speech to the DNC in 1980, and he just mentioned national healthcare, including price controls.
Oh god, this: “A family’s health shall never depend on the size of a family’s wealth.”
I’ve been crying on and off all morning. It’s not only that Teddy’s gone, it’s that there’s no one stepping into his shoes.
chopper
@Tropical Fats:
Maybe his death will finally put to bed the 40 years worth of crocodile tears the Republics have been weeping over Mary Jo Kopechne. Not because they have any decency, of course, but simply because she becomes a less useful cudgel.
i would think they’ll be crying even more now that their favorite political lead-pipe is being buried along with kennedy.
T. O'Hara
Still classy. This was prophetic.
Chad N Freude
@Brick Oven Bill:
So what’s your point? That Kennedy’s behavior at Chappaquiddick negates his social goals and anything he accomplished in public service? That the memory of Mary Jo Kopechne is best served by rejecting the reforms that Kennedy sought? That your professed love of Christianity does not include the concept of redemption?
I don’t doubt that you would not walk away from a drowning girl. I don’t doubt that you would not find yourself in Kennedy’s situation in the first place. But I don’t see what, if anything, you are arguing here. If you are opposed to Kennedy’s desired health care reform in principle, his earlier behavior is irrelevant. If you are opposed because of his role in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, then you are making an irrational argument. If you are trying to say that his death should not be mourned because of the stain on his character (which, by the way, leads back to the idea of redemption), then you are as smug, self-righteous, and cold-hearted as most of your comments on this block appear to indicate.
So, I reiterate, what’s your point?
geg6
@Sanka:
As I said, you are woefully ignorant of any of the history of the last 40 years. Of course, you are obviously a wingnut, so ignorance is a given. Oh, and fuck you again. And just get out of here. You aren’t wanted, you have nothing substantive to say that anyone wants to hear, and you only wish your side of the aisle had someone as great as Senator Kennedy.
Irrelevant,YetPoignant
Alan Simpson (Republican Senator from Wyoming, 1979 -1997) on Ted Kennedy:
Mnemosyne
@gopher2b:
Actually, it was the other way around — Republicans used the death of Wellstone to form a political movement that got Coleman elected. No one used that funeral for political purposes except the Republicans. It wasn’t Democrats who clipped audio and video, or who claimed that Republicans were massively booed when they clearly weren’t.
And, yes, they’re clearly signaling that they hope to do it all over again: ride the corpse of their opponent to victory by bald-faced lying about everything.
gwangung
They would if they weren’t intent on driving anyone with even a smidge of governing competence out of the party.
Mnemosyne
@Sanka:
Wait, are we talking about George W. Bush or Ted Kennedy?
Oh, that’s right — Bush was too dumb to get into law school, and his wife is the one who killed someone in a car crash.
General Winfield Stuck
@Sanka:
Sewer trout like you make me happy every day at actually being a human person. You keep swimming with yer rotten brethren.
You and your kind are no longer a political opponent. You are my enemy. Nomore, noless. Now go clean your gun, blockhead!
Chad N Freude
@Sanka:
You left out bootlegger, unfaithful husband, and behind-the-scenes political manipulator and influence peddler.
Does all this history negate his accomplishments as a Senator? Do the spoiled, pampered sons of the rich and powerful never become philanthropic or do good works? Do people whose misdeeds go unpunished never change their behavior?
Brick Oven Bill
I’m not the one who politicized the man’s death.
My point is that there is a strong parallel between the false assurances that Kopechne must have felt that night, and the false assurances being sold to the American people in the form of this dishonest health care bill.
The judgment and character of a man who left a woman to die in a slowly disappearing air bubble, in only seven feet of water, needs to be questioned. I hope he finds peace.
Chad N Freude
@Chad N Freude:
That should have been “blog”, not “block”.
Mnemosyne
@Chad N Freude:
Again, given that Dumbya is their best example of “idiot son made good,” I’m not surprised they’re completely unable to acknowledge any of the work Kennedy did. They’re still busy trying to pretend that their guy parading around in a flight suit won the war in Iraq.
Chad N Freude
@Brick Oven Bill:
True, you are not the one, only one of many.
BethanyAnne
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.
–Mary Frye (1904-2004)
4tehlulz
You know what’s funny? I never knew about the concussion Teddy got from the accident at Chappaquiddick until I read about it, mentioned in passing no less, in the Globe’s web piece this morning. (GG LIBRUL MEDIA)
That actually explains his behavior post-accident quite well – he was in a fucking daze for several hours after the accident – yet he never used that as a crutch to explain what happened.
Morbo
I’m about ready to follow August’s lead.
Chad N Freude
@Mnemosyne: Somewhat similar histories, widely divergent life courses.I’m still waiting for Bush’s contrition for the thousands of lives in Iraq that he walked away from.
Tsulagi
RIP, Senator Kennedy. May your family find strength.
gopher2b
@Mnemosyne:
I was there. Republicans did not start chanting “We Will Win” at a publicly broadcasted funeral service.
Betsy
@Chad N Freude:
You overestimate some people’s ability to hold two thoughts in their head at the same time.
They can’t grasp that a man who once did a terrible thing (though one motivated, IMO, by fear and panic rather than evil and malice) can have also done good things.
Chad N Freude
@Brick Oven Bill:
Right! Kennedy picked up the American people at a party, assured them that he was really interested in them, seduced them into his car, drove them off a bridge while drunk, and, the crowning indignity, left them to die without making any effort to save them. Very strong parallel indeed.
Which bill that has not been yet voted out of any committee are we talking about here? What is dishonest about it?
It has been for forty years. Apparently later demonstrations of changed character and judgment must be ignored.
Really? Maybe he will when all of his surviving critics stop using his history as a weapon to argue against his social goals.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Chad N Freude:
Hey, look at me.
CaseyL
DO NOT FEED THE FUCKING TROLLS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
Today, at least. Just for today, while we mourn, let the worthless wastes of protoplasm blatt their toxic swill into empty air.
All they want is reaction. Deprive them of it, with as much fervency as if we really were taking baseball bats to their skulls.
As satisfying as it would be to wade through a sea of wingnut brain matter, ignoring them is almost as good.
Because nothing you say or do will change their minds; they have no minds to change.
Because nothing you say or do will illuminate their souls; they have no souls to illuminate.
Because if the last
8, 17, 3046 years* have taught us anything, it is that wingnuts are entirely without redeeming purpose, and the only reason we suffer them to live is that none of them are worth spending so much as a day in prison over.* Dating from when wingnuts danced and hollered with glee on news that Jack Kennedy had been killed
gwangung
Really? I thought Republicans knew and dumped on Kennedy anyway.
Mnemosyne
@gopher2b:
And did Democrats force Rush Limbaugh to go on the air for weeks on end and claim that Coleman’s son was a horrible person for talking about continuing his father’s work? Did they force Republican senators to lie about what they saw at the memorial service? Gosh, those Democrats sure are devious, forcing their political opponents to lie about them.
Fleem
Isn’t Chappaquiddick the biggest IOKIYAR ever?
Fleem
OK, maybe not ever. But still.
kay
I just kept my head down and shut up during the weeks-long Reagan memorial.
