Pathways of stone
A number of Liberal political advocacy groups have called for a change in the laws of Massachusetts in order to provide more votes for health care “reform”. The Washington Post’s Capitol Briefing writes:
MassVOTE, which calls itself “a non-partisan voting rights organization,” has launched a Web site, WeNeedTwo.org, asking readers to “[s]ign our petition to the Massachusetts Legislature to honor Ted Kennedy’s legacy by taking steps to ensure an immediate, temporary appointment who won’t run in the election to fill Massachusetts’s second Senate seat. … Supporting the effort are several liberal-leaning groups, including the state branches of the Service Employees International Union and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Patrick has endorsed the idea of changing the law, and leaders in the state Legislature are reportedly warming to the idea as well.
When Steven Crowder at Pajamas TV went undercover and applied for an activist job at an actual activist organization, they openly told him that it’s sometimes necessary to fix things so’s the ignorant voters gets whats for their own good. Crowder’s funny, but the story is really a sad one and speaks almost directly to the ACORN effort to short-circuit the electoral process. Why is it moral to exploit sympathy for the dead to circumvent democracy simply to force on the living something they don’t want? Cui bono? Not the dead; nor even a majority of the living. Why then? Because some things are simply a sacrifice on the altar of “progress”; they have to happen, and never mind why. It’s not for the “sake of the children” but for the sake of an idea; and as in many of those ancient temples in which things were burned before the gods, there was never a shortage of those who took the offerings when the tearful devotees had left. When faith dies, there’s still business.
Tip Jar or Subscribe for $5
I’m not surprised at the sheep worshipping TK. They do this all the time with their celebs. The death of an innocent woman at the hands of a drunk driver? Give a eulogy worthy of royalty. Treasonous backdoor dealings with the USSR? Why not the CMH?
Jennifer Rubin at Commentary has an interesting post on this:
Personally, I want to watch if (and how much) the Massachusetts voters get upset or not over the Legislature trying and/or succeeding in changing the law …
It’s not for the “sake of the children” but for the sake of an idea; and as in many of those ancient temples in which things were burned before the gods. . .
I think of ancient Carthage, in which children were the things burned before the gods, very often because the parents wanted to ask the Carthaginian deities for financial success or some other favor. Not that different from taxpayer-funded abortions and all the other “progressive” parts of Obamacare– or Chappaquidicare, as some are calling it.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
Without meaning to be mean or churlish, anyone thinking a substantial number of “voters” in Massachusetts might take umbrage with their state legislators for tweaking the system to favor liberals must believe that ACORN workers support integrity in voting. Residents there want the system manipulated. Why else does the federal government exist except to be run by liberal New Englanders? They act as if it is their vested right to “rule”.
What else would explain the inability of northeastern state’s voters to elect candidates choosing integrity and honesty over partisanship and greed?
I shake my head at the parochialism of candidates selected by Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Delaware and New Hampshire voters. In less than 250 years they’ve gone from “Minutemen” status to sucking on the public’s hind teat.
Honest voters in those states shoud be ashamed at how low too many of their neighbors have sunk.
Or maybe its just me.
The back story here- not immediately clear from the posting- is that appointment of a senator by the Gov. of Mass. was the way things were done, until 2004, when there were hopes that Sen. Kerry would be elected POTUS, AND Rommney, a Republican, was governor. That is when the law was changed, a change that was openly supported by the late Senator Kennedy. The sheer audacity of “we will make the rules as we please, when we please, to suit us” is beyond the pale. It used to be called the People’s Republic of Mass., but perhaps “The Banana Republic of Mass.” is more apt.
As it is, I live in Rhode Island, (in the true “Banana Belt” of New England), where we are “blessed” with Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late senator, and widely acknowledged as the dumbest member of Congress.
Rather than face the voters and schedule town hall meetings during the August recess, Cong. Kennedy has opted for a “catch as catch can” approach and talks of having random, unplanned meetings with citizens at the local Stop and Shop, CVS, etc. And he is not taken to task for this dereliction of duty.
I am not a native New Englander, and I never quite saw the attraction of the whole Kennedy thing- and I am old enough to remember 11-22-63.
I do extend condolences to the family of Senator Edward Kennedy for their loss.
Politics. I am not shocked. Or even terribly disapproving. Politics.
I’m disgusted, but there is very little happening within state or Federal governements that doesn’t disgust me anymore. Why, California all by itself is such a Disgustapalooza that one needn’t look any further. The Golden State pays people in Monopoly money nowadays. What’s a little shell game with Senatorial appointements to compare to that?
#3 PA Cat mews Chappaquidicare – thank you, sir, that is Friday night funny.
It is sad, and sadly characteristic, that Teddy’s last political gasp was to Re-Change the Law to favor his Party. I suppose that is heroic, still sadly unprincipled… As always for this poor guy born with character failure.
God is cruel, eh?
His sister Eunice, who REALLY took care of the disadvantaged, is the real Hero of the Kennedy’s.
The Kennedy Family will appear as Archetypes 500 years from now in a new Shakespeare’s Plays.
How do we know it was actually Ted’s last gasp, his last rational act? Given that he died shortly after of a brain tumor he may well have been in a coma or somnolent, unable to do much at all. How about that? Somebody who really, really knew what he wanted spoke for him?
The whole business smacks of Cook County, where John Stroger, following a stroke “ran the county” invisibly, with edicts coming forth ala Fidel, on paper, but never in person. Nobody actually knows when he actually, finally, passed away.
The question: Did a dying Senator Kennedy actually, personally, make this request? Or was in made in his name and on his behalf by someone who thought it was the sort of thing he would want to do.
pharmaguy,
Dumber then Barabara Boxer? How does he keep breathing?
49erDweet,
less than 250 years they’ve gone from “Minutemen” status to sucking on the public’s hind teat
When did the change happen? In Marquand’s 1937 novel The Late George Apley there is an ossification of the elites, and a sterile sense of nostalgia. Emerson is worshiped rather than appreciated. The ideals of the Revolution are as embalmed by Modernism as the memory of Latin was by the Humanism of Petrarch. Apley is already dead at the beginning of his story as a boy in the 19th century. Another humorous look at the same social relics was in the novel and movie, directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy, about Mayor Curley, The Last Hurrah. http://tinyurl.com/ncfdyb
My guess is that the vigor of the New England Congregationalists bled out on the battlefields of the Civil War as the vigor of Old England Anglicans bled out in the trenches of the First World War.
