How to react to Ted Kennedy’s death? There certainly is an initial inclination to react the way so many left-wing blogs reacted to the death of Robert Novak, such as this post at the prominent Crooks and Liars:
Novak will perhaps be best remembered — if at all — as one of the most compulsive professional liars to have wormed his way inside the Beltway, and that’s saying something.
No, will not go there. But I will take to task the people who are seeking to use Kennedy’s death to their political advantage, such as this call by Balloon Juice:
” it’s time to come back after Labor Day with a single coherent Senator Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill, and to twist whatever arms, ears, or other parts are necessary to get a good strong comprehensive bill passed and signed, NOW. We owe the memory of a great man no less.”
This theme of naming a bill after Kennedy is sure to pick up steam, as Democrats are desperate to do anything to overcome public opposition on the merits. Witness this San Francisco Chronicle column today:
There would be no more fitting tribute to the passing of Ted Kennedy, than to pass a health-care reform bill by early fall.
Strange, when Rush Limbaugh used the phrase “Kennedy Memorial Health Bill,” [in predicting how Democrats would use Kennedy’s death] he was harshly criticized. But that was back in March, on the heels of the stimulus bill, when passage of a Democratic health care restructuring bill seemed like a certainty.
Now that passage of Democratic health care restructuring seems much less likely, I guess it is okay to invoke Kennedy’s name.
UPDATE: Another Wellstone memorial?
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Does this mean that Cash for Clunkers will be updated to provide each of us our own vehicle for submarine usage?
Sarah Palin was criticized for resigning as governor of Alaska even though she thought it was the right thing to do personally and for the state. Maybe she was right and maybe she was wrong. But how can remaining as senator when you are dying be the right thing to do? It cannot be the right thing for the voters–they are not represented. Do some politicians love power so much that they can never let go? Why hasn't Byrd of WV resigned? It is embarrassing to watch him.
Tell me again why the Federal government should supply the nation's health care, even if it is named after Mary Jo Kopechne's primary health care provider?
The dog is dead – time to bury the doo along with it…
Something like this is said almost every day, but it bears repeating: a non-Democrat, non-liberal with Ted's baggage would have been escorted to the exit of the hall of public discourse decades ago. But now, we'll have to put up with days or weeks of weeping and wailing over him. The only Ted-related tears I ever had were shed for Mary Jo, who had the misfortune of getting involved with that mob.
American Power tracked-back with, 'The Edward M. Kennedy Memorial Health Care Reform Bill?'.
There would be no more fitting tribute to the passing of Ted Kennedy, than to have a health-care reform bill driven off a bridge and drowned by early fall.
Oh my stars and garters. The s.o.b. has only just assumed room temperature and already that over-the-top tributes and wailing has begun! The heck with that. He was scum, nothing more, nothing less. He drove his wife Joan to drink and drove Mary Jo Kopechne off a bridge. He was a drunk and a libertine and a disgrace to the Senate but given his family name, not a disgrace to them.
Ah…but these are strange days indeed, professor.
Quoted from and linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.08.23_arch.html#1251297308156
Nothing offends me more about the current liberal/Democratic hegemony than the double-standards. Is it so hard to allow opponents the same freedom to say and do the same things? Give me an honest consistent liberal any day.
And you teach at Cornell? Wow. Go team!
(A&S; BA 89, MA 93, PhD 98)
At the 2008 Democratic Convention, Kennedy said: "And this is the cause of my life — new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American — north, south, east, west, young, old — will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."
Why, then, would it inappropriate to name a healthcare bill in his honor?
All of the comments posted here thus far would seem to indicate that as much as Senator Kennedy fought for education; it has eluded many. May he rest in peace and may his legacy continue onward.
Jim Theriault
Well, your side gets corporate shills, lies and ignoramuses, and we get a dead old man for inspiration. I'll take that trade.