I also kept quiet during the seemingly unending period where we named everything after Ronald Reagan.
Most people still keep quiet, because if you say anything negative but true about Reagan, you have to immediately grovel to Nancy Reagan.
I can already tell conservatives will not use this sort of restraint regarding Kennedy. They can’t self-police. Like children, they need rules.
chopper
@Chad N Freude:
that’s the idea. mary jo kopechne is screaming from her grave, don’t give poor children access to health insurance! that’s not what i would have waaaaanteddddd….
all in all, i gotta say BOBs really, really terribly written kennedy fanfic was pretty entertaining. he should have started it with ‘it was a dark and stormy night’ but who am i to tell the author what to write.
Passing Through
@CaseyL:
DO NOT FEED THE FUCKING TROLLS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
My apologies, and agreed. Let them stew in their own hatefilled distortions. They’re so impotent online that it’s easy to skim past them. Would that it were so IRL.
RIP Sen. Kennedy, thank you Annie for a great post at this sad time, and thank you to all those who haven’t taken the cowardly opportunity on this thread to snipe at a dead man.
Chad N Freude
If the Democrats were smart (a highly de4batable proposition) they would name a public option bill the Mary Jo Kopechne Memorial Health Care Act and call the program Kopechnecare. That’s something the Republicans could get behind.
Instantly Moderated Commenter
@kay:
I suppose I have to accept the right-wing’s posthumous excoriation of Ted Kennedy in order to avoid hypocrisy, seeing as how I tacitly approved of my friend wearing a t-shirt that read “Ronald Reagan Rots In Fucking Hell” during the 40th president’s funeral.
Goose, gander, etc. Sigh.
Chad N Freude
@Chad N Freude:
“debatable”. Damn keyboard!
Chad N Freude
@kay:
The Republicans show as much respect for the dead as they do for the living.
Davis X. Machina
@ michael, WRT Kennedy ‘tubing’ Carter in ’80.
The Greatest Politician There Ever Was, St. Ronnie, chased Ford to the convention in ’76, and narrowly lost on the first ballot.
But did he do Ford in? No.
History is written by the winners.
Brick Oven Bill
He misrepresented himself forty years ago and misrepresented his plan months ago. Hooking people on a collapsing social safety net is every bit as unethical as leaving a woman to die. It’s actually much worse.
In judging character, it should also be noted that the Kennedy fortune did not pay Massachusetts estate taxes, although it should of.
This put more money in Ted Kennedy’s pocket. You could not have pulled this one off Chad. You are a prole.
Chad N Freude
@kay:
Only the ones they make up themselves.
General Winfield Stuck
@Brick Oven Bill:
Your being a real jackass this morning BoB. You can find legitimate criticisms of Ted Kennedy, but claiming his fights for the lower economic class in this country is not one of them. It is both stupid and petty to make this claim. Now, if you don’t believe the poor should be helped by the well off, that is an ideological stance, cold hearted and un Christian as it is, it is not out of bounds, But trying to lay your disdain for social justice on Ted K,. by claiming he was doing it insincerely or to get rich, or whatever, doesn’t wash. It is also not appropriate on the day of his death. So if you can’t be nice, or at least honest, why be anything at all.
Chad N Freude
@Brick Oven Bill:
Sort of like Rick Santorum.
Grammar Check! I had thought that your literacy quotient was high. I have to revisit that. Oh, wait, opinions can’t change in response to behavior.
And possibly in the pocket of the wife of the Republican governor of California.
I think you mean that I would have lost a similar argument in court because I am a member of the working class (although not in Orwell’s Oceania). Probably. I have also lost money in stocks because I did not have the information often used illegally by non-proles. As a prole, I’m also pretty much dependent on what my health insurer decides is medically necessary for me, the opinion of my doctor notwithstanding.
BTW, thanks for addressing me directly. I’ve been trying to get you to engage directly for quite a while. I have finally succeeded! I feel triumphant!
Chad N Freude
@General Winfield Stuck:
Damn! I wish I’d said that.
The Grand Panjandrum
Danziger inked this moving tribute to Kennedy.
Brick Oven Bill
Because the purpose of Anne Laurie’s post was to exploit the man’s death to pass bad legislation. It is thus appropriate to be honest about the man’s character and his own decisions about dodging taxes.
freelancer
Don’t respond to trolls, just post this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khHYdgV1ny8
That is all.
Mayken
Brava! Trying to avoid reading the inevitable pile on from the wingers. Today I just want to think about the great things Teddy did.
RIP, sir!
General Winfield Stuck
@Brick Oven Bill:
Maybe, but you’re a false persona spoof/troll. Therefore insane, Dr Lector.
Ash Can
@kay: Nancy Reagan has already come out with a suitably gracious statement praising Ted Kennedy for his public service and for his work supporting stem cell research. The wingers will simply be silent on this and oblivious to its significance.
kay
@Chad N Freude:
People are mourning here. They might think that’s stupid, but that’s what it is. The posts are lovely. Like little tributes. Mourning is personal and individual. It’s not subject to debate.
They don’t get to have an opinion on mourning, although they’re going to WEIGH IN because they consistently confuse the right to say something with the NEED to say something or the WISDOM of saying something.
Person of Choler
Cosanostradamus:
“I’ll match your Chappaquiddick with a hundred Abu Graibh’s, lowlifes.”
Only if the waterboarding was done in a permanently submerged Oldsmobile Delmont 88.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Brick Oven Bill:
“Because the purpose of Anne Laurie’s post was to exploit the man’s death to pass bad legislation. It is thus appropriate to be honest about the man’s character and his own decisions about dodging taxes.”
Not really. Kennedy just died. I hope the day you die your political enemies walk up to your deathbed and shit on your face in front of your family.
Screamin' Demon
@Michael:
Are you fucking kidding me? You’re actually letting a bunch of idiotic social scientists define who you are? I read about “Generation Jones” a while back, and I had to laugh. Another dumbass attempt to pigeonhole people based solely on the date of their birth, and nothing else.
I was born in 1963. I’m not a “late boomer,” or early “Gen X”er, and I’m especially not trying to “keep up with the Joneses” or “jonesing” for something society has denied my generation.
I’m just me. And as John Lennon said in “God”: I just believe in me…and that’s reality.” Fuck the overeducated assholes who think they’ve got my number.
RIP Ted.
No, Anne, for two reasons. One, Ted accomplished far more than either of his brothers. And two, Jack and Bobby might be your political heroes, but they’re not mine. It fell to LBJ to put into action the liberal ideas JFK only talked about. It annoys me when people lionize President Kennedy. The guy was mediocre at best. He talked a good game, but barely lifted a finger to advance the civil rights bills he put before Congress. An RFK presidency would only have been a repeat performance. I’d have had higher hopes for Humphrey.
JGabriel
@CaseyL:
Uh, doesn’t this blog and John Cole’s political growth teach us otherwise?
.
JGabriel
Fleem:
I don’t know. The whole Clinton being impeached by the GOP while Gingrich was cheating on his wife has to rank up there.