If the burden of oppressive central government is ever to diminish, replaced by a renewed commitment to individual liberty and local participatory government, the critical moment will come at a time when, and a place where, the statists appear to be at the peak of their power and influence, and when the prospects for such a turn of events seems most bleak. It does not seem entirely foolish to imagine that this, or another similar, naked and shameless attempt to retain liberal power may be just such a watershed event.
When did the once-mighty General Motors fail? I don’t know the precise date, but it certainly wasn’t when, facing bankruptcy, the dying company was taken under the wing of a corporatist government. Certainly it failed decades before. Perhaps its sheer size, coupled with a management style designed for an earlier era, contributed to its downfall. Probably appeasement of union pension demands for the sake of short term operations contributed. However imprecise the understanding of causes, GM’s denouement could be foretold, decades in advance, by looking at their results—both at their unimaginative products and at their financial results. This behemoth was disrupted from below by smaller, more nimble manufacturers selling “inferior” products, but could do almost nothing to reverse course and truly compete.
Similarly, the results of five decades of leftward societal drift–manifested in everything from inane standards for politically correct speech/behavior; massive environmental and other regulatory burden on many industries; increasing taxation on success; and demonstrated by individual unemployment and loss of wealth—are becoming increasingly obvious. Also becoming obvious is increasing lawlessness, not for us little people, but among certain politicians and other correct “leaders”. No longer is there even any illusion that a rule will be enforced, if the perpetrator is in the privileged group. The unilateral suppression of the Philadelphia voter intimidation case; the denial of the historically rock solid rights of (GM/Chrysler) bondholders; and the lavishing, for unannounced purposes, of billions of dollars on Acorn, are a but a few examples.
The attempt to change the law back to its original form, merely for political expediency, five years after it was changed once, means there are no real laws. Maybe enough people, even in the Massachusettian heart of liberalism, realize that this would be but a signal of the eventual, inevitable demise of the United States.
There is a kind of tragic, poetic justice in the death of the Liberal Lion, from the heart of Liberalism, preventing at the 11th hour the needed 60 Democrat votes to force the health care legislation to passage, against the will of most Americans. It may be too much to expect that enough patriots in Massachusetts have awakened to prevent this naked attempt to re-write the law once again, for benefit of one group of Americans at the expense of another, but perhaps there is some modicum of hope. From an historic perspective years hence, such an event could be seen correctly to have turned the tide.
Ashcat,
… the death of the Liberal Lion … preventing at the 11th hour …
Bad news.
Points at comment #205 by Unsk on the 3G thread.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem—er, Democratas et Bostoniensem—esse delendam.
Damn, can’t remember the plural ending. Delendas?
But really, where’s the outrage? Basis cAlinsky rules call for holding the opponent to its own standards, in this case the standards the Dems invoked in raking Bush and Gonzales over the coals in Justice department interventions/firings.
I always thought it was nothing short of miraculous that Bush escaped the bandersnatchers of the Democratic party. Bush must have been so sqeaky clean that he will probably emerge as the most ethical and law-abiding president ever, next to Obama of course.
Re: Gordon’s comment @#9, if I had to guess at Teddie’s last act, it would have been to grope the nurse.
Kennedy’s (Very) Quiet Catholic Faith
Mary Jo Would Say ‘It Was Worth It’
So a “non partisan voting rights organization” petitions for the people to be denied the right to vote for a representative.
Okay. Got that.
Where do they think they are, New Jersey?
Remember when Sen Toricelli was chosen in a NJ State Primary and then was in danger of becoming the Honorable Representative Behind Bars, the NJ State Dems decided the the Primary did not count and appointed someone else to run for that seat without a primary?
Isn’t it funny that Jimmy Carter never takes a delegation to observe elections in places like Massachusetts and Chicago?
How do you suppose those folks would like it if G. W. Bush took a delegation to observe elections in those places like Jimmy did in Florida?
1) Kennedy is mourned so because he was a great Senator. (Reflect on this before dismissing.)
2) MA voters may be many things, but they are not stupid. (See 1.)
3) Of course the matter of his succession was foremost in his mind; he probably planned it himself down to the last detail. That plan will be followed.
4) MA conservatives have developed a tolerance for this sort of “outrage”, probably saw this one coming. There is some amusement that protecting John Kerry is what led to this situation. Kennedy was (is) a beloved pol, like Tip O’Neill, Paul Tsongas…Kerry is not.
I’ve been reading Wretchard for about five years now, without comment. You all seem a little off-base today though re: Kennedy, so I just wanted to help out.
LOTM at 13–
the death of the Liberal Lion … preventing at the 11th hour …
Bad news.
Points at comment #205 by Unsk on the 3G thread.
Points noted–thanks. I wasn’t expecting a vote along strict party lines but the dip below 60 has a sort of metaphorical signficance not central to my main point/observation.
#19 Tee: 1) Kennedy is mourned so because he was a great Senator.
I lived in Massachusetts for 10 years, and I have to agree, Kennedy was a great Senator.
Not that I agreed with his policies, but he was a great Senator.
#19 Tee: Kennedy was (is) a beloved pol, like Tip O’Neill, Paul Tsongas…Kerry is not.
Lol, about Kerry, that sure is true.
I remember talking to a young 22 year old who had given his heart out working on Kerry’s Senate reelection campaign…
After Kerry was reelected he wrote a letter to Kerry about an issue he cared about, and received back a form letter.
Boy was he angry; swore he would never work or support Kerry again …
Massachusetts tolerates Kerry, but he doesn’t get much love or respect, like Kennedy did.
A Warning For America From South Africa
White Americans may soon find themselves unable or unwilling to stand up to challenge the new political methods that will be the inevitable result of the ethnic metamorphosis now taking place in America. Unable to cope with the new rules of the game – violence, mob riots, intimidation through accusations of racism, demands for proportionality based on racial numbers, and all the other social and political weapons used by the have-nots to bludgeon treasure and power from the haves – Americans, like others before them, will no doubt cave in. They will compromise away their independence and ultimately their way of life.
That is exactly what happened in South Africa. I know, because I was there and I saw it happen.
What disgusts me is the fawning republicans who can’t wait to relate their fond memories of Ted Kennedy. I would have more respect for those on our side who can claim to have bloodied his nose, not kissed his ass.
19. Tee:
21. Amit Green:
—
Beyond Help
Mark: U have had that thought about Bush too. Must have driven them crazy. I suppose much the same could be said about his Dad.