There were/are a lot of Kennedys. I think all legislation in the next 12 months should be named the "Kennedy Memorial [insert legislative name here] Bill"
Andrew_M_Garland
http://easyopinions.blogspot.com/
I've read so many negative, if not downright nasty and ignorant comments about Sen. Kennedy's death that it would seem to prove that, for all of his efforts to improve the level of education in this country, there are still many who have not realized their benefit. May he rest in peace and may his legacy continue.
Assholes. One of the freatest leaders ever is now dead. Burn in hell you right-winged racist douche bags.
Rush is almost always right. And the faster this overrated clan fades into obscurity, the better for all of us.
Yeah, Jim. Please proofread your comments for punctuation, Superior One.
Aren't you people tired of constantly being debunked, bunked and debunked again
Let Kennedy rest in peace why dishonor his passing with this tripe?
Notice that Obama didn't tell Uncle Teddy to 'take a pill and accept the fact that you're no longer cost effective.'
…
Some years ago when Senator Kennedy could fit into a water craft small enough to be called a "boat" some enterprising paparazzi got some photos of Kennedy frolicking off Cannes with some bay bunnies and the pictures were printed in one of the tabloids.
Howell Heflin, who was pretty close to what Central Casting would send you if you said, "Quick! Send me an old mossback Southern Senator" was lunching with some pols and reporters when he picked up the tabloid and said, "Hmmm. You know, from what I see here in the paper today it seems like Senator Kennedy done reversed his position on offshore drillin'.".
Because, Timothy old sod, a "right" is something you have, with which you are endowed by your creator and can not be alienated, or taken away.
A right is not something which requires a citizen to go to school for 20 or 30 years, study really hard and be at or near the top of the class for each of those years, possibly incur a six-figure debt to go to medical school or nursing school or get a graduate degree in chemistry or engineering or computer science and be prepared, at any hour of the day or night, to drop whatever he is doing to provide service to your bad self without any obligation to pay anything being incurred on your part.
…I think they should call it the "Mary Jo Kopechne Memorial" Health Care Reform Bill.
I will be more than happy to refer to the "Mary Jo Kopechne Memorial Health Bill" at every possible opportunity.
Some questions to ask lefties:
"So, does the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill require you to drink in order to get care?"
"So, does the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill pay for bridge guard rails?"
"So, does the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill have two standards, one for rich Democrats and a worse one for everyone else?"
To the leftie whiners:
Ted Kennedy was and is a disgusting human being, a murderer, and a contemptible sleaze. Your willingness to honor such scum does great discredit to you. Much like your willingness to honor Bill Clinton.
The greatest mark of the worthlessness of the American Left is its willingness to embrace people like Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Your "cream" is pond scum.
Yeah, that was back in March, when Kennedy wasn't actually dead yet. Get how it works?
I hereby propose the Rush Limbaugh Memorial Latrine on the grounds of the Betty Ford Center. May the ceremonial christening occur post-haste.
August 25, 2009, date of his death
July 18, 1969, death of his date
Nolanimrod – oh, goody! A pedantic debate about the definition of 'rights'! Your construction eliminates everything from being a 'right' – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness may all be 'taken away'.
But Kennedy had it wrong in his DNC speech – health care is already a 'right' for Americans. Emergency rooms will not turn away trauma victims, for instance … regardless of whether they are insured or have a means of paying. In other words, Americans have a de-facto 'right' to health care, even at others' expense, in some circumstances.
One major point of reform is to make such treatment – which we already deliver as a 'right' – cheaper for those of us taxpayers who are footing the bill to ensure it.
Maximilian:
I'm not sure I agree. I guess it depends on what you mean by "freatest."
Timothy:
It would be perfectly appropriate to name government-controlled health care after Ted. No one disagrees with that. The point of the headline of the post referred to the abuse Limbaugh took for predicting that Dems would do what they are now doing. Think what you will about Limbaugh; he was right that time. Oh, and what Nolanimrod said about "rights," too. Amen.
Kennedy used taxpayers-paid private insurance for his cancer treatments. Would you be so fortunate?