.
kay
I listened briefly to Joe Scarborough this morning. He did that thing nasty people do. Someone mentioned Kennedy’s wife, and Scarborough clumsily tried to cover bringing up Kennedy’s drinking problem in the guise of complimenting his wife. It was really a stretch, and it failed, but he went there.
I knew a girl in 6th grade who was like Joe Scarborough, except she was clever and subtle.
Cain
@JGabriel:
Uh, doesn’t this blog and John Cole’s political growth teach us otherwise?
touche. Everybody can be redeemed. there are in fact several ex-republicans in this commentariat am I not right? Hell, I’m a closet conservative.
cain
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@geg6:
Mother Teresa was quite controversial. It’s important to remember that she loved poor people not because she had sympathy per se for them but because she felt being poor was good for their souls. She believed in the worst kind of anachronistic “the suffering of the poor will give them a special place in heaven”, and it’s important to note that practically none of her charity work was aimed at helping poor people escape from poverty. She particularly campaigned against extending birth control to the same women in destitute poverty that she claimed to be championing.
Basically, she was a religious fanatic.
Florida Bill
RIP Mary Jo. RIP.
SGEW
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
Maybe. Maybe not.
(wow, this is OT)
Tim in SF
You did this because you have a basic sense of decency.
No restraint at all. They’ve started flinging mud while we’re still gasping and reaching for tissues. They have no decency. None (those cunts BOB and Sanka above, to wit). Still, best not to feed the trolls.
Anyone know if the pie script works on this blog since the redesign? I’m going to start filtering. I’m done listening to these Darrells.
freelancer
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
This is another edition of “What Main Gauche Said.”
Cain
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
You can argue that just about every great person had a few loose screws. Gandhi had a couple of loose screws as did Martin Luther King.
cain
freelancer
@Cain:
@SGEW:
MT may have been a doubter, but that just makes her more of a hypocrite, because irregardless of her belief in a higher power, her organization of convents and hospices received Billions of dollars over the years, yet she did nothing to comfort or suppress the pain of those dying in her walls, and did nothing to try to lift the poor out of abject poverty. She just built more convents and hospices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQ0i3nCx60
Fuck Mother Teresa, one could have said She was no Ted Kennedy.
Tim in SF
JGabriel
Tim in SF:
You really shouldn’t use that kind of language about BOB and Sanka. Most of us like cunts.
.
Cain
@freelancer: Fuck Mother Teresa, one could have said She was no Ted Kennedy.
A strange attitude in this particular thread. I can’t make judgments what she should have done or ought to have done. I do know that she did more than me whether perceived or otherwise and thus I’m humble in the face of my own inaction
cain
JGabriel
Cain:
Most great people don’t really live up to their billing upon further research, Einstein was really the only one I ever found who did.
.
geg6
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
I actually have little to no respect for Mother Theresa. I don’t believe for a minute that she cared a damn bit about the poor and based on my background as a happily lapsed Catholic and everything I’ve ever read about the woman, I’m correct. Mother Theresa cared about Mother Theresa and how best to burnish Mother Theresa’s halo. Still, she wasn’t the POS that all Popes have been. So that’s something, I guess.
Midnight Marauder
@Cain:
Everybody can be redeemed. there are in fact several ex-republicans in this commentariat am I not right?
You are right on that point, but tremendously wrong on the former.
I think the particular brand of Douchebaggery the trolls are engaging in this morning is a testament to that.
Cain
@JGabriel:
Most great people don’t really live up to their billing upon further research, Einstein was really the only one I ever found who did.
I agree. What makes them great is probably their greatest weakness. At least that is my observation.
cain
SGEW
@JGabriel:
For me, Thomas Paine.
freelancer
@SGEW:
Sagan
freelancer
@Cain:
I make no claim to greatness. None make it on my behalf. I just get disgusted with the conventional wisdom myth-making machine inventing flattering bullshit out of whole cloth about people when every detailed examination of one’s life points the opposite direction.
Anna Nicole Smith is the 21st Century Marilyn Monroe.
Robert Novak was a great American Writer.
Mother Theresa was a Saint.
All bullshit uncontested by the average apolitical American and its pandering media.
Ed Drone
Well, I like Robin Williams’s response to that word. From an interview:
“What’s your least favorite word?”
“Cunt”
“What’s your favorite word?”
“Pussy. Funny, they’re the same thing, but…”
So it’s like using a pejorative term for something desirable. Why?
Ed
JGabriel
freelancer: Sagan
I like Sagan, a lot, but I can’t really agree. He was a great popularizer of scientist and an excellent scientist – but was often billed as a great one. Sagan’s work wasn’t paradigm changing the way Einstein’s or Herzog’s work was, or in the way that Ed Witten’s, and maybe Brian Green’s, work may prove to be, so I don’t really consider him ‘great’ in that respect.
No doubt some one from the field of astronomy will be along any minute to list some Sagan accomplishments of which I’m unaware and prove me wrong … and which I wouldn’t mind at all.
.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@JGabriel:
“Most great people don’t really live up to their billing upon further research, Einstein was really the only one I ever found who did.”
Smedley Butler, too. Different greatness, though. War hero who won the Congressional Medal of Honor twice, turned to ardent pacifist.
JGabriel
@SGEW:
I haven’t really done that much reading by, or about, Paine. With a recommendation like that, maybe it’s time I did.
.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
I’ve always liked what Tommy “The Cork” Corcoran had to say on the subject. “It’s possible to be a good man, or a great man, but not both.” He was referring to his personal acquaintance with FDR, though. It’s not necessarily of universal applicability.
chopper
@Florida Bill:
RIP Mary Jo. RIP.
wow, now even a guy who was on a first-name basis with her!
freelancer
@JGabriel:
I suppose we’re using different criteria. For me, I can’t find anyone else who writes like he did. He found the poetry in the Universe and gave us awe to ponder in every paragraph of his prose. Both Voyager missions were pretty inspiring.
William Anders gave us Earthrise, Sagan gave us the Pale Blue Dot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw
That’s enough for me to label him great, but I see what you’re getting at.
Bender
–R.I.P. In Hell
–The hysteric media outburst has already begun, his crimes against humanity notwithstanding. The blunt idiocy of that national self-deprecating spectacle makes me sick to my stomach.
–Other than that, I’ll proceed to celebrate the news in private.
–That said, [he] was soulless and… the most vacuous sock puppet in our history. He was, and still is, a tool.
–that was putting a spring in my step.
–an evil force has been removed from the continuum.
–what a goddaman beautiful fucking day- i think i may just burst into song at any moment…
–Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong!…the evil fuck is Dead!
–May your ideas die with you.
–The fucker is dead – too bad he didn’t die in jail.
Where did I get these? From John Cole @ Balloon Juice, complaining about the hate-filled Democrats commenting on the day Reagan died.
So, as many of you have gotten all sanctimonious about how “THEY are so hateful and gauche and have no respect for the dead and and WE are so sensitive and caring and sweet…” I’ll just remind you that it isn’t so.
That said, I wish everyone who cared for Senator Kennedy, especially his family, peace.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Bender:
“So, as many of you have gotten all sanctimonious about how “THEY are so hateful and gauche and have no respect for the dead and and WE are so sensitive and caring and sweet…” I’ll just remind you that it isn’t so.”