“One of Ted’s Favorite topics of humor was Chappaquidick itself.
He would ask people:
Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquidick?”
– Ed Klein, editor in Chief, NY Times Mag on DC Radio BBC:
Only a truly great man could have such a wonderful sense of humor.
Tee Hee.
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/08/lion-of-leinenkugel-norm-snitker-72-laid-to-rest.html
#12 “preventing at the 11th hour the needed 60 Democrat votes to force the health care legislation to passage”
The Dems don’t need 60 Dem votes. They’ll pick up 2-5 RINO votes.
The problem with Massachusetts is that most of the female voters there are single. Single women ALWAYS vote for princes, princesses, family dynasties, aristocracies, and kings.
Teddy Kennedy held his seat from 1962 to 2009, a total of 47 years. THAT is a dynasty, and women ALWAYS, ALWAYS support dynasties when they are single. Because a pretty woman can ALWAYS join a dynasty, as a mistress if nothing else. It’s why Mary Jo Kopechne generated and never will, any outrage among women. Most of them in fact being single and finding her “disposable” in the maintenance of a family dynasty and aristocracy.
It is telling that a very masculine man, Henry Rollins, finds Kopechne’s death appalling and has harsh things to say about Kennedy, while women do not.
Why is it moral to exploit sympathy for the dead to circumvent democracy simply to force on the living something they don’t want?
Ah Wretchard, that’s just what zombies do. Accepting an ideological map is far easier than thinking. After all, if our political class was placed in society by their analytical skills, most of them would be earning their living by flipping burgers or trading sexual favors for a five dollar bill.
Teddy was a “great” man? In what sense? “Great” as in “remarkable”? Ok, I’ll concede that. Just being a Senator for 47 years IS remarkable. “Great” as in “wise”? Nuh-uh. America is a lot better off without him.
#31 WillDoMathForFood
Teddy was a “great” man? In what sense?
He was one of the greatest con artists that ever existed. Being a hypocrite with public exposure and never being called on it for 47 years does take incredible talent. Can you refute that?
Tee @ 19:
Point by point, just because I think you are so wrong.
Okay. No. He was not great. If he was then that does not say much for the institution, does it? He was the child of privilege. Privilege earned by illegal activity. Daddy Joe was a bootlegger and smuggled Canadian Mist from Canada. He ducked, successfully, what would land others in jail. He was an obvious drunk.
Are you so sure? They voted this bloated, debauched man into office for decades.
As Gordon said @ 9, he was most likely disabled in his last days due to the nature of his condition and non compos mentis. He probably was so for a long time in bigger than smaller ways. The nature of destructive brain disease is truly frightening. I have seen it first hand.
This just says disturbing things about the voters of Ma.
The Crowder bit was funny in a disturbing way.
#19 Tee and #21 Amit Green prove my point in the first paragraph of #4. Maybe the significant difference between least and best coasters is that many such as I am honest enough to agree pretty much with #7 WillDoMathForFood about my home state. It is a dufusland. However, imo neither Barbara Boxer nor Diane Feinstein will ever be considered “great” senators, but they sure have been more productive than the late lamented – not that I agree with their work output.
#11 Lifeofthemind, the timing you suggest makes sense.
#12 Ashcat, sometime before 1973 when they spent $4M on an engineering study to learn how to make their truck differentials wear out sooner so they could sell more replacements. Up to then they lasted about 500K miles. Afterwards, 120K. Oh, the new method also cost about $80 more per unit to produce, too. Really intelligent marketing move, that.
Kennedy Sabotaged Reagan in Letter to the Soviets
“Comrade Y.V. Andropov — On 9-10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow.
The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.
Senator Kennedy, like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations. Events are developing such that this relationship coupled with the general state of global affairs will make the situation even more dangerous.
The main reason for this is Reagan’s belligerence, and his firm commitment to deploy new American middle range nuclear weapons within Western Europe…“
That’s right, I did say it, TK was a great Senator. I’m not shocked that it’s been disputed here, because you’re a pack of ornery malcontents, but just to be clearer, a Senator is a highly place mover, shaker, power broker, hand-holder, fundraiser extraordinaire, etc, etc, with some legislation thrown in. It’s a job. In that job, I think he was unrivaled.
That he was a “great man” – who said this?
33. Robohobo: “He was a child of privilege. Privilege earned by illegal activity. Daddy Joe was a bootlegger and smuggled Canadian Mist from Canada.”
That was the funniest thing I’ve read all day. *You* are not from MA, I can tell.
And, I know something of brain cancer as well, my father died of the same thing, very aggressive, stage 4. He lived 4.5 months from the day of the first seizure. Long enough to settle most of his affairs on his own. TK planned his own funeral, and I’m pretty confident that he put lots of thought into the matter of his Senate seat. It fits his character. He had 15 months to do so. Why wouldn’t he?
Tee of course probably doesn’t know who Jerry Pournelle is. Other Belmonters do.
Jerry Pournelle had brain cancer. He has been cured.
Teddy Kennedy had brain cancer. He is dead.
A prima facie case of Divine Justice.
Prince Barney Frank, head of the Frank Family Dynasty.
Disagreeing with Kennedy makes one an “ornery malcontent” automatically, without regard to the reasoning or logic behind the disagreemnt?
Tee, the classic Alinskyite. I’m sure another BC poster could give the exact rule that applies to this.
Five long years? Really? Kind of a long assignment, I’d say.
Having spent a large part of my younger life in MA, I can posit that Tee belongs or is sympathetic to to one of the types that kept Kennedy in office for so long.
1. Boston Irish, who are, on the balance and of their own volition, one of the most truly corrupt, evil, and dysfunctional ethnic enclaves in the history of the nation, and who (in a way that can only be called blasphemy and phony Roman Catholicism) worshipped the Kennedy family more than Jesus himself, and would often put up a picture of JFK up on the wall next to Mary and Jesus as a coequal in their homes (I saw this literally dozens of times there)
2. Snotty trust fund babies from outside the Irish community working in government or academia, who needed leftists in general and a Kennedy in particular to, in their minds, strike back at their rich daddy who was one of those mean capitalists
3. Union thugs
It is this troika of people that kept him in power for as long as he was. It is this troika that defines MA politics, with the occasional exception.
In other words, a bunch of ornery malcontents, to use his words.
Projection much, Tee?
