The Kennedy mythology--The Republicans are salivating like Dr. Pavlov's dogs over this--can't you hear them? This time, they're taking a different tack than when they openly-rejoiced over the actual stroke of South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson. Looking more like a set-piece for a George Romero film than a political culture, we were treated to an unprecedented frothing over the potential death and unseating of a Democratic representative.
With Ted, it's going to be different because the odds are truly stacked against the GOP, and such open displays of inhumanity don't wash so well with the public these days. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan already has that covered. Oh well.
Like any Kennedy, Senator Edward Kennedy isn't perfect. But like most of his brothers, he served his country in the military, as an MP during the Korean War. Has he fed his cronies in Massachusetts? What representative isn't guilty of this attitude towards the public trough?
Like most incumbent senators (unless they're Republicans or arch-conservative Democrats), I'm sure there are plenty of votes Edward Kennedy would like to take back. Let's face it: there have been a lot of times that Senator Kennedy has failed the American public. That would make him a politician, one of our own.
It still doesn't make him a Republican, however, and we should all take note of the present reaction on-the-right: they're puffing him up so that the blow is greater. Just a paltry three-years-ago, nobody in the political mainstream of the Democratic Party was listening to Ted Kennedy's misgivings over the Bush administration's agenda. Kennedy was one of the first to connect the economy and the effect the war in Iraq was having on it. Ted was one of 156 members of Congress that voted against the war in Iraq in 2002. Senate majority leader Harry Reid cannot say this.
This wasn't revolutionary, but saying this aloud in Washington when the GOP and the White House were still riding high was extremely risky. The 2006 midterms changed most of this, but the Democratic incumbents have continued to act as de facto Republicans in their support of the president. Now that the political tides have turned, morons like Rahm Emmanuel need "the old lion" to marshal the troops again.
Rah-rah, go team. Boo team, but don't lose. We can't survive another eight years of the GOP. Live to fight another day, Ted, but remember that the public will always be here, the real solution to our collective-problems. But I give the man credit, and not because he was in the Simpsons Movie.
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