IOW, if some random people from your side of the ideological spectrum were assholes 5 years ago, you’re a useless hypocrite if you say anything about other people being assholes now.
Thanks. Real helpful.
geg6
Meanwhile, one of Senator Kennedy’s best friends in the Senate and John Cole’s own senator must read Anne Laurie:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/byrd-calls-for-health-care-bill-to-be-named-after-kennedy.php
JGabriel
Returning to topic (reposted from a later thread, but probably more relevant here):
Oddly enough, I find that I accurately predicted, over a week ago, conservative and Republican reaction to Kennedy’s death:
It’s sad how predictably bottom-feeding they are.
Anyway, in light of my earlier prediction being correct, I will now make a new prediction:
Republicans will say they can’t possibly vote for health insurance reform, because Democrats were mean to them at Teddy Kennedy’s funeral.
.
freelancer
@Bender:
Way to misrepresent, asshole.
Your subtle implication is that these are Juicer comments that Cole was bitching about. He was quoting haters at Democratic Underground.
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=3083
Ntelekshul Dizhoniztee, U Haz it.
Joe Bellezzo
Yes Kennedy served 46 years. How many of those years were sober. In 1969 he should have been thrown out of the Senate for Manslaughter, he was the sole person responsible for Mary Jo Kopeckny. How many millions did he have spent on liberal causes, not mainstream causes. I do not believe he was a good senator, just a good drinking buddy for his nephews. As I stated he should have been out in 1969.
Bender
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
No. You’re a hypocrite if you believe that people denigrating Kennedy display a base trait that could only belong to the “other side,” and you deny that “your side” have assholes just as inappropriate and base and uncaring. That’s why I linked the “They have no decency” comment. It was ridiculous — every group on the political spectrum has indecent assholes in it. I can show that over and over, very easily.
And if the time gap is a problem for you, we could go back to the Robert Novak death thread from last week. You want to see the civility and respect for the dead on display from BJers on that day? I don’t think you do.
That said, I won’t participate. Thoughts and prayers only.
Bender
@freelancer:
Nonsense. I only said “Democrats.” There were like 3 Democrats reading BJ in 2004. Besides, it’s totally irrelevant to the point. Those DU guys are “your side,” like it or not.
Anyway, do you want to go back to the Novak thread, too, smart guy, and see how oh-so-totally-different from the DUers you Juicers are? You don’t, trust me.
Stop digging.
Joey Lee
I’m sorry for the family. That said I don’t believe he was as great as he thought he was. He made it to the senate because of his name not his values. I never trusted him and always wondered why He was ever elected. Lets all just pretend we don’t know anything about his past and how many times he played the political game “YOU SCRATCH MY BACK I”LL SCRATCH YOURS”. It is the people in government like him we need to get rid of to make our country great again!!
Bender
@JGabriel:
The hits keep on coming. “They” are bottom-feeding.
Don’t make me open up the Novak thread, you kind, caring, respectful BJers!
Tim in SF
My comment, #201, references two people only: Sanka and BOB. I didn’t say anything about either side of the political spectrum.
You’re a god damn lying prick.
Mnemosyne
@freelancer:
Which is why we’re not complaining about the inevitable idiocy that will be flowing from Free Republic and Little Green Footballs — because everyone knows that the message boards at all three sites are sewers.
Please find an actual blogger like Erick Erickson or Ann Althouse who said similar things about Reagan. K thx bye.
Mnemosyne
D’oh! Sorry, freelancer, I’m actually responding to the drunk robot.
JGabriel
Bender:
That’s a bit dishonest, Bender. The ‘they’ in that sentence is no free-floating ‘them’ of paranoia, but has the clear context of the “conservatives and Republicans” referred to in the preceding sentence.
Though I suppose accusing you of dishonesty is rather like accusing a dog of licking it’s own balls. It’s what you do; nothing’s gonna change it.
.
JGabriel
Bender:
And you do. But self-example is not necessarily the best way to make that argument.
.
Jay in Oregon
@Florida Bill:
Mary Jo Kopechne’s death means nothing to the frothing right-wingers except as a tool to bash and smear Kennedy with.
Crying crocodile tears over a woman who, if she still lived, you would most likely revile as an eeeeeevil librul? Please, spare me.
Bender
@Tim in SF:
Tim: “No restraint at all. They’ve started flinging mud while we’re still gasping and reaching for tissues. They have no decency.”
So what you were trying to say is, “They have no decency, just like us“? Don’t know if I buy that walkback. Besides, yours isn’t the only post on this page I could’ve used — it was just the one at hand.
Mnemosyne
Also, I missed the part in Kennedy’s career when he facilitated the rape and murder of nuns by financing death squads like Reagan did. Can you please point that out for us, Bender?
JGabriel
Bender:
C’mon, Bender, open up the Novak thread. If you had jackshit, you’d have done it already. Either that, or you’re lazy.
The only thing I said in that thread was that it would be futile to expect conservatives to respond respectfully to Kennedy’s death. And – whoa, look! – I was fucking right, as Judith Miller used to say with less cause. Republicans and conservatives are making Chappaquiddick jokes at Kennedy’s funeral.
Frankly, I don’t see how yelling, as conservative always do, that “Democrats do it too” makes your side look any better. At worst, it makes both sides look equally hypocritical. More typically, it merely adds false equivalency to the already known conservative tropism for lies.
.
.
Bender
@JGabriel:
What’s dishonest about my post? First, paranoia has nothing to do with it. I only put “they” in quotes to highlight the usage of that word, not as scare quotes.
Second, if you see from the Reagan and Novak death quotes that the leftists and Democrats are just as “bottom-feeding” with respect to the dead as “conservatives and Republicans” are — as surely you must — then how can you muster up the outrage at Republicans at this latest display? Surely you must realize that it’s just “their turn” because your guy died. When their next guy dies, it’ll be the Democrats and leftists turn to bottom-feed.
ellie
I’m curious Joey Lee, you said. “It is the people in government like him we need to get rid of to make our country great again!!”
How exactly? What kind of people do you want in government? People who hate government? Conservatives and right-wing wackos always cry about wanting their country back. What country is that? The country in the 1950s? Because if we re-instate the 1950s tax rates I am down with that.
RIP Ted.
JGabriel
Jay in Oregon:
It’s puzzling, isn’t it? Conservatives are usually so please when liberals die; they’re always talking about wanting to kill us all.
.
JGabriel
Bender:
That’s exactly what’s dishonest about it, douchebag. It’s highlighting ‘they’ as if it were a scary implied ‘they’ rather than one with a clear referent of “conservatives and Republicans” in the directly preceding sentence.
Don’t try to pull that “who, me?” shit. You know exactly what you were doing and why it’s misleading.
.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Bender:
“And if the time gap is a problem for you, we could go back to the Robert Novak death thread from last week. You want to see the civility and respect for the dead on display from BJers on that day? I don’t think you do.”
I don’t really give a fuck, asshole. I still haven’t said a single bad thing about Novak, post-mortem, out of respect. I didn’t say a bad thing about Reagan for weeks after he died, out of respect. I will call ANYONE an asshole who disrespects the recent dead, and I won’t use other peoples’ assholitude as a shield to justify mine.