MA is like an evil bizarro America. To this day Joe Kennedy is involved in the enterprise of convincing old people to buy slightly less expensive heating oil from Venezuela in order to help prop up a communist dictator in Venezuela, something that would never fly in any other state in the country, and it just keeps happening there with no outcry.
So, Tee, what happens when the wheels come off? How revered will teddy k. be then? Why should he not be held accountable for his actions? why should he not be held accountable for his legislation? Because he managed to spread more SSI monies to his constituents? Because he managed to sustain a position where graft greed and corruption helped him to feed beasts at both ends? His legislative legacy includes all the expansions of entitlements, and all the denial of reforms of the great society. His legacy includes all the failures of health care and all the failures of education. All the destruction of good character and all the inflation of bad senatorial behaviors.
Since passing legislation has devolved to crisis intervention then , teddy’s entire legacy is indeed to be doubted. If passing legislation was intended to break the bank, his legacy is ignominious at best. What good will come of his brave new world.
Be glad, I suppose, he did not live to see it. You are right Tee, he was a gifted senator, too bad he chose to waste his talent.
If Obama Health care is passed, this experiment is over, the republic lost.
But if appoint, Mass must, doesn’t Senator Romney have a nice ring to it?
19. Tee:
A reader for five years and never a comment. kennedy’s death moves you to comment.
I believe your first five years were your best years. God’s speed on a quick return to those years.
Some of the comments above display the way Democrats treat their politicians as royalty. Remember, when older brother Jack ascended to the Presidency (thanks to some very effective vote fraud by the unions in Chicago especially), young Teddy naturally rose to take over the Kennedy duchy, err, I mean Senate seat in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. The fact that Kennedy, Kerry and a long line of other reprehensible reprobates like Robert Byrd are elected over and over to lifelong Democratic office is a deplorable testament to our liberal brethren.
And now of course, after the non-stop demonization of President Bush from the day he won the election, we are remonstrated that we can not criticize much less oppose President Obama’s policies. It gives me a very bad feeling when I see ardent Dems saying “They are trying to hurt my President” in a tone better reserved for the Queen. And of course many of these Democrats come to own their office in the way practiced by Peachy and Danny “Kings in our own right,” muttered
Dravot.
Mass has elected some of the most disgusting people I’ve ever had the misfortune to know about to represent them in Washington. I’ve also known and worked with many people from Massachusetts. With rare exceptions, they’ve been people who couldn’t care less about morality or decency in their public servants. All they wanted was for their pols to “bring home the pork.” How they did it, or what they did while in office–no concern whatsoever. Mass voters have the typical union member attitude: nobody cares how much the guy on top steals as long as “they get theirs.” Tee can say Mass voters aren’t stupid; my experience strongly belies that statement.
Habu: you may be an “ornery malcontent,” but you’re a damned witty one!
Doug, re the Andropov initiative, too bad Uri didn’t live long enough to expose the letter to RR. Oh, wait the letter was written in May of 83, while the Andropov initiative, and a positive follow up response by President Reagan, was penned in July of 83. So much for the Kennedy initiative. Offering to be a useful idiot is sort of a family tradition, when you consider Joe and Adolf, at the one extreme and Joe and Hugo at the other end of K family politics it only makes sense the tk would try to undermine his country too.
I am sure his intentions were honorable, (Especially given that Samantha Smith’s 1982 letter had received a reply from Andropov via Pravda in April) and that is what counts isn’t it? Why that whole peace tour of the USSR certainly was enough to convince tk that the former head of the KGB, the Russian Ambassador to Hungary in 1956, the main brain behind the Soviet response to the Prague Spring, the guy who shot down KAL 007, was just misunderstood, and that if tk could only talk to him all the stuff in that evil empire speech would just be forgotten.
Yep, in tk’s name the dems will try to ram health care reform, or is it health insurance restructuring or just a healthy insurgency revisited, through the halls of the senate with agreement in the halls of the house? Bill of rights? Who needs a bill of rights so long as we have the Kennedy clan to be our protectors.
no mo uro,
EMK did try to build a support base among women and illegal immigrants. Do you think that was ineffective?
Tee,
Your definition of a Senator’s job is in error, therefor your determination of EMK’s stature is flawed. He was only a skilled politician. You fail to answer robohobo‘s view of the ethical background of the Kennedy clan.
Doug,
Well noted, his position in the United States Senate gave him no license to violate the Logan Act.
Contempt for the law and a willingness to align with foreign enemies seems to be a family trait. Joe Kennedy II, during his career in Congress on the Banking Committee, contributed to the Fannie/Freddie housing bubble that wrecked the economy. He also shoveled tax payer money into “affordable housing” schemes. That makes me think of Rezco and cash for Obama. Joe’s most outrageous private abuse of privilege was his use of connections to obtain a secret annulment of his first marriage that was later overturned by the Vatican. His most outrageous private abuse of his family name was his acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Hugo Chavez. The Citizen’s Energy advertisements with Joe extolling heating oil as a gift “from the people of Venezuela” were lobbying for a hostile regime and should earn him a trip to jail.
no mo uro writes: “1. Boston Irish, who are, on the balance and of their own volition, one of the most truly corrupt, evil, and dysfunctional ethnic enclaves in the history of the nation, and who (in a way that can only be called blasphemy and phony Roman Catholicism) worshipped the Kennedy family more than Jesus himself, and would often put up a picture of JFK up on the wall next to Mary and Jesus as a coequal in their homes (I saw this literally dozens of times there)”
Well, yah, but it’s our dysfunctional ethic enclave. And your sports teams, especially your baseball team, probably s**k. But you and I can still have a beer together, and I’ll bring my Southie union thug along.
I remember quite vividly the day young Teddie drove through my town on his first campaign. He was in, no kidding, a ’63 silver Thunderbird convertible.
Voted for him once or twice. Must have been the influence of the porcelain Jack-in-a rocking-chair next to the Jesus and Mary iconography. Or the Big Dig. But we’d vote in a Republican gentleman once in a while. I think it makes us feel virtuous.
A great man? No, an elitist a**hole who sought personal and political redemption in liberal ideology and spending other people’s money. Being a liberal, as he well knew, means never having to say you’re sorry.
Tee: I live in North Carolina. Would it be your position that Jesse Helms was a great Senator?
#4 49er Dweet Very well said. I would add NYC to your list
steeple,
Be fair.
