Posted on 12/16/2010 5:00:44 PM PST by Second Amendment First
Nightfall on the Kennedy era in Washington looks like this: Representative Patrick J. Kennedy’s office space surrendered to a Republican, his family memorabilia in boxes, and Mr. Kennedy yearning for a role away from the public eye.
As soon as Friday, when the lame-duck session of Congress could wrap up, Mr. Kennedy, 43, will return to Rhode Island, settling into his recently renovated farmhouse in Portsmouth. When his eighth term ends early next month, no member of his family will hold national office for the first time since 1947, when John F. Kennedy became a congressman from Massachusetts.
With Mr. Kennedy’s father, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, dead for more than a year now and no one else in the family voicing plans to run for office, Capitol Hill will be left with ghosts and memories. The only politician left among them is Bobby Shriver, whose mayoral term in Santa Monica, Calif., just ended but who still sits on the City Council there.
“This is a family that once had the presidency and two Senate seats, and they’re now down to the mayor of Santa Monica,” said Darrell M. West, a Brookings Institution scholar. “It’s a pretty dramatic fall, and it’s symbolic of the decline of liberalism.”
*
“My family legacy was never just about government service,” said Mr. Kennedy, who talked for more than two hours in an empty room at the Cannon House Office Building, where John F. Kennedy also worked as a House member from 1947 to 1953. “It was about giving back, and the branding of President Kennedy’s call for Americans to give back to their country.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And yet it was politics that made the Kennedys a de facto royal family, giving them a vein of power in Washington that spanned generations. The Kennedys have been woven prominently through the political and social history of the last half-century, from the assassinations of John and his brother Robert, to Edward’s 1969 car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., that killed Mary Jo Kopechne, to the 1999 plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr.
>> Patrick J. Kennedy’s office space surrendered to a Republican, his family memorabilia in boxes
Ah, the heartwarming anecdotes of the Christmas season. They bring me good cheer.
AMF!
Garbage...theyt are ALL GARBAGE!! Jackie dressed nicely...that was it!
Is that violins I hear in the background?
And to all a good night.
The Kennedy clan is now represented by a bipolar drug-addict? Does not bode well for their future.
I can think of no other family other than maybe the Roosevelts who hurt our country more than the Kennedys.
So long! Farewell! Auf Wiedersehen! Adieu!
From a drunken drowner to...
Aw hell, no..
“Good riddance!”
Roger That!! Urinate on ALL the Kennedy’s they were a pox on the nation along with Mr Peanut and all the other Rats!
You know, they should have picked Caroline , you know ?
Don’t let God kick you in the butt on the way out.
Hint: Your family has been by and large evil (the jury is out on JFK) and you have suffered Utherean retribution. In your arrogance, your family continued to spit into the eye of honor and truth.
Reap the whirlwind, all of you Kennedys. And I hope each and every one of you has or will meet Mary Jo and look her in the eye and grovel.
The hell with the Kennedys.
Patrick Kennedy plans to restore and return to service the family Oldsmobile, in his spare time.
The voters in MA were quick learners! ;-)
Good grief! Kennedy chose not to run for reelection. Why is the NYT painting this as some kind of Shakespearean tragedy?
“...no member of his family will hold national office for the first time since 1947, when John F. Kennedy became a congressman from Massachusetts. “
I ‘ll drink to that. Except I don’t think there is anything left after all those Kennedys bellied up to the bar.
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