So fuck yourself, asshole. You say you’re being respectful, but defending B.O.B. as he spits on Kennedy’s still-warm corpse and uses other people to justify HIS assholitude is about one iota less disrespectful as far as I’m concerned.
D-Chance.
Time to rename the Dike Bridge the Theodore Moore Kennedy Memorial Ultimate Waterboarding Device.
What’s highly amusing is how John’s female pee-on begins her rather trivial blogging career on BJ by decrying “Womb Bigots”, but staunchly exalts a man who’s most notable for his rampant drug-filled and booze-washed parties at various family compounds amid numerous allegations of sexual assaults and even the murder (negligent homicide, at the very least) of one woman. One would think that consistency and intellectual honesty alone would dissuade Miz Laurie from the deification pleas, given the recently-corpsed’s record with the female gender.
Still Passing Through
@Jay in Oregon:
Mary Jo Kopechne’s death means nothing to the frothing right-wingers except as a tool to bash and smear Kennedy with.
Heck, judging by Google, and the evidence above, about 50% of them can’t even spell her name right!
Darkrose
@Sanka:
For not only working to pass, but to strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
For working to pass the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
For opposing the Vietnam War.
For supporting sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa.
For sponsoring the Americans With Disabilities Act.
For opposing the War in Iraq.
For SCHIP and all of his other work on providing health care for all Americans.
For learning from his mistakes, and understanding that you can fuck up and still not allow your failures to define you, but to try to be something more.
For caring about “the least of these”, even when it wasn’t politically fashionable or expedient, because it was the right thing to do.
That’s probably not enough for you, but it is plenty for me.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@D-Chance.:
“What’s highly amusing is how John’s female pee-on begins her rather trivial blogging career on BJ by decrying “Womb Bigots”, but staunchly exalts a man who’s most notable for his rampant drug-filled and booze-washed parties at various family compounds amid numerous allegations of sexual assaults and even the murder (negligent homicide, at the very least) of one woman. One would think that consistency and intellectual honesty alone would dissuade Miz Laurie from the deification pleas, given the recently-corpsed’s record with the female gender.”
I hope when you die, your enemies piss on your death-bed. Not even your grave, your death-bed. Show you the same disrespect you’ve shown others.
JGabriel
@D-Chance.:
When you refer to a woman, Anne Laurie, as someone else’s possession rather than by her name, any further argument that she is insufficiently feminist will tend to lack credibility.
But you don’t really care about that, do you? You were just here to insult women and the dead.
Stay classy, D-Chance.
.
John Cole
The fact of the matter is, it is as silly to call the man a saint as it was to focus only on Kopechne. You look at the sum total of a person’s life, not single incidents. It is possible to have been a horrible man, to have been a good man, and also to have been a great man.
I’ll always think of Mary Jo Kopechne when I think of Ted Kennedy. It is part of who he is, and part of a bygone era when people of power and privilege could get away with things like that. That doesn’t take away from whatever good he did elsewhere in his life.
Sanka
How gracious of the late Senator. Meanwhile, while he was pushing forth with the efforts to federally secure us our
block of cheesefederally-funded medical insurance and procedures, the Lion had other plans for himself:I wonder if the good Senator would’ve have taken his own medicine, as it were, and took part in the idiocy and hubris that is referred to as “healthcare reform” in the Congress these days.
With options like this at his disposal, I wouldn’t think so. Free healthcare for thee, but not for me. There is your hero…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/health/29docs.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Mnemosyne
@D-Chance.:
You guys have to admit it’s funny that he’s trying to insult a guy whose name he can’t get right.
Person of Choler
Tim in SF: “Does your daughter (or you, if you’re female) like playing soccer or basketball or softball at school? That’d be because of Ted Kennedy.”
Too bad girls’ swimming didn’t make the list of sports in time.
Donald G
@D-Chance.:
Who the hell is “Theodore Moore Kennedy”? The man’s name was Edward, not Theodore, as anyone with a minimum of knowledge about the Kennedys knows.
Bender
@JGabriel:
Really? Are those the only two explanations that you can think of? Actually, there’s no need anymore. I think your comrades went to that thread already and saw that they were also the buffoons they were looking for. Haven’t seen any “they sux and we awesum!” posts since, well, yours.
You’re catching on, in your own limited way! Good for you!
And then you blow it. Good luck with all that.
Bender
@JGabriel:
That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard, JG. Quotes are dishonest? Get real.
Stop trying so hard to be offended — it makes you look foolish. If you have a beef here, it’s with whoever formalized basic written language conventions, not me.
Little Dreamer
@Sanka:
You obviously are unaware of the good things that Senator Kennedy did for lowly poor people (?!?!?)… you seem to think he was only about wealth and privilege. Poor you, that you are not aware of how this man took his wealth and put it to use for those who didn’t have such.
Perhaps you should study this man’s life instead of sit here telling us about how little you know about him.
RIP Teddy, you will be sadly missed.
Mnemosyne
@Donald G:
Maybe it’s supposed to be named after this guy or this one. I don’t think they had much to do with waterboarding, though, so it doesn’t make much sense.
Maybe D-Chance can tell us who Theodore Kennedy is and why he should have a bridge named after him.
SrirachaHotSauce
@sanka:
Oh yeah, the brain farts of a troll with a handle that is based on the name of a failed coffee brand is just where we need to go to get insights into what “the founders envisioned.”
If you are going to spooftroll, at least put some effort into it. We eat lame shit like yours for breakfast around here.
Sanka
Took care of that for ya…
You just described the first six months of the Obama presidency.
Fiscal irresponsibility? “The Bushies did it too!”
Deficit spending? “I didnt hear Republicans complain for 8 years!”
I was hoping the Democrats had something more to offer, but….
Bender
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
I love the “I agree with you, people should have respect for the dead, so FUCK YOU!” Classic. [I suppose I’ll find your name on that Novak thread calling BJers “assholes” — ooooooh, scare quotes, JGabriel! BOO! — for disrespecting the dead, no? No? No.]
Find one word where I defended B.O.B. (or even mentioned his name or his post). Or in terms you can understand, “Fuck you, you illiterate piece of sanctimonious cockroach shit.”
Apology accepted.
SGEW
Is the “argument” really about whether or not it’s acceptable to talk shit about public figures on the day they died or is this just a spitting contest about whether left wingers or right wingers are more objectionable when someone dies?
If it’s the former (e.g., if people could say nasty things about, say, Richard Nixon when he died then it’s ok to talk trash about Teddy, you hypocrites vs. neither is kosher, you heartless monsters) then it could be an interesting debate. If it’s the former, then shut up shut up shut up! Crikey.
…
Also, OT @JGabriel: re: Thomas Paine – I highly recommend Eric Foner’s Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (the standard biography) as well as Harvey Kane’s Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (which traces his legacy through left wing political thought up to today). Also, Paul Collins’ The Trouble With Tom (which is a more dramatized take) is simply a fantastic read. Or you could just read his wiki. And much of his written work is online here.