Even Bloomberg’s enemies admit that he is honest. As a product of Boston he might assume that no one else is
“Ornery”? “Malcontent”? Sure!! Guilty!! I used to be a nicer guy until the last Presidential election. I’ve gotten a lot more ornery and malcontent since then as I’ve watched my savings vanish and my share of the public debt skyrocket (with a LOT more debt in the pipeline), meaning that my elected representatives will want to take whatever I have left to pay off their fiscal incompetence. Ornery? You bet!
I read the Time piece linked by Doug at 16. I cannot for the life of me understand how these people can support and defend the practice of abortion and work for its expansion through federal funding and claim that they are good Catholics.
I dont understand why they said a Mass over the remains.
B16, he dont say nothing.
lotm, fair point. but when you think about who represents NYC in Washington, you get a different picture.
Wow, Tee is the first troll we have had in months, I think. Is that right? Tee must think that hailing from MA imparts some sort of higher understanding–a vice she shares with her “hero”.
But no, if Kennedy was “great” it can only be the sense of grossness, both physical and moral, and not in any sense high, noble or positive.
Ted Kennedy was a corrupt traitor who stood opposed to all that is good, true and beautiful. He was their enemy. He was America’s enemy. In his heart and mind his desires, appetites, vanities, personal demons and psychoses stood above all else, even the fate of his own clan.
He is a cautionary tale of what leftism is all about: Lustful, false aristocrats stoking public fears for power and profit, dragging behind them a dusty train of moral lepers and cripples. He is of the lowermost sort. His supporters, clients and masters differ from him only to the degree that they lack opportunity, energy or sheer wickedness to reach his level of public vice, plunder and perfidy. Perhaps this is truly what they mourn: Their missed opportunities. An Animus of decadence, aggrandizement and plunder stains and befouls them all.
He is a cautionary tale of sinfulness and debauchery. He is an almost Georgian figure and type. That leering, disfigured, spittle licking, sin-creased mug of his and that grasping, heaving manner are the stuff of Hogarth prints, and the privileged decadents of that era would find him a unremarkable. They would likely find him a place at their tables too. He is their true heir and epigone.
As we pray for his soul, an effort that must tax the will and faith of even the most pious, let us also pray for the souls of the priests and nuns who reared him. Something sure did ‘gang agley’ yonder.
As a nearly lifelong resident of Massachusetts, I can assure you (to paraphrase Steve Nelson) that if Jeffrey Dahmer had run as a Democrat in this state, we would have been assured that he suffered from “an eating disorder”. Two of our last three Speakers of the House have ended up in jail. No one is surprised. Like California, Massachusetts is a perfect example of what a one-party state will get you- taxes. (And, BTW, Romneycare is costing triple it’s original estimate, has had a marginal impact on the number of uninsured, and no impact whatsoever on the emergency room population. So you can see where Obamacare will end up).
Being from a Catholic family with an elected politician, Berne Brophy Fifth ward Peoria some years ago, I can understand the maudlin reaction to being included. They say you, Teddy, supported abortion or the right to abortion which is a privacy right. Then let us begin anew with privacy rights in a more essential construct which is a right to choose, through individual vote, who shall govern us. We are more educated now and can see that beyond Roman power was an attempt to follow laws and let us follow the law.
Pathways of stone? Aren’t you really talking about pathways paved with good intentions?
only be the sense of grossness=only be IN the sense of grossness
Tee is from NH, with no party affiliation. (Also, female. And, for whiskey: single.) It’s been reading for more than five years, actually…I followed a link from LGF to get to the old blog, the one before the fallbackBelmont one. I believe it had to with Joe Wilson, pre-Iraq War. Can’t find any records going back that far though, so I’m just guessing. Wretchard has afforded me regular doses of political sanity since then, which I appreciate. This can be immediately negated by reading the comments section, so I usually don’t. I really don’t have the time for it anyway.
Just incredible, that the state of MA, containing the most liberal voters in the country, kept voting in one of the most liberal, most powerful members of the Senate, is offered as proof that voters there are stupid.
“He was a great senator.”
Okay, what was great about him? And why were those same things not great about John “Fitzgerald” Kerry?
I don’t think you could slip an X-Acto blade between the two of them. Except that while they both did nothing the least bit admirable to acquire their money, Kerry did go into the military for a short while and never drove someone off a bridge.
Teddy gets credit for military service because of his brother, who, in his own words, very modestly described his military accomplishments simply as “I lost my boat.”
Teddy Kennedy is an example of one of our biggest problems. The people of his state consider him to be “theirs” and thus they overlook every reason they have to reject him. The same is true of Sen Byrd and many others. And it is not simply that he kept the pork flowing, but because he attained the status of a football team, even one that never wins. He is a bum but he is OUR bum.
The fact is, we need term limits because We The People can’t keep from reelecting these clowns, either from having our votes bought and paid for or because of pointless team spirit.
The fact that the people of Massachusetts are not quite stupid is evidenced by the fact they elected Mitt Romney, or for that matter, Tip O’Neill. The fact that they are not quite sane is evidenced by the fact they kept sending TK back again and again.
The thing that I noticed most clearly through our travels to Europe this summer is 1) how proud most Europeans are of their respective heritages and 2) how many of them seem to be consigned to a bleak future. I said a mouthful there, so apologize in advance for opening Pandora’s box
It seems perhaps some of this same affliction is common in the New England states. So much of American history was made in New England, but how much of our American future is likely to be made there? While I would be the first to invest in most of the work going on at MIT, I would suspect that this region with its limited and aging infrastructure along with heavy employment and tax reliance on “financial innovation industries” has a tough future ahead of it.
This could have been said in the late 70′s/early 80′s as well, so maybe its my Sun Belt bias and we may just be going through an economic and political cycle. But if any part of the country is inclined to Europeanize, it would be the New England states first.
LOTM #46
“EMK did try to build a support base among women and illegal immigrants. Do you think that was ineffective?”
That depends on your definition of effectiveness.
Did he reach out to illegal aliens and Whiskey’s urban sluts and get a good amount into his camp? If that’s your definition, then the answer is yes.
If, however, your definition of ‘effective’ is “those people he moved to support him in those demographics were necessary and/or sufficient to keep him in power”, then the answer has to be no. Without the two groups you mention, he still would have won every election.
Mark #47
Not a huge baseball fan, but I never could understand why the Red Sox fans kept saying that the Yankees or the Cardinals or any other team ‘suck’ when those franchises have been so damn successful at their business, and the Red Sox (until recently) have been so piss poor at it.
