Well said, Joe.
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
Never forget some of the excesses this man is responsible for, including more than 25 million more immigrants than we would have had otherwise b/c of his immigration legislation put in place a couple decades back.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. This man spread a lot of evil.
It probably started with Hollywood and spread to the political realm under the guidance of various strategists who saw the potential for "celebritizing" their candidates.
Like I really give a rats ass what a Canadian paper thinks of anything.
As has been said many times before......They do, however, have a problem with water boarding Khalil Sheik Mohammad (sp) to save our country from another attack and the lives of thousands of our citizens.....((((shakes head))))
Meanwhile, do I remember another popular website who trashed the wonderful Tony Snow when he died, and he did NOTHING THE AFFECT anyone’s lives. Our everyday lives are worse because of Ted Kennedy. I pray for anyone who dies..but I do not mourn for him.
The only person this could rightfully refer to is Ted Kennedy himself.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the ping.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
thanks i needed that.
She certainly didn't have any trouble trashing Sarah Palin and she didn't do anything but tell the truth. I guess Janice Kennedy didn't READ THE BILL like so many here did!
She sounds like a parrot repeating liberal talking points.
Chappaquiddick just happens to be the perfect summation of all Ted Kennedy stood for.
As far as I’m concerned, there are only two variations of “Chappaquiddick-type” people — There are those who slowly suffocate to death in a submerged car and those who callously allow them to do so in order to protect their political careers.
RE: “Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking”...”
Peacemaking?!?!
If he was a decent and honest man with whom I disagreed on political issues, I would be content to join the love-fest eulogy chorus. But he was neither decent nor honest, and it wasn’t just Chappaquiddick. The senate became a better institution by subtraction at his passing.
Well said, Joe.
I still piss on Kennedy and all the socialistic garbage he did and stood for.How`s that lefties? Try this article entitled; Liberal Fallout Zones,for his legacy: http://examiner.com/examiner/x-14913-DC-Conservative-Examiner-y2009m8d28-Liberal-Fallout-Zones
I believe it was Chris "Countrywide" Dodd who was the other side of that sandwich.
Sure sounds like the democrats to me.
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