SrirachaHotSauce
@John Cole:
People should stop thinking about Kopechne. A simple review of the facts by Bill Kurtis proved that the accepted storyline of the event cannot be true. Whatever conclusion anyone draws from that, that’s up to them, but the only conclusion supported by the known facts is that Kennedy was not in the car when it went off the bridge. And any reasonable person looking at the facts could have come to that conclusion about forty years ago, this is not something new.
Kennedy was walking back to his hotel when Kopechne drove the car into the water. It was an accident. Kennedy lied about it, but it was a white lie, hardly worthy of blogorrhea four decades later.
kay
@SrirachaHotSauce:
They’re just jealous. Kennedy got a hell of a lot done.
If we “live in the house that FDR built” (and we do) Kennedy tacked on some rooms for people FDR left standing outside.
Conservatives can’t dismantle it, because it’d be political suicide. They’re going to go back to the old days regarding disabled people, or civil rights, or take away funding for girls and women’s sports, or grab back health care for poor and middle class children? No. No, they are not.
They love Medicare now, even, since yesterday. Come on. It’s envy.
SrirachaHotSauce
@kay:
I agree. The so-called “conservative movement” is really just a contrarian baloney sandwich.
kay
@SrirachaHotSauce:
John McCain’s jaw is twitching, and he’s stamping his tiny loafered feet, as we speak.
“Greatest Senator! The HELL you say!” :)
Kennedy’s legislative success record is just amazing. Whatever else he was, he was great at his job, and if that wasn’t really, really difficult, there’d be a hell of a lot more like him. And there aren’t.
Leelee for Obama
@SrirachaHotSauce: I never knew Kurtis did a piece on Chappaquiddick. Where can i find the info please?
Also-I said nothing bad about Novak last week, out of respect for a dead man and his family- Truth to tell, I cried at Reagan’s funeral and stayed up till the end because my heart broke for his wife and kids.
So-to all those who have trashed Ted-fuck you. You have class alright-low.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Bender:
Eat a bag of cowshit, asshole. I hope your enemies fuck your dead body while your corpse is still warm.
Little Dreamer
@kay:
Please bring home some Bailey’s Irish Cream tonight on the way home so we can toast The Lion of the Senate appropriately.
Thanks! ;)
Sleeper
@D-Chance.:
For some reason, when I read this, my internal narrator’s voice used the voice of Hedonism-bot from FUTURAMA. Made it a lot easier to read.
JGabriel
Bender:
And coming from someone who has to listen to your thoughts all day long, every day … well, that’s really saying something, Bender.
.
Little Dreamer
Whoops Kay, I referenced your comment instead of Sriracha Hot Sauce. You aren’t coming to dinner, I think. Apologies.
kay
@Little Dreamer:
I’m so glad you cleared that up :)
Orin Hatch is self-promoting while ostensibly honoring Kennedy.
Yuck. Another class act, on the Right. Hopefully the Kennedys are scratching his name off the memorial speaker list.
Makewi
I disagreed with his politics and I disagree with this attempt to tie his passing into the need to pass the health care reform bill, but even so his death is a loss to his family, the people of MA who he served, and to his country which he no doubt loved.
A historic man died, and a nation will rightly mourn him.
kay
@kay:
Orrin Hatch’s tribute to Kennedy is all about Orrin Hatch.
Jesus. What an ego. Never let a CNN appearance go to waste.
Bender
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
So I guess you couldn’t find that quote of me “defending” BOB? So, caught in a lie, you act out like a 7th-grader? That’s about right…
Apology still accepted.
kay
Orrin Hatch commissioned a song once. I found that out during Orrin Hatchs tribute to Orrin Hat…um, Ted Kennedy.
Orrin Hatch also took part in landmark legislation, with some other Senators.
Bender
@JGabriel:
Those ellipses are dishonest and offensive. And that period at the end is racist!
Sanka
This is about right. The left loves dangling the free goodies like Medicare and SCHIP over our collective heads to entice further generations into government dependence. It’s shameful really.
“You don’t want government healthcare you say? How about we take away that Medicare program, as it’s government healthcare too? It’d be a shame if anything happened to it…” This is the essence of modern liberalism and the basis for the modern Democratic party.
It seems like this “reform” is nothing more but the expansion of a failed, outdated system.
Little Dreamer
@Sanka:
So you do like Medicare or you don’t? I cannot tell, exactly. It appears you like it but want to bitch, moan and complain about who gave it to you. Dems aren’t telling you that you’ll lose medicare, Republicans are telling you that Democrats are threatening such, while it’s the Repubs who are making those claims that Dems are saying these things and Dems AREN’T saying anything nearly resembling this. Perhaps you’re hard of hearing?
So tell me, Sanka, does government run healthcare work or not? Do you want medicare? Do you want to continue the VA program? Are these programs not doing what they were programmed to do?
You seem to just be another thankless ingrate. Why am I not surprised?
kay
@Sanka:
They’re not “free”. I pay for yours. I pay for your wars, too.
Californiaconservative
The B-24 was designated “the liberator”. The PBY was designated by the brits as “the catalina”, and the americans as “the duck”. Joe Kennedy fought for his country, and did his brother Jack. Teddy fought for himself. I won’t miss him.
SrirachaHotSauce
@Little Dreamer:
I think that was for me. Bailey’s, after those delicious ribs?
My life just keeps getting better and better :)
SrirachaHotSauce
Alright! Another food thread!
Just Some Fuckhead
@SrirachaHotSauce: Get a room, asshole.
SrirachaHotSauce
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Actually, we have a room. Several rooms. And covered parking. But thanks!
SrirachaHotSauce
Right, right. The basic model followed by the entire Western world is failed and outdated.
Okay, let’s try whatever they do in North Korea.
Oh wait, that’s our current system. Never mind.
SrirachaHotSauce
@Leelee for Obama:
http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/movieDetails/145527#readMore
Sorry, I am not embedding links on this thing any more. They can put up a button, or kiss my entire liberal ass.
Leelee for Obama
@SrirachaHotSauce: Thanks! Sorry it was a drag!
Cathaireverywhere
What a lovely tribute! I agree with those who say we need to pass a healthcare bill in his memory. For those who only want to bring up a big mistake made 40 years ago, shut up. All of his work and dedication these past 40 years is not negated by that one incident. I look at the tragedies he had to endure in such a short time- Joe Jr.’s death, then Rosemary’s botched lobotomy and departure to the home, Kathleen’s death, Jack and Bobby’s death, his own near-death in a plane crash- I don’t know how well I would have handled such tragedy. Having that followed by all of the other Kennedy tragedies the past 30 years makes it hard for me to judge his failings. In the past 20 years, he certainly seemed to pull it together. It’s a shame he had to go so soon. The tributes from both those on the left and right have been touching.
Leelee for Obama
@Californiaconservative: Ted served in the military as well. Since he was born in ’32, probably late 40s early 50s. Stationed in Germany, from what I heard today. What’s the problem with that? Too young for WW2 so it doesn’t count?
Mnemosyne
@Little Dreamer:
This is why I’ve started calling conservatives and libertarians by their real name: leeches. They want to benefit from other people’s tax money but not have to pay in themselves. They’re happy to take the benefits that you and I have paid for but refuse to chip in themselves.