Those other teams don’t suck, they’re excellent. Results are all that matter. For your mental health’s sake, though, I hope your team continues to do well.
I’d have a beer with you, and I’d even savor a beer made in Boston, I love Sam Adams.
Leave the union thug at home, though.
Keep voting virtuous, and get some new wall art.
Tee #59
“Wretchard has afforded me regular doses of political sanity since then, which I appreciate. This can be immediately negated by reading the comments section”
Since Wretchard and his commenters are largely on the same page WRT most issues, this statement belongs in the theater of the absurd. If Wretchard represents sanity, how can comments that are in agreeance with his ideas not be sane also?
You need a remedial course in basic logic.
Then there’s this:
“reading the comments section … I usually don’t. I really don’t have the time for it anyway”
juxtaposed with
“Also, female. And, for Whiskey: single.”
You don’t read the comments, but are familiar with the commenters and their quirks by name.
Perhaps you also need a remedial course in troll.
Tee@59:
So, using your definition of ‘great Senator,” was Jesse Helms a great Senator? How about Alfonse D’Amato?
19. & 21. Abused women always profess their love for their abuser. But they have a low tolerance for someone who would seek to usurp the abuser. And from my perspective MA has been abused so long that they can’t see the truth nor accept it. Ed Kennedy will be written in the history books as a great senator, but those of who survive the pogrom that he was instrumental in seeing come to fruition, will pass on the truth to our progeny. The soil in Arlington is forever stained.
59. “I don’t read the comments”
Living proof that you can lead a horse to water but can’t make her drink.
Wretchard is but the quarter inserted into the jukebox. The music that pours forth is in the comments. He is most instrumental and without him the jukebox never plays. And he picks the tune as well.
So, you just look through the glass at all the tunes available but never listen to them. Figures…
Wade,
“the guy who shot down KAL 007”
—
Naw, say it ain’t so!
The Sovs aren’t Jihadists!
You’re welcome here as far as I’m concerned, Tee @ 59. I would probably disagree with you most, if not all, of the time, but if you want to offer calmly reasoned arguments for your POV, bully for you.
It occurs to me that whoever replaces Kennedy and however he or she is annointed, they have a difficult role to play. The MA battery of senators so perfectly bookended the leadership qualities of the Democrat party: Kennedy, the fat, drunken bully with no sense of shame, and Kerry, the oddly effete snob with a tin ear. Obama D’Chicago combines the two into his own repulsive “style”: the sober, effet snob who bullies with no sense of shame.
I’ve refrained from saying much about EMK (speak no ill and all that), but since the Dems, predictably I suppose, want to use his bloated corpse as a magical totem – the Relics of Saint(hic) Teddy as it were – to pass Obamascare (the standard memorial to all Dead Kennedys, a bloated federal law), I’ll unload.
A bully is what he was. An old fashioned, ugly as hell bully. He was the last sort of person who should ever be elected to office. Kennedy was “great” in the same way leftits are “progressive”, that is in name only and as a willfull perversion of the language. He was in the Senate for 47 years. In that time, he may have been responsible for much that came out of that defiled body, but that is not “Greatness.” His championing of “progressive” causes helped to take the US, the most advanced, accomplished, decent and worthwhile society humanity has yet produced, from the height of civilization to the brink of an abyss, to the brink of regression to petty tyrannies and mandarin ossification.
Truly great men (and women) are going to be needed to stave off the ruin Kennedy staggered, groped and fornicated my country towards. He certainly wasn’t alone in driving that direction, but he was also someone who, had he been decent and great, could have prevented it. With his seat-for-life courtesy of the MA voters, he could have been a true conscience for the Democrats, could have led the fight to save the party from the anti-Americans who were marching through his Party like so many other institutions they identified as useful for their cause. Had he been a true American, a patriot, he could have done his country invaluable service. He could have been the Greatest Kennedy of them all.
He turned out to be the runt of the litter. “Ich bin ein useful idiot.” Maybe the most useful idiot of them all.
61. Steeple Well said.
58. Tee Being from NH probably explains why it took 5 years for you to speak up here. Beautiful state but living in a dream world. Welcome to the rest of the world. If Steeple has it right you and your neighbors are currently in deep doo-doo but refuse to admit it. Best wishes, but in five more years we’ll probably be referring to your region as “New Europe” instead of “New England”. It would also allow the “Patriots” to change to the “Organizers”.
Doug,
Naw, say it ain’t so!
The Sovs aren’t Jihadists!
Well, maybe because 007 wasn’t shot down till September of 1983, my comment should have said something like tk could not have guessed that Andropov could order Soviet MIG’s to shoot down KAL 007. I mean after the Senator’s letter and after the peace tour with special “Ambassador” Samantha Smith and all.
Tee (and anybody), here’s a link for you –just up on NRO –for readers interested in senators & such. Just a blurb or two on old novels, “Advise & Consent” and “It Can’t Happen Here” –
(snip)
1. It Can’t Happen Here
By Sinclair Lewis
Doubleday, 1935
A charismatic Democratic senator who speaks in “noble but slippery abstractions” is elected president, in a groundswell of cultish adoration, by a nation on the brink of economic disaster. Promising to restore America’s greatness, he promptly announces a government seizure of the big banks and insurance companies. He strong-arms the Congress into amending the Constitution to give him unlimited emergency powers. He throws his enemies into concentration camps. With scarcely any resistance, the country has become a fascist dictatorship. No black helicopters here, though. Sinclair Lewis’s dystopian political satire, now largely forgotten except for its ironic title, was a mammoth best seller in 1935, during the depths of the Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe. His president, Berzelius (“Buzz”) Windrip, is a ruthless phony with the “earthy sense of humor of a Mark Twain”; one of the few who dare oppose him openly is a rural newspaper editor who is forced to go on the run.
(end snip)
i don’t think any political thinker in the country’s history better embodies the ‘best’ of the left wing –the noble ‘person of the left’ that seems now to exist only as fumes propelling some folk’s imaginations –than Sinclair Lewis. FWIW.
Steeple,
Good comment.
JMH,
Concur,
We can descend into the endless fantasy game of the Left. What would JFK have evolved into? The evidence of his positions from his time in public life is that he might have taken Ted aside and beaten him to death.
Any chance in a few years that we will be able to dig him up and ship him out?
Regarding MASSvote, does “nonpartisan” equal tax exempt? Are there no lawyers on our side?
