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Ted Kennedy is Not Smart
BrianWise.com ^ | January 14, 2005 | Brian S. Wise

Posted on 01/14/2005 4:46:12 AM PST by TGOMedia

It occurs to me that in titling a column “Ted Kennedy is Not Smart,” I find myself in a position most columnists would greatly admire, namely preaching to one of the largest choirs ever assembled around a political notion. But if anyone in the choir has ever wavered, their resolve will be strengthened by the senator’s Wednesday speech at the National Press Club, in which he was Uniquely Teddy: Bumbling and intellectually dishonest, lying to himself and his audience, teetering on the edge of the same creepy neo-socialism that grips all liberals in times of distress (the theory being that if Democrats promise to give the people more and more, the people will love them again).

Motivated by the elections, Kennedy made his Big Point almost immediately: “I categorically reject the deceptive and dangerous claim that the outcome last November was somehow a sweeping, or a modest, or even a miniature mandate for reactionary measures like privatizing Social Security, redistributing the tax burden in the wrong direction, or packing the federal courts with reactionary judges. Those proposals were barely mentioned – or voted on – in an election dominated by memories of 9/11, fear of terrorism, the quagmire in Iraq, and relentlessly negative attacks on our Presidential candidate.” [And not on ours?!]

Interestingly put. Would it soothe Senator Kennedy’s mind to know that John won the presidency with a much smaller popular vote majority than President Bush’s in November (118,574 over Richard Nixon), and yet wasn’t ever told he “had no mandate” to fight Communism, lower taxes or claim the moon? The question is, At what exact margin of victory can a Republican president legitimately claim the right to advance his ideas? The answer is, At victory, whether the margin is three votes or three million votes.

But that’s backward thinking. Let’s talk about today. “There's no doubt we [Democrats] must do a better job of looking within ourselves and speaking out for the principles we believe in, and for the values that are the foundation of our actions. Americans need to hear more, not less, about those values.” All right then. “Unlike the Republican Party, we believe our values unite us as Americans, instead of dividing us. If the White House's idea of bipartisanship is that we have to buy whatever partisan ideas they send us, we're not interested.” Well, one could make the argument that Democratic values have united at least a majority of Americans, against Democrats, since 1994. No?

Anyway, what principles do Democrats believe in? Senator Kennedy suggests America spend more and / or begin paying for these things (among others): Tuition for high school kids accepted to colleges; graduate school tuition for low income students seeking advanced degrees in math and science (why just those?); early education and healthy developments for “the youngest children”; new schools and the modernization of old ones; research and development; broadband for “every home, school, and business in America”; mass transit.

Uh-huh; and? “To revitalize the American dream, we also need to renew the battle to make health care affordable and available to all our people. … Sadly, in America today, the miracles of modern medicine are too often the province only of the wealthy. … The answer is Medicare, whose 40th birthday we will celebrate in July. I propose that as a 40th birthday gift to the American people, we expand Medicare over the next decade to cover every citizen - from birth to the end of life.”

It is suggested we pay for these spending increases by – anyone? – raising payroll taxes. “Payroll taxes should be part of the financing, but so should general revenues, to make the financing as progressive as possible.” The reader should forgive my ignorance, but if there’s a difference between money collected from payroll taxes and general revenue, please let me know. If Kennedy means to separate whatever would be in the treasury from newly collected money for these purposes, then okay. But the suspicion is that he’s playing a verbal game of three card monty and hoping no one will notice.

The cause claimed is the people’s well being. That said, how much does Senator Kennedy propose we spend per year, forever, on expanding Medicare to a universal entitlement for all Americans? More or less than the amount President Bush would spend, over a decade, converting portions of Social Security payroll tax deductions to private accounts? Is what matters our well being, or that government provides that well being? Don’t ask, he just may answer.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: drunk; kennedy; kerryisaschmuck; tedkennedy
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1 posted on 01/14/2005 4:46:12 AM PST by TGOMedia
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To: TGOMedia
Manslaughtering lush.
2 posted on 01/14/2005 4:49:13 AM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: TGOMedia

His OWN father knew that.

"I'm gonna have to buy Teddy a seat in the Senate, he's too dumb to get a job." Joe Kennedy.