I’m sure you’re not surprised that, once again, we have an example of conservative projection: they assume everyone else wants to do what they want to do. They can’t even comprehend that many of us don’t mind paying a little money so we can have nice things like libraries and fire stations, so they assume that everyone else is as eager to take money from their neighbors as they are.
General Winfield Stuck
@Leelee for Obama:
ain’t they dumb as dirt?
Little Dreamer
@Mnemosyne:
Exactly. I guess they would like to pack their kids into an SUV and drive cross country only to end up at the bottom of a river when the bridge falls apart. Hmmm, perhaps they should go to San Francisco. The ride to the bottom on that one should be fun. What a way to go out!
Leelee for Obama
@General Winfield Stuck: Yeah, Stuck, apparently they are. I just don’t get some of the venom, KWIM?
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Bender:
“So I guess you couldn’t find that quote of me “defending” BOB? So, caught in a lie, you act out like a 7th-grader? That’s about right…”
Asshole, you defended him by attacking those who attacked him. Every post you write on here is a defense of him. Your first fucking post:
“So, as many of you have gotten all sanctimonious about how “THEY are so hateful and gauche and have no respect for the dead and and WE are so sensitive and caring and sweet…” I’ll just remind you that it isn’t so.”
In other words, none of us have a right to criticize B.O.B. for being a shithead about Kennedy’s death, because back in 2004 some guy over on some other blog was a dick about Reagan. In other words, you’re defending B.O.B., you worthless little lying maggot-ridden scum-bucket.
Fuck you, motherfucker. Fuck you straight to Hell.
Jonathan
Why do people suddenly forget that Ted Kennedy was a lush and a womanizer who put his personal needs before anyone else including his own family?
kay
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
I think they’ve left us no choice, after their deplorable behavior today.
Barney Frank gets the Senate seat.
Xenos
@Little Dreamer: Why go to SF for such fun? You can get that experience right in downtown Minneapolis.
Xenos
I love Barney, but whoever gets the seat ought to earn it first. And since Barney has a lot of seniority where he is now, lets go for someone both brilliant and young (Frank is only 8 years younger than Teddy). If they can change the law to allow for an interim appointment, I hope it is just a reliable vote with no ambition of their own. Maybe Caroline K. could step in and make herself useful.
Aside from Barney, though, the Mass. congressional delegation does not look ready for the Senate. Martha Coakley is certainly smart enough, but as she is an honest AG I don’t know a whole lot about her politics. Mass. desperately needs more women in Congress – it is an embarrassing sausage fest in that delegation. In any case, Coakley’s mother used to be my insurance agent, which counts for something!
Bender
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
If you could read, you’d know that I only “attacked” those who made the ridiculous statements like “Republicans have no decency” because some of them said mean things about Kennedy today. I pointed out that if such behaviour was a mark of indecency, then the Democrats also have no decency, as many on the left said similar things when Reagan and Novak kicked. I said that there are indecent people on both sides. I defended no one. Am I going slow enough for you?
Of course you have the right to criticise someone for speaking ill of the recently departed, so long as you haven’t done the same when others died. I think people who make such statements know beforehand that they are in for some criticism.
Seriously, what are you, twelve? Incredibly, you seem to have learned to swear before you learned to read. What a feat. Anyway, the swearing is unimpressive, especially since all your reasons for being angry are so, so silly.
kay
@Xenos:
I was just teasing. I think Massachusetts should follow whatever process they come up with.
It will be bad for the rest of us, though. Keep that in mind.
Time is of the essence. Harry Reid will be in front of a microphone. Tick, tick, tick.
Rebecca
Someone ought to submit Teddy to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
(Hey, it’s not like Augustine and Francis of Assisi didn’t have wild youths themselves.)
JGabriel
@Rebecca:
And long after he was one himself.
Ba-dup Bump!
.
SukieTawdry
I don’t owe Ted Kennedy or his memory a damn thing. Especially not the future of health care in America. Those pigs of bills currently wending their way through Congress are gonna need more lipstick than Democrats’ attempts to politicize Kennedy’s death can provide.
Right Wing Extreme
“We owe the memory of a great man no less.”
Which memory of the great man is that. The whole Chappaquiddick “incident”(murder), or the whole I am going to collude with my commie pals in the USSR to undermine the president. Are those the memories we owe things to? I agree that we should pray for Teddy. Pro-Abortion Catholics need all the prayers they can get. Oh yeah, and asbestos. Rest in Peace Mary Jo Kopechne. Justice is finally served. Sorry it took so long.
Darkrose
@Xenos:
So what you’re saying is that when it comes to the MA congressional delegation there are too many dicks on the dance floor?
Makewi
It’s going to come out now that he’s dead, but Teddy K was one of the piranha brothers. He was a lovely man with a penchant for kicking small children in the groin. Although to be fair, they really gave him no choice. He once nailed my head to the floor, but since I had it coming I could hardly complain. He was vicious but fair. A real darling.
Except when he drank, then watch out.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Bender:
“If you could read, you’d know that I only “attacked” those who made the ridiculous statements like “Republicans have no decency” because some of them said mean things about Kennedy today.”
Who were making that statement because of B.O.B. You fucking sophist asshole.
“Of course you have the right to criticise someone for speaking ill of the recently departed, so long as you haven’t done the same when others died. I think people who make such statements know beforehand that they are in for some criticism.”
Yes, they’re trolls. Lucky for them, they have abetters like you, to defend them.
“Seriously, what are you, twelve? Incredibly, you seem to have learned to swear before you learned to read. What a feat. Anyway, the swearing is unimpressive, especially since all your reasons for being angry are so, so silly.”
By defending trolls, you’re no better than one yourself. I hope as you breathe your last, you gets ass-raped by human jackals. THEN we’ll see if you think my reasons for being angry are unimpressive, you disrespectful motherfuck.
Makewi
I would like the record to reflect that I had nothing to do with the suggestion that someone should be ass-raped to death by human jackals as a means to influence said someone that the ideas of another are neither angry, nor unimpressive. This does seem like something Teddy K would be involved in. When he was drinking I mean.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@kay:
Nah, can’t appoint Bernie to the seat. Jim Douglas would find some interim wingnut to take the Vermont seat.
kay
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
Barny, not Bernie. If it were Vermont, I think we both know who gets the seat, in an ideal world.
Howard Dean.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Makewi:
Well, I AM Irish-American. But I haven’t had a drink in a couple years. And I’m not even really that angry. All of this is said in very cold blood. People who disrespect the deaths of others should be cremated in an open-fire trash bin the minute after they die while their worst enemies pour buckets of excrement onto the flames.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@kay:
Mea culpa, misread that. Morning coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.
It would be pretty awesome if a governor appointed another state’s Senator to represent his state. Something for Constitutional scholars to ponder, anyway. Briefly.
Flugelhorn
Its funnny…
All these people quoting BOB and then refuting his claim that he would never walk away by saying that he would probably run, or let the girl drown, and on and on ad nauseum.
The funny part is that the ficticious, cruel things you try to attribute to BOB, Teddy actually DID do.