Not a huge baseball fan, but I never could understand why the Red Sox fans kept saying that the Yankees or the Cardinals or any other team ’suck’ when those franchises have been so damn successful at their business, and the Red Sox (until recently) have been so piss poor at it.
It’s not so much the Yankees that suck as their fans (Bosox fans are worse though). The Yankees were playing the Mariners in Seattle a few years ago. I was at the game. Sitting behind me were some New Yorkers who’d made the trip across country to watch their beloved Yankees. Sitting behind them was a young boy, eight or nine years old and decked out head to toe in Mariner’s gear. One of the New Yorkers turned to the kid and asked him who his favorite player was. “Ichiro!” the kid replied.
“Yeah,” the New Yorker nodded. “He’ll look good in a Yankees uniform next year.”
The Baseball Gods must’ve heard though, because a couple of batters later the Yankee fan took a line drive foul ball off the noggin’ and spent the rest of the game holding an ice pack up to the side of his head, wincing whenever the crowd made a lot of noise.
#60 RWE – Okay, what was great about him? And why were those same things not great about John “Fitzgerald” Kerry?
It’s easier for me to ask you, by what measurable standard do you consider him to be less than outstanding as a Senator? My perception comes mainly from Tip O’Neill’s own words on the subject via autobiography, re: consituents and what one does for them. His state, his party, numerous organizations and individuals benefited from his work on their behalf, for a very long time. I didn’t like him; you clearly didn’t like him – doesn’t matter, as it’s not really pertinent to what he actually did from day to day.
#63 no no uro: You don’t read the comments, but are familiar with the commenters and their quirks by name.
I said I usually don’t read the comments, which is true, and yes I’m familiar with one of the quirks by name.
#64 Bill in NC – So, using your definition of ‘great Senator,” was Jesse Helms a great Senator? How about Alfonse D’Amato?
Bill, you are the one actually in NC, with I presume a contextualized familiarity with Jesse Helms that I don’t have, so why don’t you tell me? Then I can tell you, based on my own personal ideology, and how I feel about his background, and a comprehensive reading of his Wikipedia entry, if you are right or wrong. Fair enough?
With respect, I don’t think so. For Kennedy, you appear to be retailing a definition of greatness that excludes “how [one] feels about his background,” and which focuses instead on criteria like the amount of power wielded (perhaps behind the scenes) and vigorous and effective constituent service, qualities that many very long-serving Senators tend to possess — like Helms and D’Amato (in their day).
Put another way, I think you have answered my question.
Tee, good to hear from you.
I would argue that the measure of a Senator should be biased more to national rather than state issues. O’Neill was in the House as you know, and it is more common for this body to represent the specific issues of their districts. I expect Senators, while not being blind to their state’s interests, to take a broader approach and consider the good of the nation. Unfortunately, too many Senators go beyond that and think that they can speak for the country (Kennedy/Andropov and Biden/partition Iraq as a few good examples.
Net net, bringing home the bacon should not be a primary measure of the accomplishments of a US Senator IMHO. My example of a great Senators would include Sam Nunn and Howard Baker. We don’t have too many Senators who look like those guys any more, on either side of the aisle.
Since we are discussing the “greatness” of illustrious Senators from Taxachusetts, we shouldn’t fail to recall that Kerry Met With Viet Cong And North Vietnamese In Paris In 1971.
Not surprisingly, this meeting was frowned upon by John O’Neill in “Unfit for Command:” “Had Madame Binh (representing both the NVA and VC) herself been permitted to appear at the July 22, 1971 press conference instead of John Kerry, the most noticeable difference in the argument presented might have been the lack of a Boston accent.”
…
Loyal Americans think twice about violating the legal provision against negotiating with foreign powers (18 U.S.C. section 953) and the constitutional prohibition against giving support to our nation’s enemies during wartime (Article III, Section 3).
Of course, among our deeply patriotic liberal brethren, this behavior qualified Senator Kerry to be our wartime President in 2004. GUFFAW!!!
I think a great senator from a liberal or democrat perspective would have to have been someone like Warren Magnuson or Scoop Jackson. Strong on defense and big on big liberal spending.
Unfortunately Jackson as the “senator from boeing” was a little too enamored of all things big, and Magnuson as a serving congressman was ordered by FDR, as had many elected officials, to return from his war making duties to fulfill his congressional duties.
Better even than those two, whose ability to nurture and sculpt legislation was well recognized, I think Mark Hatfield (R) Oregon, was a gentleman, a scholar and a man whose grasp of the wonders of common sense utterly fails the Modern American Liberal Democrat as well as some modern representatives of the GOP.
The achievements of any one of these gents paint Tip O’Neil as a piker, and the legislative achievements of the likes of Kennedy, Dodd, Franks, Biden and Gore as Criminal enterprise at best, theft of service at worse. The most honorable member of the Democrat Party in the last fifteen years or so had been the honorable senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman.
How far a once laudable party has fallen from the graces of the people they deign to serve. Who would have guessed the death of America would be at the hands of those for whom this nation held out so much promise, and for whom many held out so much hope. They have manipulated our affections, mauled our sense of decency, made vile by their presence our institutions and falsified by their sign our system of justice and law.
They are a disgrace to the nation that sustained them, especially so the leader of the current wave of inglorious sons of maternally blessed canines.
The measure of liberal greatness has I suppose been dumbed down too.
One of the reasons MA voters keep electing the same people over and over is the working class types (non-union) are for the most part non-political. They complain about the same things that conservatives everywhere else complain about(illegal imm.,crime rates,endless gov. handouts,etc,)but either dont vote or vote Dem. because thats what they’ve always done.They are unable to connect the dots between liberal policies and the reality that faces them everyday.
White collar types,unionized blue collar,and sub-working class gov. dependants consistantly vote lib. Dem. WC were indoctrinated in the universities,BC by their unions,and GD have no idea whats going on. Liberal groups canvas the lower income neighborhoods and housing projects making sure people get registered. Then on election day they offer coffee and doughnuts and a ride to the polls. The people for the most part have no idea what the issues are but their vote counts the same as someone who spends a lifetime educating themselves on different issues and candidates.
There is no similar system set up for conservatives.If enough people vote ,their voices are heard,if not,then they aren’t. Liberals are squeezing every last vote they can out of the community.Poll watchers cross off peoples names as they vote and send people out to the addresses of people who haven’t voted yet to offer them a ride and convince them that they NEED to vote. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening to support conservative candidates.