3 posted on 01/14/2005 4:50:17 AM PST by HMFIC (The Peace Symbol is the FOOTPRINT of the American CHICKEN!)
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To: HMFIC

That's a brilliant quote.


4 posted on 01/14/2005 4:51:24 AM PST by TGOMedia
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To: billorites
OverFed Ted denigrated his own candidate in that tirade. It was almost as if he forgot he was sKerry's main supporter.

Then he went on to call the new Dim senator from Illinois Barak Obama, Osama Bama.
5 posted on 01/14/2005 4:57:13 AM PST by ChicagoRighty (Surrounded by libbies and damn tired of it!)
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To: ChicagoRighty

That was the 5 fifths of JD in his gut talking!


6 posted on 01/14/2005 4:59:03 AM PST by HMFIC (The Peace Symbol is the FOOTPRINT of the American CHICKEN!)
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To: HMFIC
He strikes me as a slo gin fizz drinker. Gentleman Jack seems to refined for such a swill-sucker like the Chappaquiddick Chunky
7 posted on 01/14/2005 5:03:10 AM PST by ChicagoRighty (Surrounded by libbies and damn tired of it!)
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To: TGOMedia

8 posted on 01/14/2005 5:22:49 AM PST by bitt ('every fifth round is a tracer')
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To: TGOMedia

I wish I still had my copy of "Teddy Bare". Really pointed out his stupidity. And jsut think how much has happened since then.


9 posted on 01/14/2005 5:25:36 AM PST by marty60
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To: bitt

An excellent bit of mischief, Sir!


10 posted on 01/14/2005 5:36:04 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth (There's nothing wrong with this country that 1,000,000 executions won't straighten out.)
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To: TGOMedia

"Ted Kennedy is Not Smart"

In other news...

Rain is wet.


11 posted on 01/14/2005 5:38:37 AM PST by exile (Exile - Helen Thomas tried to lure me into her Gingerbread House.)
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To: TGOMedia

'Old Lardbutt' is suffering from alcoholic dementia.


12 posted on 01/14/2005 5:42:24 AM PST by punster
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To: TGOMedia

13 posted on 01/14/2005 6:03:04 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: TGOMedia

Ted Kennedy is part of the over-the-hill gang and this last election was a last gasp that might very well be what the Democrat Party needs to kick him and his socialist lackey's to the curb....He's too old to groom another candidate the way they did Kerry.

I don't know who the young stars are in the Dem Party, but if they don't strike now, then they're being misled.

Hate to give them advice, though. (Go ahead and elect Howard Dean as Party Chair. :>)


14 posted on 01/14/2005 6:03:40 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: HMFIC

Where did u get the Joe Kennedy quote?


15 posted on 01/14/2005 6:04:05 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: TGOMedia
...or even a miniature mandate for reactionary measures like privatizing Social Security, redistributing the tax burden in the wrong direction, or packing the federal courts with reactionary judges.

Let's see. He was a graduate from Patrice Lumumba University?
16 posted on 01/14/2005 6:05:17 AM PST by aruanan
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To: xzins

Barak Obama, Harold Ford, and Evan Bayh are supposed to be part of the "new democrats" just like Bill Clinton was...but I am not going to be fooled by any of them.


17 posted on 01/14/2005 6:06:47 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: SoFloFreeper

We don't have an ACU rating on Obama, but I think Ford & Bayh both tip the scale at about 25 or so.

I believe Lincoln Chaffee comes in at a low 40. (I'm gonna hafta go check these again).

If Chaffee is a "centrist," then these two are leftists, although not of the class of Kerry who rates about a ZERO.

Indiana is so conservative, that Bayh MUST be careful where he steps.


18 posted on 01/14/2005 6:10:53 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: TGOMedia

No: Ted Kennedy is not smart. But he is smarter than the voters of Massachusetts that keep electing him.


19 posted on 01/14/2005 6:20:32 AM PST by sgtbono2002
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To: exile

"Ted Kennedy is Not Smart"

In other news...

Rain is wet.

and...

Dan Rather wins the Pulitzer for Integrity in Journalism..

It is a catchy title for an editorial though. I like writers who get to the point.


20 posted on 01/14/2005 6:24:16 AM PST by IamConservative (To worry is to misuse your imagination.)
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