Ted Kennedy: Then and Now

Ted Kennedy is once again in the news. The liberal media is going to town with the image of Kennedy rising from his sick bed to promote Obama’s health care plan. NewsBusters.org includes quotes from two different reporters:

World News anchor Dan Harris highlighted how “Kennedy is using his own battle against brain cancer to make an emotional pitch for health care reform” and NBC reporter Mike Viqueira touted: “Today, another dramatic push, this time from an ailing Ted Kennedy, absent from Washington but appearing on the cover of Newsweek and writing: ‘This is the cause of my life. We will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege’.”

Oh yes, that’s Teddy Kennedy, champion of the sick, putting aside his own illness to fight for someone else’s right for help. That is unless that someone is trapped inside of a submerged car, then he’ll simply walk away letting her die alone, waiting until the next morning to call for help.

Speaking of that, did you know that the 40th anniversary of the events at Chappaquiddick occurred over the weekend? What, no one in the media cared to put that on the news? Gee, how surprising…

Kennedy, like so many liberals, professes love and concern for the masses but if that help impinges on him in any way then he’ll just walk away without a backwards glance. He needs, no he in fact demands, that someone else takes care of those pesky little details, like a dead body back then or paying the trillions today. Plus it is always easier to “make an emotional pitch” for a group of unknown people than to have to deal with one person face to face. The former is more sterile, more in the abstract then the reality of dealing with a real person (dead or alive).

Since there will be no “emotional pitch” from Kennedy than I will step in and ask that after everyone say a prayer for Mary Jo Kopechne and her family, 40 years after Kennedy left her to die in his submerged car that he had drunkenly drove off a bridge. And I can’t help but wonder if once again Kennedy is going to leave us trapped in a smashed up car with rising water around us, this time in the guise of health care in which we’ll drown in trillions of dollars in debt if it is passed.

Short Retort

There is a lot of talk about health care bills. The Senate and the House each have their own version of a bill that would provide health care for everyone. They are massive bills filled with pages and pages of legalese and bureaucratic jargon which no one ever reads. Yet these Washington politicians and their mainstream media side kicks bombard us with stories and lectures on how wonderful these health care bills are. But no one mentions one small detail; not everyone is covered in the new health care plans. There is one group who will be exempt from following this "wonderful" new health care plan - the politicians themselves! You have to wonder... why aren't the Senators and Congressmen and women who are writing and designing the new health care system going to be forced to use it just like everyone else? If the proposed new health care system not good enough for Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and all the rest of the politicians then why should we be forced to use it?

Senate for Sale

I feel sorry for New Yorkers. It seems as if they are destined to be represented by very famous people who are completely ignorant about their state, their needs, their problems. Hillary Clinton never lived in that state nor had she had any experience governing or politicking for herself until she decided she wanted to be the NY Senator. Was she a good Senator? I have no idea. Maybe she did use her name and power in her party to get some perks for her state. But no matter how much she traveled when she ran for the Senate she is still not a real New Yorker and doesn’t understand or love that state as would someone who actually lived there.

Now Carolyn Kennedy has decided she wants to take Hillary’s seat when junior Senator Clinton becomes Madame Secretary of State. Carolyn’s uncle was once the Senator of NY but he was never a real New Yorker either. It makes you wonder about New Yorkers (ok I have always wondered about anyone who chooses to live there). Anyway, I wonder why they keep voting for somebody who moved to their state last week and declared they want to be the next Senator from New York.

Yes Ms. Kennedy has a name with star power but she has even less experience than Hillary had when she ran for that seat. I heard that Carolyn said that because she recently turned 50 and had worked with her uncle Teddy on Obama’s election she has now decided that wants to go into politics herself. So she just moved to NY and declared that she wants to be the next Senator in NY. Wow. I can’t help but feel sorry for all the hard working NY politicians who thought that they have earned the right to be named and now their dreams have been shattered in one day.

In both NY and Illinois the Governor has complete freedom to fill their respective empty Senate seats. The Illinois Governor is facing all kinds of criminal charges for trying to sell his empty seat to the highest bidder. The NY Governor is now faced with having a living icon, Carolyn Kennedy, stating that she wants him to name her as the next NY Senator even though she has never lived there nor has any experience. (Ironically I can’t help but wonder what the Illinois Governor would have done if faced with this decision.)

It is bad enough for an outsider to move to NY just so they can be in the Senate. But in Hillary’s case she earned that seat as the people of New York decided they wanted this foreigner with name power to be their next Senator and voted her to be their Senator. But in this current situation Kennedy would be named by the Governor and not elected by the citizens of the state. That just doesn’t seem right even if she has a mega watt name. As somebody quipped, Brittany Spears has a famous name, too, but you wouldn’t want her in Congress.

When a Senate seat becomes open in the middle of the term, we need to come up with a better way of filling it instead of letting the Governor pick whomever he wants. Neither pay to play nor having your Daddy’s name should be the criteria for selection but I am not sure what the alternative is. In Illinois, the Republicans are clamoring for a special election but this will cost a great deal of money. Perhaps the seat should be given to the person the leaving Senator beat in their party’s primary. Or maybe the State Senate should vote on a replacement as they are supposed to represent their district’s best interest. I am not sure of the solution but anything has to be better than the current situations in Illinois and New York.

Short Retort

Obama now has elder “statesman” Ted Kennedy on his side while Hillary has ex-President Bill “helping” her. On the surface each now has an older, white haired, long-time politician supporting them on their quest for presidency.

But wait a minute. Clinton is a disgraced, impeached president who couldn’t keep his pants zipped, even in the White House, and then lied about it. And even though a number of people around him died mysteriously at least he wasn’t as bad as Ted Kennedy who abandoned a young girl to die.

Are Hillary and Obama truly proud that these two old reprobates* are endorsing them?

* Reprobate – 1. a depraved, unprincipled or wicked person. 2. a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation. 3. morally depraved, unprincipled, bad.