Re #72 luddy barsen; it might be a good idea to mention here that Leftists and the anti-religious don’t have a monopoly on totalitarianism. A real-world example might be Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries (IIRC – remember the Inquisition?), for those that call themselves Christian – and of course another is any Islamic country one cares to name, right now.
A fictional example can be summed up in one name, one much more likely to represent American reality in the future if you let it. That name is Nehemiah Scudder.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the Blood of Patriots and tyrants; it is it’s natural manure.”
Well said. To that list I would add “priests”. Assuming that “tyrants” as a set does not have “priests” as a subset. Which is a very shaky assumption.
FC/81; i’d say that depends on whether labels are gonna have definitions or are just gonna be taglines for emotions. If the former, then ‘totalitarianism’ cannot include the philosophy of individual liberty within the society. Don’t get stumped by E Pluribus Unum –it is meant to be an ideal, not a command. Pluribus can never be Annum if it is forced, because Unum will then be only a physical structure–an artifact of force –and thus not Unum at all.
Ergo, if it’s ‘totalitarian’, it’s from the left. Ipso facto.
The propaganda within the new Hundred Year’s War call fool ya if ya don’t watch out. One of the things the right stands for is objective meaning –meaning, objective language.
One can say “rightist dictator’ if wishes –the tongue will release the sound, the hand will make the mark –but since it can’t be, one so saying enters the Tower of Babel.
Oil and water will not go into solution, tho a fine fooling suspension can be made if enough shaking and enough surfactant is applied.
Surfactants are clever combinations and shaking is great exercise, but they both cost raw materials, fuel, time, and energy –and, depending on the requirements of the true necessities of life, can become too taxing for the body politic to provide.
oops –”surfactant” = “surface-acting agent”. Emulsifior.
and i said ‘Annum’ where i meant ‘Unum’ –spellchecker my ass.
Is Tee the return of Teresita of the multiple identities? The problem with people who display multiple personalities is that on closer examination they often prove to have no personality at all.
Wadeusaf,
Concur with your list of great liberal Democrats. Please add Daniel Patrick Moynihan to the collection. Even when I disagreed with him I had to stop and reexamine the issues. The time when he explained to Jesse Helms how a nuclear bomb works, “This is the part that goes boom,” was the best thing that happened in the US Senate in decades.
Mr. Barsen et al. E Pluribus Unum ,Of many one. It is to be understood that the country of the United States of America is unique in that One nation was created out of many peoples. Only in America can a man of Africa and a man of China be looked upon as the same man. Once they gain citizenship in America they cast off the chains of ethnicity and become American. Not Chinese-American nor African-American but something more. They become American.
For those that haven’t see it. Bill Whittle’s commentary video that is linked at the top of the page is the best Bill Whittle yet. And that is saying a lot because Mr. Whittle is usually on fire.
The Narrative: PC, MSNBC, and Whittle
THE LION OF THE SENATE
Ted Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, is dead of brain cancer at age 77. The eulogies from liberals and Democrats are eloquent, as is expected. Teddy Kennedy after all promoted and helped advance the march of leftism in this country. It was Ted Kennedy who turned a won battle for civil rights and an even playing field into the uneven playing field of affirmative action and the welfare state. It was Ted Kennedy who turned the country’s centuries long immigration policy from one of favoring skilled workers from the first world to favoring unskilled workers from the third world, including the right to bring in entire extended families once here. And of course there was Mary Jo Kopechne, who lost her life on Chappaquiddick bridge as brave Teddy Kennedy swam away without making the least effort to save her. Rest in peace, Senator, if you can.
De mortuis nil nisi bonum
No matter what the crime
But if indeed you own ‘em
They’re not released by time
A crime done while drunk driving
Is crime still after all
Compounded by conniving
To cover up the fall
Into the cold dark water
With passenger inside
A mother’s loving daughter
On Teddy’s drunken ride
Oh yes he claimed his sorrow
He sobbed with feigned remorse
But that was on the morrow
The fix would run its course
The Senate’s elder lion
Was Camelot’s last fling
The last surviving scion
Of Joe the bootleg king
Who gets him now’s a mystery
Whose afterlife will own him
We’ll leave it up to history
De mortuis nil nisi bonum
The Camelot nobleman Ted
drove off of a bridge and then fled;
his passenger, Mary,
must’ve found it quite scary,
to be trapped underwater undead.
Buddy, that is the best limerick on that subject I have yet seen. Good work. Still don’t know why you space between lines 2 and 3 and lines 3 and 4, but a minor point. The limerick is superb in scan, meter, content and rhyme.
Walt
Best epitaph ever:
Here lies the Prelate, Judge and Poet, Peter,
Who broke the laws of God and Man and Meter
yuk yuk –hey, thanks walt –coming from you, well, y’know –paint-spattered neophyte “Gee, grazie MILLE, Michael Angelo!”
LotM –my fave is “See? I TOLD you I was sick!” (actual, it is said, somewere or nuther)
oh, –th spacing –it’s just that i’ve seen ‘em that way –i guess cause the rhyme is 1,2,5 vs 3,4 –and too, when told aloud, good tellers often speed up delivery on 3,4 relative to more deliberate pace on 1,2,5.
anyhoo, it’s probably unseemly to be playing with Mary Jo’s name –but good lard amighty –the tv coverage of teddy kennedy’s funeral has just been a ghastly horror show of preening microphone spotlit ‘keepers of the eternal flame’ –grandiose potemkin show for us potatosmeared dirt farmers –blah –
Buddy — the spacing matters only if you have more than one stanza, and then the thing becomes unreadable. Lay it out with 2 stanzas with one space between the first and second stanza and see what I mean.
84. Lifeofthemind – Is Tee the return of Teresita of the multiple identities? The problem with people who display multiple personalities is that on closer examination they often prove to have no personality at all.
No. So, pbblthhh!
77. steeple – I would argue that the measure of a Senator should be biased more to national rather than state issues.
I agree with you. But I can’t think of a national domestic issue that doesn’t involve state issues (there must be some, but none have occurred to me) plus the first order of business is having a bunch of locals elect you. There’s the problem.
That being said, IMO Kennedy represented his state very well on national issues important to MA, especially “Bush is an Idiot”, and “States Need More Money.” Also, “Yes We Can.”
Tee @ 36:
And I thank God for that fact everyday.