Some of the things you folks said about Bob Novak were so shameful and at best, theoretically asseterd (His policies help to destroy our blah blah blah). Now BOB comes here and simply states the plain, documented facts on what happened 30 years ago and you flip out. Bob Novak never killed anyone.
I wonder how you might feel if you were Mary Jo’s mother or father or brother or sister.
I wonder how many of you railed against the light 30 day sentence that Dante Stallworth recieved when he ran over and killed a man on the freeway in Miami while he was driving drunk. A light sentence largely attributed to his celebrity status. Ted Kennedy did not even have a hearing, much less a sentence.
I wonder how some of you feel now that you realize how much of a hypocrit you have become.
Flugelhorn
@Bender:
Agreed. The level of ignorance, lack of decency, and just pure rudeness from MANY of the posters on this blog is really beyond the pail.
How can they believe that they have any credibility when they talk the way they do? It is really ridiculous.
Then these same folks have the audacity to call conservatioves “Wing-nuts” an “Reb-Tards” etc. Are they all 12? Is that the Progressive base these days? 12 year olds with a street vocabulary? Bravo.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Flugelhorn:
Fuck you as well, trolling asswipe.
Flugelhorn
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss: What exactly is a “troll”? Are these not public boards designed for commentary, or is this supposed to be a hermetically sealed chamber for progressives and no one else is allowed to speak? For fear of what exactly? A viewpoint that doesn’t included a slew of “Fuck you”s and epithets towards conservatives maligning their intelligence and comparing them to the unfortunates who are born mentally challenged?
Rather than have one ioto of shame, you revel and wallow in your offensiveness.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Flugelhorn:
A troll is you. You slithered out from under a bridge long enough to piss on a dead man’s coffin.
Fuck you, and I hope your enemies ass-rape your still-warm corpse in front of your horrified family.
You’re one to talk about shame. Men have been torn apart by grief-stricken relatives for doing things 1/1000th less offensive than what you’ve done.
bernie
Let me add some piss to this man’s coffin, read The Mary Jo Kopechne Memorial Bridge
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@bernie:
Fuck you as well, you fucking hyena. As you have ripped at the still-warm guts of others, so may your fellow hyenas rip at yours at your time of passage.
Cyd
This Stanky McSnatch continually spews out “fuck you” to anyone within an earshot of his feculant twatish mouth, though it is difficult to understand what’s got him all “angry”. Well McSnatch, is it that one of the worst human beings in history, who single-handedly pushed legislation that permanently and catastrophically altered the face of this nation, deservedly had his brain rotted from within and met his maker, Mary Jo? LOL
Is that it, Stanky?
gwangung
Not really.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Cyd:
Fuck you. You shit on a dead man’s deathbed. I hope there’s a Hell just for people like you.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@gwangung:
Thank you.
Cyd
@Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
Let me remind some people just who they are mourning…
John Farrar, the scuba diver who recovered Mary Jo Kopechne’s body 40 years ago said, “She was not in the position assumed by a person knocked unconscious by the impact of a crash. If she had been dead or unconscious, she would have been prone, sinking to the bottom or floating on top. She definitely was holding herself in a position to avail herself of the air that was trapped in the car.” Rigor mortis had set in when he found her in that position.
Farrar repeatedly expressed the opinion that Mary Jo had lived for a couple of hours underwater by breathing in a bubble of trapped air, and that she could have been saved if rescue personnel had been promptly called to the scene. He had equipment to administer air directly to a trapped person or to augment the air pocket already inside a submerged automobile. “There was a great possibility that we could have saved Mary Jo’s life,” Farrar said.
Unfortunately, while Mary Jo was gasping her last desperate breaths, good old Teddy had swam away and wouldn’t bother reporting the incident for another ten hours. Instead, he went back to the party and huddled with two of his lawyer friends, putting his political life ahead of Mary Jo’s mortal one. The Manchester Union Leader later reported that Kennedy had charged 17 long distance telephone calls to his credit card during the hours he claimed to be “in shock” after the accident.
Had the incident happened today and/or if Teddy had NOT been a Kennedy, his career would have ended then and there. He also would have been tried for manslaughter (at the very least) with a level of sensation not seen since the OJ media frenzy. The only positive was that the incident destroyed his presidential aspirations.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Cyd:
You’re a fucking jackal. If there’s a God, God’s Kennedy’s judge, not you. I hope there’s a special level in Hell for Pharisees and hypocrites like you.
Cyd
And you’re a fucking braindead piece of garbage. God will judge him in His domain and I will do so in mine. What I will not do is place him on a pedestal and pretend he was “the greatest senator” or some such bullshit. He is to be derided, ridiculed and reviled for all eternity. That is his just reward.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@Cyd:
Eat a bag of dogshit, you jackal motherfuck. Burn in Hell. You’re not God, you’re a Pharisee and a hypocrite.
Mary Jo Kopechne
Piss on this mans grave! Murderer! Mary Jo Kopechne is dead because of Kennedy. Bastard that he is. I smoked a big fat cigar! May he rot in Hell, that liberal loon. CNN and Wolf Blitzer is running a non-stop eulogy for this shit lick bastard! SHAME on this website for spewing stupidity.
Tom Degan
Watching George W. Bush at the funeral of Teddy Kennedy on Saturday was, to say the very least, amusing. It’s always great fun to witness the members of the vast right wing conspiracy confronted head-on with the theological flaws that are inherent in their philosophy. Watching that event with my pal, Kevin Swanwick, we both were mesmerized and just slightly overjoyed to be reminded yet again that the basic tenets of Liberalism are in perfect harmony with our Christianity – our Catholicism: feed the hungry, shelter the poor and clothe the naked. Oh, how I wish the camera would have cut to Bush’s face the moment he was confronted with the most famous line (and justly so) from the Gospel according to Matthew:
“I tell you this: whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me.”
Jesus of Nazareth
One can only imagine how uncomfortable that passage from the scriptures must have made him feel. Or how about the Sermon on the Mount?
“Blessed are the peace makers
For they shall be called Sons of God.”
I imagine being confronted with the words of Jesus Christ might make old George just a tad uneasy. The prayers that were offered up by the youngest members of the Kennedy clan, in Teddy’s own words, were the most touching part of the entire day:
“That human beings be measured not by what they cannot do. That quality health care becomes a fundamental right and not a privilege. That old policies of race and gender die away. That newcomers be accepted, no matter their color or place of birth. That the nation stand united against violence, hate and war. That the work begins anew, and the dream lives on. We pray to the Lord.”
Lord hear our prayer.
After the mass had ended, and Kevin and I headed into town to get a cup of coffee, I was almost stunned by the good cheer I felt. Ted Kennedy’s funeral was truly a joyous event. Truth be told, it was damned-near therapeutic! The politics of joy as opposed to the politics of fear. There ain’t nothin’ like it in the world, Baby!
The stark contrasts between the ideals of the Progressive movement and the right wing’s backwards and greedy ideology were out in public yesterday for all to compare and contrast at Our Lady of Perpetual Comfort Church in Boston. The differences were so obvious, you could not have missed them had you tried.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY