Ted Kennedy
Won’t be down to breakfast. Boston Herald covers it, from iconic liberal lion, life of privilege marked by tragedy and scandal, dead in his sleep at 77 after a brave battle with cancer, to the succession fight/posturing/charade to come. The fix wasn’t quite in yet, but the hacks are putting their heads together to overturn the 2004 Kennedy-backed legislation that took away appointment power from Republican Gov. Mitt Romney in the event of a Kerry succession situation. Boston Herald again, “Successor plan gains steam.” Recently, news emerged that Kennedy on his deathbed felt democracy would better be served by overturning his earlier initiative to allow Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint a successor to carry his torch in the health-care debacle. That’s been looking somewhat less urgent, though the new battle cry already sounding this morning … “Do it for Ted!” … may help it regain some momentum.
No one’s wanted to talk much about who is in line while the iconic liberal lion was still drawing breath. The speculation and manuevering will fire up again after a discreet interval. Joe. Patches. Caroline … not good enough for New York, but this is Massachusetts. Any number of Kennedy third-stringers. All of them have feet of clay, not that was ever an obstacle to Kennedys until recently. Then, there is the inevitable flood of Massachusetts pols that have been mentioned, former congressman Marty Meehan, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano among them. Hey, don’t be shy, Deval Patrick. The Kennedys never were. Here’s a great chance to appoint yourself out of that mess in Massachusetts … though re-election might be problematic. Grease it with the Legislature right and maybe they’ll let you appoint yourself.
There’s the other issue, being much discussed, of who gets to be the next iconic liberal lion. I actually heard Howard Dean and Barney Frank mentioned on the local NPR affilitate a few minutes ago, which just underscores the dearth of Democratic talent. And the fact that Kennedys aren’t just made, they also have to be born. Even then, they need something else, which despite it all, Ted Kennedy had.
Regarding Kennedy himself, they don’t exactly need to fire up the hagiography. Ted Kennedy’s image enhancement has been a life-long project that only requires the bow of a national funereal extravaganza. Served in the Army, 51-53, didn’t go to Korea, overcame a Harvard cheating scandal, slid into his big brother’s seat, held for him till he was old enough, dodged responsibility in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, though whether he dodged consequences is debatable. It’s hard to imagine anyone else holding a Senate seat after that, but he didn’t get to be president.
On a personal level, though his life as publicly presented was a train wreck … the William Kennedy Smith scandal reviving role-model image problems late in life … no one doubted he loved his children and did his best for them, and he reportedly assumed a fatherly role for his slain brother RFK’s children, though Jackie reportedly kept her own kids at a healthy distance.
In an odd way, despite the dynastic element, you have to consider him an embodiment of the American dream, where people can invent and reinvent themselves, as the scion and ultimately patriarch of a family of humble immigrant origins that rose to dizzying heights to achieve legendary status, battling the decades-old taint of scandal and religious discrimination along the way.
To his credit, whether you consider it to be to the betterment of the nation or not, Kennedy overcame the many scandals and taint of unearned privilege to become a powerhouse in Washington, championing liberal causes … fortunately, in the case of issues such as health care and immigration, not always with success. In Massachusetts, he won re-election not simply because of his name but because he delivered pork and results like no one else. He rallied the left with fiery rhetoric, though the shouting of well-couched lefty platitudes stood in marked contrast to his stumbling utterances in unguarded, unprepared moments. Despite his shameful performance re the Iraq war … when he viciously disparaged a wartime president and sought to undercut a vital national security interest with troops fighting and dying in the field … he remained able to work across the aisle and had significantly better political skills than most in his party. When he called, presidents of both parties picked up the phone. The great tragedy today in the Bay State is that John Kerry, Kennedy lite, is now the senior senator, and whichever local hack or Kennedy gets the nod for Kennedy’s seat is unlikely to be able to represent the state’s interests any better than Kerry never has, at least for some time to come.
OK, links …
The Other McCain, heartlessly, “Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.”
Morrissey at HotAir offers prayers and a tasteful forbearance.
Surber, lumping Ted with his slain brothers, takes the high road … “the Brothers Kennedy did in the 1960s inspire us to set our sights higher.” Yeah, well the manner in which Ted did that in the 1960s was uniquely his own.
Malkin, the “nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations — and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death” is “no excuse to demonstrate the same lack of restraint in the other direction.”
Powerline goes deep with a quick-and-dirty look at Edward Kennedy’s America, and how he Borked it.
Curious moderation at the Moderate Voice.
Daily Kos seems to have missed vast swaths of Kennedy accomplishment and circumstance.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:34 am Comments (10) on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
10 Responses to “Ted Kennedy”
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August 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Kennedy wanted to impose a health care system on the rest of us that ironically would not have provided the level of care he has received during his illness. Conveniently, the elite would not be limited by such constraints as contained in HR 3200 or some variant.
The effort to transform the US into the European model of socialism has lost one of its biggest proponents.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:17 am
[...] Boston Herald editor Jules Crittendenoffers up some possible replacements and asks “who gets to be the next iconic liberal [...]
August 26th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I can’t say anything nice about the man. So I won’t say anything.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Jules – That’s about the best summary of TK that I’ve read.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Oh wait, I had forgotten about that
“Andropov thing.”
May he rot in hell.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
[...] Driscoll’s site. Andrew Malcom has the Kennedy family’s statement. Jules Crittenden has a critical, but restrained remembrance and some other useful links. I largely agree with Roger Kimball’s assessment of the [...]
August 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
[...] For Sale: Kennedy Senate Seat Send bids to StarAndCrescentFlag@whithouse.gov [...]
August 26th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est
August 26th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Where does this “lion” come from? This child of the trust fund from organized crime loot – what exactly was ‘leonine’ about him? His cheating in school? His daddy making sure he didn’t have to go to combat (take that BDS suffers!)? His heoric behavior at Chappaquiddick? “Lion” indeed.
Sorry, as a serviceman all I can remember is the man who never met an enemy of my country he couldn’t sympathize or empathize with, nor a defense budget he wouldn’t want to cut. To him, I was simply part of the “new management” of Saddam’s prisons or a dupe fighting a war conjured up “at a ranch in Crawford”.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:20 am
As long as they can keep Obama from crawling into the coffin for a hug after the eulogy, and book Peaches and Herb doing “Reunited” for the wake, I’m down with it.