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.
thanks you for pointing us to that!!
point me to your Howie/Jay stuff, in the future, please...
we need a MA board...
well if you're in Mass. there should be the "Mass. community" board that pops up near the top...
I subscribe to the Herald and have been known to cut and paste some of his columns here.
I couldn't agree more. See http://fatboy.cc/ for photos and more.
You go first, Teddy....
A Ted Kennedy Site is being banned on Wikipedia.org. If you are good with computers, or already a Wikipedia member, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ted_Kennedy#Is_this_a_vote.3F and add your comment to keep the link to fatboy.cc It seems that Wikipedia has lots of sore looser democrats as editors. They refuse to keep up a link to fatboy.cc Your input will make a difference. Thanks!
He is media savvy. He is fairly bright intellectually. From my understanding he can even be a charming guy (I base this on Laura Bush's comments on his behavior in the early minutes of 9/11).
Having said that he is not only a liberal, which is something I can tolerate in damn few politicians, but he is a self seeking lowlife who got a girl pregnant. Got himself drunk. Then drove off a pier with her and then let her drown while he tried to figure out the political ramifications of his act of depraved indifference and how best to cover it up.
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