(Note: Kennedy's healthcare is totally different from Obamacare. The only things taxpayers (govt.) do is to provide the money, and no say in what kind of treatments he gets. In ObieCare, the govt. would have told him a while ago it's time to go to a better place.)
When your "opposition on the merits" consists of getting Medicare recipients to scream about "death panels" and "socialist agendas", you lose.
Oh, and while you're whining about using the title of a bill to strong-arm votes – "Patriot Act".
Good Day, Sir.
"The point of the headline of the post referred to the abuse Limbaugh took for predicting that Dems would do what they are now doing."
And it angers the Dems no end that Rush has their number and knows the calls they will make ahead of time.
It was almost drearily predictable, but only Rush has the cohones and lack of inhibition to call the Dems on it.
Limbaugh was "harshly criticized" – where exactly? Your link goes to a MMA video of Limbaugh's comment, with a headline that accurately quotes his comment. So where is the "harsh criticism" that is the basis of this post?
When the product of someone's labor is made a right, what does that make the producer? There's a word for that you know. 150 years ago some people thought they had a right to plowed fields and picked cotton.
Here's hoping that the Teddy Kennedy Memorial Socialized Medicine bill drowns in the river, too.
ok, People stop with the nasty remarks. We all will meet our maker one day and be judged according to our deeds.
What will people say after YOU'RE gone? Will their words be kind or vicious?
"Democrats are desperate to do anything to overcome public opposition on the merits."
That would be the MINORITY public opposition – and no you won't go there – for obvious reasons.
Better to mumble about death panels and death books and birth certificates and laugh with your sycophants.
An irony here: Despite his serious personal shortcomings (and he had many), the Senate never had a more decent, respectful member. You'll find no cases of his speaking unkindly of a rival, no cases of unabashed opportunism and plenty of cases of compromise. If you ask any senator who was the hardest working Senator, most would say Kennedy. They guy's personal life was a mess and at times shameful. And he was unabashedly a liberal. But if all Senators shared his work ethic and respect for his fellows, we would all be better off.
THe GIVE/SHARE/KENNEDY Volunteer bastardization Bill is adequate homage to Senator Kennedy's contributions to the tarnishing of American culture.
Insofar as the passing of Kennedy the public figure goes, my sweet, sainted, Southern Mama taught me that if you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything at all:
**crickets** **cicadas**
This nation has 70,000 citizens loosing health care coverage every week. If we hadn't been lied to about what was in the proposed legislation, it would have been a done deal before Ted Kennedy died. Death Panels, coverage for all illegals, give me a break. I don't care what we call the damn bill, I just want it done!
Richard: that "decent, respectful" Kennedy blot spoke vile lies about one of the nation's finest jurists and Constitutional scholars, Robert Bork, and did so to destroy his chances at serving on the Supreme Court. Kennedy was a partisan hack, a drunk, and a moral worm. And those were his good points.
Robert Bork was a partisan foot soldier whose lasting claim to fame is as the person who fired Archibald Cox while his pricipled superiors refused. Had he shared those same principles of Right and Wrong and practiced the same independent thinking of those who gave up their positions in the Nixon cabinet rather than kowtow to a desperate power-clinging president, then we may have well seen the judidicial wisdom you claim Mr. Bork posssessed.
For many years my family and I have had a favorite dinner toast; "Here's to Ted Kennedy, may he live forever".
Today our hearts are hurting, but our toast will certainly become a reality.
Like a fart in a phone booth.
Time to focus on oneself, be a better human being, try and make a positive change in this world!
Never mind what someone else did and their transgressions, not one of us is perfect, we all have faults and make mistakes…..learn from your mistakes and move forward into a more positive light! God is watching!
I agree, Fry! To all the naysayers and those who would choose to vilify this great man I say, "let you without sin, cast the first stone." I'm paraphrasing Jesus Christ, ironically for the sake of the same uneducated imbeciles who, in His name, find fault with this man. Wake the hell up! For, Christ's sake!