Posted on 08/29/2009 2:01:07 PM PDT by kristinn
Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedy’s death last week. The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.
This “most imperfect man,” wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that “for America, he was a defender of a dream.” In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, “He was never small.”
The other kind of reaction to Kennedy’s death could be summed up in one word: “Chappaquiddick.”
Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking” or even “Camelot.” Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-right’s more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedy’s death characteristically, flinging around words like “traitor,” “coward,” “disgrace”— and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.
But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. It’s a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible — not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.
Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. They’re responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.
Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harper’s government announced last week it would appeal — again — a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadr’s repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasn’t surprised. “We are used to this mean-spirited approach.”
But this government’s disgraceful stand on Khadr — the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo — is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.
SNIP
Ted buttered his bread, so now he gets to sleep in it....Chappaquidick was the legacy he made for his ownself.
Hey, if Teddy himself liked ‘quiddick jokes, why not us?
“Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
Amazing what the liberal mind resorts to when it comes to spin, isn’t it? Whatever lies in store on the other side for Edward Kennedy is between him and God. Liberal pots calling the Chappaquiddick kettle black just doesn’t lend lustre to a sadly blemished reputation.
In the 1990s after KGB files had been opened for a time, an enterprising journalist from The Times of London revealed a startling letter from a senior KGB official to the former head of the KGB and then Premier of the Soviet Union Andropov. In this letter the KGB reports to Andropov that Ted Kennedy through another former Democrat Senator Tunney (his former college roommate) offered to work with Andropov to undermine President Reagan's policy of challenging the Soviet Union. Kennedy noted that there were certain "economic circles" in the "north-east United States" and "hidden tendencies" that could lead to an "economic crisis" of benefit to Democrats (and by extension to Kennedy's own presidential ambitions for the election of 1988). Kennedy offered to assist Andropov in manipulating American media (specifically, the chairman of ABC Television, Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters, as well as others) to mobilize American opinion in favor of Andropov and the Soviet military. Kennedy noted that this would have to be made to look as if it originated in the U.S. He stated that he was "very impressed" with former KGB director Andropov. All this plainly violated U.S. laws reserving foreign diplomacy only to the President. It is not just that Ted Kennedy was a life-long cheat, philanderer, substance abuser and himself capable of the most mean-spirited public rhetoric (e.g., his comments about Judge Bork during Supreme Court confirmation hearings). It is not just that for all his public pontificating, his Leftist legislative agenda enjoyed virtually no success until his triumph recently in exporting his political tactics to Barak Obama, bolstered by black racism and closet islamism. It is that if Ted Kennedy had gotten his way, the Soviet Union would today be the world's only superpower. The tanks would not be rolling into Prague or Tienanmen Square only. But into any city in North America, including Ottawa, to enforce tyranny. That is why some note: Ted Kennedy may have been the "lion" of the U.S. Senate, but the American people were his prey. As The Times of London brought to light, the KGB had a friend in Ted Kennedy. THAT is what is mean. THAT is what is distinctly ugly.
I agree! Just saying, Ted didn’t get away with anything. The bill just came due.
That has been the thing that really ticks me off. Kennedy and the press have always presented this as if he were the "victim" and it's just part of the Kennedy curse.
Lancey, see my #77.
She’s been a socialist hypocrite (aren’t they all?) with a good paying job at The Ottawa Citizen for many years now.
She’s like Maureen Dowd, without the looks.
Abandoning a girl to die just to save your career and then finding that the dead girl is your legacy - why it’s like an old Twilight Zone.
I have seen that picture of the floating VW before and always wondered about it. I had a ‘62 Beetle. I drove into a flooded street and thought better of it. When I pushed in the brake and the clutch, water squirted up through the floor. I wasn’t going to float very long in mine.
And the KGB/TMK connection is going to be news in the days to come.
Or ‘it’s all water under the bridge now’
Is that anything like a “single issue” voter?
Forty years in the Senate, tirelessly advancing the "progressive agenda", and that's not single issue?
Regards,
GtG
This is so crazy. What does Janice think we did here? Dance around the May Pole singing “Ding Dong the Fat Head’s dead.” NO. We simply discussed how a man with Teddy Kennedy’s record could receive so much praise from the media when he did so much harm to the country, not to mention poor Mary Jo and her family.
Someone negligently kills youe4 next door neighbor, comes into your house and steals your money (even though he himself is wealthy from money he never earned), calls your thinking "evil," assists in the death of millions of babies, assists in the death of your neighbors, lies cheats and steals and tells you you have to put up with it -- and you remain nonjudgmental?
Remind not ask you to have my back.
Mary Jo RIP.
I have many good friends who are liberals, one in particular who I work with, she is a jewel. She is BRILLIANT at her work, a wonderful person, and...a liberal.
I have to put up with people who want to talk politics at work. I don’t offer it as a subject unless I know the person, but if someone brings it up to me, I am not backing off.
I have to listen to them talk over the cubicles, and I have to say, sometimes I can only roll my eyes at it. “Oh Boy! John, did you see the stock market this morning? It is up 45 points! It is working, we are coming out of the recession! Yippee!” I am not kidding you. It is as if they put something in the water. And these are not stupid people, which makes it even more disturbing.
We had a test system with fake people in it. My liberal friend created a fictional person named “SARAH ALASKA” in it, just for me as a friendly nudge when we were testing. One day, this other woman who is a flaming liberal walked in (this was before the election) and said “I am sick of seeing that woman’s name in the test system! I can’t wait until this election is over and we won’t have to see her name again!”
I looked at her and said “Have you even considered that there might be some people who WANT to hear her name and see her be successful? I am one of those people!”
The look of absolute horror and confusion on her face was hilarious. And no, I am not making this up or exaggerating!
She stammered, a look of bewilderment and horror on her face: “...You...you...you’re...you’re...you’re one of THEM!”
I am not kidding. She had thought I was a nice, decent guy. That was exactly what she said! And I said “You’re damn right I am one of ‘THEM’...”
Being a conservative in this state is difficult. I have thrown away my state votes for President, Senator, Congressman, State Rep, everything, every single year. But I still go back and do it, because it is my right to do it.
I love it here. But i HATE the politics and the politicians up here.
We'll run off that bridge when we get to it.
Who cares what these whiners think? Ted was a freaking fat leftist jerk.
He is gone. Time to move on!
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