American Royalty
The lefty sockpuppet also known as Glenn Greenwald is right. This nation might as well embrace royalty and be done with it. The only part I don’t get, is how he can get snarky about the fact that Jenna Bush just got a part-time TV gig, without once mentioning the colossal royal funeral we just witnessed or the subsequent succession struggle now starting to play out in the Party of the Little Guy.* Kennedy succession tea-leaf reading follows. It’s a tale of two newspapers:
Boston Herald, Will Vicki fill Ted’s shoes?
Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Edward Kennedy who won America’s hearts over the course of her public mourning, is being urged by family and friends to consider her late husband’s Senate seat, even as a field of contenders waits for the right moment to launch their own campaigns.
A Democratic operative with Kennedy contacts told the Herald yesterday Vicki Kennedy is “very much interested” in occupying the seat to see his life’s work completed. A family friend said nephew Joseph P. Kennedy II also is being urged by friends and family to run.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a close friend of the late senator, publicly urged Vicki Kennedy’s appointment to the post, at least on an interim basis.
“I think Vicki ought to be considered,” Hatch said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “She’s a very brilliant lawyer. She’s a very solid individual. She certainly made a difference in Ted’s life, let me tell you. And I have nothing but great respect for her.”
Close friend Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) backed the idea.
Boston Globe, Senate field hinges on (Joe) Kennedy decision:
With Massachusetts having paid its final respects to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the politics of succession begins in earnest this week – candidates will emerge, a race will take shape, and the Kennedy clan will have to reveal whether it wants to keep the seat in the family.
All eyes now are on Joseph P. Kennedy II, the former US representative, with family members and political allies expecting him to make a decision very shortly on whether to enter the Democratic primary.
No other Kennedy of his generation with the political stature to step into the role has signaled interest in it, according to Democratic insiders and people close to the family. And Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the senator’s widow, who many expected would be a likely candidate, so far has indicated she is not interested in succeeding her husband, those close her have said.
Damn, I love working in a two-newspaper town.
Also, Boston Herald, Death leaves Kennedy clan without a rock:
Among the questions that linger in the wake of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s death are these: Who will head America’s most storied family now, and will the clan ever have the same clout again?
I’d go with “who cares?” and “no,” because this is America. But like Greenwald says, we might as well just embrace the royalty. Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons. God save ‘em all. We sell a lot of newspapers off their dynastic posteriors. Then you got your Gore, the current Duke of Earl, Marquis of Gaia. Sir Arnold. There’s lesser outliers like the Cuomos, Daleys and Jacksons. Maybe even a new Obama line just starting.
Will she, won’t she? Latest update at the Herald today is Vicki told Deval Patrick over the weekend she doesn’t want to be appointed if lawmakers follow her husband’s wishes, and reinstate the gubernatorial appointment power they took away at his behest when a Republican would have been wielding it. Nothing on whether she’ll run in the special election, though. Her husband had also indicated that whoever holds the temporary appointment shouldn’t be allowed to run in January. Not that he has any say in it.
Riehl notices some others who were left out of Greenwald’s peerage.
Previously, in dynastic news:
Legacy … Why they loved him, with an asterisk.
Dems in Mourning … The depths of Harry Reid’s grief, plus some hurtful yet tastefully restrained meanspiritedness.
* Someone please remind me why some guy’s death means we have to get saddled with something he never managed to sell in life. via Herald. Meanwhile, Surber notes that something else might pass now that the great man is gone. Cape Cod’s wind power initiative.
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Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:16 am Comments (17) on Monday, August 31, 2009
17 Responses to “American Royalty”
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August 31st, 2009 at 8:41 am
[...] ROYALTY: A tale of two newspapers. “Glenn Greenwald is right. This nation might as well embrace royalty and be done with it. The [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 9:01 am
Er, has the Mass Legislature changed the rules yet again? Maybe Hatch should be a little more concerned about that travesty of law instead of aiding it by call for “Vicki’s” appointment.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] wah! This wouldn’t sound so ironic if his bellyaching didn’t come on the heels of Kennedy’s love fest. Will a Kennedy replace Teddy? The world waits with bated breath. Wait, no they [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 9:54 am
Meh, Orrin Hatch…..time for him to retire. Although I could say the same for of Congress.
And that remind me……Jules, why don’t you run for Dead Ted’s seat? Bingley wants to be NJ Governor, why not “Senator Crittenden”?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:38 am
and the Kennedy clan will have to reveal whether it wants to keep the seat in the family.
Every American ought to shudder at these words, no matter who the “clan” is. And an American newspaper ought to be ashamed of publishing them.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
Greenwald is just the latest proof that the heirs of American Communism have cultivated the skill of accusing your enemies of doing what you yourself are most guilty of. It still works too, because it throws them off balance and nonplusses them.
It’s gone on so long now, however, that I doubt that they understand the difference between reality and their ideology, or truth and opinion, for that matter. They certainly don’t know logic or argument, but who needs that when you have sophistry?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:56 am
[...] Jules Crittenden: [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden talks about the infatuation with so-called American royalty and has much more on the succession to The Swimmer here. [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Sign me up for the ABAK party: Anyone but a Kennedy.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Sorry Robert, had to delete a comment that sideswipes libel. Michael was the one who had a teen babysitter issue, prior to hitting a tree while skiing. Joe wanted the annulment, reportedly explaining to his wife it was all just Catholic gobbledegook. Seen as one of the reasons he bailed on running for governor of Massachusetts. Sufficent time has passed it may well be that he, and any voters who might be swayed by the issue, are over their sensitivities re that issue.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Sorry, Jules. I wasn’t trying to libel anyone. It is just that there are so many Kennedys, and so many peccadilloes, and so little time. Why don’t we get them to wear numbers and post their stats at mlb.com
August 31st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
[...] MA blogger and Boston Herald editor Jules Crittenden slams liberal icon Glenn Greenwald’s Salon piece on “royalty” in the United States [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 7:12 pm
No problem, Robert. That’s actually a pretty good idea. How about signs around the neck at the local pillory?
August 31st, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I mean, as long as we’re going medieval retro with the royalty part.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I’ll bring the rotten tomatoes!
September 1st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
[...] being treated like royalty after she got a non-political gig on ABC’s Good Morning America. But as Jules Crittenden points out here such criticism often seems to downplay or ignore the role of…as seeming American [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Hate to waste fruit with anti-oxidants like that.